Swiss Venture Scene

There is a lot of interest in Switzerland lately in new ventures – in 2006, there were a record number of start ups in Switzerland. This was long overdue and hopefully will help the development of the startup scene especially with early stage venture capital.

Venturelab, an organization which helps start ups, organizes regular “Venture Aperos” with a presentation, drinks and networking among entrepreneurs and a few investors. They are also a part of Swiss TV SF1’s “Startup” series, helping with the coaching and selection of companies that are taking part in the program.

In attendance was Fredy Hiestand, one of Switzerland’s well known entrepreneurs – he took the bakery chain Hiestand public in a succesful European IPO and after a break is now back with a new bread concept called Fredys.

The audience received an exclusive preview of the second show of the TV series called Startup which is being produced by Swiss TV. For me the highlight was Fredy Hiestand’s follow-up meeting with 18 year old Pascal Stoop – he persuaded his 6 fellow jury members to put up SFr. 5000 each to help Pascal get started with his multi player games for mobile phones. Over breakfast he handed over his share of the investment to Pascal in cash! It reminded me of the story of Andy Bechtolsheim cutting Google their first check.

As of 23 April 2007, 13 companies have been selected by the jury of the Startup show.

Thanks to the IFJ / Venturelab team for organizing the great presentation and an interesting evening. I look forward to many more of these, not least because of the informal chats at the bar after the event.