Seeing is believing. The best way to teach Indian start-ups on how to think the way a Silicon Valley peer thinks is to show the Mecca of all start-up activity in the world. The TiE, the global network of successful entrepreneurs, is going to do this, beginning Monday.

As part of its recent ‘Billion Dollar Babies’ initiative, it is going to pick 3-5 Indian start-ups on Monday to handhold them to become a $1-billion firm. It still leaves the arena open till December 31 for more firms to join the fray to become candidates for the programme.

Who can join You should not be an e-commerce or services firm. You should be a product firm that has achieved good milestones and with global ambitions and relevance. And the most important criterion is that at least one of the co-founders must be willing to be relocated to the Silicon Valley. “The Valley is the place that encourages ‘crazy’ ideas by funding them. You need to be there to think big and make your start-up relevant for global audience,” Venktesh Shukla, President of TiE Silicon Valley, told BusinessLine here.

“About 90 per cent of the firms that crossed the $1-billion milestone hail from the Valley, followed by 10 per cent in Israel. The rest of the world contributes the remaining 10 per cent. There is no why we (India) can’t produce the billion-dollar firms,” he said.

3-member panel The TiE has set up a three-member panel to funnel the proposals to finalise candidates. It includes Shukla and Raju Reddy (founder-CEO of Sierra Atlantic).

“We give the start-ups space at TiE facility in the Valley for up to six months and introduce them to legal firms, accounting consultants and hold luncheon meetings top CEOs and CIOs of the world. They will have a feel of building billion-dollar enterprises and how to overcome the challenges they might face in the journey,” Shukla said. The TiE is planning to repeat the cycle every six months.

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