The “Startup Weekend Zurich” is designed for individuals looking for a possibility to validate their ideas, meet like-minded people, and dive into the world of startups. The Swiss Finance + Technology Association supported this year’s startup weekend focused on FinTech and it was a great experience.

Startup Weekend – FinTech Edition

The second edition of startup Weekend FinTech took place October 14th – 16th at the F10 Fintech Incubator in Zurich. The three days marathon provided space for co-creation, product inception and growth hacking. The event was open to everyone who wanted to benefit from the advice of experienced financial experts, software developers and open source innovators. The 75 registered participants attending were a healthy mix of students, juniors and seniors, but were all driven by one common motto: “be ready to share ideas, form teams, build products, and launch a startup”.

A busy weekend

“Surrounded by smart, passionate people and with the best tools and approaches at disposal, participants take giant leaps toward creating a business, becoming a founder, and connecting with the right people and resources.” – Timo Hahn, Startup Weekend

The event kicked-off on Friday the 14th in the evening, with attendees pitching their initial ideas, allowing them to form the groups for the later weekend. From that moment on, coaches helped guide the groups through subsequent steps of idea development. The event culminated on Sunday with the final pitches in front of a panel of experts. Luke Szkudlarek, board member of the Swiss Finance + Technology Association, was among the jury members and supported with his expertise in digital marketing and software development.

Presenting the Best Ideas

The startup weekend, rather than being a fully fletched incubator, aims at simulating in a very condensed manner the different stages of idea conception. It provides basic set of tools required for any team or individual thinking about becoming an entrepreneur. Here are some of the bright ideas, which the jury awarded:

Overall Winner: VALUBOT

  • Save time and money now by having ValUBot take care of your financial product portfolio
  • ValUbot supports you in making financial decisions easier and better
  • Easy-to-use, competent and trustworthy – your new best virtual friend!

Best Prototype: FUN INVEST

  • The team came up with a simplistic website to make investing more fun for everyone
  • Building a different future, where investing your money is easy, and even fun

Best Pitch: AccessGrowth

  • Your door into Private Equity investments
  • A deal matching platform bringing together professional investors with private investors
  • The new kind of crowdinvesting

Supporting fresh ideas

Prior Startup Weekends have shown that on average two startups continue working on their ideas. But even if some teams fail, they learned from it.

“It was really awesome going through the motions and actually starting something. The people you meet are great, the coaches that come and help you work on your idea are actual entrepreneurs, have been in the startup stage and have very good, valuable insight.” – Participant

The Swiss Finance + Technology Association supported the Startup Weekend and one of the board member contributed to the panel. These kind of activities are extremely important to get more younger people living in Switzerland to become involved in the startup scene. A large percent of Swiss entrepreneurs start their venture not right after school or university, but much later in life. That is why the Association wants to thank the organisers on aiming to close this gap.

See you at the next Startup Weekend Zurich in May 2017!


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