Start-ups in the spotlight

SAFEmine from Baar came into the spotlight yesterday. The company won the Export Award at Switzerland Global Enterprise’s international business forum, beating off competition from established SMEs. SAFEmine began life in 2008 and has been successful worldwide with its collision warning system for traffic in open-pit mines.

This week we published a series of news about young enterprises that are still largely unknown, partly because the companies are simply very young, such as IvoryCode, which has won a Microsoft award, and three spin-offs from Merck Serono, which are mentioned in the article about Swiss Biotech Day. Other start-ups, such as Gastros or Performance Buildings, have been very cautious about announcements.

However, the example of Gastros and Performance Buildings also show that it is worthwhile taking a look at the five companies that acquired the CTI Label this week. Successful start-ups are often awarded with the label before they are known to the general public.

We were surprised to read this week that, according to a new thesis from the University of Liechtenstein, practically all start-ups involve their employees in the company. We asked a specialist about his advice to start-ups. The theme of employee participation is the focus of a workshop to take place shortly at the Technopark Academy, and for which there are still free places.

There is also last-minute availability at the first Swiss FailCon, a one-day conference at which entrepreneurs, investors, developers and designers can study their own and others’ failures, and prepare for success. And last but not least, you can sign up now for various start-up weekends in Zurich, Lucerne and Fribourg.

In addition, the CTI Entrepreneurship training programme is in full swing. Dates and background information can be found in the first CTI Entrepreneurship newsletter.

Have a spring-like weekend.
Stefan Kyora

Managing Editor, startupticker.ch