Venture Leaders Technology 2021: Captain’s blog by Foodetective founder Andrea Tassistro

17.11.2021 07:00, Isabelle Mitchell

Earlier this month, the Venture Leaders Technology 2021 traveled to San Francisco to connect with and learn from investors and experts in Silicon Valley. We asked Venture Leaders Technology Team Captain Andrea Tassistro to share his experience and take us behind the scenes of the week-long roadshow.

Getting ready for San Francisco in Zurich 

We kicked off the Venture Leaders experience with a prep day near Zürich in mid-October. After getting to know each other, Stefan Steiner and Philip Hassler from Venturelab gave us all the information we needed for the trip. Around 4 p.m., we moved to ETH Zurich, where Gabor Cselle from Google’s Area 120 gave us a keynote before we pitched our projects and voted for the team captain. The #VLeadersTechnology experience 2021 is on.
 
I went to San Francisco in July 2018, just after the creation of the company. Since then, we have been solely focused on growing in the European market. The USA kept on coming back, as investors and partners continuously referred to it as an immense opportunity for our company. But with only a few existing relationships, investor contacts, and market knowledge, how could we get an accurate impression of what lies behind the American dream?
 
I guess the Venture Leaders US investor roadshow was exactly what we needed to understand the underlying opportunity.


 

Day 0: Zürich Airport

Everyone made it to the gate: The Venture Leaders Technology team was complete and ready for departure. After a 12-hour flight, filled with pitch preparation, movies, sleeping, and chatting, we landed in San Francisco safely. Part of our group experienced the “Secondary Security Room,” where they had to wait for a long time and got double-checked before entering the country, while the other half was already heading to the Riu Plaza, our home for the week.
 
Check-in done! We had dinner at the nearest Italian restaurant, but the jet lag kicked in, and our beds were calling. 

Day 1: Fyrfly Ventures and pitching

Pretty much everyone woke up between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. After a good American breakfast, we headed to Pier17 (Swissnex office) for some US pitch training with Nathan Gold and a VC meeting with Philipp Stauffer, a partner at Fyrfly Ventures.
 
Right after lunch, our first and only rehearsal for the Swiss Venture Night took place. We all have exactly three minutes to pitch our companies—Swiss style. Once done with rehearsals, we had the pleasure to rethink our company culture with Jodi Johnson, a human capital professional. It was interesting to deep-dive into every startup culture and to be challenged on this topic.
 


We then moved to the other side of the Swissnex building, where the Swiss Business Hub USA team organized an apéro with guests from the industry. This was the first physical get-together after more than two years of a no-event policy. Later that day, the jet-lagged feeling was still alive and well, and even though some fighters managed to get to Fiorella for a good slice of pizza, others preferred to head back to the hotel. Day 1 flew by pretty fast, and we could already feel the bond between all of us.

Day 2: Union Labs, Google, and MoFo

The morning sessions started with Chris Kim, a successful entrepreneur turned VC who is now a partner at Union Labs, a deeptech seed fund. We got ready for two hours of pitching, and even though we already knew everyone else’s pitch, we still enjoyed learning new stuff about each other’s startups.



It’s Google lunchtime, and we met up with Gabor Cselle, the former ETH student turned entrepreneur, whom we met in Zurich at the kick-off. Gabor eventually sold two companies—one to Google and one to Twitter—, and he now runs Area 120 at Google. Gabor introduced us to the program he runs at Area 120 and then gave us a little workshop on how to get to USD 100 million in revenue. Easy!
 
After the meeting with Gabor, we headed to Morisson & Foerster, where three lawyers were waiting for us for another pitching session! Once there, we got to their offices on the 30th-something floor and started the session with a view that was out of this world.



We enjoyed learning more about patents, US incorporation, and taxes—critical topics for anyone looking to expand their businesses here. The team was then kind enough to invite us all for drinks to end Day 2 in front of the Bay Bridge.

Day 3: Swiss Venture Night

On the menu today: Simon Kucher, group lunch, Toni Schneider, group pictures, rehearsals, and the Swiss Venture Night! 



At Pier17, team members from Simon Kucher & Partners, a consulting firm, are waiting for us with a branding and pricing workshop. After lunch near the piers, we had the chance to exchange ideas with Toni Schneider and learn from his experience as a former CEO of Automatiq (Wordpress) who works as a seed investor at True Ventures.
 
After some photos and coffee, it was time for our last training and rehearsal before hitting the stage at 6 p.m.
 
We moved to the other side of the building, where more than 120 people—investors, incubators, corporates, and visitors—were waiting for us. For the Swiss Venture Night, the group was separated into two: On one side of the room, cybersecurity and hardware pitched their companies while the software and ICT entrepreneurs pitched their innovations on the other side. 

Day 4: Palo Alto

Sand Hill Road is known for being the place where all the most prestigious VC firms are headquartered, and the good news was that they were waiting for us!
 
Grant Allen was the first investor we pitched to. Grant led the ABB venture arm for years before joining SE Ventures. For once, we did not pitch together in the same room, but we had individual meetings. The bold ones (like Patrick from CYSEC and myself) went around the building to find investors to pitch to them spontaneously. Our courage paid off, and I ended up at Rock Owl Capital, where I pitched for about an hour. After this exciting experience, I had a quick Mexican lunch to ensure I was at Ben Narasin’s house on time.
 
Ben Narasin is a renowned investor in the Valley. Formerly with NEA, a top-tier VC firm, Ben now invests in seed and pre-A rounds through its fund, Tenacity Ventures. He seated us all around a table in his house, and one by one, we had two minutes to convince him for a USD 2 million check.


 
We would have definitely stayed longer to listen to Ben’s stories about rounds, entrepreneurs, and investors, but we had to go: Kellerhals Carrard’s Karim Maizar invited us all out for drinks in Palo Alto before visiting Stanford University for a tour. 

Day 5: Fog City

And just like that, it was Friday! We had some time for our own meetings and to follow up with investors, partners, and clients. After the classic yet mandatory In-N-Out Burger lunch break, the Venturelab team organized a social event: We sailed around Alcatraz Island! It was an unforgettable experience and the perfect way to end the week. We enjoyed our last evening together and appreciated looking at the city from a different perspective. 



The day ended with a delicious dinner at Fog City—two long tables with good food and drinks.
 
A big thank-you goes to my fellow Venture Leaders Technology and the Venturelab team for a suberb week! I am especially grateful to Beat Schillig, Stefan Steiner, Philip Hassler, Jordi Montserrat, and Mathilde Leboyer, who contributed to the success of this program and, of course, to our dear sponsors: Karim (Kellerhals Carrard), Robert (Rothschild & Co), Tillman (DPD), and Cyril (ETH Zurich).



The Venture Leaders Technology 2021 program is organized by Venturelab and supported by dpd Switzerland, EPF Lausanne, ETH Zurich, Intel, Kellerhals Carrard, Morrison & Foerster, Rothschild & Co, and the Canton of Vaud.