It’s soon time to Summer holidays. 6 weeks from now and most people will be in vacation. Yes, in Switzerland, between mid-July and mid-August, it’s extremely hard to reach people, have answers, well, make business. If you read this blog, odds are high you’re in a startup business. And there is a common (but so wrong) belief that entrepreneur should never stop working hard. Sure, you can have the feeling that if you take some free time, your business will be hurt hard, or even in danger. Yes, it can be true. But everyone, even the craziest and most resistant hardworkers, needs a bit of downtime. Or different time… If you’ve not planned anything and were planning to continue hardworking, you may consider SunnyStartup, a 15 days bootcamp in Marrakech (!) to boost your project. Or have new ideas. Or simply …
21 ICT startups to meet on June, 18th
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 …
10 awards to fund your early stage idea
So you have an idea? And you’ve not yet incorporated your company? And you only rely on your own savings. You need some money to transform your idea on paper into a product. Where do you get money? Most of the time, you won’t find any financing with just a “paper prototype”… Except if you’ve already built successful startups who made a lot of money to your previous investors. Don’t dream, you’re not there yet! There are plenty of awards in Switzerland, but to have a chance to win, you need to be already running your business with a bit of success. Yes. But there are also a few other awards which specifically target non-incorporated projects. Here there are! Coaching organization Genilem and Yverdon-based high-school Heig-VD partnered to launch a business plan competition: prize money (in cash): CHF 20’000.00 additional …
The Swiss Ice Hockey national team – a role model
If you are a fan of ice hockey (as I am), you may have lived two amazing weeks watching and following the Swiss national team. Not being ranked in the top 8 of ice hockey nations, qualifying itself to quarter final would have already been considered as a success. But that was before… before the tournament which happened in Sweden. Which was magic! Switzerland won every game, beating top ice hockey nations like Sweden, Canada and Czech Republic (twice, with quarto final). And then, USA in semi-final. Unfortunately, Switzerland lost the final against the host country, Sweden (BTW: congratulations to the Swedish team). It’s an authentic exploit for Switzerland and will remain in mind of everyone during years… or not. Because what we have been able to observe is a deep mentality change. Some years ago, everyone would have been …
Where to find new startup talents?
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 …
A personal interview (in French)
Last week at Festival of Media Global 2013 in Montreux, I was introduced to Stan Pic, known as “The interviewer”. Stan is a friendly guy, passionate about Public Relations video blogger and former journalist. He is blogging (in French) about what’s happening in Western Switzerland and sharing his thoughts about social media, entrepreneurship, etc. He’s a passionate guy with a extrem talent to make people comfortable… So I’ve easily given away: I gave him a video interview (in French). Normally, Stan records 5-minutes interview… but you know, “I couldn’t stop talking” and he didn’t interrupt me! It was a funny experience (and I love having fun!) and I thought I could share it with you – hope you will appreciate it. And otherwise… I will be back soon with some non-personal stuff. (Source: http://www.youtube.com/)
10 questions to the founder of the Festival of Media’s Hot Company of the Year… 2012!
Last week, the Festival of Media Global 2013 happened in Montreux. I was fortunate enough to be invited as an official blogger (again!) and I had the chance to interview Mr. Risicato, winner of the startup competition M.A.P. (but in 2012) with his startup VideoHub. Many thanks to Anthony to answer my few questions. Here they are! Could you introduce yourself with a few words about your career so far? Why did you start Videohub, what was the Eureka moment (if any)? I’ve been a digital native for 18 years, working at the intersection of marketing and technology. I was fortunate to work at DoubleClick (now part of Google) starting in 1998, just as the digital economy began to take off. That experience, of bringing Brands to Technology, got me “hooked” on this whole Internet fad… My interest in VideoHub was …
Discover 8 web & mobile startups on 13th of May!
On Monday 13th May, the first ICT Investors Day in Romandie will take place. Kindly hosted by Debiopharm Group, the event will start at 17:00 (door opening at 16:30). Event is open to anyone interested by startups… but especially if you are investing in startups! You can register until 11th of May, so hurry up to secure your seat now! 8 web and mobile startups from Western Switzerland have just been published. The selection was hard, as 16 high quality startup have applied. The 3 main criteria applied for this event were reasonable chance to raise money; team is more or less complete; still looking for a first financing round. As always, criteria are highly subjective and the non-selected startups should no be worried: it doesn’t mean they are not good! And there will be new events to apply. Applications for an …