Accurately selected speakers from around the world enhance the event with valuable insights. All of our speakers have a personal passion for the expertise they share.
How to make your start-up appeal to investors and business partners.
Marcel Aeschlimann Owner, Creaholic SA
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.
Other Speakers: Marcel Oertle, Head of Private / Business Clients Department, Member of the Board, BEKB
Michael Sauter, CEO, Zentrum für Innovation und Digitalisierung Bernapark (ZID)
Raphael Oberholzer, Founder, NEEO
David Studer, Founder, Xovis AG
Moderator:
Dagmar Fässler, Head of Corporate Communications, BEKB
11:45 - 12:30Room: digitalswitzerland HUB, Aare Plenum
Venturelab
Venture Leaders: learning from the going global roadshow
Anthony Aho Co-Founder & CEO, PB&B
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.
Other Speakers: Wiktor Bourée, Co-Founder & CEO, Technis SA, member of the Swiss National Startup Teams Technology and China
Frédéric Falise, Co-Founder & Director, Scientific Visuals
Gianpaolo Rando, Co-Founder & CTO, SwissDeCode
Jannis Fischer, Co-Founder & CEO, Positrigo
Olga Dubey, Co-Founder & CEO, Agrosustain
Sandro Maag, Head of Customer Engagement, Kemiex
Moderator:
Jordi Montserrat, co-founder and managing partner, Venturelab
„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.
Other Speakers:
Cédric Waldburger, General Partner and Founder, Tomahawk.VC
Cynthia Jurytko, Business angel and President of the Board, S2S Ventures
Moderator:
Manuel Stagars, Author and Filmdirector
Head of Development Team - Medical Embedded Software, Helbling Technik
14:00 - 14:45Room: Panorama 4
Helbling Technik Bern AG
Start strong, finish strong - from vision to market.
Urs Anliker Head of Development Team - Medical Embedded Software, Helbling Technik
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.
Other Speakers: Lorenz Klauser, Head of Development Team – Health, Food & Lifestyle, Helbling Technik
Stefan Stalder, Project Manager, Helbling Technik
Real Estate 4.0 - The world's largest asset class is going digital & sustainable
Reza Alaghehband Co-Founder & CEO Envio Systems
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?
Other Speakers: Julian Vogel, Co-Founder, TOWER360 GmbH Etienne Jeoffroy, Co-Founder & CEO FenX AG
Dr. Alexander Reichhuber, Partner BeyondBuild
Moderator: Bastian Zarske Bueno, Head Group Corporate Ventures & Innovation,
Member of the Management Team, Swiss Prime Site AG
Key elements of successful collaboration between StartUps and Corporates
Ruth Armalé Head of Open Innovation, HITS
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!
Other Speakers: Beat Schlumpf, Head MA Ventures, Migros Aare
Raphael Fässler, Investor at Swiss Post Ventures, die Post
"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.
Advanced Oxygen Advantage™ Breathwork Instructor and Ultra-Endurance Athlete
10:45 - 11:15Room: Panorama 1
Breathe as a source of inspiration.
Matt Bagwell Advanced Oxygen Advantage™ Breathwork Instructor and Ultra-Endurance Athlete
Creativity is a key competence for the future. In this workshop, you learn how to use your breath to unlock creative energy. To begin you’ll learn the science of breathwork. Then, in a practical session, you’ll unlock the source of inspiration with powerful breathwork methods.
Meet our legal and tax experts and join our master class about exit. We talk about used cases and lessons learned from hundreds of deals in recent years.
We discuss potential pitfalls and how to do it better when it comes to an exit of your start up. We describe the various types of exit: trade sale (share deal, asset deal) IPO and SPAC.
Other Speakers: Pascal Honold, Partner, Wenger & Vieli AG
Patric Eggler, Tax Expert, Wenger & Vieli AG
Peter Balsiger Head of Experts, Swiss Entrepreneurs Foundation
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.
Other Speaker:
Peter Stähli, Head of Entrepreneurship, Swiss Entrepreneurs Foundation
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 outstanding roundtable organized by the Canton of Vaud on the tips and tricks of scaling.
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.
Dam Safety Specialist at Swiss Federal Office of Energy, Co-author "Gründerinnen"
11:45 - 12:30Room: Szenario 2
Her own boss
Alexandra Beckstein Dam Safety Specialist at Swiss Federal Office of Energy, Co-author "Gründerinnen"
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.
Other Speaker: Elena Wenger, Co-Founder and Vice President, FEM’UP
Alexandra Beckstein, Dam Safety Specialist at Swiss Federal Office of Energy, Co-author „Gründerinnen“
Naomi MacKenzie, Co-founder, KITRO & Trainer and Startup Coach, Venturelab
Aike Festini, Co-Founder & CEO, LuckaBox Logistics AG
Moderators: Peter Marthaler, Freelance journalist, moderator and communications consultant
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.
Other Speaker: Andri Silberschmidt, National Councillor
Martin Godel, Head SME Policy, SECO
Christian Busch, Scientific Advisor Innovation Unit, SERI
Daniel Bermejo-Carrasco Co-Managing Director Startup INVEST
Daniel Bermejo-Carrasco will conduct the spectacular pitching battle of innovative startups of the five verticals – Autonomous Systems, Healthtech, Sustainable Technologies, Fintech, and Services. He moderates the Semi-Final, Final, and Sounding Board together with Jean-Pierre Vuilleumier.
Board Member of Crypto Finance AG, Vice Chairman of Crypto Broker AG
09:00 - 09:45Room: Szenario 2
Building the world’s leading Crypto Nation
Marc P. Bernegger Board Member of Crypto Finance AG, Vice Chairman of Crypto Broker AG
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?
Other Speakers: Lucas Betschart, President of Bitcoin Association Switzerland
Niklas Nikolajsen, Founder and Chairman, Bitcoin Suisse
Moderator: Emi Lorincz, Senior Director at Ledger, Board Member CVA
Head Group Corporate Ventures & Innovation, Member of the Management Team, Swiss Prime Site AG
10:45 - 11:30Room: Panorama 2
Swiss Prime Site AG
Real Estate 4.0 - The world's largest asset class is going digital & sustainable
Bastian Zarske Bueno Head Group Corporate Ventures & Innovation, Member of the Management Team, Swiss Prime Site AG
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?
Speakers: Julian Vogel, Founder, TOWER360 GmbH Etienne Jeoffroy, Founder & CEO FenX AG
Reza Alaghehband, Founder & CEO Envio Systems
Dr. Alexander Reichhuber, Partner BeyondBuild
Dr. Remo Gerber, CEO, LEKO LABS
Head of Process Optimization, Schweizer Salinen AG
09:15 - 10:00Room: digitalswitzerland HUB, Aare Plenum
digitalswitzerland
Collaborative Innovation: How to innovate across organisational boundaries?
Michael Breitfeld Head of Process Optimization, Schweizer Salinen AG
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.
Other Speakers: Ulrich Schimpel, Chief Innovation Officer, IBM Switzerland
Urs Stender, Managing Director, BlueLion Incubator
Lucas Betschart President of Bitcoin Association Switzerland
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?
Other Speakers: Marc Bernegger, Board Member of Crypto Finance AG, Vice Chairman of Crypto Broker AG
Niklas Nikolajsen, Founder and Chairman, Bitcoin Suisse
Moderator: Emi Lorincz, Senior Director at Ledger, Board Member CVA
Creativity and Innovation: What Can We Learn from the Cultural Sector?
BLAY (Marc Sway & Bligg), Singer
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?
Other Speakers: André Lüthi, President & CEO, Globetrotter
Moderator: Patrizia Laeri, Economist, Journalist and Moderator
Co-Founder & CEO, Technis SA, member of the Swiss National Startup Teams Technology and China
11:45 - 12:30Room: digitalswitzerland HUB, Aare Plenum
Venturelab
Venture Leaders: learning from the going global roadshow
Wiktor Bourée Co-Founder & CEO, Technis SA, member of the Swiss National Startup Teams Technology and China
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.
Other Speakers:
Anthony Aho, Co-Founder & CEO, PB&B
Frédéric Falise, Co-Founder & Director, Scientific Visuals
Gianpaolo Rando, Co-Founder & CTO, SwissDeCode
Jannis Fischer, Co-Founder & CEO, Positrigo
Olga Dubey, Co-Founder & CEO, Agrosustain
Sandro Maag, Head of Customer Engagement, Kemiex
Moderator:
Jordi Montserrat, co-founder and managing partner, Venturelab
The zebra analogy tells the story of an alternative to the unicorn startups of Silicon Valley and the likes. Zebra startups have threecharacteristics. First, they are real, which means they focus on presentsocietal realities. Second, they thrive in communities and collaboratewith other zebras. And finally, zebra enterprises integrate themaximization 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.
Other Speaker: Florian Wieser, Startup & Innovation Lead, SENS
Moderator: Alban Muret, Partnership & Corporate Impact Lead, SENS
"Veni Digi Vinci", Head of Digitalization, Raiffeisen Unternehmerzentrum AG
15:45 - 16:30Room: Panorama 4
Raiffeisen und RUZ (Raiffeisen Unternehmerzentrum)
Let go of the entrepreneur in you - what you need to consider
René Brugger "Veni Digi Vinci", Head of Digitalization, Raiffeisen Unternehmerzentrum AG
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.
Other Speaker: Matthias Weibel, Entrepreneur & Optimist, CEO, Raiffeisen Unternehmerzentrum AG
Moderator: Thomas Tanner, Entrepreneur & Shaper, Head of Innovation, Raiffeisen Unternehmerzentrum AG
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.
Other Speakers:
Philip Morger, Consultant Internationalization Starters, Switzerland Global Enterprise
Marcel Hofstetter, Scientific Officer, Innosuisse
Olga Dubey, Co-founder and CEO, AgroSustain
Moderator:
Matthias Zwingli, Head of Startup & International, digitalswitzerland
Key elements of successful collaboration between StartUps and Corporates
Tobias Burri Manager, ActionJam
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!
Speakers: Beat Schlumpf, Head MA Ventures, Migros Aare
Raphael Fässler, Investor at Swiss Post Ventures, die Post
Ruth Armalé, Head of Open Innovation, HITS
Christian Busch Scientific Advisor Innovation Unit, SERI
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.
Other Speaker: Judith Bellaiche, National Councillor
Andri Silberschmidt, National Councillor
Martin Godel, Head SME Policy, SECO
Christian Busch, Scientific Advisor Innovation Unit, SER
Regional Director (Switzerland), Singapore Economic Development Board
15:45 - 16:15Room: digitalswitzerland HUB, Aare Plenum
digitalswitzerland
Access SEA's $300B tech economy via Singapore
Kane Cheong Regional Director (Switzerland), Singapore Economic Development Board
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.
Other Speaker: Jonas Trindler, CEO Asia & Partner, Zuhlke Group
Raffael Maio, Chief Strategy Officer and Co-Founder, Swiss startup NetGuardians
Moderator: Alberenee Sim, Regional Vice President (Europe), Network and Partnership Development, Singapore Global Network
Startups and Innovation Project Manager, swissnex Brazil
11:30 - 12:30Room: Swisscom Hub / Szenario 1
Swissnex
Scale to New Markets - India and Brazil
Danielle Cohen Startups and Innovation Project Manager, swissnex Brazil
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.
Other Speaker: Archit Kansal, Program Lead – Deeptech, Innovation & Startup Partnerships, swissnex India
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.
11:45 - 12:30Room: digitalswitzerland HUB, Aare Plenum
Venturelab
Venture Leaders: learning from the going global roadshow
Olga Dubey Co-Founder & CEO, Agrosustain
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.
Other Speakers: Wiktor Bourée, Co-Founder & CEO, Technis SA, member of the Swiss National Startup Teams Technology and China
Anthony Aho, Co-Founder & CEO, PB&B
Frédéric Falise, Co-Founder & Director, Scientific Visuals
Gianpaolo Rando, Co-Founder & CTO, SwissDeCode
Jannis Fischer, Co-Founder & CEO, Positrigo
Sandro Maag, Head of Customer Engagement, Kemiex
Moderator:
Jordi Montserrat, co-founder and managing partner, Venturelab
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.
Other Speakers:
Philip Morger, Consultant Internationalization Starters, Switzerland Global Enterprise
Jonas Brunschwig, Deputy CEO, swissnex Boston
Marcel Hofstetter, Scientific Officer, Innosuisse
Moderator:
Matthias Zwingli, Head of Startup & International, digitalswitzerland
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.
Other Speakers:
Mike Glauser, Co-Founder, jumi
Nicole Herzog, Tech Entrepreneur, Board Member and Business Angel
Moderator:
Christian Wenger, Chairman Startup INVEST
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.
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.
Speakers: Judith Bellaiche, National Councillor
Martin Godel, Head SME Policy, SECO
Christian Busch, Scientific Advisor Innovation Unit, SERI
Andri Silberschmidt, National Councillor
Meet our legal and tax experts and join our master class about exit. We talk about used cases and lessons learned from hundreds of deals in recent years.
We discuss potential pitfalls and how to do it better when it comes to an exit of your start up. We describe the various types of exit: trade sale (share deal, asset deal) IPO and SPAC.
Other Speaker: Pascal Honold, Partner, Wenger & Vieli AG
Patric Eggler, Tax Expert, Wenger & Vieli AG
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.
Others Speaker:
Dominique Mégret, Head, Swisscom Ventures
Patrick Thévoz, Co-Founder & CEO, Flyability
Dr. Péter Fankhauser, Co-Founder & CEO, Anybotics
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.
Other Speakers: Wiktor Bourée, Co-Founder & CEO, Technis SA, member of the Swiss National Startup Teams Technology and China
Anthony Aho, Co-Founder & CEO, PB&B
Gianpaolo Rando, Co-Founder & CTO, SwissDeCode
Jannis Fischer, Co-Founder & CEO, Positrigo
Olga Dubey, Co-Founder & CEO, Agrosustain
Sandro Maag, Head of Customer Engagement, Kemiex
Moderator:
Jordi Montserrat, co-founder and managing partner, Venturelab
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.
Other Speakers:
Martin Eichenhofer, CEO, 9T Labs
Patrick Thévoz, Co-Founder & CEO, Flyability
Dominique Mégret, Head, Swisscom Ventures
Moderator:
Klea Wenger, Investment Manager, Swisscom Ventures
Investor @ Swiss Post Ventures, Die Schweizerische Post
15:45 - 16:15Room: Aare 2
Die Schweizerische Post
Circular economy @ your doorstep
Raphael Fässler Investor @ Swiss Post Ventures, Die Schweizerische Post
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.
Other Speaker: Patrick Lampert, BU Head Circular Economy, Die Schweizerische Post
11:30-12:15
Room: Panorama 1
ActionJam
PaKey elements of successful collaboration between StartUps and Corporates
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!
Other Speakers:
Ruth Armalé, Head of Open Innovation, HITS
Beat Schlumpf, Head MA Ventures, Migros Aare
How to make your start-up appeal to investors and business partners.
Dagmar Fässler Head of Corporate Communications, BEKB
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.
Speakers: Marcel Aeschlimann, Owner, Creaholic SA
Marcel Oertle, Head of Private / Business Clients Department, Member of the Board, BEKB
Michael Sauter, CEO, ZID Zentrum Innovation Digitalisierung
Raphael Oberholzer, Founder, NEEO
David Studer, Founder, Vengrow AG
Aike Festini Co-Founder & CEO, LuckaBox Logistics AG
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.
Other Speaker: Elena Wenger, Co-Founder and Vice President, FEM’UP
Alexandra Beckstein, Dam Safety Specialist at Swiss Federal Office of Energy, Co-author „Gründerinnen“
Naomi MacKenzie, Co-founder of KITRO, Trainer and Startup Coach, Venturelab
Moderators: Peter Marthaler, Freelance journalist, moderator and communications consultant
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.
11:45 - 12:30Room: digitalswitzerland HUB, Aare Plenum
Venturelab
Venture Leaders: learning from the going global roadshow
Jannis Fischer Co-Founder & CEO, Positrigo
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.
Other Speakers: Wiktor Bourée, Co-Founder & CEO, Technis SA, member of the Swiss National Startup Teams Technology and China
Anthony Aho, Co-Founder & CEO, PB&B
Frédéric Falise, Co-Founder & Director, Scientific Visuals
Gianpaolo Rando, Co-Founder & CTO, SwissDeCode
Olga Dubey, Co-Founder & CEO, Agrosustain
Sandro Maag, Head of Customer Engagement, Kemiex
Moderator:
Jordi Montserrat, co-founder and managing partner, Venturelab
The 90-second pitch: convincing investors and bosses with storytelling
Philippe Ganz Co-Founder, aiEndoscopic
The elevator pitch is elementary for founders and innovation teams. Learn how to use methods like design thinking and storytelling to stage your idea, prototype or MVP in this interactive workshop with Stefan Huber and a start-up.
Moderator: Stefan Huber, Innosuisse-Coach & Founder StoryUp
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.
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.
Speakers: Ulrich Schimpel, Chief Innovation Officer, IBM Switzerland
Urs Stender, Managing Director, BlueLion Incubator
Michael Breitfeld, Head of Process Optimization, Schweizer Salinen AG
Other Moderator: Stephanie Tauber, Gomez, Co-Lead, Leap, Collaborative Innovation
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.
Other Speaker: Judith Bellaiche, National Councillor
Andri Silberschmidt, National Councillor
Christian Busch, Scientific Advisor Innovation Unit, SERI
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.
Other Speakers:
Cynthia Jurytko, Business angel and President of the Board, S2S Ventures
Tomas Sluka, Co-founder and CEO, CREAL
Petar Tsankov, Co-founder and CEO, LatticeFlow
Lewis Jones, PhD Student at ETH Zurich and Investment manager, S2S Ventures
Paulina Grnarova, Co-founder and CEO, DeepJudg
Moderator: Gregory Inauen, Former President, ETH Entrepreneur Club
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.
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.
Other Speakers:
Cynthia Jurytko, Business angel and President of the Board, S2S Ventures
Tomas Sluka, Co-founder and CEO, CREAL
Petar Tsankov, Co-founder and CEO, LatticeFlow
Lewis Jones, PhD Student at ETH Zurich and Investment manager, S2S Ventures
David Gorgan – Founder and CEO of Nostos Genomics
Moderator: Gregory Inauen, Former President, ETH Entrepreneur Club
EPFL Chair for Entrepreneurship & Technology Commercialization
15:45 - 16:30Room: Panorama 3
EPFL
The Market Opportunity Navigator (Lean Startup)
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.
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.
Other Speaker:
Nicolas Durand, CEO and Founder, Abionic
Nicole Herzog, Tech Entrepreneur, Board Member and Business Angel
Moderator:
Christian Wenger, Chairman Startup INVEST
„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.
Other Speaker: Alexander Tlili, Underwriter Financial Lines PI and Cyber S&P, Zurich Insurance Company Ltd
Tech Entrepreneur, Board Member and Business Angel
16:30 - 17:15Room: Szenario 2
Giving back to Ecosystem
Nicole Herzog Tech Entrepreneur, Board Member and Business Angel
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.
Other Speaker:
Nicolas Durand, CEO and Founder, Abionic
Mike Glauser, Co-Founder, jumi
Moderator:
Christian Wenger, Chairman Startup INVEST
Takeaways from Nexthink and Sophia Genetics on the tips and tricks of scaling-up
Patrick Hertzog Co-Founder & User Experience Officer, Nexthink
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.
Other Speaker:
Manuela Valente, Chief People Officer, Sophia Genetics
Moderator:
Aline Bassin, Economic Journalist, Le Temps
Live Podcast Swisspreneur: Succeeding as a purpose driven organization
Mannar Hielal Software Developer
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.
Other Speaker: Bettina Hirsig, Lead, Powercoders Switzerland
Live Podcast Swisspreneur: Succeeding as a purpose driven organization
Bettina Hirsig Lead, Powercoders Switzerland
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.
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.
Other Speakers:
Philip Morger, Consultant Internationalization Starters, Switzerland Global Enterprise
Jonas Brunschwig, Deputy CEO, swissnex Boston
Olga Dubey, Co-founder and CEO, AgroSustain
Moderator:
Matthias Zwingli, Head of Startup & International, digitalswitzerland
The 90-second pitch: convincing investors and bosses with storytelling
Stefan Huber Innosuisse-Coach & Founder StoryUp
The elevator pitch is elementary for founders and innovation teams. Learn how to use methods like design thinking and storytelling to stage your idea, prototype or MVP in this interactive workshop with Stefan Huber and a start-up.
Gregory Inauen Former President, ETH Entrepreneur Club
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.
Speakers:
Cynthia Jurytko, Business angel and President of the Board, S2S Ventures
Tomas Sluka, Co-founder and CEO, CREAL
Petar Tsankov, Co-founder and CEO, LatticeFlow
Lewis Jones, PhD Student at ETH Zurich and Investment manager, S2S Ventures
Paulina Grnarova, Co-founder and CEO, DeepJudge
David Gorgan – Founder and CEO of Nostos Genomics
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?
Real Estate 4.0 - The world's largest asset class is going digital & sustainable
Etienne Jeoffroy Founder & CEO FenX AG
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?
Other Speakers: Julian Vogel, Co-Founder, TOWER360 GmbH
Reza Alaghehband, Co-Founder & CEO Envio Systems
Dr. Alexander Reichhuber, Partner BeyondBuild
Moderator: Bastian Zarske Bueno, Head Group Corporate Ventures & Innovation,
Member of the Management Team, Swiss Prime Site AG
PhD Student at ETH Zurich and Investment manager, S2S Ventures
15:45 - 16:30Room: Panorama 2
S2S
Tips and tricks for deeptech (pre-)seed financing
Lewis Jones PhD Student at ETH Zurich and Investment manager, S2S Ventures
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.
Other Speakers:
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
Petar Tsankov, Co-founder and CEO, LatticeFlow
David Gorgan – Founder and CEO of Nostos Genomics
Moderator: Gregory Inauen, Former President, ETH Entrepreneur Club
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.
Business angel and President of the Board, S2S Ventures
15:45 - 16:30Room: Panorama 2
S2S
Tips and tricks for deeptech (pre-)seed financing
Cynthia Jurytko Business angel and President of the Board, S2S Ventures
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.
Other Speakers:
Tomas Sluka, Co-founder and CEO, CREAL
Paulina Grnarova, Co-founder and CEO, DeepJudge
Petar Tsankov, Co-founder and CEO, LatticeFlow
Lewis Jones, PhD Student at ETH Zurich and Investment manager, S2S Ventures
David Gorgan – Founder and CEO of Nostos Genomics
Moderator: Gregory Inauen, Former President, ETH Entrepreneur Club
14:00-14:45
Room: Panorama 2
Filmtalk:
The Real Life of Swiss Deep Tech Startups
„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.
Other Speakers:
Cédric Waldburger, General Partner and Founder, Tomahawk.VC
Samantha Anderson, Co-Founder, Depoly
Moderator:
Manuel Stagars, Author and Filmdirector
Senior IP Trainer, Intellectual Property Institute (IPI)
14:00 - 14:45Room: Panorama 3
IGE
To IP or not: do startups have a choice?
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?
Lead new economic models and future affairs, WWF Switzerland
14:00 - 14:45Room: digitalswitzerland HUB, Aare Plenum
digitalswitzerland
Decarbonisation as a global challenge - What role can technology play in becoming Net-Zero?
Ion Karagounis Lead new economic models and future affairs, WWF Switzerland
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.
Other Speakers: Isabelle Tschugmall, CMO, Global Green Xchange AG
Eliana Zamprogna, CTO, Migros Industry
Moderator: Matthias Zwingli, Head of Startup & International digitalswitzerland
Program Lead - Deeptech, Innovation & Startup Partnerships, swissnex India
11:30 - 12:30Room: Swisscom Hub / Szenario 1
Swissnex
Scale to New Markets - India and Brazil
Archit Kansal Program Lead - Deeptech, Innovation & Startup Partnerships, swissnex India
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.
Other Speaker: Danielle Cohen, Startups and Innovation Project Manager, swissnex Brazil
Live Podcast Swisspreneur: Succeeding as a purpose driven organization
Silvan Krähenbühl Swisspreneur, Host
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.
In this special fireside chat, Swisspreneur will interview a special guest to talk about their journey from startup to IPO. Join us for insightful learnings along the way, when it makes sense to go IPO and how you successfully go public with your company.
Co-Owner, Athletes Network & professional football player
09:00 - 09:45Room: Panorama 2
Athletes Network
Improve your performance like an athlete
Rahel Kiwic Co-Owner, Athletes Network & professional football player
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.
Other Speaker:
Julia Philipona, Co-Owner, Athletes Network
Head of Development Team - Health, Food & Lifestyle, Helbling Technik
14:00 - 14:45Room: Panorama 4
Helbling Technik Bern AG
Start strong, finish strong - from vision to market.
Lorenz Klauser Head of Development Team - Health, Food & Lifestyle, Helbling Technik
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.
Other Speakers: Urs Anliker, Head of Development Team – Medical Embedded Software, Helbling Technik Stefan Stalder, Project Manager, Helbling Technik,
Join a moderated panel with two founders and two investors, followed by a Q&A session.
Other Speakers:
Meriam Kabbaj, Co-founder, Chief Operations Officer, Versantis
Aleksandra Laska, Partner, Redalpine
Michael Wacker, General Partner, BioMedPartners
Moderator:
Michael Stucky, ETH Zurich, Entrepreneur and Start-up Mentor
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.
Speakers:
Jeannette Morath, CEO, reCIRCLE AG
Samuel Müller, CEO, Scandit
Stefan Tuchschmid, Founder and Co-CEO, Virtamed
Léa Miggiano, Co-Founder and CMO, Carvolution AG
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.
Speaker: Mariana Mazzucato, Founding Director, UCL Institute for Innovation & Public Purpose (IIPP)
Join a moderated panel with two founders and two investors, followed by a Q&A session.
Other Speakers:
Meriam Kabbaj, Co-founder, Chief Operations Officer, Versantis
Elias Kleimann, Co-Founder and CFO, Wingtra
Michael Wacker, General Partner, BioMedPartners
Moderator:
Michael Stucky, ETH Zurich, Entrepreneur and Start-up Mentor
Patrick Lampert BU Head Circular Economy, Die Schweizerische Post
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.
Other Speaker:
Raphael Fässler, Investor @ Swiss Post Ventures, Die Schweizerische Post
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.
Emi Lorincz Senior Director at Ledger, Board Member CVA
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?
Speakers:
Marc P. Bernegger, Board Member, Crypto Finance AG, Vice Chairman, Crypto Broker AG
Lucas Betschart, President, Bitcoin Association Switzerland
Niklas Nikolajsen, Founder and Chairman, Bitcoin Suisse
Creativity and Innovation: What Can We Learn from the Cultural Sector?
André Lüthi, President & CEO, Globetrotter
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?
Other Speakers: BLAY (Marc Sway & Bligg), Singer
Moderator: Patrizia Laeri, Economist, Journalist and Moderator
Co-founder, KITRO & Trainer and Startup Coach at Venturelab
11:45 - 12:30Room: Szenario 2
Her own boss
Naomi MacKenzie Co-founder, KITRO & Trainer and Startup Coach at Venturelab
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.
Other Speakers: Elena Wenger, Co-Founder and Vice President, FEM’UP
Alexandra Beckstein, Dam Safety Specialist at Swiss Federal Office of Energy, Co-author „Gründerinnen“
Aike Festini, Co-Founder & CEO, LuckaBox Logistics AG
Moderators: Peter Marthaler, Freelance journalist, moderator and communications consultant
11:45 - 12:30Room: digitalswitzerland HUB, Aare Plenum
Venturelab
Venture Leaders: learning from the going global roadshow
Sandro Maag Head of Customer Engagement, Kemiex
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.
Other Speakers: Wiktor Bourée, Co-Founder & CEO, Technis SA, member of the Swiss National Startup Teams Technology and China
Anthony Aho, Co-Founder & CEO, PB&B
Frédéric Falise, Co-Founder & Director, Scientific Visuals
Gianpaolo Rando, Co-Founder & CTO, SwissDeCode
Jannis Fischer, Co-Founder & CEO, Positrigo
Olga Dubey, Co-Founder & CEO, Agrosustain
Moderator:
Jordi Montserrat, co-founder and managing partner, Venturelab
Freelance journalist, moderator and communications consultant
11:45 - 12:30Room: Szenario 2
Her own boss
Peter Marthaler Freelance journalist, moderator and communications consultant
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.
Speakers: Elena Wenger, Co-Founder and Vice President, FEM’UP
Alexandra Beckstein, Dam Safety Specialist at Swiss Federal Office of Energy, Co-author „Gründerinnen“
Aike Festini, Co-Founder & CEO, LuckaBox Logistics AG
Naomi MacKenzie, Co-founder, KITRO & Trainer and Startup Coach at Venturelab
Chief Strategy Officer and Co-Founder, Swiss startup NetGuardians
15:45 - 16:15Room: digitalswitzerland HUB, Aare Plenum
digitalswitzerland
Access SEA's $300B tech economy via Singapore
Raffael Maio Chief Strategy Officer and Co-Founder, Swiss startup NetGuardians
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.
Other Speakers: Jonas Trindler, CEO Asia & Partner, Zuhlke Group
Kane Cheong, Regional Director (Switzerland), Singapore Economic Development Board
Moderator: Alberenee Sim, Regional Vice President (Europe), Network and Partnership Development, Singapore Global Network
Founding Director of the UCL Institute for Innovation & Public Purpose (IIPP)
09:00 - 09:30Room: Panorama 1
Why innovation needs an entrepreneurial state?
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
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.
Other Speakers:
Jeannette Morath, CEO, reCIRCLE AG
Samuel Müller, CEO, Scandit
Stefan Tuchschmid, Founder and Co-CEO, Virtamed
Moderator:
Stefan Kyora, Editor in Chief, Startupticker.ch
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.
Other Speakers:
Martin Eichenhofer, CEO, 9T Labs
Patrick Thévoz, Co-Founder & CEO, Flyability
Dr. Péter Fankhauser, Co-Founder & CEO, Anybotics
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.
Other Speaker:
Léa Miggiano, Co-Founder and CMO, Carvolution AG
Samuel Müller, CEO, Scandit
Stefan Tuchschmid, Founder and Co-CEO, Virtamed
Moderator:
Stefan Kyora, Editor in Chief, Startupticker.ch
11:45 - 12:30Room: digitalswitzerland HUB, Aare Plenum
Venturelab
Venture Leaders: learning from the going global roadshow
Jordi Montserrat co-founder and managing partner, Venturelab
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.
Speakers: Wiktor Bourée, Co-Founder & CEO, Technis SA, member of the Swiss National Startup Teams Technology and China
Anthony Aho, Co-Founder & CEO, PB&B
Frédéric Falise, Co-Founder & Director, Scientific Visuals
Gianpaolo Rando, Co-Founder & CTO, SwissDeCode
Jannis Fischer, Co-Founder & CEO, Positrigo
Olga Dubey, Co-Founder & CEO, Agrosustain
Sandro Maag, Head of Customer Engagement, Kemiex
Alban Muret Partnership & Corporate Impact Lead, SENS
The zebra analogy tells the story of an alternative to the unicorn startups of Silicon Valley and the likes. Zebra startups have threecharacteristics. First, they are real, which means they focus on presentsocietal realities. Second, they thrive in communities and collaboratewith other zebras. And finally, zebra enterprises integrate themaximization 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.
Consultant Internationalization Starters, Switzerland Global Enterprise
10:45 - 11:30Room: Szenario 2
Swisstech
Going global – how to scale internationally
Philip Morger Consultant Internationalization Starters, Switzerland Global Enterprise
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.
Other Speakers:
Jonas Brunschwig, Deputy CEO, swissnex Boston
Marcel Hofstetter, Scientific Officer, Innosuisse
Olga Dubey, Co-founder and CEO, AgroSustain
Moderator:
Matthias Zwingli, Head of Startup & International, digitalswitzerland
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.
Other Speakers:
Léa Miggiano, Co-Founder and CMO, Carvolution AG
Jeannette Morath, CEO, reCIRCLE AG
Stefan Tuchschmid, Founder and Co-CEO, Virtamed
Moderator:
Stefan Kyora, Editor in Chief, Startupticker.ch
Niklas Nikolajsen Founder and Chairman, Bitcoin Suisse
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?
Other Speakers: Lucas Betschart, President of Bitcoin Association Switzerland
Marc Bernegger, Board Member of Crypto Finance AG, Vice Chairman of Crypto Broker AG
Moderator: Emi Lorincz, Senior Director at Ledger, Board Member CVA
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.
Other Speakers: Philipp Wetzel, Managing Director, AMAG Innovation & Venture LAB
Jaap Vossen, CEO, autoSense
Moderator:
Stefan Rüssli, Head of Ventures, AMAG Innovation & Venture LAB
How to make your start-up appeal to investors and business partners.
Raphael Oberholzer Founder, NEEO
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.
Other Speakers:
Marcel Aeschlimann, Owner, Creaholic SA
Marcel Oertle, Head of Private / Business Clients Department, Member of the Board, BEKB
Michael Sauter, CEO, Zentrum für Innovation und Digitalisierung Bernapark (ZID)
David Studer, Founder, Xovis AG
Moderator:
Dagmar Fässler, Head of Corporate Communications, BEKB
Head of Private / Business Clients Department, Member of the Board, BEKB
11:45 - 12:30Room: Panorama 2
BEKB
How to make your start-up appeal to investors and business partners.
Marcel Oertle Head of Private / Business Clients Department, Member of the Board, BEKB
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.
Other Speakers:
Marcel Aeschlimann, Owner, Creaholic SA
Michael Sauter, CEO, Zentrum für Innovation und Digitalisierung Bernapark (ZID)
Raphael Oberholzer, Founder, NEEO
David Studer, Founder, Vengrow AG
Moderator: Dagmar Fässler, Head of Corporate Communications, BEKB
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?
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.
Other Speaker:
Rahel Kiwic, Co-Owner, Athletes Network & professional football player
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
11:45 - 12:30Room: digitalswitzerland HUB, Aare Plenum
Venturelab
Venture Leaders: learning from the going global roadshow
Gianpaolo Rando Co-Founder & CTO, SwissDeCode
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.
1) Discussion with Wiktor Bourée, Technis SA, Co-Founder & CEO, member of the Swiss National Startup Teams Technology and China
Other Speakers: Wiktor Bourée, Co-Founder & CEO, Technis SA, member of the Swiss National Startup Teams Technology and China
Anthony Aho, Co-Founder & CEO, PB&B
Frédéric Falise, Co-Founder & Director, Scientific Visuals
Jannis Fischer, Co-Founder & CEO, Positrigo
Olga Dubey, Co-Founder & CEO, Agrosustain
Sandro Maag, Head of Customer Engagement, Kemiex
Moderator:
Jordi Montserrat, co-founder and managing partner, Venturelab
Real Estate 4.0 - The world's largest asset class is going digital & sustainable
Dr. Alexander Reichhuber, Partner BeyondBuild
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?
Other Speakers: Julian Vogel, Founder, TOWER360 GmbH Etienne Jeoffroy, Founder & CEO FenX AG
Reza Alaghehband, Founder & CEO Envio Systems
Moderator: Bastian Zarske Bueno, Head Group Corporate Ventures & Innovation,
Member of the Management Team, Swiss Prime Site AG
Stefan Rüssli Head of Ventures, AMAG Innovation & Venture LAB
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.
Speakers: Philipp Wetzel, Managing Director, AMAG Innovation & Venture LAB
Timo Nührich, General Manager, Clyde
Jaap Vossen, CEO, autoSense
09:15 - 10:00Room: digitalswitzerland HUB, Aare Plenum
digitalswitzerland
Collaborative Innovation: How to innovate across organisational boundaries?
Urs Stender Managing Director, BlueLion Incubator
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.
Other Speakers:
Ulrich Schimpel, Chief Innovation Officer, IBM Switzerland
Michael Breitfeld, Head of Process Optimization, Schweizer Salinen AG
CEO, Zentrum für Innovation und Digitalisierung Bernapark (ZID)
11:45 - 12:30Room: Panorama 2
BEKB
How to make your start-up appeal to investors and business partners.
Michael Sauter CEO, Zentrum für Innovation und Digitalisierung Bernapark (ZID)
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.
Other Speakers:
Marcel Oertle, Head of Private / Business Clients Department, Member of the Board, BEKB
Marcel Aeschlimann, Owner, Creaholic SA
Raphael Oberholzer, Founder, NEEO
David Studer, Founder, Xovis AG
Moderator:
Dagmar Fässler, Head of Corporate Communications, BEKB
09:15 - 10:00Room: digitalswitzerland HUB, Aare Plenum
digitalswitzerland
Collaborative Innovation: How to innovate across organisational boundaries?
Ulrich Schimpel Chief Innovation Officer, IBM Switzerland
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.
Other Speakers:
Urs Stender, Managing Director, BlueLion Incubator
Michael Breitfeld, Head of Process Optimization, Schweizer Salinen AG
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.
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.
Regional Vice President (Europe), Network and Partnership Development, Singapore Global Network
15:45 - 16:15Room: digitalswitzerland HUB, Aare Plenum
digitalswitzerland
Access SEA's $300B tech economy via Singapore
Alberenee Sim Regional Vice President (Europe), Network and Partnership Development, Singapore Global Network
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.
Speakers: Jonas Trindler, CEO Asia & Partner, Zuhlke Group
Raffael Maio, Chief Strategy Officer and Co-Founder, Swiss startup NetGuardians
Kane Cheong, Regional Director (Switzerland), Singapore Economic Development Board
Key elements of successful collaboration between StartUps and Corporates
Beat Schlumpf Head MA Ventures, Migros Aare
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!
Other Speakers: Ruth Armalé, Head of Open Innovation, HITS
Raphael Fässler, Investor at Swiss Post Ventures, die Post
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.
Other Speakers: Judith Bellaiche, National Councillor
Martin Godel, Head SME Policy, SECO
Christian Busch, Scientific Advisor Innovation Unit, SERI
„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.
Speakers: Samantha Anderson, Depoly, Co-Founder
Cédric Waldburger, General Partner and Founder, Tomahawk.VC
Cynthia Jurytko, Business angel and President of the Board, S2S Ventures
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.
Other Speakers:
Cynthia Jurytko, Business angel and President of the Board, S2S Ventures
Paulina Grnarova, Co-founder and CEO, DeepJudge
Petar Tsankov, Co-founder and CEO, LatticeFlow
Lewis Jones, PhD Student at ETH Zurich and Investment manager, S2S Ventures
David Gorgan – Founder and CEO of Nostos Genomics
Moderator: Gregory Inauen, Former President, ETH Entrepreneur Club
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.
Speakers: Ulrich Schimpel, Chief Innovation Officer, IBM Switzerland
Urs Stender, Managing Director, BlueLion Incubator
Michael Breitfeld, Head of Process Optimization, Schweizer Salinen AG
Other Moderator: Guillaume Gabus, Co-Lead, Leap, Collaborative Innovation
Start strong, finish strong - from vision to market.
Stefan Stalder Project Manager, Helbling Technik
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.
Other Speakers: Lorenz Klauser, Head of Development Team – Health, Food & Lifestyle, Helbling Technik
Urs Anliker, Head of Development Team – Medical Embedded Software, Helbling Technik
Head of Entrepreneurship, Swiss Entrepreneurs Foundation
15:45 - 16:30Room: Swisscom Hub / Szenario 1
Swiss Entrepreneurs Foundation
SwissEF UpScaler - The Fast Track
Peter Stähli Head of Entrepreneurship, Swiss Entrepreneurs Foundation
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.
Other Speaker:
Peter Balsiger, Head of Experts, Swiss Entrepreneurs Foundation
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.
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.
Michael Stucky ETH Zurich, Entrepreneur and Start-up Mentor
Join a moderated panel with two founders and two investors, followed by a Q&A session.
Speakers:
Meriam Kabbaj, Co-founder, Chief Operations Officer, Versantis
Aleksandra Laska, Partner, Redalpine
Michael Wacker, General Partner, BioMedPartners
Elias Kleimann, Co-Founder and CFO, Wingtra
How to make your start-up appeal to investors and business partners.
David Studer Founder, Xovis AG
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.
Other Speakers:
Marcel Aeschlimann, Owner, Creaholic SA
Marcel Oertle, Head of Private / Business Clients Department, Member of the Board, BEKB
Michael Sauter, CEO, Zentrum für Innovation und Digitalisierung Bernapark (ZID)
Raphael Oberholzer, Founder, NEEO
Moderator:
Dagmar Fässler, Head of Corporate Communications, BEKB
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.
Other Speakers:
Jeannette Morath, CEO, reCIRCLE AG
Samuel Müller, CEO, Scandit
Léa Miggiano, Co-Founder and CMO, Carvolution AG
Moderator: Stefan Kyora, Editor in Chief, Startupticker.ch
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.
Other Speakers:
Martin Eichenhofer, CEO, 9T Labs
Dominique Mégret, Head, Swisscom Ventures
Dr. Péter Fankhauser, Co-Founder & CEO, Anybotics
Entrepreneur & Shaper, Head of Innovation, Raiffeisen Unternehmerzentrum AG
15:45 - 16:30Room: Panorama 4
Raiffeisen und RUZ (Raiffeisen Unternehmerzentrum)
Let go of the entrepreneur in you - what you need to consider
Thomas Tanner Entrepreneur & Shaper, Head of Innovation, Raiffeisen Unternehmerzentrum AG
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.
Speakers: Matthias Weibel, Entrepreneur & Optimist, CEO, Raiffeisen Unternehmerzentrum AG René Brugger „Veni Digi Vinci“, Head of Digitalization, Raiffeisen Unternehmerzentrum AG
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.
Other Speakers:
Cynthia Jurytko, Business angel and President of the Board, S2S Ventures
Paulina Grnarova, Co-founder and CEO, DeepJudge
Tomas Sluka, Co-founder and CEO, CREAL
Lewis Jones, PhD Student at ETH Zurich and Investment manager, S2S Ventures
David Gorgan – Founder and CEO of Nostos Genomics
Moderator: Gregory Inauen, Former President, ETH Entrepreneur Club
15:45 - 16:15Room: digitalswitzerland HUB, Aare Plenum
digitalswitzerland
Access SEA's $300B tech economy via Singapore
Jonas Trindler CEO Asia & Partner, Zuhlke Group
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.
Other Speaker: Kane Cheong, Regional Director (Switzerland), Singapore Economic Development Board
Raffael Maio, Chief Strategy Officer and Co-Founder, Swiss startup NetGuardians
Moderator: Alberenee Sim, Regional Vice President (Europe), Network and Partnership Development, Singapore Global Network
Underwriter Financial Lines PI and Cyber, Zurich Insurance Company Ltd.
09:30 - 10:15Room: Panorama 3
Zürich
Cyberattacks: How SMEs can protect themselves
Alexander Tlili Underwriter Financial Lines PI and Cyber, Zurich Insurance Company Ltd.
„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.
Other Speaker:
Sylvain Heiniger, Security Analyst, Compass Security
CMO / Communication & Partnerships Global Green Xchange
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 CMO / Communication & Partnerships Global Green Xchange
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.
Other Speakers: Ion Karagounis, Lead new economic models and future affairs, WWF Switzerland
Eliana Zamprogna, CTO, Migros Industry
Moderator: Matthias Zwingli, Head of Startup & International digitalswitzerland
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.
Other Speaker:
Ramona Wyss, Partner, Walder Wyss AG
Takeaways from Nexthink and Sophia Genetics on the tips and tricks of scaling-up
Manuela Valente Chief People Officer, Sophia Genetics
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.
Other Speaker:
Patrick Hertzog, Co-Founder & User Experience Officer, Nexthink
Moderator:
Aline Bassin, Economic Journalist, Le Temps
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.
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.
Other Speakers: Philipp Wetzel, Managing Director, AMAG Innovation & Venture LAB
Timo Nührich, General Manager, Clyde
Moderator:
Stefan Rüssli, Head of Ventures, AMAG Innovation & Venture LAB
Real Estate 4.0 - The world's largest asset class is going digital & sustainable
Julian Vogel Co-Founder, TOWER360 GmbH
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?
Other Speakers: Etienne Jeoffroy, Co-Founder & CEO FenX AG
Reza Alaghehband, Co-Founder & CEO Envio Systems
Dr. Alexander Reichhuber, Partner BeyondBuild
Moderator: Bastian Zarske Bueno, Head Group Corporate Ventures & Innovation,
Member of the Management Team, Swiss Prime Site AG
Jean-Pierre Vuilleumier Managing Director Startup INVEST
Jean-Pierre Vuilleumier will conduct the spectacular pitching battle of innovative startups of the five verticals – Autonomous Systems, Healthtech, Sustainable Technologies, Fintech, and Services. He moderates the Semi-Final, Final and Sounding Board together with Daniel Bermejo-Carrasco.
Join a moderated panel with two founders and two investors, followed by a Q&A session.
Other Speakers:
Elias Kleimann, Co-Founder and CFO, Wingtra
Meriam Kabbaj, Co-founder, Chief Operations Officer, Versantis
Aleksandra Laska, Partner, Redalpine
Moderator:
Michael Stucky, ETH Zurich, Entrepreneur and Start-up Mentor
Cédric Waldburger General Partner and Founder, Tomahawk.VC
„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.
Other Speakers: Samantha Anderson, Co-Founder, Depoly
Cynthia Jurytko, Business angel and President of the Board, S2S Ventures
Moderator:
Manuel Stagars, Author and Filmdirector
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.
Entrepreneur & Optimist, CEO, Raiffeisen Unternehmerzentrum AG
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 Entrepreneur & Optimist, CEO, Raiffeisen Unternehmerzentrum AG
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.
Other Speaker:
René Brugger, „Veni Digi Vinci“, Head of Digitalization, Raiffeisen Unternehmerzentrum AG
Moderator: Thomas Tanner, Entrepreneur & Shaper, Head of Innovation, Raiffeisen Unternehmerzentrum AG
The zebra analogy tells the story of an alternative to the unicorn startups of Silicon Valley and the likes. Zebra startups have threecharacteristics. First, they are real, which means they focus on presentsocietal realities. Second, they thrive in communities and collaboratewith other zebras. And finally, zebra enterprises integrate themaximization 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.
Other Speaker:
Noora Buser, Managing Partner, Impact Hub Bern
Moderator: Alban Muret, Partnership & Corporate Impact Lead, SENS
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.
Philipp Wetzel Managing Director, AMAG Innovation & Venture LAB
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.
Other Speakers: Timo Nührich, General Manager, Clyde
Jaap Vossen, CEO, autoSense
Moderator:
Stefan Rüssli, Head of Ventures, AMAG Innovation & Venture LAB
Elena Wenger Co-Founder and Vice President, FEM'UP
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.
Other Speaker: Alexandra Beckstein, Dam Safety Specialist at Swiss Federal Office of Energy, Co-author „Gründerinnen“
Naomi MacKenzie, Co-founder, KITRO & Trainer and Startup Coach, Venturelab
Aike Festini, Co-Founder & CEO, LuckaBox Logistics AG
Moderators: Peter Marthaler, Freelance journalist, moderator and communications consultant
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.
Speakers:
Nicolas Durand, CEO and Founder, Abionic
Nicole Herzog, Tech Entrepreneur, Board Member and Business Angel
Mike Glauser, Co-Founder, jumi
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?
Other Speaker: Ursula Oesterle, VP Innovation, EPFL
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.
Other Speaker:
Alice Vorburger, Associate, Walder Wyss AG
CEO and co-founder, EXH design AG, CEO and founder, Superlab Suisse AG
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.”
14:00 - 14:15Room: digitalswitzerland HUB, Aare Plenum
digitalswitzerland
Decarbonisation as a global challenge - What role can technology play in becoming Net-Zero?
Eliana Zamprogna CTO, Migros Industry
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.
Other Speakers: Isabelle Tschugmall, CMO, Global Green Xchange AG
Ion Karagounis, Lead new economic models and future affairs, WWF Switzerlan
Moderator: Matthias Zwingli, Head of Startup & International digitalswitzerland
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.
Head of Startup & International, digitalswitzerland
10:45 - 11:30Room: Szenario 2
Swisstech
Going global – how to scale internationally
Matthias Zwingli Head of Startup & International, digitalswitzerland
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.
Speakers:
Philip Morger, Consultant Internationalization Starters, Switzerland Global Enterprise
Jonas Brunschwig, Deputy CEO, swissnex Boston
Marcel Hofstetter, Scientific Officer, Innosuisse
Olga Dubey, Co-founder and CEO, AgroSustain
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.
