Fresh Strategy

AI Unboxed: Top Tricks for Startups & Investors

Stéphanie Kioutsoukis, Mark Turrell

Get ready for a user journey on how you should be using AI to save time, money, and effort (plus developing products, improving your marketing, and more) featuring sites to use, prompts to copy, and hands-on fun!

Startupticker.ch, Seca

Top investors and how to attract them

Oliver Heimes, Kai Eberhardt, Thomas Heimann, Stefan Kyora, Sandra Tobler

Good investors support start-ups with money, their network and know-how. From the outset, start-ups should follow a path to attract them. Our session provides examples and data-based insights about who are top class investors and how to get in touch.

Wenger Vieli AG

Incentive Plans - Legal and Tax Insights

Patric Eggler, Dominique Mattmann

You plan to attract and retain talent for your startup? Then incentive plans in the form of shares, ESOPs or Phantom Stock Option Plans are a crucial instrument. Learn about structuring and setting-up incentive plans and how to assign options or shares in this workshop with our experienced startup lawyers from Wenger Vieli who will provide you with first-hand practical tips.

LEXR

Startup Funding 101 for your next financing round

Marius Bärtig, Michele Vitali

• Introduction
• Loan vs. Equity Financing
  • at what stage to use which instrument
• Valuation of your Startup
  • the start of every financing round
• Subscription Preference
  • understanding the waterfall
• Anti-Dilution Protection
  • avoiding it in difficult times
• Good Corporate Governance
  • board and shareholder matters
• Transfer Restrictions
  • general principles

FONGIT

The Future of Tech Innovation in Switzerland

Andy Yen, James Miners, Madiha Derouazi

Join us for a dynamic panel discussion with founders, industry experts and governments as we explore the future of technology innovation in Switzerland and beyond. From the role of startups in emerging technologies to the importance of collaboration, we’ll delve into the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead, and how Switzerland can continue to lead the way in innovation.

Swiss Federal Institut of Intellectual Property (IGE)

Victorinox and the fight against free riders

Eveline Capol, Bettina Linder, Lorena Piticco, David Stärkle, Sibilla Delorenzi

Swiss products and trade marks are popular worldwide and thus attract free riders. The pocket knife manufacturer Victorinox explains what Swissness means for its business and describes some of its experiences with counterfeiters, as well as how it keeps them at bay. Find out why IP rights are only of value if you defend them.

Zürcher Kantonalbank Start-up Finance

Mastering growth challenges

Olivier Fernandez, Lukas Gysin, Vincenzo Laschera

80 out of every 100 newly founded startups fail within the first three years. You should not be one of them. Startup uniqFEED has already successfully mastered many growth challenges and shares insights in a dialog with ZKB Start-up Finance.

P&TS SA

Essential IP tips for founders and investors

Ronan Guirey, Claudia Nash

Do you own the relevant IP and do you have the right to use the protected technology? We will address the general principles of IP ownership and the common ownership problems that start-ups face, along with possible resolutions to those problems. We will also explain what steps start-ups can take to establish if they are free to use their protected technology.

BEKB

From Pitching Pain to Pitching Success

Fabrice Moser, Fabienne Messerli

Two serial entrepreneurs share their experiences and provide valuable insights for business owners. They focus on the challenges of starting a business and successfully overcoming funding hurdles.

EO Zürich

The dark side of becoming an entrepreneur

Carlo Badini, Jeremias Meier, Flavio Pfaffhauser, Ronald Zemp, Aileen Zumstein

Entrepreneurial topics that are seldom publicly talked about: The feeling of failing. The loneliness in times of taking hard decisions, navigating rough seas and even in times of success. The emptiness after the rush of a successful exit when you realize that your “baby” is not yours anymore and you struggle to find a new purpose even though everyone expects you to be super happy. The relationship with your family or friends that change for the better or worse during times of hardship, deprivation, failure and also success. A talk among 5 entrepreneurs and the audience.

University of Bern

Startup-University collaboration: From pain to gain

Nina Hobi, Eva Lüthi, Jürgen Vogel, Stefan Weber, Sebastien Hug

By collaborating with universities, startups gain access to expertise, technology platforms, scientific knowhow, and a pool of talents. Yet, the academic and entrepreneurial worlds differ in many ways. What do startups need to consider to maximize the gain, and to minimize the pain?

Swissnex - State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation SERI

Your Strategy for International Expansion

Charlotte Chenu, Mario Garcia, Minyong Lee, Tatiana Benavides

Get an overview of the process to formalize a general strategy and participate in a live exercise to create a first draft of your strategy for internationalization with key metrics to measure and address regional differences for international markets.

Kellerhals Carrard

How to deal with strategic investors

Joséphine Marmy, Dario Silberschmidt

Strategic investors : are they a blessing or a curse? Everything you should know when negotiating with them.

Swiss Entrepreneurs Foundation

How to upgrade your Board

Peter Balsiger, Benjamin Domenig, Peter Stähli, Mascha Santschi

You should join us if you want to learn
– why a competent board is crucial for a startup
– how to create a powerful board
– how to find performing board members
– how to activate lazy board members
– if your current board has the right skills and experience

Walder Wyss AG

Financing Rounds - Best Practices and Pitfalls

Michael Kündig, Alice Vorburger

We embark on a journey through the stages of a typical early-stage financing round, discussing best practices and identifying legal pitfalls that founders should make sure to avoid. From initial structuring considerations, cap table and term sheet negotiations all the way to signing agreements and closing the round – we’ll share our experiences based on actual examples from our daily practice.

Vi Partners

Building Resilience with Self-Awareness

Olivier Laplace, David Tedaldi

A Founder x Investor discussion on nurturing resilience, creativity and personal growth.
David Tedaldi is Morgen.so Co-founder & CEO and Olivier Laplace is Technology Partner at Vi Partners. They will discuss eating, exercising, resting, personal time, feedback, mentor, network & team.

Plug & Play

10 years Open Innovation: Landing Corporate Clients

Omeed Mehrinfar, Daniela Bar-Gera, Gabriel Selbach, Raphael Fässler

Ten years of Open Innovation: What you REALLY need to do to land big corporate clients.
Omeed Mehinfar has seen thousands of startups and hundreds of pilot projects throughout his ten years at Plug and Play. Learn about how Corporate Innovation has evolved, what corporates expect from startups today, and what you need to do to land that Fortune 1000 client.

EPFL

A Founder's Journey Through First Fundraising

Frank Bonnet, Nicolas Weber, Aurélie Schick

Lessons Learned from The First Fundraising Experience: Do’s and Don’ts for Entrepreneurial Success. Meet the founders of startups Bionomous and Voltiris who will talk about their own experience, what worked, what they should have done differently, some key elements when they met their first investors.