Venture Challenge at ETH Zurich

When

27. October - 1. December 2025 (6 workshops in total)

Where

At: ETH Zurich

Time

17:30-19:30

Topic

Venture Challenge at ETH Zurich

Target Audience

Students, PhD, Postdoc, Academic Staff & Alumni, Entrepreneurs, Interested in Entrepreneurship

Why attend?

Coaching, Training, Inspiration, Fundraising, Networking, International

ABOUT Venture Challenge at ETH Zurich

Venture Challenge is a workshop series where you can meet successful entrepreneurs and hear about their experience and recommandations on a specific topic.

Attendance is limited: Register here and send us your application file back. We will notify you if you are eligible to participate.
These workshops are conceived for scientists, students and alumni with an innovative startup idea.

Program

Accelerate your startup project with the support of successful founders and industry leaders!

Venture Challenge at ETH is a program helping students, scientists, and other entrepreneurial talents dive into the essentials of turning a good idea into a real business. This program is ‘by founders for founders’: you will learn from the success of others who have already worked in fast-scaling startup projects in the deep tech ecosystem of ETH.

We focus on 6 key challenges that all new entrepreneurs have to face:

- Your identity: the story of you and your startup – your personal journey of becoming an entrepreneur and follow your mission

- Your team: nobody can do it alone – let’s discuss how you can find great co-founders, hire outstanding talent, and lead

- Sales: there is no business without business – so let’s talk about how to acquire your first paying customers and start making money

- Financing strategies and deal terms: make sure that your company has the right legal setup to receive funding

- Raise the first investment: learn about how to finance your startup with the different sources of funding

- Pitching: insights on how to impress investors, clients, and other important stakeholders to make them support you

Besides of what you will learn, possibly the most important part is the people who you will meet and connect with. We seek to build a community of startup-minded people, supporting each other in pursuing their dreams of building the next world-class companies.

Participation is free but seats are limited! Apply if you have an innovative startup project and the ambition to conquer the world. If you are a student, doctoral candidate, postdoc, alum or member of staff at ETH Zurich, or any other Swiss university carrying a solid high-tech startup project, are also more than welcome to join the program. In case of questions, please don't hesitate to contact Raffael: raffael.kellner@venturelab.ch.

Schedule

Monday, 27. October 2025 - Venture Challenge #1: The story of your startup
- How you become an entrepreneur
- Failure and best practices
- The story of the entrepreneurial journey
Venue: ETH Entrepreneur Club, Weinbergstrasse 11, 8001 Zürich

with: Eleanor Willi, Co-Founder & CEO of Rezonanz

Monday, 3. November. 2025 - Venture Challenge #2: What it takes to build a dream team
- Find the right co-founders
- Hire world-class talents
- Leading a high-performing team
Venue: ETH, (HG D7.2), Rämistrasse 101, 8006 Zürich

with: Clarissa Convertino, Staff Engineer of Lumiphase

Monday, 10. November 2025 - Venture Challenge #3: Sales for startups
- How to get your first paying customers
- Validate your idea by charging money for it
- Effective sales organization for recurring revenues
Venue: ETH, (HG D7.2), Rämistrasse 101, 8006 Zürich

with: Sandro Zweig, Co-Founder & CEO, tiun

Monday, 17. November 2025 - Venture Challenge #4: Financing strategies and negotiating deal terms for your financing round
- The right company setup to receive funding
- Different types of equity financing
- Crucial deal terms to negotiate with investors
Venue: ETH, (room tbd.), Rämistrasse 101, 8006 Zürich

with: Dario Silberschmidt, Partner at Kellerhals Carrard

Monday, 24. November 2025 - Venture Challenge #6: Raise the first investment
- Understand the different types of funding instruments
- How business angels and VCs think and decide
- Approach investors to raise capital for your startup
Venue: ETH, (room HG F26.1), Rämistrasse 101, 8006 Zürich

with: Wanja Humanes, CEO & Managing Partner at Kickfund

Monday, 1. December 2025 - Venture Challenge #5: How to do the perfect pitch and feedback session
- The structure of an effective investor pitch deck
- Deliver the pitch and handle tough questions
- Close the deal
Venue: ETH, (room HG D7.2), Rämistrasse 101, 8006 Zürich

with: Nicholas Eyring, Program Manager at Venture Kick

Want to know more what it's like to join the Venture Challenge? Read here about students' experiences of the previous year.

Note: all sessions take place at ETH Zurich (details on location will be announced), starting at 17:30. Content will be delivered for 90 minutes, with enough time for Q&A and networking after. For reasons of confidentiality, we do not allow recording of the discussions.

Participation is free but seats are limited! If you want to participate, apply as soon as possible!

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Thank you to our event partners:

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Get ready! Watch and get inspired:

About Entrepreneurship at ETH

Meet other scientists who turned their science projects into startups

Excited? So are we! Apply now to participate in the upcoming Venture Challenge!