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There are a lot of political initiatives, corporate accelerators etc going on at the moment but they don’t fix the inherent problem here in Switzerland: Cost of

There are a lot of political initiatives, corporate accelerators etc going on at the moment but they don’t fix the inherent problem here in Switzerland: Cost of living is absurdly high, unemployment is low and life is just really convenient. Why risk it all for a startup when you can just cruise through life with a 42h-week and long lunches at a bank and save a ridiculous amount of money doing so. Because of this cultural issue and the fact that a overproportional number of very large corporates are based in Switzerland, the whole ecosystem is geared towards that. One part is certainly that there is basically no VC money available but just throwing a bunch of money at it won’t fix the underlying issues.

sschueller 9y ago
I don't see anything wrong with that. We don't need an Uber here. There are still a lot of startups and yes things move more slowly and carefully but for the better of everyone. The culture is what makes Switzerland such a nice place to live.
- malthaus 9y ago
  Spoken in a true Swiss way... slow change :) An Uber would actually be nice to have as the (eventual) exit would maybe create a scene of true local angel investors.
  - sschueller 9y ago
    Sorry but a successful Uber would indicate that is ok to ignore any law[1] in your way and effectively ruin many peoples lives to enrich a few VCs. No thanks. Not that Switzerland doesn't have its corrupt Corporations but we don't need more. [1] http://www.uberscandals.org/all/ http://www.uberscandals.org/all/
louisswiss 9y ago
I hear this argument all the time whenever people talk about the lack of a startups scene in Switzerland and I think it's way off the mark. People who want to found companies will always found companies - and in Switzerland we are really lucky to have a solid (personal) financial base to build on and the knowledge that, if the startup doesn't work out, there will be a great job to go back to. I'd almost go as far as to say that a lot of people start companies in Switzerland who otherwise wouldn't be in a situation to start a startup anywhere else in the world. The real problem we have in Switzerland is the 'investor-incest' which dictates where the significant amount of available capital is invested. It is a horrible old-boys club of epic proportions, focussed on back-slapping and box-ticking instead of innovation and potential (and I say this as someone who benefits from the fact). Aside from this problem, investors in Switzerland are generally less sophisticated than SV investors (especially at the angel/institutional levels) and tend to focus on the solution not the problem when making investment decisions. This leads to most of the Swiss capital in Switzerland being invested into technologically advanced university spin-offs with no market or use case, while teams with a real product-market fit have to go abroad to find investors with the right mindset.
literallycancer 9y ago
>Cost of living is absurdly high, unemployment is low and life is just really convenient. My understanding is that the cost of living is very reasonable, with what the average person gets paid. Almost everyone else in Europe spends a bigger portion of their income on accommodation, food, clothes, commuting etc. while the cost of electronics, cars, vacations and so on remains the same.
- malthaus 9y ago
  Of course it's in sync with wages, you live comfortably even as a waiter - but it requires you to have a steady income. The threshold for ramen profitability is a lot higher than elsewhere which makes it harder to spend significant time on a startup without funding.

sschueller 9y ago

I don't see anything wrong with that. We don't need an Uber here. There are still a lot of startups and yes things move more slowly and carefully but for the better of everyone. The culture is what makes Switzerland such a nice place to live.

malthaus 9y ago
Spoken in a true Swiss way... slow change :) An Uber would actually be nice to have as the (eventual) exit would maybe create a scene of true local angel investors.
- sschueller 9y ago
  Sorry but a successful Uber would indicate that is ok to ignore any law[1] in your way and effectively ruin many peoples lives to enrich a few VCs. No thanks. Not that Switzerland doesn't have its corrupt Corporations but we don't need more. [1] http://www.uberscandals.org/all/ http://www.uberscandals.org/all/

louisswiss 9y ago

I hear this argument all the time whenever people talk about the lack of a startups scene in Switzerland and I think it's way off the mark. People who want to found companies will always found companies - and in Switzerland we are really lucky to have a solid (personal) financial base to build on and the knowledge that, if the startup doesn't work out, there will be a great job to go back to. I'd almost go as far as to say that a lot of people start companies in Switzerland who otherwise wouldn't be in a situation to start a startup anywhere else in the world. The real problem we have in Switzerland is the 'investor-incest' which dictates where the significant amount of available capital is invested. It is a horrible old-boys club of epic proportions, focussed on back-slapping and box-ticking instead of innovation and potential (and I say this as someone who benefits from the fact). Aside from this problem, investors in Switzerland are generally less sophisticated than SV investors (especially at the angel/institutional levels) and tend to focus on the solution not the problem when making investment decisions. This leads to most of the Swiss capital in Switzerland being invested into technologically advanced university spin-offs with no market or use case, while teams with a real product-market fit have to go abroad to find investors with the right mindset.

literallycancer 9y ago

>Cost of living is absurdly high, unemployment is low and life is just really convenient. My understanding is that the cost of living is very reasonable, with what the average person gets paid. Almost everyone else in Europe spends a bigger portion of their income on accommodation, food, clothes, commuting etc. while the cost of electronics, cars, vacations and so on remains the same.

malthaus 9y ago
Of course it's in sync with wages, you live comfortably even as a waiter - but it requires you to have a steady income. The threshold for ramen profitability is a lot higher than elsewhere which makes it harder to spend significant time on a startup without funding.