The first-ever TiECon Bhubaneswar, brilliantly led by my friend A K MOHANTY (President – TiE Bhubaneswar) and his passionate team, was a milestone for the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Odisha – bringing together startups, investors, corporates, academia, enablers, and policy makers under one roof.
The energy was amplified by the presence of TiE leaders from across the globe – Murali Bukkapatnam (TiE Global Chair), Mahavir Pratap Sharma (Former TiE Global Chair), Global Board Members Madan Padaki & Dr. Sheenu Jhawar, and TiE leaders from Coimbatore (Ranjana Singhal), Kerala (Jacob Joy), Madhya Pradesh (Jay Jain), Hubli (Jitendra Nayak), Chandigarh (Harit Mohan), Vizag (Kalyan Muppaneni), SoCal (Anshuman Sinha) and Sri Lanka (Dinesh Saparamadu) along with Vijay Menon (Executive Director – TiE Global).
Murali Bukkapatnam’s keynote was an absolute standout – he captivated the audience with his wisdom, infectious energy, and signature use of Indian mythology to draw powerful parallels between ancient lessons and modern entrepreneurial challenges.
I had the privilege of delivering my talk on “Entrepreneurs of Tomorrow” where I began with the Customer of Tomorrow – conscious, calculating, connected; trusting communities over brands, seeking purpose over promo codes, and demanding ethics, emotional intelligence, and hyper-personalization. And here’s the twist – tomorrow’s customers might not even be human. Your buyers could be smart refrigerators ordering groceries, autonomous cars picking insurance, or AI assistants making purchasing decisions.
From there, I shared why earning trust from algorithms may be even harder than earning it from people, and why future entrepreneurs will need a new mindset – a trifecta of roles:
– Think like a Futurist – anticipate change, study signals, ignore noise, and build what feels inevitable.
– Partner like a Technologist – collaborate fearlessly with AI, biology, and emerging tech.
– Lead like a Humanist – design for dignity, with kindness, purpose, and impact as your KPI.
And as I closed, I reminded everyone:
“Tomorrow’s unicorns won’t just have horns – they’ll have heart, soul, and a damn good reason to exist.”
The Government of Odisha’s active participation and encouragement showed how public–private collaboration can truly accelerate ecosystem growth.
Kudos to Team TiE Bhubaneswar for setting a high benchmark in their very first edition. This was more than an event, it was a statement of intent for Eastern India’s startup future.