Hot or not: top 10 European’s startup capitals. And Switzerland?

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Wired UK published last Friday its selection of the 10 hottest startup capitals in Europe. London, Berlin, Paris and Stockholm are on the map, of course. Tel Aviv, Amsterdam and Barcelona are also there. More surprising (no, it’s not really a surprise for me) are Moscow, Helsinki and Istanbul in the top 10. Yes, Moscow is a startup capital, with a large home market (France + Germany populations cumulated), as does Istanbul (almost German population). Helsinki is probably benefiting from Nokia’s success (even if it is fading, it has generated many, many spin-offs) and Rovio’s. Where is Switzerland in this ranking? Nowhere. Scandalous or just ignorance? Or just reality? Startups in Switzerland are spread country wide, with hottest spots in Zürich and Lausanne (where the 2 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology are based). No one is big enough to really be compared to …

What are you doing end of October?

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As Summer is quietly over, the season of startup conferences is starting again. Of course, as an entrepreneur, you cannot go to every conference and you have to select carefully where you would like to invest your time. Because as well as you can do (extremely) interesting contacts for the future of your business, most of the time, you don’t get any direct return on investment at startup conferences (of course, it’s completely different when you are attending an industry conference directly related to your core business). And nobody is preparing this urgent customer proposal or is developing your product when you’re “off* to conferences. You should know that time spent at conferences is a mid-/long-term investment. I’m not telling startup conferences are a waste of time. NOT AT ALL! But you have to select carefully… As you’ve read 2 weeks …

Seize the opportunity to meet transmedia rockstars!

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End of September (27-28-29), Lausanne will welcome a unique event gathering the digital, cultural and creative industry from Switzerland… and beyond. X Media Lab organizes an event on Transmedia, which is, according to superstar Jeff Gomez (transmedia producer for Avatar, Pirates of the Caribbean, Halo, Men in Black III, Hotwheels, Transformers) “the vanguard process of conveying messages, themes or storylines to a mass audience through the artful and well-planned use of multiple media platforms and brand extension that creates intense audience loyalty and long-term engagement, enriches the value of creative content and generates multiple revenue streams.” Transmedia is one of the hottest topic in the digital culture, screen, media and entertainment industries right now. The first day is a conference where we will be able to learn a lot about transmedia, its techniques and its tools. And it’s a unique …

Showcase your startup – demonstrate #Swisspower!

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Swiss founders often look at international startup hubs like Silicon Valley or New York, or London and Berlin in Europe. And Paris if you’re looking to penetrate the French market or it’s LeWeb’s time! But who think that there are a lot of things going on in Lyon? Lyon area is the 2nd biggest French urban area with around 3.2M inhabitants. On 1st and 2nd  October, the city will welcome for the first time a big tech conference called Blend Web Mix. More than 900 entrepreneurs, designers, investors and marketers will gather to listen 80 speakers. Successful and famous (well, most Swiss founders probably don’t know their name I guess) entrepreneurs like Renaud Visage (cofounder & CTO of Eventbrite), Thibaud Elzière (serial entrepreneur, notably Fotolia), Olivier Mathiot (cofounder of Price Minister) and many more will share their experience. Roxanne Varza (already known on startupolic – …

Meet 50 startups in Lausanne!

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On 11th October 2013, around 50 startups will be present themselves to students at FORUM EPFL (a recruiting fair organized by a dynamic student organization). Idea is to startups recruit their next employees and show students that startups are a viable career path. On October 10th, a special keynote will take place (with me speaking about “Why to start-up”) and with a successful serial entrepreneur sharing his startup stories until now. So it will definitely be a great time to network and meet the western SWitzerland startup scene… But here are the startups you’ll be meeting at Startup Day! Medtech / Biotech / Pharmaceutics MIMETISE MINDMAZE QLOUDLAB SAV-IOL SOPHIA GENETICS BIOGNOSYS NANOLIVE Prexton Therapeutics Drugdesigntech Energy & electronics CELEROTON CLEANFIZZ LENR CARS Neurobat (energy / electronics) Information & Communication technologies CASHSENTINEL Agile Gibbon Informatique Service at home ATRACSYS CITIVIZ COTERIES DACADOO …

De Vigier Award ceremony, with Nick Hayek!

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Every year in June, the De Vigier foundation organizes its award ceremony in Solothurn. This foundation was created by the famous William A. de Vigier to support young entrepreneurs on their way to success. This edition was the last year as president of Moritz Suter (you know, the business man who founded Crossair). To celebrate the end of his engagement by De Vigier foundation, he successfully convinced Nick Hayek – the “king of watches” – to do a little presentation. For people who don’t know him, he’s the CEO of watchmaking giant Swatch Group. Normally, Nick Hayek never does public presentations. You know, this passionate entrepreneur doesn’t want to show off. But he finally accepted to do a short pitch for Moritz, but also for the region (Swatch Group employs thousands people in the area). I was really pleased to be invited again …

21 ICT startups to meet on June, 18th

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Lausanne is pretty well known for its Swiss Federal Institute for Technology (EPFL). And more and more for its tech startups, which find a welcoming home at Scientific Park. There are also big names of the industry to find there (Samsung, Nokia, Logitech, to name a few). On June, 18th, Lausanne will welcome for the second time a one day-event gathering selected tech startups from the Alpine region (from southern France to South Germany) and investors from around the world. The Alpine Venture Forum (formerly known as the Swiss Venture Forum) will happen at Starling Hotel, a few meter away from Lake Geneva (in matter of fact: the official name of the lake is “Lac Léman”). 49 startups from Life Sciences, to clean tech and Information technology, will present throughout the day. Here are the 20 software startups: 3BaysOver: B2B …

Where to find new startup talents?

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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 the 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 …