Swiss Start-up Monitor becomes a foundation and launches Founder Mailing List

The Swiss Start-up Monitor Foundation is a community platform that matches stakeholders within the Swiss entrepreneurship ecosystem and provides registered users with a variety of benefits. The primary goal of the Swiss Start-up Monitor Foundation is to map, monitor and continue to develop the start-up ecosystem in Switzerland and beyond. To date, the Swiss Start-up Monitor recognizes around 1800 firms in the start-up directory including over 1300 registered users and more than 150 daily platform visitors.

The Swiss Start-up Monitor converts into a foundation
Three years after the initiation, the Swiss Start-up Monitor has officially transformed into a non-profit Swiss based foundation thanks to the support of the University of St. Gallen, University of Basel, ETH Zurich and the Commission of Technology and Innovation (CTI). The foundation board is chaired by Dietmar Grichnik (University of St. Gallen, president), Pascal Gantenbein (University of Basel), Silvio Bonaccio (ETH Zurich), Alexander Ilic (Dacuda) and Pascale Vonmont (Gebert Rüf Stiftung). On behalf of the foundation board, Peter Vogel (University of St.Gallen) manages the foundation’s ongoing activities. The foundation board members are all involved in the Swiss start-up scene and bring a vast range of knowledge and experience to the role of governing the foundation. Peter Vogel stresses the importance of the Swiss Start-up Monitor becoming a foundation, “to turn the initiative into a foundation is a necessary step towards a neutral, independent and sustainable organization”.

A single communication platform for the Swiss start-up scene
The Swiss Start-up Monitor consists of two parts, the Swiss Start-up directory and a private online community for members. The Swiss Start-up directory allows visitors to get an overview of the Swiss start-up landscape and shows the geographical distribution of Swiss start-ups on a map. The private section of the site offers utilities such as an operations board, a benchmarking tool, templates for business contracts and much more. The Founder Mailing List is the most recent addition to these tools. The Founder Mailing List is an online discussion forum that serves to facilitate and encourage communication within the Swiss start-up community. It acts as the central platform for questions, feature requests, success stories and anything else regarding the Swiss start-up scene. When a community member sends an email to the list, a copy of that message is broadcasted to everyone subscribed to that mailing list. “This feature provides a simple and effective communication mechanism and has the unique power to bring start-up founders together in a single communication setting. Sending an email and reaching hundreds of peers is an excellent way to exchange information and to help get answers to everyday questions in a quick and straightforward manner”, said Diego Probst, Head of Startup@HSG. The Founder Mailing List is moderated and only open for Swiss Start-up Monitor community members. Visit the Start-up Monitor Homepage to get more information: www.startupmonitor.ch