Yesterday the Swiss startup scene gathered at the Swiss Startup DAYs in Bern. The event showed the increasing number of startups and other players in the scene, but also the increasing maturity of the ecosystem. The topic of managing growth was at the centre of the discussions.
The pure numbers for the Startup DAYs were once again impressive: over 1000 participants, over 100 startups in the pitch competition, over 600 1:1 meetings. The figures clearly indicate that the Swiss ecosystem is growing. There are more founders, more investors, more support offers and more corporates seeking contact with startups. In addition, the panel discussions and the discussions among the participants revealed much about the current state of the scene and the goals for the coming years.
Once again, the focus was on growth. Already in his opening speech, Startup Invest Chairman Christian Wenger described "managing growth" as the greatest challenge for the Swiss innovation value chain. The step from 50 to 1500 employees must become easier and more startups must succeed, Wenger said. His diagnosis was shared by several experts who participated in panel discussions throughout the day. Switzerland is a perfect place to start a company but not the best place to scale it, agreed the panel participants on Accelerators, including Andreas Iten (SIX, F10), Katka Letzing (Kickstart), Nanja Strecker (ESA BIC) and Adriano Bürgi (Climate KIC).
Workhorses and Unicorns
When startup experts speak of growth these days, the conversation inevitably comes down to Unicorns. The general consensus at the startup DAYs was that Switzerland should not focus solely on building up companies with a valuation of more than $1 billion. Switzerland’s strength might lie elsewhere: the country offers rather good conditions for the development of globally successful “workhorses” such as Sensirion or ublox that are highly profitable and create hundreds of attractive jobs.
The new Swiss Entrepreneurs Fund and the Swiss Entrepreneurs Foundation are intended to support growth of potential “workhorses”. Managing Director Peter Stähli introduced both organisations in Bern. The Foundation, for example, will offer an upscaling programme to support start-ups in their growth. The fund on the other hand will invest directly and indirectly in start-ups in the growth phase. The first closing of the fund is still planned for the end of June, so that the first investments can be made in August.
Startups and Corporates
Today it is normal for large companies to work with Swiss start-ups. This was shown by a panel involving Swisscom, SBB, Microsoft and Salesforce. In these companies collaborative projects obviously enjoy the support of top management: On the panel, CEO Andreas Meyer represented SBB and CDO Roger Wüthrich-Hasenböhler represented Swisscom.
The General Assembly of digitalswitzerland, which also took place in the Kursaal Bern, provided for an additional opportunity for exchange between startups and corporates. The idea of bringing the representatives of the members into contact with startups has proved its worth. After the meeting, the members mingled with the startups.
Another interesting part of the event was the accelerator area with 11 accelerators from several industries and several parts of the countries. The joint presentation was an example of initiatives fostering the nationwide collaboration of support organisations another indicator for the growing maturity of the startup scene.
We present the winners of the pitching competition in a second article.
The next Startup DAYs will take place on 10 and 11 June 2020 in Bern. Startup INVEST has already announced a super early bird offer on LinkedIn.0Comments
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