A Week in Silicon Valley: a Word from the Venture Leaders Technology Team Captain Karim Choueiri, CEO of Wecheer.io

09.04.2019 18:30, Guillaume Tinsel

Karim Choueiri, CEO and co-founder of Wecheer.io was voted team captain for Venture Leaders Technology 2019. His first-hand report gives an insight into the team's intense week of networking, pitching and amazing sailing in the San Francisco Bay Area!

Passing the security check at Zurich Airport: 10 startups, selected to represent Swiss tech in Silicon Valley. Ready to embark on a journey that would reshape each of us, we came from all corners of Switzerland and beyond, bringing innovation from nanotech to beer-tech. The painf of a 14-hour flight was quickly forgotten once we arrived at swissnex San Francisco's impressive office on Pier 17 for our first, action-packed day in the Bay.



Franziska Steiner gave a great intro into the facilities and help swissnex offers Swiss startups growing their transatlantic business and establishing operations in the U.S. We then had the chance to meet Stuart Paap. I say the chance – I mean the fortune! Stuart was simply amazing, in a few minutes he was able to understand each startup, and offer help and guidance for our pitches. And pitching we did! After several hours of training, “action!” as each startup made its own Hollywood-style video pitch. That afternoon we learnt how to shape our company culture, and closed the day receiving an overview of Kellerhals Carrard’s support for Swiss startups, given by partner Nicolas Mosimann.



The stakes rose the second next day at Data Collective, with each Venture Leader pitching in sequence under the watchful eyes and attentive ears of Beat Schillig, who would mentor us the whole week. The completion of the first session gave each of us feedback to absorb and integrate, so laptops out for fine-tuning in preparation for our presentations at Partech Partners. The day ended with a thrilling presentation by Todd Boudreau, a partner at Foley & Lardner. He gave us a legal perspective of the U.S. business environment. It can be very simple or get very complicated, so it’s best to invest in good counsel early, to ensure a smooth roll-out of operations later!



Swiss Night

Wednesday was showtime. The evening would feature us presenting our startup to the who’s-who of the Bay Area tech community, at the Swiss Night pitching contest organized by swissnex. Before the big event, we had the chance to rehearse our pitches one last time with Philipp Stauffer, the co-founder of FYRFLY Venture Partners. Philipp gave excellent feedback that allowed us each to add the final touches to our pitches. The afternoon started with this great picture of the team in our polos, pumped with energy and ready to conquer the Bay Area crowd’ hearts and minds.



And here we are on stage in front of the crowd, each pitching two minutes and not a second more! The questions from the crowd and jury – at times tough – underlined the audience’s engagement and excitement for our startups. And as with any competition there must be a winner: Martin Eichenhofer from 9T Labs stole the show! The evening’s pitches were followed by networking event, which is key to building your network in the U.S.



Just as we started to feel comfortable in California, Thursday took the adventure to the next level, as we bused down to Merlo Park and Palo Alto, the addresses of the some of the world’s biggest and most-influential startups and VCs. The morning began with Ben Narasin, a venture partner at New Enterprise Associates, setting the tone: five-minute pitches only, and interrogative pressure from the start. Within the first minutes of each pitch, Ben would get straight to the point with his comments. While tough, his advice was priceless. I felt it was one of the week’s most informative and important sessions. After that breakfast grilling, we got a smoother lunch, organized by Swisscom at their amazing villa. The barbecue that accompanied our pitches offered a taste of Palo Alto’s chilled vibe. And saving the best until last: a meeting at Rothschild’s office with the bank’s head of technology investment, Chris Gaertner. He listened and commented on each pitch. For me, the most rewarding observation was his amazement at the quality of our startups, which he declared to be among the highest he had seen. To be honest I must say that one of the reasons why our pitches had become so strong, was the week of fabulous coaching of Beat, Robert Skrobak, Tilmann Schultze, Nicolas and Klea Gorgievski. In reality we all have great ideas and strong companies. The challenge is how to express our problem-solution-vision in the simplest and most convincing way.



The week wrapped-up with an amazing sailing trip in the Bay, giving us a taste of what success may hopefully look like for us all soon. The evening ended with an amazing dinner paid for by Venture Leaders alum Flurin Müller, whose startup Eqipia was acquired by XING. His generosity truly embodies the spirit of Venture Leaders, which – after the intensity of the roadshows – becomes a community of Switzerland’s best entrepreneurs, supporting each other whenever possible and inspiring each other to push our startups forward.



The Venture Leaders Technology roadshow was an important first step for many of us, generating a lot of interest, leads and follow-up meetings from different VCs, that will hopefully bring each of us closer to our goals. On behalf of the team, may I thank Stefan Steiner and Beat Schillig again for this great program and amazing week, and our sponsors DPD, Kellerhals Carrard, Rothschild Bank & Co., Swisscom, Canton de Vaud, EPF Lausanne and ETH Zurich for making it all possible.