IMD startup competition

IMD is searching for up to 32 Swiss startups that might benefit from the free-of-charge support of our MBA and EMBA students in 2024. Also on offer is an IMD Startup Scholarship worth CHF 5,000, plus generous support from AWS.

The MBA Startup Projects
20 companies will be selected to work with the fulltime MBAs between January and March 2024.

The EMBA Startup Projects
Up to 12 companies will work with our EMBAs, who will help each firm improve its strategy before pitching it to VCs in Palo Alto, California.

The IMD startup competition is open to all Swiss-based startups and runs in collaboration with the Swiss government’s Innosuisse-Swiss Innovation Agency, Venture Kick, MassChallenge Switzerland, Verve, and Amazon Web Services.

We are looking for early-stage companies that have a solid chance of market success and have a curious team that is willing to open themselves up to a small group of management “students” and enter into both strategic and business model discussions to provide a valuable learning opportunity for our participants with timing that aligns with the IMD programs.

Criteria

• A real venture with an established team and resources already in place, not a hobby.
• A strong willingness and desire to work and share with the participants, and a desire to learn from the collaboration; the founder(s) of the company must be the prime point(s) of contact with our participants.
• Your venture must have at least one person working on it full-time.
• Independent ventures only (not a subsidiary of an existing, established company or wholly-owned spinoff).
• A willingness to be open with our participants about your company, its finances, and its technology. A non-disclosure agreement (NDA), developed by IMD, is requested of the participants.
• Local ventures are preferred. Startups based further away (Paris, Grenoble, Frankfurt, etc.) may be considered but you must incorporate the need to travel to Lausanne in your budgets and time agendas since participants will not have the possibility to travel.
• The ability to cover minimal costs (but these would always be discussed with you beforehand).