We invite you to TiE New York's monthly Startup Open Mic Night event for an exciting night of networking and pitching!  This June we celebrate female entrepreneurs, investors, mentors, leaders and innovators.  

This month our featured speaker, Raj Sisodia will talk with us about Shakti and Conscious Capitalism.  After our featured speaker, we’ve lined up successful female founders, leaders and innovators leaders of compelling startups and some of you that will hit the mic.  

Statistically there is an extremely low percentage of female founders and co-founders so we encourage male founders to push forward their female team members to have a chance to represent their company after. 

Balancing gender statistics at the helm in the long-term won't happen unless men support the change.  Leading change is our featured speaker, Raj Sisodia, is a best-selling author and founding leader of the Conscious Capitalism Movement.  He is also the FW Olin Distinguished Professor of Global Business and Whole Foods Market Research Scholar in Conscious Capitalism at Babson College.  

To speak you don’t have to be a TiE member, you just need to be a startup and/or investor with the passion to give your elevator pitch for 90 seconds in front of a group of angel investors, venture capitalists, startup-focused service based providers, mentors, and a large community of other successful entrepreneurs.

Should we need to limit the number of speakers due to high demand our members will be given priority to speak.  But don't fear, its easy to join TiE!  Become a member by signing up on our website at ny.tie.org.

RSVP for this free event, here!  Please note, the law firm has requested that we provide the registration list 24 hours in advance so please register on Monday to be sure to be on the list!

Featured Speaker, Raj Sisodia, Conscious Capitalism

Raj Sisodia is the FW Olin Distinguished Professor of Global Business and Whole Foods Market Research Scholar in Conscious Capitalism at Babson College in Wellesley, MA. He is also Co-Founder and Chairman Emeritus of Conscious Capitalism Inc and serves on the Board of Directors of The Container Store.  He was previously Trustee Professor of Marketing, the Founding Director of the Center for Marketing Technology and Chairman of the Marketing Department at Bentley University.  Raj has written ten books and over 100 academic articles and his work has been featured in the WSJ, NY Times, Fortune, Financial Times, The Washington Post, The Economic Times as well as CNN, CNBC and Fox.  Raj has a PhD in Marketing & Business Policy from Columbia University, where he was the Booz Allen Hamilton Fellow.  For more details on Raj please see Raj's full bio on the tab.

Featured Female Founders & Leaders

Trisha Sakhujia-Walia, Brown Girl Magazine, Inc.

Trisha Sakhuja-Walia is the CEO and Founder of Brown Girl Magazine. She is a digital content curator and social media strategist with a knack for event planning— she manages more than 100 contributors and oversees business development and marketing efforts at BrownGirlMagazine.com—an online magazine created by and for South Asian women who believe in the power of storytelling as a vehicle for community building and empowerment. With a passion for publishing meaningful content, she's always on the hunt for the next big story. Raised as an Indian-American in the suburbs of NYC, she is proud of her hyphenated identity and continues to find unique ways to empower young women living in the diaspora. 

Through features, interviews, opinion pieces and videos, you’ll find a variety of topics covered in Brown Girl Magazine including trending news, politics, entertainment, beauty, lifestyle, love and relationships, religion and culture.  Follow her and Brown Girl Magazine on Instagram, @tsakhuja_Walia and @BrownGirlMag.

Reena Choudhry, Shape Security

Reena Choudhry is Vice President/GM for a new product, Blackfish Credential Defense, at Shape Security. The company was founded in 2011 to disrupt automated attacks on websites and mobile applications. Organized criminal organizations function due to profit potential, like legitimate businesses.  Shape Security makes it so hard and expensive for attackers to determine how to penetrate its client's applications, that they give up and go after softer targets.

Reena has extensive experience in enterprise tech sales.  Her career has spanned product management, marketing and business development.  She spent many years at CISCO Systems where she most recently ran the Data Center and Cloud Services Sales across EMEA, based out of London.  Reena felt that the next wave of innovation in IT would be in software and security so she turned her focus to security startups. 

In her spare time, Reena is a Certified Sommelier and enjoys working out and has most recently developed a passion for hiking mountains.  She loves to listen to books on Audible and her favorite topic is Anthropology!

Priya Mehra, Gartner Consulting

Priya is an Associate Partner in Gartner Consulting as part of the HTTP (High Tech and Telecom Practice), working on Go-To-Market strategies for technology, telecom and Private Equity clients in the US with nearly 15 years of experience in Management Consulting, Business Strategy and Research.

Priya identifies new business opportunities and engagement delivery targeting tech clients in the Market Analytics practice.  She also works on Innovation and Digital Strategy projects with tech vendors to address business challenges related to Digital revenue models, Internet of Things (IoT) opportunity & use cases, Machine learning/AI adoption & impact, realizing business value from blockchain and other new emerging technologies.

Before Gartner, Priya was a Senior Managing Consultant in Capgemini Consulting, leading the North America Strategic Research Group and building Thought Leadership for the practice.  She has also helped startups and Non-Profit Organizations develop their fundraising strategies and build brand awareness as a consultant.

Leena Sukumar, mySkin Inc. 

Leena Sukumar is a Senior Vice President of mySkin Inc.  Leena's expertise is in Marketing and Product Leadership in the skincare tech space.  mySkin makes B2B and B2C skincare diagnostic devices.  Leena's Philosophy: "People first, profits follow"

Lakshmi Anantharamu, PhD, Akila Labs

Lakshmi Anantharamu is Founder & President of Akila Labs, an NYC-based startup applying Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning to create innovative solutions to solve vexing problems in Healthcare. She’s spearheading the build out of an AI-driven and Blockchain-secured Digital Health Coach for Diabetes prevention.  She blends her academic and research backgrounds in Computer Science and Algorithm engineering with her creative side to build uniquely impactful products.  Prior to founding Akila Labs three years ago Lakshmi was an Algorithm Engineer at BlackBox Logic, LLC and a Programmer at CIGNA.  Lakshmi earned her PhD and MS in Computer Science from the University of Colorado, Denver and has a Bachelors in Electrical Engineering.

Ruchika Gupta, Fonantrix Solution LLC

Ruchika Gupta is President of Fonantrix Solution.  Fonantrix is an offshore incubator of startups, focused on helping their offshore product/SaaS development.  The company assists small to medium size companies build their dreams (prototypes, MVP and full products or services).  Ruchika is an outsourcing expert with expertise in offshore product development.  She has a background as an engineering manager at SeaChange, a technical salesperson at Iris Software and Business Program Manager at IPC Systems.  Ruchika's Philosophy:  "Entrepreneurship is about innovation, discovery and solving business problems...  not about gender."

Archana Athalye, Kulture Kool LLC

Archana Athalye is the co-founder of Kulture Kool, an Indian cultural center dedicated to developing creative potential in the performing arts, for children and adults based in Rutherford, NJ.  Kulture Kool is the first center in North Jersey to provide year-round comprehensive programs and workshops in Indian Classical and Instrumental music, Indian Classical Dance, Indian Popular and Folk dance and also language proficiency programs in Hindi and other regional languages.  The company also offers specialized Yoga and Pranayam classes.  The company starts kids thinking like entrepreneurs early, to have a booth at their market sellers must be below 14 years old.  And its market places offers more than the typical lemon aid stand.  Philosophy: The intention behind actions is what matters. One should not engage in action solely for the sake of reward. Never lose your focus and never underestimate the virtue of patience ~ the Bhagwad Gita.

Surbhi Sahni, SAAR

Surbhi Sahni is the Creative Director of SAAR, Co-Founder of Tagmo Treats and an accomplished chef with 18 years experience in the NYC restaurant industry.  Also she recently launched an Indian gift package company and from 2010-2017, she ran her own catering company, Bittersweet NYC, specializing in custom-designed wedding cakes and Indian-inspired confections.  Before Bittersweet, she was the highly acclaimed pastry chef at Michelin-starred Tulsi where she “played” with flavors and textures to create sweet and savory results both delicious and pleasing to the senses, and prior to that at Michelin-starred Dévi, where she became widely known for her ethereal Mango Cheesecake. Sahni has also worked at David Burke & Donatella, Amma, Tamarind and Aamchi Pao.  Sahni has also been a demonstration chef, teaching at top culinary conferences and educational centers and has been featured at The James Beard House dinners. She has taught at and serves on the board of the Institute of Culinary Education as well as the Food & Finance High School.  She has been featured in The WSJ, New York Magazine, Food52, Oprah Magazine, Wine Spectator, and Food & Wine. Sahni holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Hotel Management from the School of Hotel Administration in India and a Master’s Degree in Food Studies and Food Management from NYU. Follow her @ChefSurbhi on Twitter and Instagram.