TiE’s E-Bazaar

TiEcon 2008 is coming up, and one of the programs they offer for entrepreneurs looking for funding is EBazaar.

I spoke with Farzin Shahidi, Founder and CEO of NextPlane software, a provider of interoperability tools for Unified Communication Platforms. Farzin is a first-time CEO, and had attended EBazaar last year. Through TiEcon, he got assigned a mentor, Sandeep Gupta, an experienced entrepreneurs who helped them with business strategy, business models, VC introductions, refining their pitch, and all those other valuable issues that often first-time entrepreneurs don’t have experience of.

NextPlane raised $600k in funding from Incept Ventures, a small VC firm. By the time they got to Incept, Sandeep had coached them through many other VC presentations, so, as Farzin recounts, “Our pitch was really polished.”

Sandeep’s background, btw, is here.

Anyway, entrepreneurs out there who are looking for a similar venue or platform to (a) find mentors (b) fund funding, may want to check this program out.