> Although it is nice to have more funds available, which increases the competition among VCs, the main point is not lack of funds.
I agree on that, on the other hand I don't see the lack of market as a big problem. I like to take Spotify as example, it started in Sweden, which is a market comparable to the Swiss one in terms of size, but after the first prototypes and early versions, it went global almost immediately.
Schneider-Ammann said that a change of mentality is required in Switzerland. He noted that while in the US, business failure is greeted with a “better luck next time” or with a similar attitude, on the other hand, in Switzerland, “if you fail with your business idea here everyone points the finger at you. You are branded a looser”. This seems to be the main goal and I totally agree with him.
IMHO, a company can move to a global scale from the start with the right plan, but it's the mentality and the fact that Swiss VCs care more about patents and product protection preventing Swiss Start-up to compete with the rest of the world, instead of caring about quality of the actual product and picking the right time to enter the market.
I heard some stories about companies collecting 500-800k in seed investment, spending 50% of it in legal fees protecting a product they still have to develop, failing later in execution for lack of cash... this is what, I think, needs to be fixed in Switzerland.
I understand your point. Yeah.. this is king of a ecosystem.. which needs to be balanced. The good news about the report is that it shows a mindset shift.. Switzerland is stable, warm (people) and radiates freedom .. for sure it is a good candidate to become the next hub.
It also has a lot of capital (although perhaps not necessarily risk-capital), and seems to be the only place in Europe that pays developers comparably to their pay in the US.
Switzerland aims to position itself as a FinTech hub though, where ___location is a huge issue due to regulation. E.g. if you're based in the EU you a 'passport' which lets you use your banking license in other markets; in Switzerland you don't.
In general the FinTech market is not (yet) cross-border friendly which is why the current prime startups here are either high-margin insurance brokers or our friends in the cryptovalley.
Those Swedish startups didn't form out of nothing. Not only was Sweden early when it comes to things like personal computers, internet access and English, but also notable in many other areas. Almost all successful Swedish companies are at least partly related to gaming, music or telecom. That stems from a rather long organic history of the demoscene, artists and industry. Attitude might have something to do with, but few people would say that the Swedish attitude is anything like what people commonly think is needed for entrepreneurship.
I agree on that, on the other hand I don't see the lack of market as a big problem. I like to take Spotify as example, it started in Sweden, which is a market comparable to the Swiss one in terms of size, but after the first prototypes and early versions, it went global almost immediately.
Schneider-Ammann said that a change of mentality is required in Switzerland. He noted that while in the US, business failure is greeted with a “better luck next time” or with a similar attitude, on the other hand, in Switzerland, “if you fail with your business idea here everyone points the finger at you. You are branded a looser”. This seems to be the main goal and I totally agree with him.
IMHO, a company can move to a global scale from the start with the right plan, but it's the mentality and the fact that Swiss VCs care more about patents and product protection preventing Swiss Start-up to compete with the rest of the world, instead of caring about quality of the actual product and picking the right time to enter the market.
I heard some stories about companies collecting 500-800k in seed investment, spending 50% of it in legal fees protecting a product they still have to develop, failing later in execution for lack of cash... this is what, I think, needs to be fixed in Switzerland.