Startupolic

The Swiss Ice Hockey national team - a role model

Tue, 21 May 2013 11:00:19 +0200

If you are a fan of ice hockey (as I am), you may have lived two amazing weeks watching and following the Swiss national team. Not being ranked in the top 8 of ice hockey nations, qualifying itself to quarter final would have already been considered as a success. But that was before… before the tournament which happened in Sweden. Which was magic!

Switzerland won every game, beating top ice hockey nations like Sweden, Canada and Czech Republic (twice, with quarto final). And then, USA in semi-final. Unfortunately, Switzerland lost the final against the host country, Sweden (BTW: congratulations to the Swedish team).

It’s an authentic exploit for Switzerland and will remain in mind of everyone during years… or not. Because what we have been able to observe is a deep mentality change. Some years ago, everyone would have been more than happy with a quarter final. This year, everyone is disappointed not having won the gold medal! These guys are hungry, extremely hungry. And they will probably surprise us often in the future. This impression was well illustrated by Reto Suri, a few minutes after the end of the game:

We don’t know if we have lost the gold medal or if we have won the silber one.

This Playstation generation now doesn’t only ambition to be a well-paid professional player in Switzerland. They want to shoot the stars (that means, in ice hockey, play in NHL) and don’t take “easy” money: players now refuse lucrative offers from Swiss clubs to seize the opportunity to play among the bests. With no guarantee to even play a few games in NHL. Ambitious. You named it!

What has surprised many observers is that even without some of the best Swiss ice hockey players (because they were still involved with their NHL club in playoffs), Switzerland played a world class hockey. Sean Simpson, the trainer of Switzerland, deserves a big credit for the journey of the team. He has been able to build a rockstar team. It was amazing to see so much solidarity among players. Everyone put his ego aside and provided his maximum in benefit of the team. And its ambitious goal. They believed in their capacities and were empowered by the certainty that everything is possible.

This exploit will probably inspire lots of young ice hockey players, and other sportsmen/-women. And also every Swiss citizen! It’s also inspiring for every entrepreneur. Stereotype is that startup founders in Switzerland often have to little global ambition. What is completely wrong, or at least, has totally changed in the last decade. Swiss startups are not the best funded startups (Swiss players are not the best paid players), but it doesn’t mean they can’t succeed. Money helps, but… realizing that if you believe in you and work hard, everything is possible… with a bit of luck! But you also need to put yourself in a position to provoke luck… and once you’ve gained momentum, you’re kind of unstoppable… or only on the last step!

Where to find new startup talents?

Fri, 17 May 2013 09:00:00 +0200

Now that you’ve gone through the first steps of your startup, from building product to getting customers and hopefully some liquidity to staff up, one of your current challenges is to find great talents you need to bring your startup to the next stage. Where do you go?

Yes, you can go on Linkedin (for every kind of profile). Or GitHub or Geeklist, for software developers. Or Dribbble for designers. Or even headhunters or work agencies (but they are mostly too expensive for startups). Or you can also go to unemployment offices… yes, it’s less glamorous, but that could be a great (and potentially cheapest!) way to recruit talents you can boost!

Even in the digital age, with all the available online tools, nothing replaces a physical meeting. But how do you find people who are really interested by the startup world? You may have heard this statistic before, but not more than 5% at the greatest maximum are entrepreneurs. Or can be. People with a desire to work for a startup are fortunately more numerous. 10%, 15%? Hard to say. To build a great and solid startup, the ten first employees (including founders) have to be rockstars of their domain. Or with the potential and the willingness to be. Curiosity, proactivity and ambition are 3 important characteristics you need to have to embrace the startup journey.

Swiss universities and high-schools are organizing for years recruitment forums, where you get a chance to meet young graduates. But how many have special initiatives dedicated to startups? Alongside HSG St. Gallen (with its Start Summit back in March) and EPFL, with Start-up Day @Forum EPFL, I don’t know any other.

For the 4th time startups will have the opportunity to present themselves in October (on the 11th to be precise) in Lausanne. This year, no coaching agency or technology park will be accepted.

Stands will be available for free but will be distributed on First come, First served manner (to avoid empty spaces - because you know, some startups register but are there just 1 hour during the day. Or not at all).

Again, you’ll be able to buy the “CV Book” by section for CHF 100.- (whole database is available for CHF 900.-, for non-startups). So you can choose “Computer Science” and “Communication systems” (the ones which interest most web & mobile startups) for CHF 200.-.

And there will be a startup pitch competition (maybe with a prize money, which could be motivating!).

Last year, around 60 companies had a booth and organizers hope to overcome this number in 2013!

A warm-up session will take place on Thursday evening, with 2 keynotes. One will be about “why to start up” (done by… me) and the second by a successful entrepreneur (be patient… we are in the process of bringing you an amazing guy).

Update: Dominik Grolimund, serial entrepreneur (Wuala, Silp) based in Zürich, will give the second talk. So bookmark the date!

Deadline to register is 31st of August. Even if you’re not planning to recruit until next year, you should attend. A great CEO is always on a hiring mode. And moreover, Start-up Day has become the biggest truly startup event of Western Switzerland, where you can also meet fellow entrepreneurs.

A personal interview (in French) Last week at Festival of Media...

Wed, 08 May 2013 09:00:19 +0200

A personal interview (in French)

Last week at Festival of Media Global 2013 in Montreux, I was introduced to Stan Pic, known as “The interviewer”. Stan is a friendly guy, passionate about Public Relations video blogger and former journalist. He is blogging (in French) about what’s happening in Western Switzerland and sharing his thoughts about social media, entrepreneurship, etc.

He’s a passionate guy with a extrem talent to make people comfortable… So I’ve easily given away: I gave him a video interview (in French). Normally, Stan records 5-minutes interview… but you know, “I couldn’t stop talking” and he didn’t interrupt me!

It was a funny experience (and I love having fun!) and I thought I could share it with you - hope you will appreciate it. And otherwise… I will be back soon with some non-personal stuff.

10 questions to the founder of the Festival of Media's Hot Company of the Year... 2012!

Mon, 06 May 2013 08:00:20 +0200

Last week, the Festival of Media Global 2013 happened in Montreux. I was fortunate enough to be invited as an official blogger (again!) and I had the chance to interview Mr. Risicato, winner of the startup competition M.A.P. (but in 2012) with his startup VideoHub. Many thanks to Anthony to answer my few questions. Here they are!

Could you introduce yourself with a few words about your career so far? Why did you start Videohub, what was the Eureka moment (if any)?

I’ve been a digital native for 18 years, working at the intersection of marketing and technology. I was fortunate to work at DoubleClick (now part of Google) starting in 1998, just as the digital economy began to take off. That experience, of bringing Brands to Technology, got me “hooked” on this whole Internet fad… My interest in VideoHub was spurred by seeing the opportunity to solve real challenges for marketers and publishers and to move the video ecosystem forward quickly.

Can you tell me a bit about your journey so far?

One of my favorite quotes is from Arthur C. Clark, circa 1961:

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

Much of what we do at VideoHub is fairly sophisticated, and that can often seem like “magic” to our clients. The critical work for us is to create a bridge for clients from what “is” to what is “possible”. The journey to date has been a successful one, as we see brands embrace video (and VideoHub) as their path to understanding the true value of video.

For most people, starting a video ads platform could seem quite crazy with ubiquitous presence of video giants like Youtube or Vimeo. You know, you’ve probably faced the silly question “What if Youtube…?”. What would you like to tell to people who face these questions and who are afraid by potential huge competitors?

We love a strong market! In the end, if you, or any company, can build and market solutions that resonate with clients, the rest takes care of itself. However, we do make sure that what VideoHub provides from an analytics standpoint can coexist easily with whatever systems/tools clients currently use. For example, if you already have an ad server, that’s great and we can just plug VideoHub into that workflow. On the other hand, if you need a full “stack” solution, our platform can handle that. The trick is flexibility.

How long have you been working on the project before getting customers or investors? And what did you get first?

We spent about a year doing market trials, product testing and beta tests. This allowed us to appropriately package a solution that the market wanted, rather than us just guessing at the market needs. I am fortunate in that VideoHub is a “startup within a startup”, and a separate division of Tremor Video, Inc. so everyone from our investors to our employees are aligned.

What is your best souvenir so far? And the worst?

Winning the Festival of Media’s Hot Company of the Year was really great for us! I have a very short memory for “worsts”, so NONE!

What are the key challenges for a startup in the media industry?

As I mentioned, being able to have a product that fits into a client’s workflow, solves a pressing need and focuses on the long-term value of the product tips the scales in your favor as you bring a new product to market. Marketers and publishers have limited time and bandwidth, and you must be able to show them that what you do has both immediate AND long-term value. Missing either one makes for a difficult hill to climb.

Can you give us tips and tricks to deal with big brands, as a startup?

One thing I learned long ago, is that big brands have a way of doing business, and you must respect that. If you believe you can change the worldview of a Fortune 500 brand with a PowerPoint deck, you may want to reconsider your approach. Building trust and credibility with big brands is key to having a long-term relationship and a rapidly scaling business. Don’t get me wrong, large brands will test here and there, and push some time and attention into a specific project. But if you want a brand to say, “you are my solution, let’s go”, you better understand their business, how you fit and create champions within the organization.

And about internationalization? How tricky is this?

International is super hard to do right. Many US startups believe that if they just drop a few bodies down in a country, sales will magically happen. Doesn’t really work that way, as too many international clients have seen that movie before, and suffer from a lack of support after the deal is done. My advice is to choose careful which markets you want to enter, ones that are strategic to your business. These are not necessarily the largest markets, by the way, they are ones that are a good fit from a product, business and culture standpoint. Once you have a foothold in those key markets, then you can look to expansion.

What did the award “Hot company of 2012” by M.A.P. change for Videohub?

Suddenly, we started receiving inbound requests to understand what VideoHub is and does and how to use it at their agency or site. That had a meaningful impact on our sales and marketing efforts. It’s always nice when your phone rings as a startup!

What was the best advice you’ve received so far?

Best advice I ever received was,

“Don’t mess up. But if you do, FIX IT.”

This simple guideline drives home 2 really key concepts:

Set the bar really high and strive for excellence without compromise.
However hard you try, you will miss the bar occasionally, so own the mistake and get busy correcting it immediately.

If you live by that simple guideline, you are putting yourself in a position to succeed. Now you just have to do it!

Discover 8 web & mobile startups on 13th of May!

Thu, 02 May 2013 07:31:00 +0200

On Monday 13th May, the first ICT Investors Day in Romandie will take place. Kindly hosted by Debiopharm Group, the event will start at 17:00 (door opening at 16:30). Event is open to anyone interested by startups… but especially if you are investing in startups! You can register until 11th of May, so hurry up to secure your seat now!

8 web and mobile startups from Western Switzerland have just been published. The selection was hard, as 16 high quality startup have applied. The 3 main criteria applied for this event were

reasonable chance to raise money;
team is more or less complete;
still looking for a first financing round.

As always, criteria are highly subjective and the non-selected startups should no be worried: it doesn’t mean they are not good! And there will be new events to apply.

Applications for an event are sometimes strange to see. There are people out there who register to an event and don’t give really a sense of what they do. Sure, not disclosing your magic sauce is absolutely understandable. But just filling your application with 3 sentences? I’m not keen at all on the rigid registration processes we see most of the time. Entrepreneurs can better use their time as filling forms (!). But applying without taking a (little - 20 minutes?) time to complete a form professionally is an even bigger waste of time. For both parties!

But enough blabla, here are the 8 startups you will see pitching soon!

Pay per use ski pass, allowing you to earn snow miles and never waiting again to buy your ski pass in a resort.

Learning platform to discover wines received by subscription and out-of-the box wine tasting events.

Creation of urban intelligence computing and geo-visualization ecosystem for decision making.

Prodibi software allows extremely high resolution pictures on the web and a fast delivery.

Collaborative web and social media information discovery and monitoring platform.

Appygraph lets you surprise your friends with personalized cards created on your mobile.

Express yourself with personalized fonts on mobile.

Mobile payments in an easy, ubiquitous way.

Public Relations is not easy to master when you’re doing...

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 12:15:00 +0200

Public Relations is not easy to master when you’re doing your startup. Yes, you’d like to get press coverage. But you don’t know how to handle it and how to get in the mind of the journalist you try to attract attention. In one sentence: you don’t know how to hack public relations.

There are many public relations agencies out there, but most don’t tell entrepreneurs they shouldn’t hire a PR firm before raising a proper Serie A financing round. But so does Colette Ballou, a PR expert active for startups in a European level (with offices in London, Paris and Berlin) and who provides mentoring at famous startup accelerators like TechStars, Seedcamp and 500startups.

Colette hosted a workshop at NEXT Berlin 2013 (study and bookmark the Slideshare presentation above!), extremely insightful and with directly actionable advices.

She emphasized the value of networking, which you should already know:

“Good PR is about building and maintaining professional networks”

Public relation is not a magic and takes time (6 to 9 months in general - as raising money!). It doesn’t replace sales efforts: it support them.

But I let you discover the excellent stuff provided by Colette - which I’d like to thanks again for her energy and her support to startups!

Berlin startup hotspots

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 08:00:00 +0200

As you already probably know, the two biggest startup scenes in Europe are London and Berlin. The last one is growing. And making extremely good progress to catch up.

I’ve published some thoughts and facts about London some weeks ago. As well as you often hear about the European startup capitals, you often don’t know where to go to get the pulse of the scene.

Here are the two hotspots I’ve discovered and visited during my trip in Berlin: Sankt Oberholz and Betahaus (if you know other places, please comment!). These place are 2 co-working places, but are basically…restaurants for the public side. Seems strange, no? Is there a place like this in Switzerland now? Nope. Or at least I don’t currently know!

You can simply come there, benefit from a free wifi and that’s it. Sure, they also have “normal” co-working spaces, with real desks and office chairs.

As well as there is a good atmosphere there, it is still not as geeky/nerdy as Central Coworking in London (that is, you even have (a few) normal people there - people not typing on their computer or playing/working on their mobile device!).

Here are some pictures both places!

Sankt Oberholz (direct at Rosenthalerplatz - underground line: U8 to get there):

For those who don’t speak German: “not every cow allow you to milk it”. There are many boards like this at Sankt Oberholz, which make the place different, kind of alternative restaurant (special vibes!).

Betahaus (Prinzessinnenstrasse 19, a few dozen meters away from Moritzplatz (that you can also reach with U8)). Betahaus seems to have more frequently startups events and will welcome Axelspringer Plug’n’Play accelerator (starting mid-May for the first session):

UPDATE: please find a list compiled by Venture Village on the 10 best co-working spaces in Berlin (thx to Next Wave Europe for mentioning!)

And lastly, I had the chance to visit the Berlin Congress Center before the NEXT Conference… which is simply amazing, even if the modern-looking side of the building is not as charming as the old train station of last year:

One week left to Next Berlin!

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 14:56:00 +0200

We are getting closer to NEXT Berlin, happening next Tuesday & Wednesday.

Program of the conference has just been released (discover it) and… it looks really exciting! For keynotes to workshops, actionable content and advices are key. The only problem I see: I cannot duplicate myself!

The conference has now selected the NEXT100 Top Influencers of the Digital Industry in 2013 (remember my post back in February). Two Swiss entrepreneurs have make it, even in the Top40!

Samuel Müller, founder of mobile barcode scanning company Scandit.

Dominik Grolimund, serial entrepreneur who has, to date, already founded and sold 2 startups: Wuala and Silp.

Big applause to Samuel and Dominik, who deserve it! I’m happy to have suggested and registered these 2 smart guys to NEXT100. If you have once the opportunity to grab a coffee with them… seize it, you won’t be disappointed! Switzerland needs more guys like them (we have a couple dozen other ones, but we never have enough smart guys!).

NEXT Berlin also released the 12 selected startups for its competition. Unfortunately, no one of the three registered Swiss startups (cooa.la, Rightclearing, Faveeo) made it.

Anyway, discover these startups, who come from all over Europe (Germany: 3, Austria: 2, Italy: 2, Portugal: 2, UK: 1, France: 1 and Sweden: 1).

Geddit connects every student in the classroom to their teacher. The times when shy students were overlooked are over. Geddit lets students show their teachers how confident they are with what they’re being taught by tapping the ‘signal bars’ on their device. Teachers get an overview of their whole class at a glance, and can help any struggling students.
UnlockYourBrain uses the screen lock to facilitate learning in an effortless way. The app improves your logical thinking skills every time you unlock your smartphone with a little maths or logic puzzle, or gives vocabulary or language training.
apiOmatsimplifies app development processes. Their Backend as a Service (BaaS) offers a complete software stack including a scalable hosting solution. It is a resourceful productivity tool for everybody who intends to develop a mobile app or website.
LineMetrics is essentially Google Analytics for production lines. It is a flexible tool which enables manufacturing companies real-time monitoring of machines and analysis of production environments.
visalyze turns social media data into an interactive and playful visual story. The visual patterns generated by visalyze enable users to recognise, at a glance, which of their social media activities on Facebook or Twitter are flourishing and where crises are looming.
Glitteris an app designed to revolutionize how casting agencies, producers and clients work together. It is an online plattform that enables them to manage castings, proposals and selections quickly and easily in one centralised location: the cloud.
bewarket has created a marketplace for Facebook. So far, over 25,000 users have registered to offer their products – old and new – to their social network.
Wanderiocompares flights, trains, ferries and ground transportation services, to let travelers choose and book the solution that suits them best, sorting alternatives by price, travel time, and CO2 emissions.
Buzzoole is the first platform IEO (Influence Engine Optimisation). Through the platform, Buzzoole wants to help users optimise their online presence and engagement with their network to enable them become influential in subjects in which they have expertise.
Glean is a mobile application that allows you to give and receive personal feedback anonymously within your social network. The app is integrated in the user’s social media like Facebook and LinkedIn and enables him/her to give instant feedback on the way. Glean also provides a B2C as well as a B2B version.
Prizgo provides a white label social loyalty plugin for online retailers. The idea combines a social rewards program with analytics to enable retailers to boost customer engagement, retention and advocacy on their sites.
Algolia (congrats to Nicolas!) is an easy-to-integrate powerful search technology, which enable developers to quickly deliver real time search inside their apps with instant visual feedback and typo-tolerance.

Finally… if you haven’t bought your ticket by now… register now and get a 10% discount off!

A unique chance to network with top media executives

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 10:48:00 +0200

Did you know that one of the biggest media event of the world will happen in Lausanne area end of April?

As well as I know that there are many things that I don’t know, this event hasn’t reached my ears… until Eileen asked me if I was interested to attend as an official blogger! Of course, it has directly excited my curiosity. And what I’ve discovered is that it seems to be a MUST-attend event, at least for everyone active in the media and brands industry!

Main objective of Festival of Media Global, taking place from 28th to 30th of April 2013 in Montreux, is to bring together professionals of media trading (which is the art of buying and optimizing advertising spaces). And to show what’s next in the brand communications industry… so, something where media startups can easily fit!

Event will start on Sunday night (28th of April) with a cocktail and networking session. Two intensive days of conferences will follow, with an impressive panels of really high level marketing executive. Top brands like Facebook, Intel, Nestlé, Visa, Linkedin, Havas Media or the much discussed company BuzzFeed (its CEO, Jon Steinberg, will disclose what he means by native advertising) will be present and eager to network.

The program of the presentations sounds really interesting to me (and I hope to you too!), from talking about the new drivers of growth in the advertising space to the new publishing revolution. Other keynotes will for instance show what’s king in media space (conversation, not content) or how to transform engagement in real sales.

Recommendation engines, content experiences and social comments are transforming massively how the media industry works. In one sentence, startups are disrupting the business! Adaptation are required for every media professional and the festival is a good opportunity to learn about what’s coming.

The conference also has a startup program, named M.A.P. (Media Accelerator Program). The idea is to match exciting game-changing new media companies with some of the most successful marketers in the world, that is, to the high level attendees of the conference!

You can register your startup at M.A.P. (you have to choose one of the 3 packages - the cheapest unfortunately doesn’t give you access to the Festival of Media, but only to the MAP Global area). But what doesn’t it bring you then? It will bring you a unique feedback from people you can barely dream to meet. And give you some highly targeted advertising (your video-pitch will be displayed on the media channels of the festival, etc.) to senior marketers of top global brands (more than 3’000 media professionals to the festival).

Five companies will be selected by a judging panel comprised of top shots guys from Google, Sequoia Capital, Medialink, Ballpark Ventures, etc. These 5 companies will have the chance to present their business on the main stage on the 3rd day of the conference. And only one will be awarded the prestigious title of “Hot Company of the Year”.

Which criteria do you need to fulfill to apply to M.A.P.? You need to have a disruptive idea or product (you need to be operational, that is, at least in trial/beta mode) showing some next generation marketing possibilities, and being able to show the Return On Investment of your product. Here is a complete explanation of the M.A.P. program. Deadline is short: you must apply before Friday 12th of April and selected companies will be notified on 19th.

As ever, I’m currently trying to get some free tickets for you… or at least, some discounted tickets. I’ll update this post if I get some, so be attentive!

UPDATE: ask me a 40% (!) discount to attend Festival of Media Global 2013!

Hope to meet you there anyway!

A new opportunity to pitch your startup in Lausanne!

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 08:05:00 +0200

In Switzerland, many people think you have (too) many opportunities to pitch your startup. A recurring comment I’ve been hearing for a while is that there are not enough valuable/promising startups… I can only disagree to this!

If the condition for a valuable startup is to be enrolled in CTI Startup program or beeing a spin-off from ETHZ or EPFL, yes, it’s probably right. But in Switzerland, too much emphasis is put on startups coming from academia (that could be the topic of another post!). My opinion is that you neither need to be from a technology institute nor part of the CTI Startup program to be successful, at least when you’re moving in the web and mobile space. Here, you mostly don’t need patents to protect your innovations. What make the difference for web and mobile startup is EXECUTION capability!

But back to the point… a new startup/investor event will take place on Monday 13th of May in Lausanne: ICT Investors Day. Already run successfully 8 times in Zürich (I’ve blogged about the June event last year), the pitching opportunity is different from all other ones:

It is exclusively dedicated to ICT (in a large sense - electronics is OK), which means you have a qualified audience (people who understand the area).
Participation is free of charge for startups (in comparison with some angels clubs - which do it wrong in my opinion, but that’s again another topic).
8 startups will be selected for a 90-seconds pitch at the event. And the audience vote for the 4 they would like to see pitching longer (10 minutes). Yes, it could be frustrating for a founder, as you’re not sure to pitch your whole concept. I’ve experienced it. But anyway, it’s fun to try. Not getting enough votes doesn’t mean your company is not interesting, but only that the audience desires to see other startups.

Around 50 people are expected to the first ICT Investors Day of Western Switzerland, kindly hosted by one of the most active ICT investor of the region: Debiopharm Group. Yes, it looks strange that a pharmaceutical company invests in ICT startups, even not related to health care! Privately owned, Debiopharm has a strong commitment to support innovative entrepreneurs, and doesn’t work as a traditional VC. The ideal investor?

So, entrepreneurs: what are you waiting for? Fill the simple registration form before ~~21st~~ 25th of April… and see you there!

And investors: register as soon as possible to experience this new kind of event! I’m pretty sure they will be amazing startups…

You'll fail... so what?

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 09:00:28 +0200

If you’re planning to start a business, you probably know that the odds are big that you’ll fail your venture. Or if you don’t know it, wake up. There are many smart guys out there who did many things right and finally failed their startup. You’ve probably heard about these statistics: on 10 investments, only one will be a big success, 2-3 will reimburse the investment and all the other ones will be worthless. What can be scary is that it only takes into account the funded startups. But how many get financing? One on ten?

If we take these (probably wrong) numbers as a basis to evaluate your success chance, we can assume that you have a 3-4% of beeing financially OK with the company you’re putting in so many efforts. OK, here, I’m consciously neglecting lifestyle business (you’re bulding a viable company where you don’t need investors and you don’t want / care growing big and fast - what is ABSOLUTELY OK, too!).

With this in mind, why do people start a company? You have to be a bit crazy to build a startup, that’s true. That doesn’t seem rational and you better should find a safe job in a bank… but hey, who told you there are still safe jobs? Except if you’re working in the administration or governmental companies (and even there…), there are no more safe job in 2013!

I think, and most of fellow entrepreneurs I’ve talked to, that the journey is so exciting and rewarding that it’s worth the potentially painful outcome. If you never try, you will never know if the amazing concept you’ve developed (with you and yourself) even has a chance to succeed. As well as it intellectually exciting and rewarding to brainstorm about game-changing concepts, it’s even more to take the next step: implementing it.

Even if you fail your startup, you will have learnt so many things that you can’t consider it badly (OK, financially speaking, it could be disastrous).

11 months ago, I’ve blogged about success tolerance and failure acceptance (“What we still need to change”). I wasn’t thinking that this simple post would trigger guys to start something. Following the post, French startup activist and blogger Roxanne Varza commented and asked me if I didn’t wanted to launch a Fail Conference in Switzerland. And then we started the discussion with some of my readers.

David Butler, a startup activist and great networker based in Zürich, took the leadership to organize the first FailCon Switzerland, which will happen on 16th April in Zürich! David has assembled a little team to organize it and together, they’ve convinced some well-known Swiss entrepreneurs (like serial entrepreneur Dorian Selz) to share their experience. The one-day conference will gather a few hundreds entrepreneurs, investors and innovators. There are many aspects of failures and this uncommon event will bring you an opportunity to learn from guys who failed and recovered.

This event is a first step in the change of mentality we need to see here in Switzerland. Failing should be widely accepted and seen as it is: a huge opportunity to learn and become stronger!

So… what are you waiting for? Spread the word and register!

Where to get the skills you need for your startup journey

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 14:29:00 +0100

It is (or it should be) common sense that the team is what matters the most in a startup. And its ability to execute. Because if you have a rockstars team which fails to work together, well… It doesn’t bring the venture anywhere!

You can be extremely competent in sales or in UX or in software development. But starting is a business is often tricky. You have suddenly many things to learn on the go, alongside working on your product. And no time. Yes, no time. The scarcest resource for startup entrepreneurs is T-I-M-E (well, money comes second and is really close, of course). As an entrepreneur, you only have “priority 1 tasks”… and everything seems urgent. Scaring? But so exciting, too!

How do you get the skills you need as quickly as possible? Yeah, you can read blogs and or other documentation. Sure. You can also ask a friend who did it. OK (but he needs to have time). Or maybe can you invest a bit of time and money to boost your skills with smart mentors?

Switzerland has a good reputation in education. And has also strong entrepreneur training programs. During 8 years, venturelab provided an excellent training program, which was managed by two of the smartest guys on Swiss startup scene (Beat Schillig and Jordi Montserrat - help’ed by their killer team). The Commission for Technology and Innovation (CTI - the federal agency of Switzerland) has decided in 2012 to split the national training program into regional programs, supervised by CTI… As well as the academic entrepreneurial programs (venture ideas and venture challenge) are still managed by venturelab, the formerly called Venture Plan program has stopped in 2012. Thanks to the energy of Jordi and Beat, the VentureLeaders initiative (business trip to Boston for 20 Swiss startups) has been saved and is always alive with the help of some foundations.

I’m not a fanatic of centralization, but the choice of splitting a national program in 3 regions is, well, strange. Did venturelab gained to much power or influence on Switzerland tech startup scene? Such a national program had at least 2 amazing advantages regarding to a decentralized initiative:

training is similar throughout Switzerland (hey, wake up, we are competing globally, we don’t need adapted training for Swiss Germans or Romands);
networking. The venturelab people know each entrepreneur. And can connect you easily throughout Switzerland (OK, it’s not so big but it still helps)

Venturelab decided not to follow this political decision of splitting the training program. And even didn’t bid for the mandate. It can be hard to understand, but it isn’t: if you don’t believe in something, you have remain true to yourself and have the guts to say “NO”. Respect.

But enough of history, where can you get the skills you need as an entrepreneur, now?

Well, you have 3 consortia dividing Switzerland in 3 regions: Zürich and Eastern Switzerland (+Ticino), Mitteland (Basel to Bern) and Western Switzerland, which is called startuptraining. I don’t know personally the guys running the 2 first regions, but the ones for Western Switzerland are really great. They’ve divided their offering in two 5-days modules:

business creation: you’re in the early days of your venture, you need help to structure your venture and your strategy. The first session happened successfully in March and there will be 6 additional workshops this year. There is a few places available for May and June sessions, so don’t wait too long to register!
business development: you have a business (not only just an idea/concept/prototype) and you are selling. You need some insights on how to run and scale your company. There will be 2 sessions this year (September + November).

Trainers are experienced professionals, entrepreneurs and active investors covering all aspects of the startup journey. Even if you’ve attended some entrepreneurial courses before, it makes sense to participate. The training takes is a workshop, where you’ll get honest and constructive feedback on your project. It’s always good to have a neutral view on your project and you’d better get it before pitching everyone the wrong way… or with a ridiculous or naive idea!

Both workshops cost CHF 300.- each, but are still highly affordable for a 5-days qualitative training. CTI is sponsoring the workshop, otherwise it would cost around 10 times more.

Last conditions to attend the workshop are to have an innovative idea, technology oriented (no, you don’t need any patent, don’t worry!). And you must apply (not every application is accepted), so care about how you describe your idea and yourself!

Enjoy! And be ready to conquer the world!

It's time to plan your trip... to Berlin!

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 10:25:03 +0100

We are already only 28 days away from NEXT BERLIN 2013… which is special for me, as it was the first conference I attended as a blogger, last year!

Next is one of the leading European tech conferences, and probably the biggest in Germany. The conference’s main theme is, as you’ve already guessed with it’s name, “what’s next?”. Many technology and business trends will be discussed there. As well as there are some similarities with LiftConference (which is more about disrupting innovations), the main point of Next Berlin is: START-UP!

Theme of the 2013 edition is “Here be dragons”, a phrase used to denote dangerous or unexplored territories, like in the medieval practice (where people put sea serpents and other mythological creatures in uncharted areas of maps). The digital map for the future will be discussed, that is, topics and developments that will impact digital business in the next 36 months.

This year, the conference will be happening at Berliner Congress Center (located on famous Alexanderplatz). Great location in the heart of Berlin, but… last year location was in an old train station, which was… particularly inspiring!

The first day of the conference will welcome the main key notes (and the official party…). On the second day, you’ll be able to follow the startup competition… This year, 3 Swiss startups are needing your votes to be selected:

Biel-based hot or not for brands cooa.la
Geneva-based collaborative web platform Faveeo
Zürich-based music licensing Rightclearing

This day will be completed by workshops…

Last year, the conference happened during Berlin web week, which is unfortunately no more the case. Please let me know (in the comments) if you can recommend other startups events during this week… yeah, because if you go to Berlin, try to make the most out of it!

Next has asked again the crowd to nominate the Top100 of European digital influencers… which will be disclosed soon.

As usual… I’ve thought to people desiring to attend the conference and I’ve been able to get a 10% discount for you (just click the link, the discount is automatically calculated).

SBB.connect, an awesome idea! BUT...

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 08:16:00 +0100

Last December, the Swiss national railway company SBB/CFF launched a new mobile application to connect rail travelers. The basic idea is to let you check-in for all your trips and… BOOM: you see who is in the place or in the train (Facebook and twitter connections, random people), and you can even chat with them. As well as I didn’t put much value on at first, I’ve experienced it 3 times: 2 times, someone I’ve met years before chatted with me, once I’ve seen a friend was on board (and bumped at him randomly right after, looking for a seat.

But the main point off the app is to record your travel routes and collect points (you can even buy train tickets from the app). And become a mayor and/or benefit from vouchers at rail station shops. You can get specific badges for a specific route, a long journey or if you change train often. Or if you travel early or in regional train at peak times.

Great. Finally, this old good SBB enters the social web!

Excited by the idea, and as a heavy rail user (you know, train is like my regular office!), I downloaded the application early January and started to check-in every time I was on boarding. There is a ranking of users and I have to admit… it is quite addictive to progress in the ranking. Even if it seems quite useless!

The check-in feature works particularly well and is quite precise. I think that it’s technically pretty well executed (but, yes, you can discuss on the User Experience). The only regret there is that you cannot chose your final destination (for instance, Parc Scientifique Lausanne), but only the ones proposed by the application from where you stand (that is for me, I have first to check in a regional train, then ICN and finally metro). SBB.connect has even a geo-localized control feature, which avoids any misused check-in (if you’re not close to train station, your record cannot be validated).

Around 2 months later, I’m “proud” to be in the 800 heaviest train users in Switzerland, after travelling around 5’000 km. But I don’t know how many people use the app currently, so it doesn’t give a real perspective (all that I know is that I’ve started at rank around 7’000 in January)!

But what the sense of it? Yeah, I’ve been named Mayor of my little town… so what?

After having travelled so many kilometers… where are my vouchers? I’ve checked the website and… I’ve been really disappointed! SBB rewards with third-party vouchers by partners given certain locations or journey. OK, I’m still waiting for them… even if it’s not really what I want!

I’d like to get rewarded for kilometers I’m traveling, not for having checked so many time in a certain location. I want to receive vouchers which make sense to me, that is: related to train travel! It could be just “credits” I can collect and exchange for a wide selection of different gifts (a coffee, a discount on my next GA travelcard, a daily pass on SBB railway network, etc.).

The least I can say is that SBB.connect could do much more to inform you (in the app, push notifications!) which kind of vouchers you can get… and HOW!

Moreover, I’d be OK to give SBB an access to all my travel data, if only I could opt-in to an automatic tracking of my travels… But I’ve heard that top SBB management thinks it’s not respecting my privacy. But hey! Why do you decide for me? I’d love to give you my data, so long as I can choose and can be rewarded accordingly (and that you use these data carefully, of course)!

It’s quite strange to see that the last application update was processed mid-December… And nothing from there. How can it be from a company like SBB? Don’t you invest in the continuous improvement of the app? It looks like they had launched an app that can do many things (forget the idea of a Minimum Viable Product here!), but doesn’t need to evolve… really?

And what’s the purpose of a social network around train travels? Even if you can try to connect with this charming girl you’ve spotted (but this is a totally different idea), I don’t see the true sense of having a proper social network there. The community in a train is not driven by a common interest - just by a destination, which doesn’t really encourage me to connect with other travelers.

I think that SBB is missing the point on an important, if not the most important topic: vouchers. Are they trying to bring new customers to shops or earn some additional money from them (commission on coupons) or unlocking travel data (isn’t it the core business of SBB?)? I guess it’s the first one. But how about reconsidering the goal of the application as getting users data and rewarding this? Think it twice: “big data” is a goldmine that can help SBB reduce cost and optimize its offering (without having inspectors asking you your exact trip for their internal statistics), and help it better knowing its customer base.

It’s no too late for SBB (even if they have the means to wait for at least an additional 6 months) to improve the non-satisfying incentives they’re giving us right now. Check-in is funny, but after a certain period of time, if you don’t get additional value from it, you just stop. It’s a brilliant concept, but it will struggle with user engagement on the long run if they bask in the status quo. Do we make a bet?

UPDATE: I’ve finally received a fantastic voucher mid-April… a 10% discount in a restaurant around Zürich train station… on a beer. So, a CHF 0.35 discount. At this time, I had recorded 6’500km train travel in 3 months. What are a reward - are they kidding ;-)?

I’m bored. And no more recording my travels (application is much slower now, and takes minutes to find my travel routes when I’d like to checkin). Really sad, because I love the concept!

And so suddenly, your startup is “on the map”

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 09:00:00 +0100

This is a guest post from Christophe, CEO and co-founder of the the e-commerce startup Kireego.

A couple of weeks ago, we participated to the London WebSummit, where our little venture was nominated amongst the 25 Startup Award finalists.

The news came quite as a nice surprise in January, while we had still our hands full and heads down trying to finish some last tweaks before our Beta Release.

We were (literally) in our bunker/cave bootstrapping – ok, we admit a little bit of seed - our project since many months. Of course, we were pulling our heads up from time to time to check with our targeted audience (independent merchants) if what we were doing and our concept made sense to them.

“Kireego’s been selected for the finals at the London WebSummit!”.

Well, it seems that out of hundreds of other applicants from all over Europe, they thought our Startup/Concept/Service/Idea was worth a shot.

And so suddenly, we were on the map!

We will certainly remember that moment as an important milestone, because we realized how this could be used to shift gears and attract media attention, locally and internationally.

We had suddenly an angle to get through to journalists and bloggers.

But the challenge was, how does a startup leverage that news, with no PR nor any existing network of media contacts.

So we started the old fashion way and looked for emails on newspaper articles, through forums, with the help of some friends, or just by spending hours analyzing tweeter accounts to see who might bring a potential spark for some online exposure.

A great example is how we just boldly got in touch with a few “twitter influencers” we didn’t know before (you might know one of them if you read that blog!). Sébastien tweeted about us, got retweeted by several people which triggered interest by a couple of journalists who got in contact with us. That happened in a 6 hours period and ended up with a couple of online news article! Followed then by newspaper articles and even Radio and TV interviews.

So we must admit having milked that as much as possible… and on the other hand, we prepared for the event with the intention of meeting as many interesting people as possible.

The event itself was extremely interesting for us, and although we did not go through the last final stages of the Final, we had an amazing opportunity to sit down with some VCs or startup scouts that we would have had a real hard time getting in touch with otherwise – such as Index Venture, Redstone, Octopus, Ventech, and many more.

Time will tell how all the conversations we are having with them now will end up, but we will certainly remember this London adventure as a pivotal moment in our history:

A moment when you can proudly feel that you may be going the right direction.

Don't miss Start Summit 2013!

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 10:20:00 +0100

We often hear people complaining there are no big startup events in Switzerland (except Lift Conference, but which is not so directly startup centric).

But how many of you (especially in Western Switzerland) know Start Summit, happening next week in St.Gallen? I know it’s a bit far away from Geneva (just kidding… if you’re a startup entrepreneur and St.Gallen is the end of the world for you… please stop your journey now, you don’t have the global ambition your project deserves).

Organized by the local team of the global student association START, the event expects welcoming more than 350 startup-minded guys from all over Switzerland (and also from Germany & Austria). They’ve managed to convince startup rockstars like Klaus Hommels (investor in Spotify, Skype, Facebook, etc.), Christophe Maire (serial entrepreneur currently managing txtr - as a regular reader of startupolic, you can remember having read about him!) or Lukasz Gadowsky (co-founder of Team Europe). Impressive!

As well as HSG alumni network is known for its wide reach (and what are doing guys from HEC Lausanne in the meantime?), you can give a big credit to the organizers (stop a second and… applause!) to find and convince all these prominent entrepreneurs and investors to speak on 22-23rd of March.

Start Summit will be populated by aspiring entrepreneurs or future startup employees (students), startups who will be able to pitch their company and share their BP to potential investors… and investors, of course!

Registration fee is cheap: CHF 60.- for students, CHF 100.- for startups for a 2-days event - and you can even have a free accommodation provided by HSG students (hey guys, why not having a look on StartupStay and do it via this platform for the next events?)! And a bit more expensive for investors.

Start Summit is even organizing free bus from Zürich, Stuttgart, Karlsruhe, etc… And why not from Lausanne, Neuchâtel? But anyway, there is no need for this, as it much more simple to jump in a train to go!

Deadline to apply to Start Summit is today… you still have a few hours, so don’t miss the opportunity and apply right NOW!

Hack finance at Open Data Camp!

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 00:29:00 +0100

Data is everywhere… What about encouraging our government and businesses to put more data online, and make it easier to extract knowledge and insight… adding value to currently disconnected pieces of information? Everyone generates many new data each minute, each second… and most of them are just stored and not really valued.

Opendata.ch, the national chapter of the Open Knowledge Foundation, invites every developer, designer and innovator to its hack days on finance, procurement, budgets and material worth taking place on Friday 22nd and Saturday 23rd of March. The hack days will happen in two locations (each will welcome at least 50 participants): Bern and Sierre.

Everyone is qualified to attend the - free - event, you don’t have to be a rockstar designer or coder… you just need to have a good dose of creativity and energy to explore data and imagine (and develop!) amazing new applications… to make data more transparent and give a broader access to knowledge!

So please visit Make Opendata’s website for more information!

Moreover, it was recently announced that Geneva will host the Open Knowledge Festival on 16-18 of September 2013. More than 800 people are expected during this event, with prominent speakers (not officially disclosed by now, but I’ve seen some impressive names!) which will advocate the cause of open data. They are looking for sponsors and people who’d like to help welcome this big event in our country, so if you like the concept and goals of the Open Knowledge Foundation… don’t hesitate to contact Opendata (info@opendata.ch) to propose your help!

Don’t know any female entrepreneurs from Switzerland ? Now you do.

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 00:35:00 +0100

It’s a coincidence this week that the 2 posts published on startupolic are on women in tech… as you’ve probably seen my post on Wednesday about Lady Pitch Night happening in Paris in April. Most of us, startup founders, has already seen that tech entrepreneurship is rather populated with men. We could debate the reasons, but that could be a subject for another post.

I’ve asked some time ago charming tech blogger Roxanne Varza to write me a guest post… what she has kindly done today. Roxanne, a French girl but Silicon Valley native, is pretty engaged on the European tech startup scene and is currently serving Microsoft France as Startup Lead. She is the former Editor of TechCrunch France, co-organizes the annual Failcon Paris conference and has cofounded Girls in Tech in both Paris and London. She shares her thoughts on entrepreneurship in France/Europe on Techbaguette.com. So here’s her post!

In honor of March 8th, which is International Women’s Day, I naturally wanted to celebrate female entrepreneurs. Now, there are many top level females working in tech around the world – before writing this post I could name a few in a handful of different countries. But when it came to Switzerland, I stalled. So for anyone who – like me - didn’t know any female entrepreneurs from Switerland, now you do.

1.     Stella Viktoria Scheiffer, BringBee (Polyport)

Founded in 2011, Zurich-based BringBee (by Polyport) is a little bit like carpooling sites Blablacar or Lyft, except it lets drivers carry parcels instead of people. Not bad for anyone who would rather get a package instantly than wait for the post. You can see Stella (who has a degree in engineering) pitching the startup at Venture Leaders pitch.

2.     Eileen-Monika Schuch, Coolbrandz

In a way a bit like Betalist, Lausanne-based Coolbrandz has developed an online community that she describes as a « word of mouth » platform. In other words, it lets users try products and give provide feedback to brands. Fun fact : based on her Linkedin profile, she started out her career as a restaurant manager at the Hazlewood Castle in the UK.

3.     Annick Mokoi, Upper East Style

Geneva-based Upper East Style is founded by Annick Mokoi and Antoine Mathys. In many ways similar to France’s InstantLuxe, the platform serves as a market place for users to buy and sell high end second-hand fashion and accessory items. The 2 twenty-something cofounders have grown the company to 6 people within a year.

4.     Olga Steidl, Talkbits

Names by The Moscow Times as one of the 10 Russian entrepreneurs to watch in 2012, Olga is now based in Zurich running the show at Talkbits. The company develops a voice messaging application and service that allows users to send, receive and discover voice messages (it’s been called the Twitter for voice messages by CNET). Prior to her role as CEO of the reinvented walkie-talkie, Olga worked for a number of impressive establishments – including Russian Internet empire Yandex. If you’re a startup, you may get a chance to run into her as she’s mentored at both Seedcamp and Springboard (now Techstars).

5.     Jasmin Samsudeen, Parkit

26-year-old Jasmin has developed Parkit, an iPhone application similar to Be Park, ZenPark or Kurbkarma that lets users share and monetize their private parking spaces with others in an Airbnb type way.

There are definitely more impressive Swiss female entrepreneurs out there, so if you know of one be sure to list them in the comments.

Lady Pitch Night 2013

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 21:45:00 +0100

For the third year, Girl in Tech Paris and Orange partner to organize the only European startup competition dedicated to female entrepreneurs.

There is a few days left to apply (deadline: 10th of March) and be selected to the final event happening in Paris on 4th of April 2013.

Conditions of participations are wide open to every European (yes, Switzerland-based companies too!) startups which is (co-)founded by at least one girl. And which is less than 36 months and developing a tech product/service (that is: web, mobile, game, electronic).

It’s not clear to me what you can win at the competition, but the 5 selected startups (on 60 applications last year) will be offered accommodation & the flight to Paris by Orange. Last year, for instance, the winner has been granted a ticket to the tech conference LeWeb (which, as you probably know, is quite expensive). And there are probably many other useful “goodies” that will be granted to the 5 selected startups (hey, Roxanne, will Microsoft offers some Windows Phones?).

If you don’t want to pitch yourself, but desire to attend this event, you can register now. No discount, no free ticket to win… it’s simply free!

So, who are the Swiss girls in tech who will rock the event on 4th of April?

Eileen (coolbrands), Stella (BringBee), Annick (UpperEastStyle), Olga (talkbits), Jasmeen (parkit)… who else? There are probably many more that I’m forgetting or whom I don’t know, so please share the info with every girl in tech!

London - some learnings

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 01:45:47 +0100

London is the older European startup hub that everybody is talking about, even if Berlin, Dublin and Stockholm are gaining a good reputation to launch businesses.

As well I’ve heard and read a lot about London, I’ve never been there (except half a day as I was in language school in Brighton!) and I’ve seized the opportunity of London Web Summit (happening today) to fly here.

I’ve managed to organize some meetings and discovered a bit the city following them. Many people have heard about the Google Campus, but I had never seen how it was looking. Here how the entrance look like:

Impressive? Nope. Need to be impressive and extremely modern (as our technology parks in Switzerland we are so proud of)? Nope.

Once you enter the building, you get a better sense of where you are when you’re looking to this:

I think there is no need to present the 2 first ones. The third one is kind of a coworking space. I had never heard about Centralworking and decided to go downstairs to find out what it is. I was directly stunned by how many people were in this restaurant/cafeteria in the middle of an afternoon:

Looks like a space for students, right? Centralworking is in matter of fact a free coworking space, where you can seat and work with a really good internet connection. I’ve heard that it was very recent and 6 months ago, it was less (over)crowded. And that you don’t find many developers / designers there anymore, but mostly business/visionary/product guys.

What also impressed me in visiting the Google Campus website is that there is almost everyday (or 2 or 3 times a day) workshops, keynotes, etc. And not from government organizations trying to tell how good they are.

The Campus is kind of unique and there are not many similar places, if any, at least in Europe.

And what’s about the price to get a desk there? It’s affordable, moreover for a place in the Center of London. GBP 275.- a month for regular workers. And GBP 375.- a year for occasional Campus workers, which are subject to a “fair use” (no fixed time like once a week, etc.). Interesting concept.

I’ve also seen that most restaurants let people have a free usage of their WiFi connections. What is too rare in Switzerland (even Starbucks make it too complicate – 15-30 minutes surf “offered” by the coffee chain… so generous, thanks) and what need to change once soon.

As well as there are many, many advantages to be established in London for a tech startup (presence of many investors, no talent crunch, big enough local market, many big potential customers, things move quickly

etc.), there are also some dark sides, as for instance:

Software engineer salaries are extremely high, that is at least GBP 60k a year, even for purely juniors ones. Current conversion rate is 1 GBP = 1.5 CHF, so it doesn’t look so different from what were experiencing in Switzerland. But remember than around 2 years ago, conversion rate was CHF 2.3 = 1 GBP. Furthermore, I’ve learnt that most engineering teams of London-based startups are not local: they are kind of partnerships in Latvia or Serbia for engineering.
A Swiss entrepreneur based since 15 years in London also told me that he thinks there is kind of a startup bubble. Everyone comes with an idea. And many are just crappy ones.
Transport costs are extremely expensive. It will cost you about the same as a year with the Swiss General Pass, and for London only.

Please write your comments and share your knowledge of London startup scene. Swiss entrepreneurs need to know how it works in London!