“The next level of value for startup talents”

In March, venturelab announced the launch of a new accelerator programme. What does that mean?

Jordi Montserrat: Our objective is to accelerate start-ups in their growth phase by helping them to build business cases with our industry partners, to be connected with successful Founders, and to benefit from their experience and possibly investments. After 11 years invested in establishing a national training programme with great success, it was time to bring the next level of value.

How are the startups selected?

Startups can apply at any time online. With interesting cases we do interviews and invite them to a process we call Startup Casting. The goal is to ensure a solid match with our objectives: Can the startup and entrepreneur benefit? Do we have good matches in our industry network and in our Founders Cash Pot to offer quality introductions for the startup? At the other end we dig for top quality. Only if we identify a talented entrepreneur with a scalable and innovative business case do we start putting our resources at work.

What do you offer founders who make it through the selection process?

Founders benefit from access to our strong network to industry and investors also on an international scale; they are invited to a dedicated support from us, workshops with our industry partners and successful Founders in an exclusive setting. Goal is to focus on a highly selective approach to ensure quality and efficiency. We also keep promoting the top success stories with the startup scene through the Startup Champions Events which are open to everyone.

Does the service also include investment, in addition to exchanging experiences and network building?

We are growing our Founders Cash Pot to reinvest in the next generation of startup talents. Members of the Founders Cash Pot are exclusively successful entrepreneurs that have grown very profitable businesses or experienced lucrative exits. They feel comfortable to invest a minimum of CHF 100’000 in a startup. Although the Founders Cash Pot is not a fund, we already count commitments in millions. Venturelab provides the members of the Founders Cash Pot with quality dealflow and selected investment opportunities, while still every member of the Founders Cash Pot will take his final investment decisions on his own.

You offer with Startup Essentials a workshop series for start-ups at EPFL and ETH Zurich. But your main focus no longer seems to be on training?

There is an extensive offering of free basic training today for startup entrepreneurs. Therefore our workshops focus on acceleration. We offer one series of workshops per semester at EPFL and ETH Zurich, we restrict participation to the applicants with the most promising projects or companies. Some of our trainers are also members from the Founders Cash Pot, meaning very successful entrepreneurs themselves with a solid network to investors and industry.

Do you plan to expand the workshops; for example, to other universities?

There is no plan to extend the workshops to other universities. But the Startup Essentials Workshops are open to participants from all other universities as well. The main is the quality of entrepreneurial talent and scalable business ideas in our pool of applications. Already now only one out of four applicants gets selected to participate in our Startup Essentials workshop series. These workshops are key for us to scout for entrepreneurial talent in an early phase in order to shape solid and attractive business cases together with the participants.

How far has the structure of the accelerator programme progressed?

We have successfully launched and already found three industrial partners – BKW, Swiss Post and Swisscom. We are confident to announce new partners soon. We have grown a nice pool of Startup Talents by now that is iterating on a regular base with our industrial partners and members of the Founders Cash Pot. The first series of Startup Essentials Acceleration Workshops at ETH and EPFL were a great success as well as the Startup Champions Events with hundreds of participants. And the most important so far: venturelab was playing a key role in the 3 mio financing round of L.E.S.S. and we will see more funding activities of our Founders Cash Pot by the end of the year.

One last question: it is usual internationally that accelerators are paid for their services by the start-ups in the form of shares. What is venturelab’s approach?

Our programme is supported by industry partners, hence we can offer it free of charge for the startups. It also means that we have a selective approach and support only startup talents that are have the potential for us and our partners.  

More information about the offers at the new venturelab website.