Venturelab Celebrates First Year of Innosuisse Start-up Training

Nationwide and multi-sector reach

 

The 29 workshops took place in Zurich, Lausanne, Bern, Basel and Lugano. The vast majority – 89 percent – of the 393 participating entrepreneurs held university degrees, as selection required a strong technological, academic or business model innovation.

 

Venturelab and Innosuisse trainers mingle in Lausanne, at an apero after planning 2019's workshops

 

Impactful mission-driven training

 

To ensure that each workshop’s case-studies, tools and discussions were relevant, each training session was led by experienced entrepreneurs from the same industry. In the 19 Business Creation workshops the trainers shared their playbooks of what to do, and the particular mistakes to avoid, when building companies in that specific sector. In the 10 Business Growth workshops successful entrepreneurs showed how they accelerated their marketing and sales, in training again tailored to the industry.

 

"We focus on participants’ startups, with individual feedback and support for their specific situation. Our goal is to help entrepreneurs succeed in their key missions: win their first customers, build the strongest team, and convince investors of their value," said Philipp Winteler, who manages the delivery of the Innosuisse Start-up Training modules. "Some people travel the length of the country to attend, because of the high-quality, industry-specific knowledge shared."


Venturelab and Innosuisse trainers mingle in Zurich, at an apero after planning 2019's workshops

 

Feedback from 2018’s participants was very positive. "We're delighted that on average participants stated their likelihood of recommending the workshops as 4.6 out of 5," said Selina Schmid, who manages the training in German- and Italian-speaking Switzerland.

 

"Thanks to the very experienced coaches and experts, within five days you acquire the knowledge of countless years of start-up experience, which is extremely valuable at this stage," commented Antonia Bolla, whose startup Jamie & I AG offers shoppers a virtual stylist.

 

Medtech Business Creation workshop in Basel
 

Entrepreneurs training entrepreneurs

 

A key component of the workshops’ success is calling upon active entrepreneurs and startup experts to share their knowledge, experiences and networks with participants.

 

“The opportunity to contribute to the Swiss startup ecosystem is a great motivation. Knowing how challenging – and exciting – it is to build a startup, I love sharing my experience to help other entrepreneurs,” said Daniela Marino, the chief executive who's raised more than 8 million francs for her medtech company, CUTISS AG, which uses patient's healthy skin to grow better skin grafts.

 

Integrated coaching

 

All participants can choose a coach amongst Venturelab's 60 coaches for up to 3 hours of dedicated, one-to-one coaching complementing the training received in class.

 

"The option to choose a personal coach is one of the aspects that participants recall strongly when we follow-up with them between each vertical’s Business Creation and Business Growth modules," said Selina Schmid.

 

Continuous improvement into 2019

 

Venturelab uses daily feedback from trainers, partners and participants’ feedback to improve the workshops every day. To extend the national coverage, training will also be offered in Geneva this year. “I'm glad we could add Geneva. Thanks to Geneva University, CERN, Campus Biotech and many other institutions, the city is a hub for many high-tech entrepreneurs,” said Julia Bory, who manages the training in the Romandie.

 

"This year we are further strengthening the practical measures, to ensure each entrepreneur ends every day of training with tangible results,” said Jordi Montserrat, co-founder and managing partner of Venturelab. “We also always look to add ambassadors who can inspire potential entrepreneurs to apply, and encourage more women to apply and embrace an entrepreneurial career." 

 

Spread the word 

 

Help ensure every potential entrepreneur in Advanced Engineering, ICT, Biotech or Medtech knows about our courses, by joining our ambassador program. Drop Selina Schmid an email selina.schmid@venturelab.ch to add your organization's or network's email to receive alerts about every course.

 

The Venturelab team