Ramesh Kumar,  is a serial entrepreneur and currently the Managing Partner at Zakipoint. He completed his MSc. in Operations Management from University of Pennsylvania and his undergraduate and master's degree from Oxford University, UK and is a participant in the Owner President Management program at Harvard Business School.He spoke to us about how his entrepreneurial journey  and his involvement with TiECON East as Chair of this year's conference.

Entrepreneurship means different things to different people.How would you define your personal journey to entrepreneurship?

I have always been interested in entrepreneurship. I first arrived in the United States to be a door to door salesman and run my own book sales dealership. Previously I had started a desktop publishing service while I was a student at Oxford University in the UK. I first cut my teeth into a proper start up through a stint at an internet technology developer.  I left a cushy job at Monitor Group, a strategy consulting company to work in this start up. Just loved the experience of growing a business which grew from early employees to 1300 people without any venture capital funding. Soon after I zoomed in one idea with two other friends and spent the next 8 years building ActiveMedia Technology into a leading mobile couponing technology company. We had fun and great successes across UK, Europe and India. We also had some terrible times. Shutting down offices and letting go people. We eventually sold the business to a UK AIM listed company. Since then I have been involved in two ventures in as diverse fields as electric vehicle technology and executive education portal. More recently, I started zakipoint, a data analytics consulting company focused on changing the way customer acquisition, retention and cross-selling is done today. I believe the opportunities in data analytics space are just popping up.

In your opinion, what are the hot spots in technology that will sphere the next big product or service?

I am keenly looking at how big data analytics can shape and redefine the way we do things across numerous sectors.  Mobile technologies to me is continuing to bring new ways of doing things whether it is in retail, enterprise, logistics, consumer offerings. There is also technology and business model disruptions that will impact education and healthcare services sectors

What made you take on the Chair of TiECON East again for this year’s ?

 I enjoyed putting together TiECON  East 2011, despite the amount of work that goes into it. I wanted to do it better and be part of another event where entrepreneurs can come and catalyze their ideas.  So here I am again.

    Tell us a bit on the efforts behind putting in a conference of this nature?

    As you can imagine there is a lot of work involved in putting together an event for 600 entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and industry thought leaders. Putting together a great team from the outset is the key ingredient. Then comes setting the right agenda for the conference based on feedback from the past and the ideas generated by the new team.  Then everyone gets down to work. Inviting right people to speak or come and run programs. Managing various aspects of content, venue selection, marketing of the event, registration, logistics planning, speaker co-ordination, sponsorship, website, partnerships are all different pieces that need to work in parallel. The executive team at TiE Boston is very experienced and provided the backbone to planning efforts by the TiE Con East 2012 team, which is entirely volunteer run.

    It is a 9 month long planning and labor intensive activity. We are all focused on the big day, as I like to call it, the "delivery" date. All our efforts go to waste if we dont get this right.

 What is the relevance of a conference like TiECON East in today business world?

 The theme of TiECON East 2012 is "Invent your future". Our message is simple: entrepreneurs need to invent their futures in order to solve the problems we face as a society, be it in health care, education, clean energy or problems related to overall economy or unemployment. TiECON East 2012 has been designed to assist entrepreneurs with an idea to invent our future.

    Entrepreneurship and TiE Boston is much more than just about creating jobs through new enterprises. It is about changing the way we do things, questioning the status quo, disrupting what we are used to and creating a future, inventing our future.  This is why we have invited people like Rich Miner, co-founder of Android. Smartphones is one example of how things have changed the way we live today. Or Carl Dietrich, founder of flying car, who knows what the future holds for transportation. TiECON East brings all of them together and challenges them all to create this future. Many new enterprises have been created from ideas shared at TiE CON East in the past. We hope to create many more at TiECON East 2012.  

What are the highlights of this year conference?

    The TiECON East 2012 planning team is very proud to have attracted incredible speakers to our conference, many of whom have committed to connecting with entrepreneurs on an intimate level through Power Lunch and networking sessions. This group collectively has been responsible for creating or shaping world-leading companies or products like Sandisk, Google, Android, Avid, Endeca, Vertica, SPSS, uTest, Terrafugia, Wayfair, and many others. Come and say hello to them.  By popular demand we have brought back Bootcamp and Power Lunch to assist entrepreneurs through targeted interactions with thought leaders. In TiE Challenge entrepreneurs will pitch their business ideas and the best ones will be selected for an elite mentoring program as well as the opportunity to win $5,000. Please sign up here for TiE Challenge.

Finally tell us of any other passion or hobby that you pursue beyond your business?

I am an easily excitable fellow. You can often find me biking around Cambridge. I love biking for pleasure and commutes. I even drag my kids in a trailer. Cambridge/Boston has a long way to go to truly become a bike loving city. Perhaps I might put my energy towards this goal in the future. Music and dancing is an important creative channel for me and helps me rise above the daily grind. I also enjoy reading about history. A big part of my life is my family. I love doing things with my wife and three kids. I am always looking for projects that can connect all of us together.

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