What is TiE and how can a NEO TiE chapter create new opportunities
for technology business growth in the region?

HISTORY OF TIE
   
TiE is a not-for-profit global network of entrepreneurs and professionals, founded in 1992 in Silicon Valley. TiE has 40 chapters in 9 countries with 10,000 members, including chapters in Pittsburgh, Detroit, Chicago, Minnesota, Toronto, and Washington, D.C.

Although its birth name, The Indus Entrepreneurs, signifies the ethnic South Asian or Indus roots of the founders, TiE stands for Talent, Ideas and Enterprise. It is an open and inclusive organization that has rapidly grown to more than forty chapters in nine countries. TiE endeavors to cultivate and nurture the ecosystems of entrepreneurship and free-market economies everywhere, as it sees this to be the single most powerful instrument of prosperity.

By facilitating ideas to germinate into actual businesses, TiE has created wealth and helped boost the global economy. Individuals associated with TiE have created businesses with market value over $200 Billion.

TiE's philosophical base is a compatible blend of the Silicon Valley culture of economic value creation through Entrepreneurship, and the ancient South Asian tradition of Guru/Shishya or Teacher/Disciple relationship. This enables very productive networking and mentoring relationships among and between experienced and budding entrepreneurs and professionals through the two-way exchange of value in experience and knowledge.

TiE has facilitated venture investment by providing a platform for entrepreneurs and VC funds to come together.

The annual TiE Convention in Silicon Valley, considered one of the largest gatherings of technology entrepreneurs in the world, lists as sponsors some of the most successful venture capital firms in the U.S., including Sequoia Capital, New Enterprise Associates, Draper Richards, Intel Capital, Menlo Ventures, Mayfield Fund, Greylock, Clearstone Venture Partners, etc.

IMPORTANCE OF TIE TO NORTHEAST OHIO
    
There are two main reasons why a TiE Chapter would help satisfy a glaring need in Northeast Ohio: support expansion of immigrant-founded technology businesses; and support the recruitment and integration of immigrant technology workers to help ameliorate high tech labor shortages.

How do we transform NEO into a Global Powerhouse?
    
Ans.: Attract the world's best minds who will create new industries and help existing companies grow by filling key vacant high tech jobs.

A. Expansion and Attraction of Immigrant-Founded Technology Businesses
   
As NEO seeks to re-invent itself in the global, knowledge-based economy, it is critical that the region embrace new immigrant technology entrepreneurship.

Imagine what Northeast Ohio's economy would look like today if it had attracted some of the following immigrant innovators (most of whom came to the U.S. to attend college, graduated, worked in the U.S., and then started their companies in the U.S.): Sergey Brin (Google), Jerry Yang (Yahoo), Pierre Omidyar (eBay), Andreas Bechtolshem/Vinod Khosla (Sun Microsystem) and Andy Grove (Intel).

While the foreign-born comprise only 12 % of the U.S. population, recent studies have found that immigrants in the U.S. are driving technology start-ups, patent filings, and advanced U.S. college degrees in engineering and science.

Nearly 50% of all the technology companies in Silicon Valley were founded by Chinese, Taiwanese, Indian and other immigrant scientists and entrepreneurs.

In November, 2006, the Venture Capital Association released the report "American Made: The Impact of Immigrant Entrepreneurs and Professionals on U.S. Competitiveness" which found that within the high-tech sector, 40% of venture-backed public companies since 1990 were founded by one or more immigrants.

The aggregate market capitalization of these companies exceeds $500 billion. Additionally, nearly 50% of today's private venture-backed start-ups have immigrant founders, and the proportion of immigrant-founded venture-backed companies has been increasing.

"America's New Immigrant Entrepreneurs," a study released in early 2007 concludes that foreign-born entrepreneurs were founders of over 25% of the U.S. technology and engineering companies started from 1995 to 2005.

Nationwide, these immigrant-founded companies produced $52 billion in sales and employed 450,000 workers in 2005.

Ohio did not fair well in the study. Despite being a national leader in attracting international students to attend Ohio colleges and universities, only 14% of Ohio's technology companies were founded by immigrants, well below the national average of over 25%.

Technology hotbed cities in North America are cities that have a globally diverse population, with internationals comprising upwards of 20% of the total population. Cleveland's foreign born population is down to 4.2%.

A TiE Chapter in Cleveland-Akron would help support the small but growing immigrant technology and entrepreneurial community, by providing mentoring and networking relationships, improve access to capital, and educating the community on the importance of immigrant innovators to our economic future.

B. Attraction and Retention of Immigrant Scientists and Professionals

Northeast Ohio is in the throes of a talent crisis.

A recent study by BioEnterprise and Nortech revealed that nearly 5,000 jobs are going unfilled in Northeast Ohio due to shortages in technology and health care workers. This talent shortage was cited as a key inhibitor to NEO companies' growth.

One of the most promising ways to fill these vacant jobs is to recruit immigrant technology workers already in the United States and thus minimizing visa restrictions.

Immigrants in the U.S. comprise over 50% of all U.S. PhD's in Engineering 45% of all U.S. PhDs in Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, and Computer Sciences; over 40% of all U.S. Master Degreed Computer Scientists, Physical Scientists and Engineers. 25% of all Physicians in the U.S. are immigrants.

A recent study by the Federal Reserve Bank-Cleveland for the Fund for Our Economic Future recently concluded:

Immigrants provide a large reserve of high quality engineers and scientists, which satisfies sudden surges in demand from particular industries..The [Silicon] Valley's ability to quickly upgrade its labor force and skills relies on local universities and community colleges..by hiring qualified immigrants. The immigrant pool can prove to be a major source of engineers and scientists.. as well as source of innovation and entrepreneurship. In short, regions should keep the academic and business doors open to international talent.

A TiE Chapter in Northeast Ohio, through its connection to TiE chapters in Silicon Valley and other technology-rich/expensive-living U.S. markets, could facilitate the recruitment of immigrant technology workers to help fill local job vacancies in NEO.

We have assets that immigrant professionals seek; we simply need the network to get the message out.

Northeast Ohio has some of the most beautiful suburbs in the United States. Many of these suburbs provide inexpensive, safe, idyllic environments to raise a family. Some of suburbs are now experiencing a rapid spike in influx of Indian, Chinese, Russian, and other immigrant professional families.

Northeast Ohio has a great resource in its colleges and universities, many of which have world-class science and engineering research facilities which attract international talent. 75% of the Engineering Ph.D. students at Case Western Reserve University are foreign born. In Northeast Ohio, 6,000 international students inject over $100,000,000 per year into the regional economy.

Our region needs a TiE Chapter to help begin coordinating and networking our "international people assets" so that we can better grow our technology businesses and take better advantage of the opportunities of a global marketplace.

We hope that you will join us on Monday, July 16th at 5:00 pm, Mercury Lounge, for this exciting networking and idea-sharing function.