- The Groundbreaker launch highlights entrepreneurship and leadership
- The Groundbreaker event marks KREST Centre inauguration
Hyderabad: TiE Hyderabad on January 10, 2026 hosted an exclusive session titled “Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Impact!” featuring Kanwal Rekhi, Co founder of TiE and a renowned Silicon Valley pioneer. The event marked the launch of his book The Groundbreaker and took place at The Quorum, Sattva Knowledge City, Hyderabad. The session brought together entrepreneurs, business leaders, and ecosystem enablers for a focused discussion on innovation, leadership, and long term impact.
The Groundbreaker was formally unveiled by Murali Kakarla, the newly sworn in President of TiE Hyderabad. After the launch, Rekhi signed copies of the book and interacted with guests. He shared personal reflections and insights from his professional journey. Meanwhile, Murali Kakarla said the event reaffirmed TiE Hyderabad’s commitment to fostering entrepreneurship and leadership by connecting the ecosystem with global visionaries and thought leaders.
Organised by TiE Hyderabad, the session featured an engaging conversation with Rekhi on lessons from his entrepreneurial career, as documented in The Groundbreaker. During the interaction, Rekhi also revealed that he recently inaugurated the Kanwal Rekhi Rural Entrepreneurship and Startup KREST Centre in Nizamabad. The centre operates as a dedicated startup vertical under Kakatiya Sandbox, a non profit organisation working for the economic transformation of North Telangana. Kakatiya Sandbox is co founded by Raju Reddy, Founder of Sierra Atlantic, and Phanindra Sama, Founder of redBus.
Sharing his experience from Nizamabad, Rekhi said, “I met many young rural entrepreneurs there. They are in no way less in ideas or implementation capability. India lives in its villages, and talent is abundant in rural India.” He stressed the need to build strong entrepreneurial ecosystems beyond urban centres. Therefore, he underlined the importance of expanding startup support into rural regions.
During the discussion, Rekhi reflected on a key policy moment from India’s past. He recalled that when former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee described Information Technology as India’s future, Rekhi had differed and argued that telecommunications infrastructure was needed first. Though the proposal initially faced resistance from parts of the bureaucracy, Vajpayee later accepted it in toto, which Rekhi said proved transformative.
Commenting on India’s economy, Rekhi said the country is on a strong growth path with GDP growth estimated at around 7 to 8 percent. He added that entrepreneurs need greater freedom to raise capital and scale globally to sustain momentum. The Groundbreaker captures risks taken, rewards earned, and lessons from Rekhi’s life as a pioneering entrepreneur who helped shape the global startup ecosystem.
Rekhi’s journey spans major historical and technological shifts. He was born into a family displaced during Partition and grew up in India. He later studied at IIT Bombay and then completed his MS in Electrical Engineering at Michigan Technological University. He went on to build Excelan, which championed open standards like TCP IP and laid early groundwork for the internet revolution.
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