TiE Seattle Names Vinita Ananth Program Chair for the TiE Young Entrepreneurs Program

Teaching entrepreneurship and guiding young people comes naturally for Vinita Ananth, the newest program chair for the Seattle chapter of the TiE Young Entrepreneurs (TYE) program.   An entrepreneur and technology executive as well as parent and mentor, Ananth brings a wealth of business and personal leadership experience and vision to this important TiE program aimed at guiding the next generation of entrepreneurs.

An executive with Microsoft and an experienced entrepreneur with a history with successful startups, Ananth’s credits also include serving as mentor to Team Zigantic, the winner of TYE Seattle’s 2018 Business Plan Competition. Zigantic built a mobile and PC game validation platform connecting developers and high-school students for providing early feedback to game developers to build high-quality games. This regional win qualified Zigantic for entry in the TYE Global Business Plan Competition, competing against students from around the world to win “Best Lean Canvas/ Business Model”.

The TYE Seattle program provides young entrepreneurs (9th-12th grade levels) with the opportunity to explore the challenges and rewards of becoming an entrepreneur.   As part of the program, young entrepreneurs receive the following:

• Training, including classroom training to learn the various aspects of innovating the lean startup way, combined with design thinking and agile development.
• Mentorship, where they work side-by-side with founders to come up with the best and most disruptive ideas.
• Connections – TiE Seattle will be the foundation of the entrepreneur’s support system, whether it is to help high schoolers overcome the struggles of entrepreneurship or achieve great heights during any part of their entrepreneurial journey.

In her new position, Ananth sees TYE Seattle’s mission as inspiring and nurturing the entrepreneurial spirit of high-school kids, encouraging their limitless creativity and supporting their fierce passion to create a business.  “The opportunity which lies ahead of us is tremendous,” says Ananth.

According to Ananth, TYE Seattle can play a pivotal role in helping young student entrepreneurs.  She identifies three key areas of focus in the upcoming year:

• To develop creative minds to test and validate concepts with practical real-world scenarios, and ultimately encourage the pursuit of product development.  
• To guide young entrepreneurs systematically step-by-step through the challenging and often complex journey of creating a company.
• To inspire youth to create real businesses that make the world better, safer, more fun and engaging.

Ananth plans to continue to build upon the success of the TYE Seattle Program and to expand it in a variety of ways. For young people, these include inspiring high school students in the region to join the program and recruiting strong mentors who can stay engaged with young entrepreneurs to help them achieve meaningful outcomes. For the business community, Ananth is seeking to obtain sponsorship from organizations that are keen to grow the entrepreneurial ecosystem locally in Seattle, while developing deeper connections with startup founders to guide them with tools and systems in their initial part of the journey. Finally, she wants to develop a deep partnership with TYE global to support TYE Seattle with mentorship and investment opportunities for companies that evolve with the program.

The TYE Seattle Program is important to her on a very personal level too.  She has seen the benefits of it first hand, as her own son has gone through the program, with great results. She wants to see even more young people in the region reap the benefits of the TYE Seattle program as they explore the challenges and rewards of entrepreneurship. After all, that is what the program is all about.