We are in 2020 and startups have never been so trendy in the past 15-20 years in Switzerland. Despite the fact that concepts like lean startup, value proposition canvas and business model canvas are anything but new – at least for people working in startup environments, many people who have an idea do not know how to start. I’m facing this problem quite often with my own digital agency, when people come to me with a wonderful project idea, but often no clue on what they should do. Of course, leveraging its own creativity to design a product is often the most attractive and creative task. However, starting with the offering side is always wrong. First, you need to start with the customer side: what are his/her customer job, pains and potential gains? Once, and only once you’ve defined these …
Bringing Back Trust in Tech
With all scandals damaging trust in digital platforms (like the Cambridge Analytica case) in the recent years, there are more and more efforts invested in “making the internet safe again”. There is big trend emerging in Lausanne region, where worldwide famous tech school EPFL is located. This school, canton of Vaud and some other worldwide leading companies based in the region launched a Center for Digital Trust end of 2018. Part of this program is the Tech4Trust startup acceleration program, lasting 4 months and leaded by EPFL Innovation Park. Tech4Trust announced this 7th of October 2019 14 startups they selected for this acceleration program. Here they are! Access Informer: Access Informer is a simple yet powerful solution for companies to collect, analyze and monitor user authorizations across key systems, including SAP, Active Directory, SharePoint and network shares. CybrQ: CybrQ is …
This Was SeedStars Summit 19. And its 77 Startups!
Early April, the SeedStars Summit took place at Swiss Tech Convention Center in Lausanne. Unfortunately, I was not able to attend it in person. Luckily, a tech and startup enthusiast of my network, Elliot Morisod, was able to jump in and report it here… So thank you Elliot for sharing your experience participating to SeedStars Summit! You can discover the complete list of SeedStars Summit Startups here. Seedstars is a Swiss-based group with a mission to impact people’s lives in emerging markets through technology and entrepreneurship, with a particular focus on the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Through a variety of worldwide events, acceleration programs and competitions, including the largest startup competition in emerging markets (Seedstars World Competition), Seedstars aims at fostering impact investing and impact entrepreneurship over the world. Organized in the form of boot camps and conferences, the Summit …
The 10 Health and InsurTech Startups of InnoPeaks 1.0
For the second time in the week, I’ve been attending startup pitches… which did not happen for me for a very, very long time, as you may have noticed ;-)! Friday 15th of March was the day selected by InnoPeaks to present its first batch of health tech an insurtech startups, in Sion. Powered by the insurance company Groupe Mutuel and Fusion, this 3 months program intents to accelerate startups from wonderful canton of Valais. It remembered me the initial days of Fusion, where I acted as Program Director (or MVP builder, how you want to name it ;-)!), without all the stress of setting up a Demo Day… Nicolas Loeillot, Chief Innovation Officer of Groupe Mutuel, talked about how the Group Mutuel liner is finally moving towards innovation. They want to become a “LifeTime Partner” for patients, and no more just …
The 50 Swiss Startups in Which to Invest in 2019
This Tuesday, I had the opportunity to attend (again!) the event organised by the Swiss economic magazine Bilan in Lausanne. For the 7th consecutive year, Bilan selected 50 Swiss startups in which to invest. More than 145 startups applied (all applying for the first time) and a team of experienced entrepreneurs and investors was mandated to review the applications and selects its favorites. Fabrice Delaye, the well-known tech journalist of Bilan, who is also the initiator of this competition, made a particularly interesting introduction regarding the average return for Venture Capital: from 2008, Venture Capital provided an average 35% return per year, compared to the 22% of private equity (where everybody in the finance world want to go) or the 16% for real estate sector. Fabrice concluded that it’s not only fun to invest in startups: you simply cannot neglect startup …
Discover the Startups of La Forge, at EPFL Innovation Park
EPFL Innovation Park is organising for the 9th time the Demo Day of La Forge on June 21st, from 14:00. The startup entrepreneurs of this co-working place located right at the heart of EPFL Innovation Park will be pitching their startup and demonstrating their product at their booth. La Forge Demo Day is a unique opportunity to meet these early-stage startups and… challenge their founders? The Demo Day will also coincide with the closing of La Forge’s first acceleration batch focused on MedTech. The projects will be present at stands to present their innovations. You can have a look on the startups located at La Forge hereafter: Tayo Tayo reinvents the way tenants interact with real-estate agencies and property managers. logmind AI-accelerated machine data analytics Aesyra A wearable medical device for the diagnosis, monitoring and treatment of nocturnal teeth grinding (bruxism) …
Win a Free Ticket to Fintech 2018 & Swiss Fintech Awards Night
Swiss startup ecosystem is more and more dynamic. And especially in the Fintech and crypto/blockchain areas. By now, you probably have heard of the “Crypto Valley”, regarding the region of Zug! Next week, on Thursday 15th of May, a major Fintech conference is happening in Zürich: Fintech 2018. Many C-level people from the biggest Swiss financial institutions will be there, and this is a great opportunity to network! Startupolic is partnering with the Fintech 2018 conference to offer ONE free ticket to the whole conference! And for all the ones who will not win, we have a special 50% discount (but if, and only if, you’re a startup)! Deadline to apply to win this ticket is on Sunday 11th of March, at 0900. Good luck!
Our Interview @ Y Combinator – Guest Post by Ledgy
This is a Guest post by Yoko Spirig, originally published here. Yoko is one of the 3 co-founders of the Zürich-based startup Ledgy, created during Summer 2017. In this blog post, she describes their experience of being selected for an interview at the Y Combinator headquarters in Mountain View, California. And why she thinks it’s important for Switzerland that more Swiss startups apply to YC. Do you know how many Swiss startups have ever been funded by YC? 0, Null, Nada — and this needs to change! Two months ago, when we were still a three months old startup, we sent our written application for the Winter 2017 batch. Although some people said it was too early, it felt natural for us to apply because YC focuses more on the team’s potential than on how far you are in your product development. …