Venture Leaders Technology 2022: Captain’s blog by Enlightra CEO John Jost

17.05.2022 15:00, Tracy Woodley

In early April, the Venture Leaders Technology 2022 traveled to San Francisco to connect with and learn from investors and experts in Silicon Valley. We asked Venture Leaders Technology Team Co-Captain John Jost to share his experience and take us behind the scenes of the week-long roadshow.

It was a great pleasure to have been chosen as the Co-Captain of the Swiss National Startup Team. Usually, people save thanks for the end, but I would hate for such a thing to get lost in my ramblings. The organization of the whole event was amazing. Stefan and Andrea did an amazing job of keeping us on track. You might think that a group of CEOs would be highly organized and on time, but you would be woefully wrong. It was more like herding a bunch of cats.



Also, we never would have had such an awesome time without the help and support from the amazing sponsors who made the travel, lodging, some late nights, and many great times possible. Thank you very much Tillman Schultze (DPD), Thierry Barbey (Kellerhals Carrard), Robert Skrobak (Rothschild & Co), and Patrick Maillard (IMMOMIG).



03.04.22 – Departure and diving right in
Despite some early morning chaos at the Zurich airport, we were all able to make it on time and were able to reconnect and get to know each other better and get some last-minute coffee before the long flight to San Francisco. Some of us slept and I saw several diligent sponsors and CEOs firing off last-minute emails. As for me, I lucked out and ended up in a seat next to Doug Griffin from Dart Ventures, who, as luck would have it, was also to be our judge at one of the upcoming pitch competitions.

After landing in San Francisco, I was able to sail through customs as an American, but my European CEO friends were less lucky. Everyone made it through the tough and odd questioning often administered by my home country's security. 

The Venture Leaders program is not for the weak, and there was no settling in time at the hotel. We went straight into training and preparation for the following days. Phillip Stauffer, a Swiss transplant to the Silicon Valley venture capital world, came to share his perspectives on how venture capital is different in the Bay Area compared to Europe, which was valuable information for the days ahead.  



04.04.2022 – Swissnex kickoff
Again, no rest for the weary, as we started the day off early settling into our home base for the week Swissnex at the Swiss Consulate. It was as cool as it sounds, and I definitely impressed some investors when I told them I was calling them from the Swiss Consulate. 

The Swissnex team (Sharon Ambrosio, Natalia Guecheva, and company) were amazing hosts throughout the week for the events. Located at Pier 17, they do not lack for a nice office space. 

One of the first orders of business was coaching on how to pitch to U.S. investors from a real professional (Stuart Paap). As you can see in the photo everyone was trying to make some last-minute changes to their slides before the first pitching session. 



05.04.22 – HR workshop
As a start-up CEO, you must often learn so many new things that are important, but one commonality in all startups is that the team is the most important element of it all— without that, even the best ideas will fail. Stefan and the team brought in yet another awesome expert, Jodi Johnson, to help all startups define their company culture. The award for Best Company Culture must go to Corintis, who envision their company as a happy pirate ship taking on the big players in the market. As I have a fondness for all things pirate related, I was about ready to jump ship and join their team. 



06.04.2022 – Silicon Valley
On the fourth day of the tour, we headed down to the famous Menlo Park south of the San Francisco Bay, where so many great Silicon Valley ideas got their start. This is such a hot area that Swisscom has established a permanent presence there in order to scout the newest technologies being developed. 

Swisscom Cloud Lab was our host for a super cool backyard pitching event featuring a great panel of investors (Doug Griffin, Adrian Stalder, Grant Weichang Ge, and Alexander Fries), all of whom were prepared with challenging questions for all the startups. 

After a quick lunch, we all jumped in some Ubers and headed over to the famous Sand Hill Road, which is lined with VCs. Our stop was SE Ventures. Here again, the team got the chance to present in rapid-fire succession and get valuable feedback and a few good investor leads. 

07.04.22 – Swiss Pitch night
Today was the main event: the Swissnex Pitch night. There were over 100 people in attendance including the Swiss Consulate General, Balz Aplanalp (in the group picture). We had been training all week for this and now it was finally time. But first, everyone got their booth set up and we all had a chance to check our slides on the big screen. I took the chance to get a photo for social media. 



It was a packed event, and everything went off perfectly— except for one surprise. We knew each other's pitches by heart at this point, so no one expected anything different. However, you can always count on Felix of qiio to keep things interesting. Instead of launching into his regular pitch, he started by jumping from the stage and running into the audience. He turned the tables and asked the audience questions, which was a great change of pace. 

There were two big prizes at the event: one that was decided by the jury, and one decided by the audience. My fellow co-captain Matteo of xFarm won! They are changing the way farmers manage everything by transitioning them to an efficient digital platform. Next up was the audience favorite award, which went to Sam from Corintis. I am sure he impressed the audience by sharing the remarkable fact that computer chips can get as hot as barbeque grills, which is why the world needs Corintis’ innovative cooling technology. 

It was a long day, and when it was finally time to unwind Felix led us on another one of his adventures…



08.04.2022 – Googling and boats
Finally, the pressure was off, and the pitching portion of the trip was over. On our last day, Stefan and Andrea planned some fun for us. We all met at the pier mid-morning for a relaxing sailboat tour of the bay. This was a great time, and we could sit around and chat about all the cool things that had happened during the week. 



Next, we had a special treat: a trip to Google and a special presentation from Gabor Ceselle. This was very inspiring and got to the heart of what creating a startup is about, which is creating something that grows—although after visiting Google, I think several of us were ready to leave our startups behind and go work for Google. What a cool place, and the view isn’t so bad either!

For our last night together, we were treated to an awesome dinner. But that wasn’t all! Throughout the week, Andrea, Matteo, and I had been keeping a close watch on the team to see who would win the prestigious Venture Leaders awards. There were many important ones, such as The Person Who Was the Most Lost, The Person Who Had the Hardest to Pronounce Company Name, The Person Who Was the Most Nervous…


 
Then we did a little reverse pitching, where we each had to present the pitch of another person's company, which was hilarious (as we’d heard each other’s pitches dozens of times by that point). 

Captain’s Blog by John Jost: I have been very fortunate to have participated on two Swiss National Startup Teams (Deeptech 2021 and Technology 2022). It was a great experience and has helped my company, Enlightra, immensely. I have gained some amazing new friends who are all also on this crazy startup journey. Thanks to everyone for making the trip so special.


Learn more about the Venture Leaders Technology 2022: