Founder & First President Desh Deshpande
March 2022

I left India after my graduation in 1973. After completing my graduate studies and teaching for a year, I worked for Motorola for eight years. It was during my tenure at Motorola that I developed my entrepreneurial skills and moved to Boston from Canada in 1984 to become an entrepreneur. I started my first company in 1987 and the second one in 1988. The first two did not work but the third one did. Cascade Communications was started in 1989 and went public in 1994. In 1997 I got introduced to TiE through my entrepreneurial friends in Silicon Valley. TiE Boston got started in 1997 and I was picked as the first President.

TiE has withstood the test of time for the last 25 years and turned out to be an excellent concept; successful entrepreneurs mentoring the young entrepreneurs to make them successful. When I was starting my first company in the 1980s there was no mentoring, access to capital or any type of ecosystem to help entrepreneurs. You were on your own. Forty 40 years later, the ecosystem is now well built and it is the entrepreneurial companies that fuel the current economy. I am very proud that TiE has played a significant role in promoting entrepreneurship among people of Indian origin in the USA. Indian entrepreneurs now are recognized as world class. Over the last several decades TiE expanded its reach to India and several other countries. It is very impressive to see the energy and the success of young entrepreneurs in India over the last couple of years.

TiE has an important role to play for the next 25 years. I wish TiE all the best in its endeavor.