Time to apply for startup competitions is back! OK, not all use the same application form (check my post on the topic: “Startup competitions, don’t waste entrepreneurs’ time“), unfortunately… but anyway. These competitions are worth the time. Here are 2 startup acceleration program and 3 pitching competitons you should consider applying for: Pioneers Challenge, Vienna (deadline: April 3rd): Pioneers Festival will take place on May 28-29th this year (therefore no more colliding with WebSummit!). Be one of the top50 startups selected and compete to win EUR 100k in pre-seed investment. APPLY HERE! SICTIC Investor Day Lausanne (deadline: April 12th): the 20th SICTIC Investor Day will take place in Lausanne on May 11th, at Debiopharm. 8 selected startups will pitch the audience (90 seconds, 1 slide) and then the audience will vote for the 4 startups that can make a longer …
Discover the Swiss Startup National Team 2015
They are 20. They are entrepreneurs. They are building and growing their startup from Switzerland. They are the Venture Leaders 2015! Each year since 2004, venturelab is organizing a 10-days business development trip in Boston (and New York since 2014) for 20 selected entrepreneurs. I’ve been following the different Swiss Startup National Teams since 2008 and I even had the chance to be a Venture Leader in 2014 (read my report here). These 20 entrepreneurs will have an intensive training at Babson College, as well as meetings with US investors and potential partners. They will get a sense of the US mentality (which is, trust me, really different from the typical Swiss one) and have the opportunity to network at scale! This year, 2 women made it in the team (last year, we only had one unique female entrepreneur, Bori). …
The 7 startups of Startup Weekend Biel/Bienne
As you may know, I was kind of the driving force behind the first edition of Startup Weekend Biel/Bienne. Many people were doubting that we can even do such an event in a small city like Biel/Bienne, moreover without beeing on a student campus. But it was a success! We had 30 highly motivated and dynamic people. And a great mix between the young 20 something designer and the 60 years old engineer with patented projects. Unfortunately, we just had 6 women among participants (but 2 women among the 5 coaches), as too often in the tech, startup world. But next year we will do better on this point… I already have a plan ;-)! 15 projects were pitched on Friday night (but 8-10 other projects were not pitched), which is an great ratio compared to other Startup Weekend editions. …
The Waking Up of FinTech in Switzerland
Switzerland is known internationally for its beautiful landscape, its quality of life and its multiculturalism (or it should be better known for this last point). On an economical side, Switzerland is known for its watches, machines, chocolate, pharmaceutical companies and its banking industry. This very last sector has been attacked by many countries (in order of virulence by USA, France and Germany) in the past years. Banks had a “banking secrecy” law in Switzerland, which was unique and for which Swiss banks were attacked, as rich people had a way to evade from taxes in their own country. Of course, Swiss banks were not responsible for this… except the fact that many banks were encouraging this behavior, even advising how to best avoid taxes. The financial crisis of 2008 and some massive lawsuits (seeing the biggest Swiss banks pay huge …
Learnings from emerging markets
Seedstars, a Geneva-based organization co-founded by Pierre-Alain Masson, Michael Weber and Adrien de Loës, aims to build and to grow companies. Seedstars World is one of their project, powered by Alisée de Tonnac, one of the few « women in tech » in Switzerland. Alizée and her team are travelling around the emerging world to discover the best startup of each country/city. They hold a local competition in 20 cities in 2013, 36 in 2014 and 2015 will see Seedstars World coming in 50+ cities. Winner of each competition is then invited to the final event (with a bootcamp), which was hold in Geneva early February (I’ve written about the 36 startup finalists here). The winner scores $500k in funding and all entrepreneurs get global exposure, as well as an international network of entrepreneurs (that’s one of the fringe benefit of the …
The new startupolic.com – learnings, events, etc.
These past weeks, I’ve been very quiet on blogging, as I was focused on redesigning startupolic.com… Today is the day that startupolic is changing its design! Your reading experience should be better and you’ll be able to dive into my archives via categories. If you have topics that you would like me to write about, don’t hesitate to tell me! And if you feel that you have experiences or knowledge worth sharing (I am sure you have!), don’t be shy. Contact me and we will discuss it. I’m very open to “guest blogging”! Lastly, I have added a topic, that I hope you will enjoy: my selection of startup events. It is not a simple selection of events. I am doing my best to negotiate discounts for you, so you can spare some cash if you’d like to attend these …
Startup Weekend Biel/Bienne – March 20-22nd!
Some months ago, I’ve written that things are moving in Biel/Bienne and that the city is back on the Swiss Startup map. After successfully holding a bunch of monthly events, we are moving to the next step: organizing the first Startup Weekend Biel/Bienne on March 20-22nd! (disclosure: I’m the driving force behind it!). As crazy as it sounds, Biel/Bienne didn’t hosted any of such events so far… even if there are so much creativity in this city. Now it will finally happen! For those who are not – yet – familiar with the concept: from Friday to Sunday night, you’ll have the opportunity to work on an innovative idea in small teams composed of other dynamic people. How does it work? You pitch your idea/project on Friday evening, get some investors (all participants get $$$ to invest in their preferred …
Discover the 10 (+26) startups from Seedstars World Competiton
This Wednesday, it wasthe grand final of Seedstars World. Seedstars World is a global competition todiscover promising startups from emerging countries and gathered 36 (!)startups here in Geneva. These startups were the winner of their national Seedstars competition and all had a booth at Lift Conference. 10 of them were selected by the jury to pitch to the whole Lift audience. Here they are: 6 degrees (Singapore) is a connected, self-updatingphonebook that helps you search your friends’ networks, get introductions to new people, shops & businesses. Busportal (Lima, Peru) is a online tool helping customers to find, compare and buy bus tickets in Latin America in a efficient way. Krowdpop (Seoul, South Korea) is the world’s first concert crowd funding platform dedicated to the increasingly popular K-pop music. OkHi (Nairobi, Kenya) is solving the problem of 4 Billion people who …