There are a lot of startup conferences happening. From Next Berlin to Web Summit, from LeWeb to Pioneers Festival, you could spend almost all of your time at conferences. How do select the ones to attend as an entrepreneur? It’s hard, really hard. And I’d argue that if you’re an entrepreneur who want to make real business, you’d better go to conferences related to your industry, where you can find customers. But you still have to attend startup conferences to meet potential investors and partners. Most events are open to anyone, but a few are invitation-only, like DLD Conference and NOAH Conference. I’ve attended the former earlier this year (which was pretty good) and NOAH Conference is happening next week in London (13-14th of November). Having a look on the program and the list of attendees, it really seems to …
Welcome to the “Grand Bazaar” of startups
For the second year, I’m attending Dublin Web Summit these days (I’ve written about it last year: Ireland – a European Startup Eldorado?). The event, which already was the biggest in Europe with around 4’000 attendees for 2 days, has now more than doubled in size with more than 10’000 people among the smartest minds in the world. I was already impressed by the high number (250) of startups presenting last year. Now, the startup village has more than tripled (900+ startups?). It’s a great opportunity to go out of the garage and meet people. But I don’t know how efficient it will be for startups to meet guys. Sure, there are speed networking meetings which are organized. But with the biggest size, you’re competing for attention with a lot more startups. Yes, that’s like to get awareness and attract …
Meet 8 promising startups from Switzerland!
Swiss startup scene is lively, even if you don’t read a lot on international blogs. Maybe because a lot of startups bootstrap a long way before possibly raising a ton of cash (you know, that’s often what interest big startup blogs – a financing round is often seen as a success, but I’d argue that’s only an often necessary milestone to grow faster and which may lead to success). But the point is that there are a lot of entrepreneurs out there building interesting tech startups. On November 4th, 8 of them will have an opportunity to present their concept! I’m organizing the 2nd ICT Investors Day in Western Switzerland, at Chambre Vaudoise de Commerce et d’Industrie in Lausanne, at 17:00. After a presentation of the innovation promotion agency Innovaud, the following 8 startups (which were selected by our jury among 23 applying startups) will …
Why to start up?
Last Thursday, I was invited to give a presentation about “why to start up?” to an audience of around 100 students from Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL). It was a great opportunity to try to share my passion for startups and entrepreneurship… I hope I’ve succeeded to motivate these young graduates to consider startups as a viable career option (of course, all these guys and gals were already interested by entrepreneurship – otherwise, they wouldn’t have been there!). There were also some entrepreneurs in the room, who told me that the presentation was really complete (honored by such a feedback!). Except that I’ve forgotten to talk about one important point required to start up. The network component (THX to Maximilian for this comment!). For a networker as I am… what a shame ;-)! Or maybe it’s because …
Hot or not: top 10 European’s startup capitals. And Switzerland?
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?
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!
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!
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 – …