A Hitchhiker's guide to the Swiss French Tech Startup Community

Dave Browntwitter.com/hightechfondue

Last updated 2015-01-19

Thank you to ContributorsJordi Montserrat (Venturekick)Laurent Haug Niall O’Gorman

+ Inspired by Based on a slide deck for Boulder, Colorado by David Cohen, Techstars(in turn based on one from LA by Sam Teller)

The slide titles have been kept the same to allow comparison of the 2 ecosystems.

Where necessary I've added new slides - these have a +

in the title (like this slide)

What Makes the Swiss Romande Startup Community Work

● Plenty of smart people around● International outlook (because of small local market)● $200k seed finance is easy to find (FFF and grants). ● World class technical universities with support for

spinouts● Government sponsorship (CTI) of $500k to $1M or more

for any technology with strong IP.● Government funded (CTI) business coaching● Office space in science parks.

(which is all completely different to what makes Boulder work)

Some (not all) Notable Startups

Each year Startup.ch gets 100 experts across Switzerland vote for the top 100 Swiss startups. The 2014 list is here

Apart from Online travel (Housetrip who've moved to London) the list is mainly microtechnology, biotech/medtech, enterprise software/SaaS and high tech manufacturing.

Startup (genome) map of Swiss Romande

The crowdsourced startupgenome.com hasn't been adopted locally

startup.ch has an up to date list of all Swiss startups

The Swiss StartupMonitor.ch maps startups using a more scientific/qualitative analysis approach (business school & CTI supported)

Movements

● Ventureckick.ch● Hackerspace - posttenebraslab.ch● Biohacking - Hackuarium

Meetupshttps://www.startupdigest.com/digests/suisse-romande - a well maintained list of meetups and events

mobilemonday.chuxromandie.chGeneva Lean StartUp GroupGeneva Tech MeetupPetits DejeunersSwiss fintech

Less startup focused:● rezonance.ch ( a.k.a. first tuesday )● creativemornings.ch

Events

StartupweekendTEDx LausanneVenture IdeasSeedstars World

Conferences

Lift (in Geneva)Mobicamp (in Bern)Nipconf (in Lausanne)

Universities

EPFL (world top 20 tech)University of GenevaUnversity of LausanneUniversity of Neuchatel, IMD Business School (world top 20 biz)and many others

Strong focus (led by EPFL) on spinout of new technologies and industrial collaboration

Finding Talent / Co-Founders

No specific events for this. Maybe try the other meetups & events?

Finding a Job with a Startup

No resources focused on startups.

Maybe try going to the innovation parksor the online boards like jobup.ch EPFL hosts Forum startup day (once a year with around 20-40 startups)

Venture Capital Firms

Short answer is "plenty" - see the http://www.cti-invest.ch/Swiss-Venture-Guide.aspx andhttp://www.startup.ch/index.cfm?page=129590

The longer answer is that today there are no big players/leaders in local early-stage technology investment.

Seed/MicroVC/Angel

Fongit Seed Invest (Geneva)

Angel Groups

A3AngelsBASGoBeyond

+ Cofunding Platforms

Equity:investiere.ch (raised 4.4M CHF equity for 9 startups in 2014)capitalproximite.ch

Projects:wemakeit.com

Accelerators + Incubators

Fongit (Geneva)la Forge at EPFL innovationparkIMD startup competitionEHL (Ecole Hotelier Lausanne) IncubatorTechnoArk (Valais)CERN (building 3179 - no public access)

Training focused:Venture LeadersCTI Entrepreneurship Training

Startup Support Orgs

Independant tech focusedventureleaders.ch

Independant general focuslocal chamber of commerces (some startup focused events and help)startups.ch (not to be confused with startup.ch)

Government run tech focusedCTI - several initiativesAlpICT

Co-Working Spaces

ECLau (Lausanne)La Muse (Geneva and Lausanne)Impact Hub Geneva

Dev/Design shops

There are no dev or design shop focused on startups. The sad fact is that local rates are too expensive for startups - any startup who wants to outsource development will invariably offshore it (unless they know a specific local resource who can work flexibly).

Startup Friendly Big Companies

Plenty of Big companies, none are known for being startup friendly.

Swisscom tries (Swisscom Ventures does seed investments, Conference sponsorship).

Legal

Startup friendly lawyers:Jacques Bonvin Michel Jaccard

Swiss standard legal docs (shareholders agreement, etc.) at SECA

Banking and Finance

Lots of banks and corporate finance in Geneva. Not very accessible for startups.

Press

Nothing with a focus on startups

Bilan ICT Journal (enterprise computing focus with a bit of startup news)ComInMag (marketing & media)Nouvo

Books by local Startup Authors

Business Model Generation (Alexander Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur)Start-Up: the book (Hervé Lebret)

Blogs

startup-book.com (Hervé Lebret)startupaholic.com (Sébastien Flury)suisse-entrepreneurs.comPierre ChappazLift blogLaurent Haugswisslicon-valleyHighTechFondue (David Brown)TekFin (Yann Ranchere)David Galbraith

+ Fintech twitter

Anthemis Group / @anthemisBen Robinson / @robinsonbenp

François Briod @BriodFGuillaume Dubray / @GuillaumeDubray

Alexandra Gaillard / @investglassLaurent Haug / @laurenthaug

LE DECODEUR / @b3bSean Park / @parkparadigm

Swiss Finance Startups / @SFS_CHYann Ranchere / @tekfin

(list from Marc P. Bernegger / @marcpbernegger)

Newsletters

inno-swiss sends a weekly digestStartupticker

+ News Aggregators

startupticker.chinno-swiss.com is a portal which aggregates all Swiss startup-related blog posts - Neither has an editorial staff or opinion (they are not "Press") - they are aggregating news and press releases.

twitter.com/Alpict & blog.alpict.comtwitter.com/startuptickerCH

Startup Friendly Hangout Spots

Puur cafe at EPFL innovation park, building J (no public Wifi or power)

la-Muse (both Geneva and Lausanne) organises a weekly pique-nique for startups - very broad, no tech focus.

EngageMost people's expectations are unrealistic for engaging with startups. If you are looking for work understand that salaries are 20% to 40% less than bigcos or banks. Most bigco experience needs to be adapted before it's relevant to startups.Emailing (as recommended for engaging in Boulder), be specific about what you want & clear objective (eg. to get a follow up meeting). If someone responds by email then usually they will eventually agree to a meeting - even if they cancel a few times (many senior people are travelling a lot and have difficulty managing their schedules) .