What do a man who eats insects, the president of the Swiss Confederation (Johann Schneider-Ammann), and a music professor have in common?
All were at last week’s Swiss Startup Day in Berne. They were there for different reasons, but first, the background. Swiss Startup Day is an annual event, which takes place in October in Berne. It is organized by Swiss Startup Invest, and has become the flagship event in the Swiss startup ecosystem.
A record number of 700 participants had signed up this year, 60 startups presented themselves at a pitching battle, and close to 1000 one-to-one meetings between investors and startups were held.
The growing importance of the startup ecosystem for the Swiss economy was highlighted by the attendance of the Swiss president, Mr. Schneider-Ammann.
He told attendees that, in his opinion, Switzerland is economically successful because it doesn’t have an interventionist policy. He sees the government’s role as creating a good framework for young companies. Some of the key issues he mentioned concerned further investment in the excellent education and research system, making sure that the best minds can come to and work in Switzerland, cutting red tape and lowering barriers to market entry, working on startup funding options, and lastly, keeping taxes attractive so that fast growing companies stay in the country. He cautioned, however, that it will take time to succeed with all these goals.
The startup day also offered a platform for people to meet and get information, so during an ‘Investors on Stage’ session, investors pitched their companies or business angel organizations and explained what kind of startup companies they were looking for.
During the traditional pitching battle competition, 60 startup companies got the opportunity to present their ideas to the audience in three categories - life science, ICT, and companies from the Kickstart Accelerator. The best three ones from each category then competed again for the Pitching Battle Award. The winner was Smart Home Technology, a spin-off from ETH Zurich developing smart appliances to eliminate stand-by energy consumption for homes and industries. The second place went to the insect eating young man who represented Entocube, a Kickstart Accelerator start-up from Finland which focuses on the industrialization of insect farming. In third place came CatchEye, an IT start-up offering to make skype conversations more personal by improving, for example, eye contact, light corrections, and automatic zoom.
For the first time, the organizers offered an additional half day of best practice sessions on various topics relevant to startups, such as admin hurdles, tax implications, termsheets, due diligence, incentive plans, exit, and winning in sales. Another valuable panel session involved experts, company founders and investors, all sharing their experience in their respective field.
The most important purpose of the Startup Day, however, was the networking. Apart from the some 1000 startup-investor one-to-one meetings that had been formally organized beforehand, the place was buzzing with all sorts of informal and spontaneous meetings. Newcomers like myself were able to meet and make new contacts, for example, with the music professor who was looking for support for an innovative device to connect acoustic music with the digital world.
Overall this was a great platform to meet everybody - startuppers, investors, and other support organizations. In short, everybody and anyone active in the Swiss startup scene was there, which provided a great opportunity to get an overview of what is going on in Switzerland in this area. So, for anybody interested in startups - see you next year in Berne in October!
Photo credit: bobmadbob via iStock.com (licence standard)
