Hyderabad, India | 10th June 2020: The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) – Hyderabad Chapter has announced the launch of TYE Virtual, a 2-month youth entrepreneurship program to encourage students to start early. The first-ever TYE virtual program which attracted an overwhelming 200 youths, who will be guided and mentored by practicing entrepreneurs and TiE Hyderabad Charter Members. Dr. Andrew Fleming, The British Deputy High Commissioner of Telangana & Andhra Pradesh, was the Chief Guest for the inaugural TYE session.

This is the 11th Edition of TYE (TiE Young Entrepreneurs for High School students) Hyderabad, and the first virtual program to enable students to overcome the prevailing situation and access the popular TYE course. In the last 10 years TYE impacted 500 students, this virtual season has garnered greater impact, not just in the number of students but also gained nationwide attention and attendees.

Under this TYE Virtual Program, virtual interactive classrooms will be organized through video conference calls. It will also facilitate the uploading of content, videos, study material, and daily tests on the e-learning management system Reference Globe.

The inaugural event was bolstered by the presence of several business leaders and TiE Hyderabad charter members involving 200 young aspirant entrepreneurs with their parents. Around 40 percent of the students were from outside of Hyderabad, which endorses TYE popularity across the Indian region.

The curtain raiser provided the participants understand core business concepts viz. Sales, Marketing, Finance, Legal, etc. through virtual classes on business idea validation exercises, business modelling tools, and techniques in addition to interactive sessions on innovative design thinking, rapid prototyping solution development, B-plan creation workshops to name a few.

The enrolled participants are required to attend 9 classrooms and 6 workshops through basic and advanced levels in the next two months. All Participants will get a student membership for one full year at TiE Hyderabad, in addition to a globally recognized program completion e-certificate and enrolment as a TYE Alumni.

Dr. Andrew Fleming, The British Deputy High Commissioner of Telangana & Andhra Pradesh, the Chief Guest for the session, spoke of the various qualities that a successful entrepreneur should possess while hinting at the opportunity presented by the pandemic to come up with innovative solutions. “We’re looking at one of the biggest threats of our lifetime. 80% of today’s children are not able to participate in regular education. Youngsters need to use this time for self-reflection and change the world around us. It’s okay to switch off the news once in a while to focus on yourself. Pandemic will worsen, but it will present opportunities. It will build resilience that’s crucial for entrepreneurship. It will help bring more unicorns out of India.” He added.

Sridhar Reddy, President, TiE HyderabadFounder & CMD CtrlS Datacenters, in his opening remarks said, “We are overwhelmed with 200 students signing up for TYE Virtual. This initiative is put forward by eminent industry experts will enhance student learnings and will be invaluable in grooming the next generation of entrepreneurs too; to start young and aim big.”

Manohar Reddy, Vice-President, TiE Hyderabad Chapter, Founder, CEO – Feuji Inc, stressed that the spirit of entrepreneurship lies in problem-solving and discussed the finer aspects in his area of expertise – including education, mushroom farming, filmmaking, love for cars to name a few. “Entrepreneurship is about the difference you can make, it’s your ability to help people. It’s not going to be a cakewalk and be prepared to let go of your ego,” he told the participants.

At the virtual class, Murali Bukkapatnam, Founder and Chairman of Volksy Technologies, and Sri Charan Lakkaraju, Founder, Stumagz came up with relevant, lively examples to keep the participants engaged. While Sri Charan Lakkaraju busted several myths about entrepreneurship with insights on many success stories of firms that have made a difference in our daily lives referring to examples like Swiggy, Ola, Uber that can’t do without an idea like Google Maps. They highlighted the fact good companies create wealth, and focus on value creation over validation.

TYE Virtual Program co-chairs, Venkatesh Narasimhan (Senior Director- Engineering, Silicon Labs), and Viiveck Verma (Founder, Upsurge Enterprise Solutions), stated, “The program has been transformational for many students. They emphasized the seeds of entrepreneurship can be sown at a very early stage and builds on the idea to have youngsters to identify problems, find solutions, validate ideas, do research, and even be introduced to the concept of design thinking.”