June 17, 2016
Focus on the user
Dear reader
In what environment is a new device is used? In an industrial building, a doctor’s practice, a laboratory? How does the interaction between user and device take place exactly? These and similar questions are posed by designers in the development of a new product. No wonder that start-ups profit from an early collaboration with designers, as Lucerne University’s project DesignSeed with six ETH spin-offs has shown. A project book summarises the benefits of collaboration and gives important tips; the most relevant information can be found in our article.
Another advantage of the early collaboration with designers is a professional external appearance. Even this is becoming increasingly important for start-ups. As with awards, the number of applications for pitching events in front of investors is increasing. A registration is therefore a relevant distinction. This week five start-ups overcame the hurdle for admission to the St. Galler Investors Forum and will now present on 28 June.
Also in St. Gallen the awards of Startfeld Diamant took place this week; the winner was IT company Frontify, which already has clients such as Lufthansa, BMW and Adobe.
Biotech start-up PharmaBiome and cleantech company Younergy won over the jury at the venture kick finale and took home CHF 130,000 each.
While venture kick supports start-ups at the beginning of their story, Innovaud has now launched a programme that promotes fast-growth companies more than three years old. ‘Scale up Vaud’ aims to make the company known, provide targeted support, and bring together and facilitate partnerships between enterprises.
The CTI is continuing to analyse the impact of its coaching services and so this week invited start-ups with high innovation potential to participate in a survey of start-up funding and in particular start-up coaching. You can read more about the background in our articles in German and French.
Finally, some important dates: applications for the Swiss Technology Award are now open, and you can sign up for the Space Week and Swiss Pavilion at Bangalore Space Expo, organised by swissnex India. And the deadline for the seif Awards for Social Entrepreneurship is approaching – you have until 30 June to apply.
You can meet me at SICTIC Investor Day in Zurich next week, and at the annual meeting of ErfindungsVerwertung AG and Basel Inkubator in Basel the following week.
Have a good weekend.
Stefan Kyora
Managing Editor, startupticker.ch