Learning and growing through peers

Since its inception, the Startup Board Academy led by Virginie Verdon and EPFL Innovation Park has trained more than 1’000 participants. Its mission has always been focused on making sure startups can benefit from well-educated board members, who understand the special requirements for sitting on a board of  startups and scale-ups. From this ecosystem of 1’000 alumni, the Board Matching Switzerland team initially accredited 120 senior and experienced board or advisory board members in 2019 / 2020.

Thus far, the team has had 136 requests from companies searching for board or advisory board members. From this number 30 requests were not qualifying. For the remaining 106 searches, Board Matching Switzerland executed 610 matches. Board matching members thus got matched on average between 3 and 5 times a year. The team was able to successfully match 29 people, who are now sitting on the board or advisory board of these companies. About 65 requests are still under process (meaning people are getting in touch and discussing potential assignments), keeping in mind such a board search process generally lasts between 6 to 9 months.

In terms of field of activities, the Board Matching Switzerland platform has quite a balanced distribution between the sectors, at the present time the most demanding sector is microtech-nanotech-material sciences, with about 20% of the requests, medtech and biotech area representing both together about 20% of the requests as well.

Steering through difficult times

A well-constituted and well-functioning board can really help companies to go through crisis. Good governance is a strong tool for startups. It can prevent bad things from happening to good people. If you have a board with senior people and enough independence, you can face a crisis with serenity.  Senior board members are aware of pitfalls  that can hurt a company and their steering bodies. De facto, startups live through numerous crises in a very short amount of time, it is their normality. Being a board member in Switzerland requires professionalism and skills. The level of liability is high. In this time of uncertainty, the pressure is even higher and every move of a company has to be carefully thought.

In this COVID period, some companies face a strong loss of business and have to take restructuring measures and call for state support. These measures require the capacity to have a helicopter view, to take the adequate actions that can keep the company alive while complying with the law (eg. ART. 725 and COVID loan). On the other hand, other companies found growth opportunities in this period and have to face a fast scaling up. A good problem to have but that needs to be well managed and again seniority at the board level with people who “have been there, done that” can strongly help the company to grow under control.

A plus when raising funds

Any startup or scaleup can benefit from the value added of independent advisors or board members. Of course, the first stage is when a company starts facing liabilities, then another typical time to onboard independent  board members  is when the startup envisages to raise money. The team sees as well companies that are about 4-6 years old, the board has never changed. Often the board is constituted of the founders, the first business angels and some representatives of the series-A investors. After a few years in the same circle, it is not rare to see some misalignment among the members as well as a mix between the roles of management, board members and shareholders. At this point, an independent board member can help a lot by realigning the strategy and the interests and breathing new energy.

The business model of the startup is based on a freemium for the startup. They receive a first match for 2 potential members for free and then the additional requests cost CHF 200 per match.

Ensuring learning from peers

Board Matching Switzerland's ultimate goal is to ensure it provides outstanding Board member profiles to SME owners and startup founders to help them achieve accelerated growth and beat their competition. In one year, the team has assembled an extraordinary set of talented and experienced persons. Now its next challenge is to ensure SMEs and startups make full use of the platform. The team estimates is that the need exceeds 1’000 requests per year from the thousands of technology startups and SME they are in contact with in Switzerland. Its focus will thus be in informing, training and supporting these companies regarding their (advisory) board needs and helping them get the most of the platform.  The team will do so through a series of webinars and virtual events at a rhythm of one event or webinar every 2 months with a specific focus on sharing success stories. One always learns best from peers!

(ES)