Startupolic

5 Years of Blogging

January 2012. January 2017. Startupolic.com just turned 5 years old. It’s incredible how fast time is running out ! It’s time for celebration ;-) !

Why I started blogging

In one of my previous life, I used to be a startup coach and business developer for a technology park, lost in Northwestern Switzerland (in canton of Jura). My mission was to discover promising startups and try to attract them…

Fintech Infographic: The Current State of Fintech

At this period of the year, as always, I should normally be telling you to slow down and relax… (yes, you need to take some vacations!). What I will do on my side.

But if you already had their holidays or have them later in the Summer, or if staying on the beach is boring for you, you may want to discover this interesting infographic made by Robert Hendriks, of DealSunny. And if nothing of this…

Discover the « Startup Nation »

Regular readers of this blog know that I’m a big fan of building bridges… For instance, between Swiss startup scene and the most advanced European startups hubs like London or Berlin. Even after the Brexit dramatic vote (for the London startup scene), I still believe that Swiss startups should still think about going UK. But we will see what happens in the coming weeks (at best) or months/years,…

Why you need to know Media4Equity for your startup growth

This is a guest post by David Hug, a Zürich-based professional startup investor, currently acting as  Managing Director at Ringier Digital Ventures.

Innovation, entrepreneurship and venture capital are almost synonyms of the Silicon Valley. Over the last years, this way of thinking is gaining more and more attention in Europe. Not only famous examples from the West Coast like Facebook, Twitter…

24 Hints to Build A Lean Startup

Monday this week, I was organizing a meetup in my home city, Biel/Bienne. We had the pleasure of welcoming Dorian Selz, a very smart and serial Swiss entrepreneur (Local.ch, Memonic and Squirro). I asked Dorian to present us his hints on how to build a startup. Dorian shared his entrepreneurial journey, from becoming partner at Namics, then being recruited to launch Local.ch to his present…

How To Learn About UX in Switzerland?

If you’d like to launch a new business, you may think about the optimal combination of founders. And how many is too many? And what skills do you need in your team?

Many people find extremely hard to find cofounders, especially technical ones (who has never heard the following complaint: “I cannot find a technical co-founder”?). Fortunately, nowadays, there are many possibilities in Switzerland…

The Zurich (Swiss) Startup Paradox #StartupSteuer

Switzerland is a beautiful country to work and to live. Low unemployment rate and good salaries, a very stable politic system, data privacy, beautiful landscapes, a precise and working transportation system, a place in Central Europe and very good international flights connections. Swiss people are also among the happiest people in the world (see here). Switzerland is even one of the most…

Happy Easter Fintech Egg Hunt!

It’s almost already Easter… and a long weekend to relax and maybe do some Easter Egg Hunts?

Next Thursday, a big fintech event is happening in Zürich: The Fintech 2016 Conference. A wide panel of fintech experts, financial executives and investors will present and debate about innovation in the financial industry. From banking innovation to blockchain, from learnings out of the Silicon Valley to…

Does Switzerland Now Have Its Startup Event?

We often hear that Switzerland lacks of a big startup event. Dublin had one with Web Summit (now moving to Lisbon), Paris had one with LeWeb (now kind of “replaced” by the The Rude Baguette events or the new Viva Technology event), Vienna has Pioneers, Münich has DLD Conference, Amsterdam has The Next Web, Barcelona has many startup events around the Mobile World Congress, Berlin and London have…

SICTIC Investor Day Lausanne is back (without me!)

The next SICTIC Investor Day Lausanne will happen in Lausanne on April 25th, at EPFL. 8 selected technology-driven startups (the web, mobile, software, hardware) will have the opportunity to do an elevator pitch (one slide, 90 seconds) to an interesting audience comprised of business angels, professional investors and startup enthusiasts.

The public will then select 4 startups based on their…

Startup Weekend Biel/Bienne is back on March 18th!

This year again, Startup Weekend is coming back to Biel/Bienne, the biggest bilingual city of Switzerland. And again, I’m deeply involved in the organisation, as Biel/Bienne is kind of my home city.

You may have heard that Startup Weekend Lausanne just happened, on EPFL campus. Startup Weekend Biel/Bienne is different. Less students, more people active as manager, developers, business men,…

GO WEST! 7 days to apply to Venture Leaders NYC

End of February rhymes, since already 15 years, with time to apply to the Venture Leaders program! If you’re (relatively) new on the startup scene, you may wonder what it means: simply said, you have the opportunity to get selected in the Swiss Startup National Team of 2016!

I had the chance to participate in 2014 with my company (you can discover my posts about the 2014 and 2015teams) and I can…

Time to Lift! It's next week! @LIFTconference

In less than a week, the famous Lift Conference is taking place again in Geneva. For thos who haven’t heard from it so far… that probably means that:

you’re new on the startup scene (great, welcome!)

you’re living on another planet (or at least, not in Switzerland ;-)…)

Lift Conference is a great conference to get inspiration for top innovators from around the world, like Brian Solis. This year,…

End of January… it is almost late to share my 2015 wrap-up. But still time. I was planning to do it until mid of this month, but you know how life is: days have only 24 hours!

You may have seen that startupolic.com turned 4 on January 12th. Already 4 years! It has gone so quickly and it is such a long time ago in the same time. I have lived so many amazing (and less amazing, true!) experiences:…

startupolic.com turned 4… today!

First of all, I wanted to wish you a Happy New Year (I think we can still say it until mid-January)! Hopefully, the Christmas break was the opportunity to relax (aka SLEEP!), spend time with family & friends and refill the batteries!

Today is a very special day for me… Exactly 4 years ago, I wrote my first ever blog post. My initial idea was just to share knowledge and insights I was collecting…

From Startup to Growth: 10 Survival Rules for Startups @netguardians

I first met with Raffael years ago  (in 2009 or 2010) at the Startup Day, FORUM EPFL, in Lausanne. At that time, I was trying to convince him to relocate his company a bit Northern Switzerland, as this was part of my mission. I was sure he and Joël were on something extremely promising, which is finally true. I remember our discussions as they were bootstrapping (this word was quite unknown at…

The Seed Round Guide: Why Silicon Valley May Not Be Your Best Option @PennySchiffer #Seed

This is a guest post by Penny Schiffer a Zürich-based energetic woman, passionate by the startup and investment world. She’s currently managing the startup initiatives of Swisscom and in charge of the « Swisscom Startup Challenge » and also part of Swisscom Ventures and a member of the business angel club Go Beyond.

This post is part of the Seed Round Guide (check The Seed Round Guide: Is Big…