September 20, 2013
The issues that affect start-ups
Dear reader
This week, the start-up scene met twice at the Maag event hall in Zurich. On Tuesday the first Startupfair took place, and on Wednesday the best 100 Swiss start-ups were announced. At the Startup Fair, exhibitors from all over German-speaking Switzerland displayed their services for founders – from CTI Entrepreneurship and venture kick to techno parks and regional initiatives, such as Basecamp4Hightech from Bern, the north-west Swiss innovation support network i-net and Startfeld from St. Gallen. The effect of these programmes could be seen a day later in the same place, as most of the best Swiss start-ups have been through the same support programmes. Nine of the top 10 companies have been supported by venture kick and all 10 have benefited from the coaching process of CTI Start-up.
But the two events were also interesting because in discussions with company founders, it became clear that the topics that affect them primarily are financing and customer acquisition.
Both subjects will occupy lot of space at the next CEO Day on 23 October. Investors will be able to present themselves to the audience at the ‘Investors on Stage’ event, and in the workshops founders can learn not only about funding, but also marketing – ‘Winning in Sales’, the extremely popular workshop, is on the agenda again. The deadline is 30 September; however, the number of registered participants has already overtaken last year’s.
A number of other events are happening before CEO Day. Next week, the BioValley Life Sciences Week takes place in Basel – see our article for sessions of interest to start-ups. From 23 September to 1 October, the swissnex USA roadshow travels through six Swiss cities, and on 26 September you can get to know, among other things, the new location of Technopark Aargau at the Aargau new business forum.
And young entrepreneurs should not miss the deadline of the WA de Vigier Foundation awards – you have until 30 September to apply.
Finally, we must not forget company success stories. Nezasa and Pitcher will represent Switzerland at the Web Summit’s Pitch contest in Dublin in October. Paper.li is growing and has finalised a new round of financing of about CHF2 million, and Finox, a biotech start-up founded by Ypsomed boss Willy Michel, has generated CHF22 million.
Have a sunny weekend.
Stefan Kyora
Managing Editor, startupticker.ch