Innovation unleashed: inspiring entrepreneurs in the technological era — Interview with Christian Peterhans, Head of Development at Helbling Technik

11.07.2023 09:00, Rita Longobardi

During the summer months, we ask people who inspire the Swiss startup ecosystem to share their invaluable insights with the Venturelab community. In this captivating episode of "Innovation Unleashed", we delve into the remarkable journey of Christian Peterhans, Head of Development at Helbling Technik, a leader in technological innovation, engineering and business consulting which supports its international clients from various industries in all phases of product development and in their business processes. In this captivating discussion, Christian shares his mission, the driving force behind his work, and the main challenges he encounters. Get ready to be inspired!

Name: Christian Peterhans
Job title: Head of Development, Helbling Technik
City: Wil, St. Gallen
What the company does: Helbling's primary focus is providing selected services in technological innovation and business consulting.
How I have collaborated with Venturelab: We provided financial support to Venturelab and had the privilege of accompanying them on their exciting Venture Leaders journeys to Boston and Munich.

Christian, you oversee startup investments and collaboration at Helbling Technik. Could you tell us about yourself? How did you get into this role, and why are you passionate about working with startups?
In the past, I was involved in a startup myself, and I know the challenges from first-hand experience. The founders have to oversee many topics in parallel at a very high pace, prioritize well and take the right decisions. Therefore, a startup needs partners to become successful. Having my roots in the startup world, I understand these challenges, and I’d like to share my learnings with the start-up teams. Innovation nowadays is driven mainly by startups and not big companies. As a mid-sized innovation and engineering partner, Helbling naturally fits into the innovative startup ecosystem.

How do you view the role of industry-leading corporates in supporting and nurturing Swiss startups?
The startup ecosystem in Switzerland is historically built around the top Swiss universities. Additional clusters around other industry sites (e.g. Basel, Zurich, Zug) were formed some years ago. It comes as no surprise that most of the early investments still arise from public funding around academic institutions. Corporate funding (e.g. CVC) is slowly and steadily growing in Switzerland but is still tiny compared to the US. Ideally, it is a win-win situation. A startup profits from the significant resources of a big company (e.g. sales channels), and the big company profits from the high pace of innovation.

Can you give us an example of a recent collaboration or investment?
Helbling invests in startups under the Helbling affiliate “Helbling equities”. Our investments cover a broad range of industries. However, the startups have a strong hardware and engineering character – that is the DNA of Helbling and what we understand best. Previous investments have been placed in Logistics, Transportation and MedTech.

What specific criteria do you consider when selecting startups for collaboration or investment?
The Goal for Helbling is to increase visibility and grow our network with startups and investors. We do not seek strategic investments and solely act as financial investors. We promote the teams and the technology startup scene in Switzerland. We evaluate any maturity level for equity participation with ticket sizes from 100’000-400’000 CHF. A lead investor must be in place.

How does your organization assist startups in expanding their market reach and accessing valuable networks or distribution channels?
As an innovation and engineering partner, we naturally provide a large network within many industries and markets. For instance, Helbling engages with KOLs and SMEs. Helbling maintains an independent relationship with suppliers. This brings a shorter time-to-market and flexibility towards the best solutions.

What does a typical working day at Helbling look like? Half the day, I spend planning, Alignment, exchange, being up to speed, and executive tasks. The remaining time I spend planning for “external” tasks and activities, like managing the clients and developing the technologies and services. In the evening, I handle follow-up tasks. I have about 10 cups of coffee daily and usually go for sports during lunchtime.

What in particular do you like about your job at Helbling? I am responsible for my team. I plan the resources, capabilities, training, and personnel development and get insights into many technologies and projects. There is always a helping hand for advice and support. Within 24 hours, I get an answer from my off-site colleagues in Germany, China and the U.S. Each employee is intrinsically motivated.


Helbling's team

What advice do you have for students starting their professional careers? Be proactive. An ETH degree does not represent an educational plateau. Nobody was awaiting me. This was a hard but important finding. Getting hired is a process which is nonstraight forward and beset with drawbacks. Be self-critical. My doctoral studies made me realize where and how to launch my career. A clearly stated goal, the belief to take the right decisions, will yield visibility and credibility. This will convince (HR) and enables your career. Put your career goals and values on a few slides and take them to the job interview.

Startups often face challenges in scaling their operations. How does Helbling Technik support startups in overcoming these challenges and achieving sustainable growth?
Helbling is an expert in scaling and optimizing processes for high-volume production. Helbling integrates expertise from all engineering disciplines, such as electronics, mechatronics, software, automation, medicine and physics. That is our USP, valued by our clients all over the world. We can support this by simply reviewing the status quo and giving recommendations or providing coaching and project management. This can be the starting point of a longer collaboration towards full-scale technology and product development, including the supply chain and production processes.

What advice would you give to a startup that wants to work with a corporate partner like Helbling Technik?
Our clients experience a Helbling team as a “racehorse”, approaching the project with a proven and structured methodology – fine-tuned over 60 years. Within such a collaboration, especially during an early-phase development, it’s crucial to constantly align on scope, timeline and the following priorities. This ensures maximum value generation for the startup. During the development process, all IPs and deliverables belong to the startup. Time must be allocated for coordination and transferring the know-how to the internal startup team.

      Here are testimonials by two startups we collaborated with:
      •    Strong collaboration with the same Helbling team over the years.
      •    Competent knowledge transfer within the Helbling team.
      •    Great communication & documentation transfer. 
      •    Very good technical development
      •    Highly recommended solution even for early-stage startups
      •    Proven methodology experts
      •    External “pusher” to finish a “less attractive” but very important project
      •    Added, flexible capacity, can act as peak-breaker
      •    Large network and broad expertise and ability to detect blind spots

Is there any advice you would give to other corporations on best working with startups?
Besides an innovative product idea, the startup team must clearly define a minimum marketable product. This will define the basis for reaching out to external partners such as Helbling. The next step will be to come to a realistic product development roadmap. Generally, a startup needs to be sure about its core know-how. Anything around it can be outsourced to a partner.



Looking into the future, what are your wishes for the startup ecosystem in Switzerland?
I’d like to see strong clusters focusing on Medtech, Pharmatech and Cleantech, where we can differentiate Switzerland from other places worldwide. I encourage the founders to stand out and advertise their innovations more courageously and confidently. Switzerland is among the top countries for innovation, and the founders drive this. Be proud of what you have achieved.

Finally, in entrepreneurship, we often face unexpected situations. Sometimes these things turn out quite funny. Can you share a situation in your work that made you smile or laugh?
The story that made me smile and that I’d like to share is about a partnership that lasted over several years. During that collaboration, we see the startup evolving and growing. Then, recently, we saw a shift in the whole team, and the startup ended up in a different market, even with a different business model. It was a complete success! And no, all the things we did before were not just for the bin, it was part of the journey.

Learn more about Helbling, and connect with Christian on LinkedIn.