A Hitchhiker's guide to the Swiss French Tech Startup Community
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Transcript of A Hitchhiker's guide to the Swiss French Tech Startup Community
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A Hitchhiker's guide to the Swiss French Tech Startup Community
Dave Browntwitter.com/hightechfondue
Last updated 2015-01-19
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Thank you to ContributorsJordi Montserrat (Venturekick)Laurent Haug Niall O’Gorman
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+ 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)
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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)
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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.
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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)
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Movements
● Ventureckick.ch● Hackerspace - posttenebraslab.ch● Biohacking - Hackuarium
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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
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Events
StartupweekendTEDx LausanneVenture IdeasSeedstars World
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Conferences
Lift (in Geneva)Mobicamp (in Bern)Nipconf (in Lausanne)
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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
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Finding Talent / Co-Founders
No specific events for this. Maybe try the other meetups & events?
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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)
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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.
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Seed/MicroVC/Angel
Fongit Seed Invest (Geneva)
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Angel Groups
A3AngelsBASGoBeyond
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+ Cofunding Platforms
Equity:investiere.ch (raised 4.4M CHF equity for 9 startups in 2014)capitalproximite.ch
Projects:wemakeit.com
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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
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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
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Co-Working Spaces
ECLau (Lausanne)La Muse (Geneva and Lausanne)Impact Hub Geneva
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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).
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Startup Friendly Big Companies
Plenty of Big companies, none are known for being startup friendly.
Swisscom tries (Swisscom Ventures does seed investments, Conference sponsorship).
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Legal
Startup friendly lawyers:Jacques Bonvin Michel Jaccard
Swiss standard legal docs (shareholders agreement, etc.) at SECA
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Banking and Finance
Lots of banks and corporate finance in Geneva. Not very accessible for startups.
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Press
Nothing with a focus on startups
Bilan ICT Journal (enterprise computing focus with a bit of startup news)ComInMag (marketing & media)Nouvo
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Books by local Startup Authors
Business Model Generation (Alexander Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur)Start-Up: the book (Hervé Lebret)
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Blogs
startup-book.com (Hervé Lebret)startupaholic.com (Sébastien Flury)suisse-entrepreneurs.comPierre ChappazLift blogLaurent Haugswisslicon-valleyHighTechFondue (David Brown)TekFin (Yann Ranchere)David Galbraith
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+ 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)
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Newsletters
inno-swiss sends a weekly digestStartupticker
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+ 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
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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.
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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) .