At startup days, you will experience a decentralized conferencing model. The program is categorized into four tracks:
Inspiration: Think out of the box and get surprised.
Learning: Grow your skills and knowledge with excellent experts.
Scaling: Find out how to enlarge and internationalize your business and learn how to mature the ecosystem.
Pitching: Discover outstanding tech startups.
Reap the full benefits of achieving your goals by choosing the sessions that suit you best. Scroll through the program and discover top-notch speakers and hot, insightful, inspiring, and surprising sessions.
After registration, you can book your seat for your favorite sessions. The seats in each room are limited. Be fast and reserve your space before it’s gone. You will receive more constructions after registration.
Collaborative Innovation: How to innovate across organisational boundaries?
Ulrich Schimpel, Michael Breitfeld & Urs Stender
09:15 - 10:00Room: digitalswitzerland HUB, Aare Plenum
digitalswitzerland
Collaborative Innovation: How to innovate across organisational boundaries?
Ulrich Schimpel, Michael Breitfeld & Urs Stender
Collaborative and multi-stakeholder innovation are approaches that are often talked about today, but are not very tangible. From the perspective of an SME, a corporation and an incubator, we explore how they combine collaboration and innovation and what criteria are necessary for PoCs to projects in a collaborative setting.
Ulrich Schimpel
Chief Innovation Officer, IBM Switzerland
Urs Stender
Managing Director, BlueLion Incubator
Michael Breitfeld
Head of Process Optimization, Schweizer Salinen AG
The zebra analogy tells the story of an alternative to the unicorn startups of Silicon Valley and the likes. Zebra startups have three characteristics. First, they are real, which means they focus on present societal realities. Second, they thrive in communities and collaborate with other zebras. And finally, zebra enterprises integrate the maximization of social impact with self-sustaining business models – black and white together make the pattern.
In this session you will not only find out why it is worth becoming a zebra entrepreneur. You will also get inspiration of how to go about this journey by meeting living examples of successful Swiss zebras.
Entrepreneurs and athletes have a lot in common – determination, passion, an absolute commitment to a goal. We all know that if you want to be a champion, you have to think and act like one. Why not use the same techniques & tactics as athletes when it comes to managing resources wisely or performing on day X?
In this session we elaborate on what it means to have an „Athlete’s Mindset“ and how we can integrate such a mindset into our daily lives to improve our performance – just like an athlete.
Rahel Kiwic
Co-Owner, Athletes Network & professional football player
Mariana Mazzucato Founding Director of the UCL Institute for Innovation & Public Purpose (IIPP)
Innovation is an outcome of a massive collective effort. It needs an entrepreneurial state to achieve smart, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth. Get inspired by Mariana Mazzucatos‘ ideas on how to evolve the startup ecosystem in modern capitalism and which role the state ought to have.
Moderator: Patrizia Laeri, Economist, Journalist & Moderator
What’s the hot stuff out there that’s worth investing in now? Investor Yanni Pipilis has a feeling for it.
In this inspirational talk, the Managing Partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers gives away some revealing and hot insider tips about investment. Is it artificial intelligence and machine learning? Join the discussion and get out of this session with thrilling hands-on tips of an authentic investment expert.
In the end, you have the chance to ask everything you wanted but never dared to.
Moderators:
Mike Baur, Co-Founder & CEO, Swiss Startup Group
Gina Domanig, Managing Partner, Emerald Technology Ventures
How data-driven sourcing can help overlook founders and take bias out of VC decision making
Penny Schiffer
10:00 - 10:15Room: Aare 1
How data-driven sourcing can help overlook founders and take bias out of VC decision making
Penny Schiffer Co-Founder & CEO, Raized.ai
The VC industry faces challenges with excess capital and the globalization of its business. VC thought leaders foresee a more global, transparent and AI-supported investment decision-making process as potential differentiator for VC firms.
We will discuss approaches in deal sourcing automation and augmentation of decision making, share success stories and debate implications for the VC industry.
Alan Frei co-founded Amorana the largest sex toy shop in Switzerland 7 years ago and sold it in 2020 to Lovehoney which is now largest sex toy retailer in the world. Alan Frei will talk about how to create a start up from nothing.
Marc Bernegger, Lucas Betschart & Niklas Nikolajsen
09:00 - 09:45Room: Szenario 2
Building the world’s leading Crypto Nation
Marc Bernegger, Lucas Betschart & Niklas Nikolajsen
The blockchain economy is a potential future environment in which cryptocurrency replaces current monetary systems, potentially on a global basis.
Switzerland keeps pace with the times: In total, 840 companies are active in blockchain. Switzerland offers the best framework conditions for the crypto-finance industry, say experts.
In this session, crypto experts discuss the importance of the future currency and Switzerland’s potential as a Crypto Nation.
We focus on one big question: How can we take full advantage of Switzerland’s strengths to build the world’s leading blockchain and cryptographic technologies ecosystem?
Marc P. Bernegger
Board Member of Crypto Finance AG, Vice Chairman of Crypto Broker AG
Dominique Mégret, Dr. Péter Fankhauser, Patrick Thévoz, Flyability & Martin Eichenhofer
09:15 - 10:00Room: Swisscom HUB, Szenario 1
Swisscom
Deeptech Nation - Switzerland Rules!
Dominique Mégret, Dr. Péter Fankhauser, Patrick Thévoz, Flyability & Martin Eichenhofer
In this panel discussion, you will get 1st hand insights from three Swiss deeptech startup founders. We will discuss the challenges around being a HW & SW company, fundraising and going to market. Furthermore, you will understand why Switzerland is the deeptech nation par excellence! Get inspired to fundraise, kickstart & grow your deeptech company out of Switzerland.
"Club office" a Vitra solution for the post-pandemic workplace
Philipp Babst
10:45 - 11:30Room: Vitra Lounge
Vitra
"Club office" a Vitra solution for the post-pandemic workplace
Philipp Babst Sales Director, Switzerland /Austria
The many advantages and disadvantages of distributed work have been studied and written about extensively over the past 15 months. The physical act of going back to the workplace will become a conscious choice for many. One that is guided by the tasks that lie ahead, the required level of interaction and the need for direct access to human and physical resources. The physical workspaces that we now build should complement the home office and provide added value for both the company and users. In this session, we will open the doors of the Club Office. Built over the last months at our head office in Basel, Switzerland, it was created by Vitra as a response to the need for post-pandemic workspaces.
Judith Bellaiche, Andri Silberschmidt, Martin Godel, & Christian Busch
11:00 - 12:00Room: Garten 5
Swiss Entrepreneurs Foundation
SUD2021 @ Federal Palace
Judith Bellaiche, Andri Silberschmidt, Martin Godel, & Christian Busch
Innovative startups meet with politicians and representatives of the administration for an activating exchange. The discussion focuses on the possible consequences for politics and administration when these disrupting technologies become established.
The exchange is intended to promote mutual understanding and, in particular, to sensitize politicians to specific concerns of the
startup community.
Due to the current economic situation, internationalisation of a startup has become the logical evolution of their business model.
There are many unknowns that exist in an alien market like India or Brazil – Exogenous factors, Competitive Landscape, IP Protection, Pricing strategy etc.
This workshop will highlight these unknowns and show you how to skirt through these obscure waters.
Archit Kansal
Program Lead - Deeptech, Innovation & Startup Partnerships, swissnex India
Danielle Cohen
Startups and Innovation Project Manager, swissnex Brazil
Marcel Hofstetter, Philip Morger, Jonas Brunschwig & Olga Dubey
10:45 - 11:30Room: Szenario 2
Swisstech
Going global – how to scale internationally
Marcel Hofstetter, Philip Morger, Jonas Brunschwig & Olga Dubey
Internationalisation is not an option but a must for many Swiss start-ups. Join the swisstech masterclass: Hear from fellow entrepreneurs about their internationalisation journeys, and get to know the many Swiss support programmes that will accompany you along the way.
Marcel Hofstetter
Scientific Officer, Innosuisse
Philip Morger
Consultant Internationalization Starters, Switzerland Global Enterprise
Markus Steiner Business Solution Manager, Zühlke Group
You have a great IDEA. Let´s empower this IDEA.
In this workshop you will discover the inspiring mission from an idea to a realiable product.
We speak about the winning team, the risk driven procedure, the relevant funcionality, the important patience to simplicity and realiablity and last but not least „lean production“ including a short „hand-on“ case-study from A to Z.
Let´s empower a successful product that will ROCK.
Real Estate 4.0 - The world's largest asset class is going digital & sustainable
Etienne Jeoffrey, Julian Vogel, Reza Alaghehband, Bastian Zarske Bueno, Dr. Remo Gerber & Dr. Alexander Reichhuber
10:45 - 11:30
Swiss Prime Site AG
Real Estate 4.0 - The world's largest asset class is going digital & sustainable
Etienne Jeoffrey, Julian Vogel, Reza Alaghehband, Bastian Zarske Bueno, Dr. Remo Gerber & Dr. Alexander Reichhuber
The real estate sector is being digitised at all stages of the value chain (building materials, development, construction, management, transaction & servitization) and is becoming more sustainable. This is resulting in efficiency gains and numerous new business models and new living spaces with innovative service offerings. However, the complexity is also increasing and new competences are required in order to be successful as a construction or real estate company in this new digital world and to offer the right solutions as a start-up. The aim is to have a discussion with different representatives from the real estate value chain (corporates and startups). Examples of appropriate questions are:- What role do startups play in the digitalisation of the industry?- How does the industry best work with ConstructionTech and PropTech startups?- Which technologies have the greatest potential? – What can we as corporates do better when working with startups? – What impact will the covid pandemic have on digitalisation? – How can VCs and business angels contribute to (and benefit from) proptechs becoming as successful as fintechs and insurtechs?
Julian Vogel
Co-Founder, TOWER360 GmbH
Etienne Jeoffroy
Founder & CEO FenX AG
Bastian Zarske Bueno
Head Group Corporate Ventures & Innovation, Member of the Management Team, Swiss Prime Site AG
„Cyberattacks don’t concern me. My enterprise is too small.“ This attitude might help you sleep well at night, but SMEs are actually even more at risk than large companies. The main reason: SMEs usually can’t afford the same IT security as the big players. In our workshop session, we show how hackers try to harm you, which tricks they use, and how you can protect yourself.
Sylvain Heiniger
Security Analyst, Compass Security
Alexander Tlili
Underwriter Financial Lines PI and Cyber, Zurich Insurance Company Ltd.
Key elements of successful collaboration between StartUps and Corporates
Ruth Armalé, Beat Schlumpf & Raphael Fässler
11:30 - 12:15Room: Panorama 1
ActionJam
Key elements of successful collaboration between StartUps and Corporates
Ruth Armalé, Beat Schlumpf & Raphael Fässler
In this session the ActionJam members die Post, Migros Aare and House of Insuretech Switzerland will focus on their approaches on collaborating with StartUps.
We will talk about timing, strategic fit and unfair advantages along the exit path of StartUps. From Open Innovation, over CorpUp processes to M&A. Our speakers will focus on key elements for a successful collaboration between StartUps and Corporates on all stages and are looking forward to discussing with all of you!
Ruth Armalé
Head of Open Innovation, HITS
Beat Schlumpf
Head MA Ventures, Migros Aare
Raphael Fässler
Investor @ Swiss Post Ventures, Die Schweizerische Post
How to make your start-up appeal to investors and business partners.
Marcel Oertle, Michael Sauter, Raphael Oberholzer, Marcel Aeschlimann & David Studer
11:45 - 12:30Room: Panorama 2
BEKB
How to make your start-up appeal to investors and business partners.
Marcel Oertle, Michael Sauter, Raphael Oberholzer, Marcel Aeschlimann & David Studer
Find out how to reach your goals more quickly and more successfully. Discover what is important to investors and business partners and how to go about accessing the right partnerships.
In our panel discussion with start-up entrepreneurs, investors and big names from the world of business, you’ll discover how Bern has developed its own ecosystem to help start-ups reach their goals more quickly and more successfully. The focus will be on topics such as support for start-ups and how SMEs and investors recognise potential synergies. We also want to know what motivates investors to put money into the ecosystem and start-ups, and how SMEs intend to promote innovation in the Bern region. Come along and find out about the dos and don’ts of working with investors and business partners.
Marcel Oertle
Head of Private / Business Clients Department, Member of the Board, BEKB
Michael Sauter
CEO, Zentrum für Innovation und Digitalisierung Bernapark (ZID)
Venture Leaders: learning from the going global roadshow
Wiktor Bourée, Anthony Aho, Frédéric Falise, Gianpaolo Rando, Jannis Fischer, Olga Dubey & Sandro Maag
11:45 - 12:30Room: Panorama 3
Venturelab
Venture Leaders: learning from the going global roadshow
Wiktor Bourée, Anthony Aho, Frédéric Falise, Gianpaolo Rando, Jannis Fischer, Olga Dubey & Sandro Maag
The Venture Leaders – the members of the Swiss National Startup Team – have a clear-cut goal. They envision themselves as global players and want to take the first step to their global expansion.
Discover the pitches of selected Venture Leaders members 2020, learn from their going global ambitions and get inspired by the stories of previous program alumni.
How you Innovate and Grow successfuly with your Ecosystem.
Anja Nieveler
14:45 - 15:15Room: Aare 1
Basel Cluster
How you Innovate and Grow successfuly with your Ecosystem.
Anja Nieveler Community and Incubation Program Manager
To innovate and grow successfully today, and in the future, you need an ecosystem strategy. First, you need to understand your role and the key stakeholders in the ecosystem, to collaborate and grow.
Then, when you know what you have to offer, and what you can expect, you can define your strategy and engagement plan, and authentic collaboration with your partners becomes possible.
Startups, Corporates and Investors have a unique set of values and needs, and need to position them selves accordingly.
Cynthia Jurytko, Tomas Sluka, Paulina Grnarova, Petar Tsankov, Lewis Jones & David Gorgan
15:45 - 16:30Room: Panorama 2
S2S
Tips and tricks for deeptech (pre-)seed financing
Cynthia Jurytko, Tomas Sluka, Paulina Grnarova, Petar Tsankov, Lewis Jones & David Gorgan
What do you need to know for your pre-seed or seed funding?
A panel discussion with the first student led VC in Switzerland, S2S Ventures, and deeptech entrepreneurs with a successful first round of funding. How to get started? What help is available if you start straight away from university? Join our talk to learn from entrepreneurs‘ experiences and to gain insights from the VC perspective.
Cynthia Jurytko
Business angel and President of the Board, S2S Ventures
Tomas Sluka
Co-founder and CEO, CREAL
Paulina Grnarova
Co-founder and CEO, DeepJudge
Lewis Jones
PhD Student at ETH Zurich and Investment manager, S2S Ventures
Creativity and Innovation: What Can We Learn from the Cultural Sector?
BLAY (Marc Sway & Bligg) & André Lüthi
11:45 - 12:30Room: Panorama 4
Creativity and Innovation: What Can We Learn from the Cultural Sector?
BLAY (Marc Sway & Bligg) & André Lüthi
Cultural producers, travelers, and entrepreneur personalities have many things in common: All like adventures. Differences such as in cultures, traditions, and worldviews inspire them. That inspiration is their source of creation. They step outside of their comfort zone to create something new. They accept difficult moments of uncertainty. The risk of failure is their constant companion – but that doesn’t discourage them.
How do creativity and innovation help in making profound decisions?
What can we learn from the cultural sector?
Elena Wenger, Alexandra Beckstein, Naomi MacKenzie & Aike Festini
11:45 - 12:30Room: Szenario 2
Her own boss
Elena Wenger, Alexandra Beckstein, Naomi MacKenzie & Aike Festini
Although the number of investments in innovative young companies is increasing, only one in ten start-ups in Switzerland is launched by a woman. This is hard to understand, since according to the Federal Council, start-ups find good framework conditions and the only areas where there is potential for improvement were tax law and the availability of risk capital.
What does it take to found a start-up and are there after all differences of gender? Where do they come from and can they be nurtured or must they be overcome?
Experiences of female bosses – highs and lows – fears and successe
Alexandra Beckstein
Dam Safety Specialist at Swiss Federal Office of Energy, Co-author "Gründerinnen"
Naomi MacKenzie
Co-founder, KITRO & Trainer and Startup Coach at Venturelab
The SwissEF UpScaler program supports companies in accelerating their international growth and thereby making the commercialization of innovative
technologies more successful.
As part of SUD 2021, an abbreviated 360°-analysis will be offered for a limited number of selected startups. If successfully completed, the startup will be accepted into the program.
Additionally, an UpScaler learning session will be conducted live on stage with one startup to give interested companies a feel for how a 360° analysis works.
Peter Balsiger
Head of Experts, Swiss Entrepreneurs Foundation
Peter Stähli
Head of Entrepreneurship, Swiss Entrepreneurs Foundation
Raising capital to fuel a startup´s growth is a key activity for founders.
This masterclass will discuss how investors generally assess startups, what they need to understand and what it is that motivates investors to move ahead with their investment.
This masterclass starts with a crisp presentation followed by a discussion where you can ask everything you wanted but never dared to.
At the startup days 2021, we’ll have an unconference session in the afternoon. That session is completely participant-driven and there’s no host. The attendees define the topic in the first 10 minutes: Everyone pitches her/his idea. After that, the group decides democratically, on what topic they’ll focus in the next 30 minutes of discussion. This unconference format gives everyone a stage for their news or concerns. It fosters informal conversation between participants with different backgrounds. You never know, where an unconference session takes you, but you’ll be surprised how easily you’ll get to know other participants in this short time frame.
Product Market Fit Strategy" – what it is + why it matters.
Jeremias Jurt
10:45 - 11:30Room: Aare Plenum
be-advanced
Product Market Fit Strategy" – what it is + why it matters.
Jeremias Jurt Head of Startup Program, be-advanced AG
Here you get the knowledge + toolset you need to develop + work on your own „Product Market Fit Strategy“: Assess your company + prioritize your ressources based on strategy.
Get to know the „Product Market Fit Canvas“, developed by be-advanced, made for Startups.
Join our speakers on a journey through the various stages of a typical startup financing round and gain first-hand insights on best practices and legal pitfalls to beware of.
Universities are the breeding ground for the startup ecosystem and the hinge between research and business.
In this session, we take a closer look at the role of the universities as the breeding ground of innovation. We’re going to talk about how universities encourage an entrepreneurial attitude and what role professors play. In this discussion, we will also find answers to the following questions: Which initiatives help breeding innovation? How are spin-offs created? And what we can learn from abroad?
Matthias Käch Senior IP Trainer, Intellectual Property Institute (IPI)
For startups, Intellectual Property is rarely a favorite topic, yet it is a mandatory field on their checklist. From a business perspective, there are only two types of IP rights – one’s own IP and the IP of the competitors. Depending on the specific business model and sector, securing one’s own IP rights may be justified or not. But, in any case, the IP rights of the competitors need to be known and respected in order to prevent disaster. Which are the key factors for the decision whether or not to protect one’s own IP? And how can a startup find out about the IP rights of its competitors and navigate the IP thicket?
15:45 - 16:15Room: digitalswitzerland HUB, Aare Plenum
digitalswitzerland
Access SEA's $300B tech economy via Singapore
Kane Cheong, Jonas Trindler & Raffael Maio
Southeast Asia’s digital economy is on track to cross US$300B by 2025 despite a challenging economic environment brought about by the pandemic. The regional market potential is a draw for many European companies, where many choose to scale through Singapore. Join us to hear from Swiss companies who have made the leap, also find out how you can navigate a move to Singapore and succeed.
Kane Cheong
Regional Director (Switzerland), Singapore Economic Development Board
Jonas Trindler
CEO Asia & Partner, Zuhlke Group
Raffael Maio
Chief Strategy Officer and Co-Founder, Swiss startup NetGuardians
In this session you will learn how a VC comes up with a valuation for your company and what the key factors are, that drive your valuation. We will also look at global startup benchmarks in terms of valuations and round sizes at different stages (seed, A-round, B-round). After this session, you should have a feeling for volumes and know which factors to take into consideration.
Live Podcast Swisspreneur: Succeeding as a purpose driven organization
Bettina Hirsig & Mannar Hielal
14:00 - 14:45Room: Panorama 3
Swisspreneur
Live Podcast Swisspreneur: Succeeding as a purpose driven organization
Bettina Hirsig & Mannar Hielal
Powercoders is a coding academy for refugees. We’re talking about how to find your purpose as an organization, the challenges of doing good as a company and of course also the success stories behind Powercoders. Join us for an inspiring and impactful fireside chat. Hosted by Swisspreneur, Switzerland’s #1 business podcast.
Start strong, finish strong - from vision to market.
Lorenz Klauser, Urs Anliker & Stefan Stalder
14:00 - 14:45Room: Panorama 4
Helbling Technik Bern AG
Start strong, finish strong - from vision to market.
Lorenz Klauser, Urs Anliker & Stefan Stalder
Bringing Innovation to Life.
During a 45minutes interactive workshop, we will address essential steps needed to successfully bring your vision of an innovative device as groundbreaking product to the market.
We will share theoretical and practical best development practices and elaborate on typical challenges and how to tackle them to survive the long path from vision to product launch.
Lorenz Klauser
Head of Development Team - Health, Food & Lifestyle, Helbling Technik
Urs Anliker
Head of Development Team - Medical Embedded Software, Helbling Technik
Decarbonisation as a global challenge - What role can technology play in becoming Net-Zero?
Isabelle Tschugmall, Ion Karagounis & Eliana Zamprogna
14:00 - 14:45Room: digitalswitzerland HUB, Aare Plenum
digitalswitzerland
Decarbonisation as a global challenge - What role can technology play in becoming Net-Zero?
Isabelle Tschugmall, Ion Karagounis & Eliana Zamprogna
Together with leading experts we deep dive into the challenges and opportunities of achieving Carbon Net-Zero. What is the role of technology and innovation to achieve this goal and how can startups and innovation help and position themselves on this journey.
This session aims at incentivizing the entrepreneurial audience to tackle the challenges identified and leverage these opportunities.
Isabelle Tschugmall
CMO / Communication & Partnerships Global Green Xchange
Ion Karagounis
Lead new economic models and future affairs, WWF Switzerland
Samantha Anderson, Cédric Waldburger, Cynthia Jurytko & Manuel Stagars
14:00 - 14:45Room: Panorama 2
Filmtalk:
The Real Life of Swiss Deep Tech Startups
Samantha Anderson, Cédric Waldburger, Cynthia Jurytko & Manuel Stagars
„Start-up“ (2020) is the first documentary film about Swiss deep tech startups. The release of the film in June 2020 fell right into the middle of the pandemic, and a lot has changed since. In this session, film director Manuel Stagars catches up with three startup founders from the film about their experiences in the last year and what the real life of Swiss deep tech startups looks like in 2021.
Samantha Anderson
Co-Founder, Depoly
Cédric Waldburger
General Partner and Founder, Tomahawk.VC
Cynthia Jurytko
Business angel and President of the Board, S2S Ventures
15:45 - 16:30Raiffeisen und RUZ (Raiffeisen Unternehmerzentrum)
Let go of the entrepreneur in you - what you need to consider
Matthias Weibel & René Brugger
15:45 - 16:30Room: Panorama 4
Raiffeisen und RUZ (Raiffeisen Unternehmerzentrum)
Let go of the entrepreneur in you - what you need to consider
Matthias Weibel & René Brugger
Deciding to move from an employment situation into an entrepreneurship can be a tough choice to make. In dialogue and at eye level we will discuss with you our top 10 things every entrepreneur needs to consider before taking the leap to entrepreneurship. Benefit from the wealth of experience of seasoned entrepreneurs and get valuable food for thought. True to our motto: For entrepreneurs. By entrepreneurs.
Matthias Weibel
Entrepreneur & Optimist, CEO, Raiffeisen Unternehmerzentrum AG
René Brugger
"Veni Digi Vinci", Head of Digitalization, Raiffeisen Unternehmerzentrum AG
Lawrence Leuschner CEO & Co-Founder, TIER Mobility
TIER Mobility was founded in 2018 with a mission to Change Mobility for Good. Today, TIER is Europe’s leading shared micro-mobility provider, operating in more than 100 cities in 12 countries. We believe that micro-mobility has the power to transform cities, as cities around the world look for ways to make their transport networks safer and move towards a zero-emission future.
Visit the Swisscom Labs in Bern, experience live the possibilities of 5G and exchange with experts to get 1st hand insights. You will see top speed >2 Gbps, guaranteed bandwidth, low latency and new service capabilities such as push to talk, fix wireless access or mobile private networks.
Léa Miggiano, Jeannette Morath, Samuel Müller & Stefan Tuchschmid
14:30 - 15:15Room: Szenario 2
Startupticker
Different ways to success
Léa Miggiano, Jeannette Morath, Samuel Müller & Stefan Tuchschmid
Very successful entrepreneurs share their experiences. Although all achieved a lot in a very short timeframe their ways were different. Speakers include an impact entrepreneur, a co-founder collaborating with a corporate that also finance the start-up, a scientist turned SME boss and the CEO of a potential unicorn.
Prof. Dr. Marc Gruber EPFL Chair for Entrepreneurship & Technology Commercialization
In this workshop, we want to introduce and familiarize attendees with the Market Opportunity Navigator, which has recently been adopted by Steve Blank as the 4th tool in the Lean Startup Toolset. Given that most startups fail because they focus on a market that does not offer the fertile ground for growing a successful venture, market choice is of key importantce for newly founded firms.
The future we share - business life from China to Switzerland
Zhang Xi
15:00 - 15:15Room: Panorama 2
The future we share - business life from China to Switzerland
Zhang Xi CEO and co-founder, EXH design AG, CEO and founder, Superlab Suisse AG
As an entrepreneur, you have the chance to impact the future we all share.
Zhang Xi founded two thriving companies, her first in shanghai and her second in Zürich – “I create business from my heart, for the others, for the future we share.”
Xi, who is born in China and studied in Switzerland, reflects on entrepreneurship in China and in Europe. In her session, she shares takeaways in the 15 years commuting life between China and Switzerland. Learn more how to access various cultures, and why she believes the only way to succeed is “from your heart, for the others and for the future we share.”
We inhabit a world in which there exists an unprecedented proliferation of freely accessible and (often) high quality information; information that no longer resides on library bookshelves, but rather that, thanks to the ubiquity of networks and the smart phones we carry in our pockets, accompanies us as we move about the world. Yet on issue after issue –climate change, vaccinations, immigration, technology, history, culture… – this ever expanding library struggles to shape public beliefs and actions. My talk will tackle the question of how to cut through the noise and how to make knowledge matter. Its focus will be on the role of critical design practice, on the one side, and on the need for innovative models of training and organization that merge the practical with the critical and theoretical, on the other. Knowledge that matters becomes actionable knowledge: it shapes not just our beliefs but what we do.
Next Generation of Founders - Students present their innovative ideas
Alex Zgraggen
15:45 - 16:30Room: Aare 3
Startfeld
Next Generation of Founders - Students present their innovative ideas
Alex Zgraggen Workshop instructor, Smartfeld
Throughout the day, a gymnasium class from Bern will take part in the Digital Entrepreneurship Werkstatt (DEW) from Smartfeld, an initiative by various stakeholders from St.Gallen (Startfeld, Empa, GBS SG, OST FH, PH SG & Uni SG) that has the goal to teach kids creativity and other necessary skills to prepare them for a digital future.
In the workshop the high school students will have the chance to redesign and improve a product or a service. To achieve this they will learn about the Design Thinking method and go through it’s five steps to successfully design a product or a service that fulfills it’s users needs.
During this session the high school students will pitch their results in front of an audience and a jury, that will challenge their ideas and ask questions.
Successful founders were once beginners, inexperienced, and eager for the challenges of founding a startup. They took one step in front of the other, always looking towards their vision of solving the problems of their target group. At the same time, they wanted to upscale.
Today, they are living their vision and have gained a great deal of experience. Now, it’s time to give back to the ecosystem. Successful founders share their insights and skills with you.
This panel invites you to learn from the highs and depths of successful founders. Learn what steps will help your business to blossom and grow.
Nicolas Durand
CEO and Founder, Abionic
Mike Glauser
Co-Founder, jumi
Nicole Herzog
Tech Entrepreneur, Board Member and Business Angel
Takeaways from Nexthink and Sophia Genetics on the tips and tricks of scaling-up
Manuela Valente & Patrick Hertzog
16:15 - 17:00Room: Panorama 1
Canton of Vaud
Takeaways from Nexthink and Sophia Genetics on the tips and tricks of scaling-up
Manuela Valente & Patrick Hertzog
As the main research and innovation center within the French speaking area of Switzerland, the Canton of Vaud is a highly favorable place for startups. It fosters major breakthroughs for companies which have raised up to CHF 2 billion over the past 7 years. So far, 34 became scale-ups leading the way for others to follow. Join this roundtable and learn from these 3 outstanding scale-ups.
As circular economy is necessary today to promote the goals of sustainable development, large companies like Swiss Post are about to implement new policies, but as well environmental technologies in order to create circular business models to effect a change in customer behavior. Swiss Post as driving force of the Swiss Economy is positioning itself with leading activities in this area.
Patrick Lampert
BU Head Circular Economy, Die Schweizerische Post
Raphael Fässler
Investor @ Swiss Post Ventures, Die Schweizerische Post
In this session, the experts of the leading startup valuation company, BV4, will give you insights into how to valuate your company. You will learn how investors see the valuation and how to define a valuation that is attractive for both parties of the funding round, the founders and the investor.
How to get funding from a private vs. a corporate VC
Alexander Stoeckel
16:30 - 17:15Room: Panorama 2
PMI
How to get funding from a private vs. a corporate VC
Alexander Stoeckel Head, PM Equity Partner, Switzerland
First-time founders and sometimes even serial entrepreneurs are often unclear as to how they should approach private or corporate VCs. And following a trial-and-error or spray&pray approach, they are also often frustrated by the investors‘ feedbacks.
This session aims to provide some hands-on suggestions on how to setup the fundraising process on the side of the startup. How to identify suitable investors, how to anticipate information requirements of different investors, how to reach out to different investors, etc.
Corporates and Startups are different formations with self-reinforcing tendencies each. Collaboration only works if expectations are clear from the very beginning. A mutual understanding of goals to be achieved and a clear allocation of roles is a must. AMAG owns a portfolio of startups, some of which are fully owned, some partially. Together with the respective CEOs, we want to show how AMAG is mastering the collaboration challenge.
