A bunch of winners at the EC Award

This time everything was a bit bigger at the EC Awards. The competition of the Entrepreneur Club Zurich had more applications, more prizes and also a bigger audience than last time. 250 people attended the award ceremony. The best six teams pitched and were judged by an experienced jury consisting of Pascal Mathis, GetYourGuide co-founder, Michael Born, co-founder and CFO at Dacuda, Patrick Griss from Zühlke Ventures and Philip Hassler (venture kick / venture lab). Jean-Pierre Vuilleumier (Swiss Startup Invest) helped the teams to prepare the pitches and presented the pitches.

The first prize went to Immunas. The team members are developing a chip-based technology which will be able to accurately determine within minutes whether the cause of an infection is bacterial or viral. This can reduce the current overuse of antibiotics. In many of the cases, viruses, not bacteria, cause Upper Respiratory Tract Infections that we commonly describe as cold or flu. But routinely prescribed antibiotics are only effective in killing bacteria. Current diagnostics in the field rely heavily on empirical examination and if necessary a follow-up with lab tests. This is costly and takes up to a few days. Immunas’ solution is faster, cost-effective and easy-to-use.

The second prize was given to Modum (ensuring drug safety with blockchain technology). The third prize went to Sensoc (pressure and motion sensing sock).

The audience award went to Upscale. The team develops a platform for SME to team up and purchase their inventory at a lower price. The team impressed the audience because it started its entrepreneurial journey with interviews of potential customers. They talked to 50 bike shop owners in Zurich to find out where the real problems are and what a platform like Upscale should offer to solve those problems.

To go out and talk to potential customers early was not the only lesson the audience could learn on that evening. After the pitches and the Q&A sessions Jean-Pierre Vuilleumier sums up learning from the presentations. The first learning was that start-ups should not only work on their pitch but should also prepare the Q&A session. The second learning was that founders should answer questions of investors or jury members precisely and that they should prepare some figures and key metrics to make the benefit and the business case clear.

A third learning on the evening was that mixed teams are more successful. Immunas and Upscale are both led by a male and a female entrepreneur. 

More information about the Entrepreneur Club can be found on its website.