Discover the Swiss startup national team 2014!

Every Spring time, venturelab and Swissnex are announcing their selection of 20 entrepreneurs who will represent Switzerland in Boston and New York in June. The selection was based both on the quality of the project and its business potential and on the personality of the entrepreneur. The “Swiss startup national team 2014” will have a first appearance on April 16th at Swiss Institute of Technology (aka EPFL) in Lausanne at venture ideas, where entrepreneurs Mehdi Aminian and Stephan Würmlin will share some insights of their successful startup journey.

The 20 Venture Leaders will then fly for a 10-days trip in Boston and New York, where they’ll get coaching from renowned entrepreneurs/mentors, visit some successful US companies and finally meet investors and fellow US startup entrepreneurs. Emphasis will be put on accelerating the business development of selected startups (put a first step on US market!) and personal development of entrepreneurs (education).

BIOTECH

1. Robert Meissner, with OncoEffective. It is currently not possible to know ahead of chemotherapy which treatment is the best for a specific cancer patient without trial and error. OncoEffective removes uncertainty and providing a quick treatment recommendation.
2. Vincent Forster, with Versantis. The company is developing versatile antidotes, capable of removing diverse toxic agents from the organism and save patients from metabolic, medicine and drug overdoses.

MEDTECH

1. Ata Tuna Ciftlik, with Lunaphore. The company has developed an innovative tumor analysis and classification platform with the potential to be a disruptive alternative to classical immunohistochemistry.
2. Luc Gervais, with One Drop Diagnostics.The company has developed a mobile medical diagnostics device that could revolutionize medical diagnostics by allowing anyone and anywhere to perform laboratory quality diagnosis and monitoring of biomarkers.
3. Vincent Delattre, with G-Therapeutics. The company is developing an implantable stimulation system and a robot-assisted training program to rehabilitate individuals with spinal cord injury.
4. Mattias Ivarsson, with Inositec. The company will pursue the preclinical and early clinical development of a novel non-antibiotic treatment against Clostridium difficile infection.
5. Arthur Queval, with Qloudlab. The company is the inventor and patent holder of the world’s first touchscreen-based biosensor with is able to turn smartphones into a medical device for multiple blood diagnostics testing.

CLEAN TECH

1. James Chiang, with Eturnity. The company helps home owners to answer all questions about solar power before they invest. It measures electricity consumption, location specific solar data and simulates a battery system.
2. Corey Houle, with TwingTec. The company can generate mechanical energy by flying controlled cycles with tethered wings and transformed it into electrical energy in a ground based generator.

MATERIALS

1. Keith Gunura, with NooNee. The company provides leg exoskeleton which enables factory workers to relax their muscles and sit down during work – without the need for a chair. The device is worn on the legs and allows the user freedom to walk or run.
2. Alejandro Ojeda Gonzalez-Posada, with Printed Technologies. The company is developing a high security key that is safe against 3D printing.

ROBOTICS/ELECTRONICS 

1. Patrich Thévoz, with Gimball. The company is an insect-inspired micro-drone which can collide on obstacles and continue its flight undisturbed. It opens new horizons for robots in search and rescue, industrial inspection, law enforcement, entertainment and communication.
2. Eric Tremblay, with Composyt Light Labs. The company is developing wearable display technology for see-through augmented reality in unobtrusive conventional eyewear.
3. Boris Danev, 3db Access. The company provides solutions to the problem of making secure access control systems which rely on proximity. Proximity verification determines how close two wireless devices are from each other in terms of physical distance.

INTERNET/SOFTWARE/MOBILE

1. Borislava Palanchova, with audiolize. The company is a marketplace for audio versions of online articles, read aloud and recorded by a network of contributors. It offers higher comfort and mobility to newspaper readers and travellers.
2. Andreas Guggenbuehl, with RealLook. The company offers perfect fitting clothes online with a new visualization and production technology which combines fashion and IT to guarantee an efficient manufacture process.
3. Gregory Barbezat, with Skiioo. The company offers easy access to partnered ski resorts with a single keycard that calculates the best rates based on your skiing habits.
4. Daniel Lawniczak, with Sanovation. The company developed the electronic pain diary CatchMyPain which allows tracking pain in a structured and visual way and the app TrackMyMeds which keeps track of the personal medication history and ensures regular drug intake.
5. Sébastien Flury (yes, it’s ME 😉!), with Coteries. The company develops “The Rolex of mobile app for musicians”, that is, mobile apps creating value both to fans by giving them access to exclusive content and to artists by providing ownership of the community and new revenue streams to artists.
6. Justin Picard, with Scantrust. The company provides next generation secure graphics that offer strong protection to counterfeiting. This allows any company to protect their brand, connect with consumers and collect market intelligence at an extremely competitive cost.

Two interesting facts about the selected team (out of more than 120 applying entrepreneurs):

• there is only ONE female Venture Leader, sadly;
• 60-70% of the Venture Leaders have foreign roots or nationalities. It’s a confirmation of what I’ve argued some weeks ago after the votation regarding the immigration law (and why we need a Startup Visa)