This week, the Swiss startup newsportal startupticker and Swiss Private Equity & Corporate Finance Association (SECA) published their report on Venture Capital in Switzerland. You can download it here. The total Venture Capital raised in Switzerland in 2014 (or at least, the fundraising deals that were published) reached CHF 457M, 10% more than in 2013. A big, huge success? Sounds so, but… there are a lot of learnings here, confirming what a lot of startup entrepreneurs are experiencing on the ground: The 5 biggest rounds sum up to CHF 205M. Almost half of the total amount. Exclusively in Biotech. The 2 biggest, Biocartis (78M) and NovImmune (60M) are responsible of 30% of the total Venture Capital raised… 78% of this total amount is going in Life Sciences (Biotech and Medtech). Only 19% funds flow to Information & Communication Technologies (what …
Get Free Funding and Mentoring: the Hello Tomorrow Challenge
The Hello Tomorrow Challenge is back! Launched in 2014, this challenge is a unique opportunity for European early stage startups to win the Grand Prize of EUR 100’000.-, and for 5 other startups to collect a EUR 15’000.- prize. And the great news is that the 30 finalists will get free mentoring during 3 months by prominent tech figures! Founded by French entrepreneurs Xavier Duportet and Arnaud De La Tour in 2011, Hello Tomorrow is a non-profit organization aiming at creating bridges between scientists, investors and entrepreneurs in all major technological fields. The challenge is open to anyone trying to solve major problems with technology in the following categories: Foods & Agriculture Materials & Manufacturing Transport & Mobility Healthcare Energy & Environment Information technologies The conditions to apply are pretty simple: Your startup has to be less than 2 years …
Share this post and win a FREE ticket to Lift Conference 2015!
Beginning of the year rhythms with The Lift Conference in Switzerland. 2015 is already the 10th edition of this international conference, where 1’000 people from around the globe gather in Geneva to experiment innovations, learn about new business models and get inspiration. The 3-day conference is a lot about connecting with people, learning new things and being creative (you’ll leave the conference with a plenty of ideas!). This year, there are also a lot more about startups. Bilan will disclose its selection of “50 Swiss startups in which to invest in 2015” on Wednesday morning. In the afternoon, the 36 finalists of Seedstars World competition will pitch their startups to a jury a top entrepreneurs and investors, as well as to the public. These 36 startups all come from emerging markets (from Indonesia to Mexico, from Santiago de Chile to …
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 …
What Is the Difference Between Marketing and Growth Hacking?
(Guest post written by Vincent Cassar) Many people do marketing for startups, and like most of them the term ‘growth hacker’ is a term I both love and loathe. Of course the words ‘growth hacker’ has given startup marketers the ability to separate themselves from their brothers in Corporate America, however those two words still bother me a lot. Anyway, it looks like the term is here to stay, so we should now decipher what this term ‘growth hacking’ really means. Once we understand it, then we can use it to our advantage. So, What Is the Difference Between These Two Terms? A growth hacker is basically a marketer, but a marketer with different tools to work with and a different set of challenges to face. There are some major differences between a startup and big business: A startup is …
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 …
How to leverage humor to build and develop a business?
Next Tuesday (2nd of December), the second Swiss Tech Talk Biel/Bienne, will take place at INNOCAMPUS. Pascal Meyer, atypical, funny founder and “Loutre-in-Chief” of successful e-commerce platform QoQa.ch, will tell us about his journey. Pascal will notably explain us how he has developed his concept, leveraging humor and fun things, what he learnt from it, his challenges… and how you can transform a crazy idea into a business generating more than CHF 35M of yearly turnover, without losing his soul! REGISTER TO Swiss Tech Talk with Pascal Meyer Location: INNOCAMPUS AG, Rue d’Aarberg 5, 2560 Nidau (Biel/Bienne) Start at: 19h00 Language: French Dress code: NO DRESS CODE! Event costs CHF 25.- (but is free for members of Swiss Tech Association). See you on Tuesday!
“Am I Wrong?” A question that you probably ask yourself (more or less often) as an entrepreneur!
Some entrepreneurs will tell you that they never have any doubts on what they are doing. In my humble opinion, if you never question yourself, you may be over-confident or living outside of the reality. I’m not telling that you should express your doubts publicly, not at all. Startup life is made of so many “downs” (fewer “ups”, but make you forget the downs!) that you have to question yourself. Not too much, otherwise it’s paralyzing and you can’t move forward. Just enough to learn from the downs and prepare yourself to rebounce to the next UP! Except if you have been outside of the civilization this year (travelling in Antarctica for instance), you have probably heard the song from Nico & Vinz “Am I Wrong”. Not only it’s great, addictive music (I personally love it), but moreover, the …