November 15, 2013
Open doors
Dear Reader
Sulzer, Huber+Suhner and Leica Geosystems – these were the professional stops of Hans Hess before he was elected president of Swissmem in 2010. Since then, he has promoted curiosity, innovation and creativity in the traditional machinery, metal and electrical industries.
Thus, at the Swiss ICT Awards on Wednesday at the KKL Lucerne, Hess presented the award to the best Newcomer and was seen during the subsequent networking in conversation with the winner of the People Award, serial founder Manuel Grenacher.
It seems all doors are open to Swiss start-ups at the moment. In recent weeks, several young ICT companies have moved into the sights of prestigious international technology magazines such as Wired and Techcrunch.
But it is not only Swiss ICT projects that have aroused interest abroad, as the founders of solar specialist Plus MAT experienced. They took part in the CTI Market Entry camp in Shanghai and had several discussions in China with representatives of the largest photovoltaic industry in the world. Now it is a matter of grabbing this opportunity and turning loose contacts into business relationships.
Mistakes can happen on the stony path to profitable growth, and we learn best how to avoid them from those who have already walked the path. This was demonstrated at the In Focus event at Technopark Zurich.
The speakers, among them Wuala founder Dominik Grolimund and Gastro CEO Timo Hafner, first talked about growth strategies. In the following discussion, the question arose about the largest errors in company development. The speakers were open to discussion and gladly shared their experiences. The audience was enthusiastic.
Two important notes to end on: the Swiss Innovation Forum takes place next Wednesday, in Basel. And on 1 December, the deadline expires for the first phase of the business plan competition Venture 2014.
Have a good weekend.
Jost Dubacher
Managing Editor, startupticker.ch
News
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The new Swiss Venture Capital Report was published on 26 January. It analyses 304 financing rounds closed in 2020 and includes further article such as an interview with Michael Hengartner, President of the ETH Board, and a list of Swiss "soonicorns". 
