BOSTON—A highlight of TiECON East 2025, the upcoming flagship conference from TiE Boston and cohost TiE New York, will be a compelling session titled “Entrepreneurial Journeys: Stories from Startup Founders,” featuring three dynamic founders sharing real-world insights from the startup frontier.
The featured speakers in this session are: Tim Rowe, Founder and CEO of Cambridge Innovation Center; Aman Narang, Co-founder and CEO of Toast; and Deepthi Bathina, Founder and CEO of RhythmX AI.
The session will be facilitated by Nikhil Bhojwani, Managing Partner at Recon Strategy, and Ranjay Gulati, Professor at Harvard Business School and author of How to Be Bold: The Surprising Science of Everyday Courage and Deep Purpose: The Heart and Soul of High-Performance Companies.
Scheduled for Friday, September 26, 2025, at the Sheraton Boston Hotel, TiECON East 2025 promises a bold new theme: “The Heart of Entrepreneurship.”
Breaking away from traditional tech and investment talk, the conference will explore the emotional grit, creative spirit, and transformative technologies that are reshaping the entrepreneurial landscape in a rapidly changing world.
Prof. Gulati said the Entrepreneurial Journeys session aims to equip future entrepreneurs with courage and clarity through shared experiences. He added that entrepreneurship is a non-linear journey filled with detours and moments of doubt.
“Entrepreneurship is not a straight line of victories; it is a lived journey of detours, doubts, and breakthroughs,” said Prof. Gulati. “In this session, by sharing the real stories of entrepreneurs, we uncover the guideposts for future builders to navigate their own path with greater courage and clarity.”
Bhojwani said that each founder has a unique entrepreneurial path, but resilience is a common trait, and that challenges and struggles are often hidden behind success stories.
“Every founder’s story is different, but the common thread is resilience,” emphasized Bhojwani. “In this session, you’ll hear from entrepreneurs at different stages who will open up about the challenges behind the headlines.”
About the Speakers
Tim Rowe
Tim Rowe is the Founder and CEO of the Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC). CIC houses over 450 startup technology companies and is perhaps the densest collection of startups anywhere in the world. Over 1,000 companies have gotten their start at CIC, and venture capitalists have invested over $1.9 billion in these companies to date.
Rowe is also a founder of New Atlantic Ventures, a $120 million early-stage venture fund. He is the founder of the Venture Café Foundation, dedicated to promoting connections among entrepreneurs through a weekly networking gathering, and Chairman of Lab|Central, a shared wet laboratory space. Rowe’s past work includes positions at Boston Consulting Group in Boston, Madrid, Tokyo, and Singapore.
Aman Narang
Aman Narang is the Chief Executive Officer, Co-founder, and a Director of Toast. He previously led Sales, Marketing, Customer Success, Business Development, and Fintech as Toast’s Chief Operating Officer.
Narang’s various roles over the past decade have given him a broad and deep understanding of the business. Prior to Toast, he worked at Endeca (now Oracle), where he led their mobile business unit. He holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Computer Science from MIT.
Deepthi Bathina
Deepthi Bathina, Founder and CEO of RhythmX AI, is a results-driven CEO with strong global business acumen and in-depth experience driving P&Ls for high-growth businesses ranging from startups to Fortune 500 companies.
She has a proven track record of scaling small to mid-sized businesses ($50 million to $1 billion) and large, complex businesses ($1 billion to $70+ billion in revenues) across a range of AI, technology, and services companies to sustain significant growth.
Bathina is recognized as a strategic thinker who can identify new opportunities to solve customer problems and maximize revenue potential. She was selected directly by Jack Welch, former CEO of GE, to evaluate and execute strategic initiatives. She has been recognized by the Boston Business Journal for professional excellence and brings C-level experience from a Fortune 50 company.
TiECON East 2025 — Event Details
Date: Friday, September 26, 2025
Time: 8:00 AM to 5:30 PM
Location: Sheraton Boston Hotel, Boston, MA
Website & Registration: www.tieconeast.com
Founded in 1997, TiE Boston connects aspiring entrepreneurs with seasoned founders, executives, and venture capitalists through mentorship and high-impact programs. Now in its 28th year, TiE Boston is one of the most active chapters of TiE Global, offering unparalleled access to a network of successful, serial entrepreneurs committed to fostering the next generation of business leaders.
Established in 1992 in Silicon Valley, TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) is a global nonprofit organization created by entrepreneurs, for entrepreneurs. Today, it spans over 60 chapters worldwide, providing a platform where founders, investors, industry leaders, and professionals collaborate to build lasting business relationships and foster innovation across industries.
