For the sixth time in a row, the student association FORUM EPFL is organizing a special day dedicated to startups on October 8th 2014, in Lausanne.
The Startup Day at Forum EPFL aims to connect EPFL young engineering talents with promising startups from across Switzerland (and abroad!). Last year, more around 80 startups were present and some hundreds people (students, innovators, and even some investors were present) visited the booths.
The Startup Day will take place on Wednesday 8th of October and will benefit from the quantity of presentations happening on this day. Giant companies (like Google!) will be present on this specific day to hold a presentation… and organizers of FORUM EPFL have certified me that everyone who’d like to attend these presentations will have to go through the startup’ stands. This will be possible thanks to the relocation of the forum in the newly opened Swiss Tech Convention Center (if you’ve never seen it, you should come on October 8th – even just for seeing this!). Good news, as it will allow startups to get more exposure.
I’ve heard some startups complaining that they didn’t get that many interested students visiting them and eager to join them. Hum. What I think? Even if you have the coolest startup in the world, you still have to prepare yourself for the event, and proactively invite people to meet you. That’s what I call hacking the FORUM! How can you know who will or could be there? It’s quite simple: FORUM EPFL allows you to buy the CV-database of all EPFL students graduating soon, or recently graduated. You can buy it faculty by faculty (yes, as a web/mobile startup, you’re less interested by chemistry PhD student!). It’s a fair price (CHF 200.-/faculty), at least given the fact that the whole day is free for startups!
But you currently don’t need to hire, so you don’t want to participate? Wrong. Remember that “a good CEO is always hiring” (I don’t remember who can claim the paternity of this quote, sorry)! It’s too late to complain that you can’t find the talents you need quickly, if you’ve never invested a bit of time to fill the hiring pipeline (same as for the sales channel)!
And moreover: Startup Day is not only about recruiting. It’s about making connections… NETWORKING! There are not that many opportunities to have so many startups present at the same time in Lausanne, and having a bit of time to discuss.
So bookmark this day, REGISTER now to Startup Day (free! Deadline is ion August 30th), set some realistic objectives for the event and… prepare yourself! Nothing is granted, even if you have a great idea!
See you there!
