Not enough people, passion, capital?

Duolingo, known for its language education platform used by over 100 million students has made the headlines this week with the announcement of a new financing round. The start-up has closed a US$45 million investment round led by Google Capital, that values the company at US$470 million. Co-founder Severin Hacker was born in Zug and studied at ETH Zurich. He moved to Pittsburgh to study at Carnergie Mellon University and he co-founded Duolingo in Pittsburgh together with Luis von Ahn in 2009.

In an interview with Aargauer Zeitung Severin Hacker explains why he thinks that he hadn’t founded a start-up in Switzerland. In his view a start-up here will have problems to find enough employees and enough capital.

Aargauer Zeitung: Mit seiner App kann man sogar ausserirdisch lernen

A comprehensive article about the Swiss start-up scene was published by Tech.eu recently. The title: Can slow and steady win the race? Joe Scarboro spent 3 days exploring the Swiss innovation scene, spread across multiple cities. He shares his thoughts with Tech.eu in a guest post that highlights the differences with fast-paced hubs.

Tech.eu: Can slow and steady win the race?

At the moment a series about Swiss start-ups is broadcasted by SRF in its business TV show Eco. In one part Jean-Pierre Vuilleumier criticises the typical way of Swiss founders to present their project.

SRF Eco: Gute Tüftler, schlechte Verkäufer.

Swiss investors till hesitate to invest in Swiss start-ups. In a radio report experts are seeking explanations.

SRF Heute Morgen: Investoren scheuen Start-up-Risiken.

The blog of Oliver Flückiger is interesting too. He is not afraid of critical statements. In his current post he writes about software start-ups and why they don’t need patents to be highly successful.