End of January… it is almost late to share my 2015 wrap-up. But still time. I was planning to do it until mid of this month, but you know how life is: days have only 24 hours! You may have seen that startupolic.com turned 4 on January 12th. Already 4 years! It has gone so quickly and it is such a long time ago in the same time. I have lived so many amazing (and less amazing, true!) experiences: what I can say is that I don’t regret at all to be a real entrepreneur (and not “simply” an advisor) and a blogger! I had defined that 2015 would be the year of “monetization” for me. It was. Not that I’ve made any tremendous exit (no exit at all, by now). But my partners and I have been able to …
8 promising startups to meet on November 9th
For the 6th time, I’m organizing the SICTIC Investor Day is taking place in Lausanne. SICTIC Investor Day is a pitching competition where 8 startups have 90 seconds to pitch their project (with just one slide). The audience then selects the 4 finalists, who will have the opportunity to pitch in an extended way (7minutes). The jury comprised of Alexandre Peyraud (aleCent), Patrick Barbey (Innovaud) and Thomas Dübendorfer (SwissICT Investor Club) has selected the 8 startups among a record number of applications (31!). Here they are! Teleport Ninja: New interaction paradigm in video, used for immersive virtual tours Technis: Creating the future of sports through the digitalisation of its physical infrastructures. ShoeSize.Me: Plug-In solution for online shops to recommend the right shoe size to shoppers. ROVENSO : Agile robots for nuclear decommissioning and emergency response Prevue Medical: Easy 3D Printing Service …
Pitch me (if you can!) – The Startupolic Office Hours
If you’re new to the startup world, you may not have heard about the concept of office hours. And even if you’re in the startup world for a long time, especially not in the US or UK, you may also not have heard about it! Coming from the US and democratized by the well-known accelerator Y Combinator, the office hours are time when you can book anybody without her accepting before. Meaning: you open your agenda and let anyone who want to meet you to book a slot. Without any filtering. Yes, it mays sound crazy. Because everyone has a busy agenda and you do not want to meet anybody. To survive with the many meeting requests you are receiving, you do your best to only meet relevant people. Some Venture Capitalists like the well-known Brad Feld or Fred Wilson …
Discover the Swiss Startup National Team 2015
They are 20. They are entrepreneurs. They are building and growing their startup from Switzerland. They are the Venture Leaders 2015! Each year since 2004, venturelab is organizing a 10-days business development trip in Boston (and New York since 2014) for 20 selected entrepreneurs. I’ve been following the different Swiss Startup National Teams since 2008 and I even had the chance to be a Venture Leader in 2014 (read my report here). These 20 entrepreneurs will have an intensive training at Babson College, as well as meetings with US investors and potential partners. They will get a sense of the US mentality (which is, trust me, really different from the typical Swiss one) and have the opportunity to network at scale! This year, 2 women made it in the team (last year, we only had one unique female entrepreneur, Bori). …
The new startupolic.com – learnings, events, etc.
These past weeks, I’ve been very quiet on blogging, as I was focused on redesigning startupolic.com… Today is the day that startupolic is changing its design! Your reading experience should be better and you’ll be able to dive into my archives via categories. If you have topics that you would like me to write about, don’t hesitate to tell me! And if you feel that you have experiences or knowledge worth sharing (I am sure you have!), don’t be shy. Contact me and we will discuss it. I’m very open to “guest blogging”! Lastly, I have added a topic, that I hope you will enjoy: my selection of startup events. It is not a simple selection of events. I am doing my best to negotiate discounts for you, so you can spare some cash if you’d like to attend these …
Happy 2015!
End of 2014, I’ve finally succeeded in really taking a break… Not that I’ve not checked my emails or responded to some urgent inquiries (very rare, fortunately). It’s normal I think, you cannot completely disconnect as an entrepreneur. By the way, I remember the quote of Patrick Delarive, a successful real estate entrepreneur based in Lausanne: “The best gift you could make an entrepreneur is to switch off for a while”. But everybody needs a break. Otherwise, you’ll start to think you’re super human (what we all think we are), what you are obviously not. And it can be a real danger, for your health and also for your startup. So, I definitely hope that you’ve taken a bit of time to relax, to spend time with family and friends, and to party of course! The best athletes know that …
Rewarding time
December traditionally looks like the time to offer presents to your loved ones. Or the time to offer your employees a company dinner. In Switzerland, this business (yearly company dinners) is particularly big. And it is often excessive, at least in the watch-making industry where I’ve heard that companies sometimes spent as much as CHF 300.- per employee only for the decoration… Kind of obscene? Yup… At least, that provide a good business for caterers and decorators (rather than cash staying in the bank)! Do you need to compete with this as a startup? No. Or if your employees expect something similar, you probably have hired the wrong ones (it was probably frequent before the internet bubble in 2001, but no more now). Then, how can you be attractive as a startup with rewards? First, a friendly company dinner is …
Win a free ticket to WebSummit 2014!
Really? Yes… Web Summit is 2 weeks ahead and you may have forgotten to register… Web Summit and startupolic.com partner to offer one free ticket to the conference! Share this post on social media with the hasthag #startupolic, and register here to win a free ticket to the biggest tech conference in the world! Deadline: Friday 24th of October, 7pm (CET)