The EPFL (Swiss Federal Institute for Technology) is one of the best engineering school in the world. In the last 10 years, I’ve been seing the massive change happening on the entrepreneurial/startup ecosystem there. The EPFL Innovation Park (initially known as the Parc Scientifique, rebranded back in 2010 or so) has expanded massively, from 3 buildings to 10… The entrepreneurial and events activity has also increased massively. For me, EPFL Innovation Park is the uncontested heart of the tech startup scene in Western Switzerland (even if there are plenty other technology parks doing a great job). In 2013, EPFL Innovation Park opened a coworking space for early stage startups: La Forge. Access to it is selective and you need to apply to get in. However, you get a regular coaching by experienced entrepreneurs and coaches, from EPFL Innovation Park and …
The 50 Best-Funded Startups in Switzerland in One Map (and What It Means For The Startup Ecosystem)
Back in 2012 as I’ve launched startupolic.com, I remember that almost nobody was blogging on the Swiss startup scene. Or most were abandoning the effort after a few posts. Fortunately, this has changed! Today I’m pleased to publish a guest post by Tatjana de Kerros-Budkov, who is currently the Startup Builder at Ricolab Innovation Lab (Ricola), Mentor, and 2x entrepreneur- with one exit under her belt- and has helped startups raise over $10M in the last 12 months. Previously, she was an entrepreneurship & innovation Advisor to the Saudi government, collaborated with 500 Startups KSA and roamed the Arabian desert building entrepreneurship & VC tech ecosystems. Now living in Zurich- she’s passionate about showcasing Swiss tech startups- bridging ties with international VCs. This post was initially published here. Altogether, they’ve raised over $1.4 billion since 2015. They’re growing at an …
16 tourism startups to discover at World Tourism Forum 17
Each year beginning of May, more than 500 CEOs, Ministers and investors from the tourism industry meet in Luzern for the World Tourism Forum. The Forum aims in gathering global leaders of the travel, tourism and hospitality industries to learn about the new development and brainstorm on how to adapt to the changes happening. And to meet startups ! This year, World Tourism Forum is organizing a Startup Innovation Camp (coaching day with presentation to the jury) the day before the forum. Among 170+ applications coming from all over the world (more than 50 countries), 16 finalists were selected, segmented in 4 categories : Impact, Transaction, Destination and Hospitality. The finalists come from Europe (Cyprus, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, the UK), Asia (India, Sri Lanka) and the USA. They were selected by a jury leaded by well-known Swiss …
Why Your Daughter Probably Won’t Be a Startup Founder in Switzerland
This is a guest post by Lea von Bidder, co-founder and President of Ava Science, a Swiss startup based in Switzerland and California. Lea published this post originally on her Linkedin profile on Thursday 8th of March, the Women Day, and I thought this kind of excellent content should be spread as widely as possible… Do not hesitate to comment and to contribute with your opinion or ideas on how to change the problem Lea is describing! As a female founder from Switzerland I am constantly prompted with questions about “How it feels to be a female founder”. The truth is, it feels a little lonely. At investor events, I am often the only woman in the room. But it’s hard to reconcile this feeling when I read statistics like the one StartupTicker released on the Global Startup Monitor: Switzerland has an equal proportion …
5 Years of Blogging
January 2012. January 2017. Startupolic.com just turned 5 years old. It’s incredible how fast time is running out ! It’s time for celebration! Why I started blogging In one of my previous life, I used to be a startup coach and business developer for a technology park, lost in Northwestern Switzerland (in canton of Jura). My mission was to discover promising startups and try to attract them there, with a local economic development mission: bring and create high qualified jobs there. I was travelling across Switzerland, attending almost every startup event I could (years ago, it was still manageable !), trying to bring as much value as I could. With the underlying goal of convincing entrepreneurs to relocate to Jura (which was not a sinecure, I have to admit – but it worked out to some extend). I was meeting many people of the …
My Startup Events Selection for October
This year has been completely crazy so far. And even more since August, as we’ve organized 2 Demo Days @Fintech FUSION and are preparing us intensively for the new batch of startups, entering the acceleration program on Wednesday (more information to come on FUSION blog). As I’m used to say, I’m in a “Grand Bleu” mode (that means, “Deep Dive holding my Breath”). That is, that I have not enough time to do all what I’d like to (like blogging ways more!). But do not worry, I have plenty of blog post ideas in mind… But before surfacing again, here are 3 startups events you may (should) attending in October 2016 if you are in Switzerland. Startup Weekend Fintech, Geneva, October 7-9th For the first time ever in Western Switzerland, a Startup Weekend dedicated to fintech will take place this weekend in …
5 Startup Events to Attend in September
Summer is slowly coming to an end and it’s time for startup events to pop up everywhere again… The less I can say is that there are many, many events happening everywhere in Europe. It’s absolutely amazing to see the development and growth of the European and Swiss startup scene over the last 8 years. Now, even in Switzerland (which is still not seen as a relevant startup hotspot), you could attend an interesting event almost every day. Of course, that’s a big trap for first time entrepreneurs (and for everybody trying to grow a startup). You have to select carefully what is truly relevant for your startup, where you’ll be meeting either potential investors or customers (hum… you mostly do not find your customers at startup events!). Or where you’ll be learning a lot. Hereafter, I’ll present you a …
Discover the « Startup Nation »
Regular readers of this blog know that I’m a big fan of building bridges… For instance, between Swiss startup scene and the most advanced European startups hubs like London or Berlin. Even after the Brexit dramatic vote (for the London startup scene), I still believe that Swiss startups should still think about going UK. But we will see what happens in the coming weeks (at best) or months/years, which would be the worst thing ever: uncertainty is always bad for business! As an entrepreneur, you have already ways too much uncertainty without caring about uncertainty in regulation and international trade agreements. For startups wanting to conquer the world, the most important thing is to be able to scale as efficiently as possible. And hiring the talents they need. For this, Switzerland is not bad… regulatory changes are very slow and …