Serial entrepreneur and investor Mahavir Pratap Sharma is the Chairman of the TiE Global Board of Trustees, TiE India Angels, and RAIN (Rajasthan Angels). His experience in India and the US includes trade and marketing. He was earlier the Chairman of the Carpet Export Promotion Council of India, and President of the Rajasthan Carpet Manufacturers and Exporters Association.
The core vision of TiE laid down by our founders and elaborated by the late management guru CK Prahalad, to work at the bottom of the pyramid, has further been strengthened by our resolve to invest in early and idea-stage startups. They are the riskiest, but the most in need of funds – and more importantly, in the need of mentoring, hand holding, education, guidance, and networking.
TiE’s vision has always been to mentor, educate, promote entrepreneurship, and network. We were investing in startups either individually or through funds. And, since we as TiE could not create a network of investors, all the cities of chapters that we were active in started having a mushrooming of angel networks, initiated by the active and interested charter members [CMs].
Examples of angel networks that have proliferated include SV Angels, Indian Angel Network (IAN), Mumbai Angels, Hyderabad Angels, Rajasthan Angels, Chandigarh Angels, and others. It was a few years ago that angel investment into early-stage and idea-stage companies became formalised in TiE, with the launch of TiE Atlanta Angels, TiE Boston Angels, TiE Tampa Angels, and a national TiE Global Angels — all in the US.