TiE DC MAY 2023 Newsletter and Updates!

MAY 2023

TiE DC ANGELS UPDATE

Happy Spring everyone!

It has been an interesting few months interesting few month for the global economy! Even as the public markets fluctuate and venture funding slows down, digital transformation in various sectors like health, education, and enterprise tech continues unabated. Generative AI brings the promise of a brave new world if we can navigate through potential minefields. Entrepreneurs continue to build. We are fortunate at TiE DC Angels to be able to be part of entrepreneurial journeys as investors, mentors, and cheerleaders. We are excited to be involved with the growth of our portfolio companies and their teams.

As many of you know, TiE Angels is a cornerstone program for TiE globally – to a great degree, it represents the origin story of TiE itself. Here in DC, we continue to put greater focus on our Angels program. This not only includes working with many of our members to identify sources, but also with many of the local, regional and national Angel networks with whom we are now partnering. There are very few ways to impact the journey of an entrepreneur than being one of the earliest mentors and investors – and this after all, is why TiE exists!

We already have a very active group of over 30 members who participate in our Angels program and as our members continue to find success – we are also seeing the interest in learning about how to invest as an Angel grow. As such, we are collaborating with the HBS Club of DC to leverage their education program to give you more insights into Angel investing and to have you become a part of our TiE DC Angels program. Some of our members participated in a recent HBS Club Angels Bootcamp and there will be more educational opportunities forthcoming.

We are excited to also provide an update on our current portfolio!

· https://oxiwear.com/ which makes wearables for continuous SPO2 monitoring, is seeing significant interest from the fitness space. https://www.oxiwear.fitness/ .CEO Shavini Fernando was honored at a Washington Business Journal 40 under 40 recipient.

· Canopie continues to make progress on its mission to provide Universal mental health support for mothers. https://www.canopie.app/ The company announced a new partnership with Aeroflow Breastpumps.

· 3iDX https://www.3idx.com/ is working with various hospitals on its lifesaving product that rapidly identify infectious microbes, enabling physicians to prescribe the right antibiotics quickly.

· EXIT - Student Opportunity Center, https://studentopportunitycenter.com/ the leading service provider of experiential learning and high-impact practices, was acquired by People Grove.

We had several promising companies present to TiE DC Angels over the last few months and we are in the process of completing an investment in an exciting new company. Let us know if you have any investment opportunities that you think we should consider. We usually have one select company present every month.

It will be great to have you involved as potential investment leads, and as mentors for our current and future portfolio companies. If you want to be part of our angel group, please reach out to me by emailing rajraipv@gmail.com.

Sincerely,

Rajesh Rai

TiE DC Angels Investment Committee Chair

TiE EDUCATION UPDATE

TiE DC University Program

TiE DC University Program Winner wins 1st Prize at the Global Pitch Competition! We are so proud! Congrats to the HUBLY team!

TIE DC has been actively promoting entrepreneurship among school and college students primarily through two of our flagship programs - TIE University and TIE Young Entrepreneur Program.

As part of the TiE University annual pitch competitions this year for 2023, we have successfully organized the finals on April 1, 2023, which saw the participation of several teams from different universities.

After a rigorous selection process from a long list of competent teams, the judges announced the top three winning teams: - Hubly Surgical, Winner from the Johns Hopkins University, Wise Cities, runner-up from the University of Maryland College Park and Fancy & Spicy, second runner-up from the University of Maryland College Park.

A special thanks to our TiE University judges: Anil Sharma, Vanitha Khera and Praba Murugaiah!

On May 2-5 the winner Hubly Surgical advanced to the global competitions at TiECon in Silicon Valley, and won the global pitch fest competition!

TiE DC Young Entrepreneurs (TYE)

TYE Bootcamp happened every Saturday since March 2023, where 50 high school students gathered for weekly lessons on entrepreneurship.

Students worked very hard to prepare for the pitch competitions that took place on May 6^th and on May 13^th to select the top team which will be advancing to compete at the global level during June 22-24 in San Diego, CA.

All teams presented high level pitches and we are so proud!

Here are our TYE 2023 winners:

1st Prize Winners: Safe Step - Heading to TYE Global Finals!

2nd Prize Winners: Sharp Clothing

3rd Prize Winners: Redefine Print

Best Customer Validation Prize: SleepScentials

Best Lean Canvas Prize: Infrared

Best Teamwork Prize: Amplifyr

Best Elevator Pitch Prize: SleepScentials

Thank you to all the judges: Stephanie Mango, Meena Krishnan, Rebecca Howick, Robert J. Makheja, Nicole Washington and Anirban Chakrabarti.

Thanks again to our sponsors: The Makheja Foundation, The Shrivastava Foundation and the George Mason University - School of Business!

Thank you to Srini Bayireddy, Venkata Veera and their amazing team, and all volunteers (Ananya Veda Enganti, Tarika Dhillon, Rohan Paralkar, Raaga K., and Sriya Medarametla) who worked so hard and delivered a great event!

Last but not least, thank you to Marc Steren and University Startups for their incredible support to the program!

The TYE competition provides an excellent platform for young entrepreneurs to showcase their innovative ideas and receive valuable feedback from experienced professionals in the industry. Such initiatives are vital to foster and promote entrepreneurship, which can drive economic growth and innovation in society.

GOVCON LAUNCH UPDATE

What a great “GovCon Launch” event we had on May 11! It was so exciting to see a full room with 90 participants engaging in meaningful discussions and networking on government contracting for small and mid size business!

Attendees had the pleasure to hear from keynote speakers Sonny Hashmi (GSA) and Exodie Roe III (GSA), and participate in the panel discussion led by Alan B. Thomas Jr. (Former GSA) with Mike Pullen (CGI), Emily Hallenbeck (BofA), K.A. Perkins (SBA) and Jeff Shen (Red Team)!

Hope to see all of you at

“GovCon GROW” in October!

Big thanks to our sponsors:

Platinum - Bank of America.

As well as sponsors: CGI, DuploCloud and Reston Law Group.