The Venture Leaders Technology and Deeptech inspire their audience at the Startup Champions at ETH Zürich event

Venturelab hosted this year’s Startup Champions at ETH Zürich. The event put the spotlight on the Swiss National Startup Team: The Venture Leaders Technology and the Venture Leaders Deeptech pitched their innovations, and serial entrepreneur and ETH alumnus Gabor Cselle shared his expertise on growing startups in an international environment.

This year’s technology and deeptech members of the Swiss National Startup Team are preparing to grow their companies by accelerating their global expansion and strengthening their business network through meetings with international investors and industry leaders. But before the Venture Leaders Technology and the Venture Leaders Deeptech embark on their roadshows later this year—the technology startups will travel to Silicon Valley while the deeptech startups will travel to startup hubs in Europe—the team pitched to an international audience at ETH Zurich. 

In 90 seconds, each entrepreneur had to present their startups and impress the audience members, who each had one vote per team to select the most promising pitch from each group. The winning entrepreneurs were then crowned captain of their Venture Leader team. Fajer Mushtaq (right), the co-founder and CEO of Oxyle, received the captain’s armband for the Venture Leaders Deeptech 2021, while Andrea Tassistro (left), the founder and CEO of Foodetective, will be the captain of the Venture Leaders Technology.  “For me, it was my first time at ETH. I felt very humbled and grateful to have the opportunity to be among these brilliant people,” summarized Andrea. 

“It was a great honor and privilege for me to pitch Oxyle’s technology in a room where only a few years ago, I was attending my lectures as a master student at ETH Zurich. It was a heartening experience to pitch Oxyle’s high-impact wastewater treatment solution to a diverse audience of highly talented individuals. I hope Oxyle’s invention will motivate the audience to work on creating new solutions to fight the many global challenges we face today,” said Oxyle CEO Fajer Mushtaq. “I hope, as the Team Captain for the Venture Leaders Deeptech program, I can support the incredible team in any way possible to ensure we all have a productive and successful roadshow.”

Serial entrepreneur Gabor Cselle shares his expertise 
Gabor Cselle gave the evening’s keynote speech. Gabor is a partner at Area 120, Google’s in-house incubator and an ETH alumnus. After graduating in computer sciences at ETH, he went off to Silicon Valley and founded two startups that were sold to Google and Twitter, respectively. Before, between, and after founding startups, Gabor worked at Google. The serial entrepreneur (and serial Googler) inspired the audience with his insights on entrepreneurship and finding one’s place in an international innovation ecosystem. Here are some highlights from his speech, edited for length and clarity: 

On fundraising: “It is easier to raise money when you have a great ‘why now.’ And you can do more with more money: Raise as much money as you can early on.”  

On benefiting from the strong startup ecosystem in the US: “Start your career at a new-wave remote-friendly company. Start to build momentum and learn. For example, look for so-called mullet startups that have the HQ and executives in the San Francisco Bay Area (‘business in the front’) but develop their software somewhere else (‘party in the back’).”

On entrepreneurs’ power to change the world: “The next ten years will be marked by climate change, misinformation, and inequality. It’s on us entrepreneurs to make some of the big changes needed in the next 10 years. A lot of what we do is incrementally improve products. But entrepreneurs can make big changes.”



An event to remember 
Holding the Startup Champions at ETH event at an auditorium where many of the entrepreneurs once studied made for a particularly inspiring evening: “We are proud to introduce the Venture Leaders Technology and the Venture Leaders Deeptech today. The 20 startups demonstrate the strength of Swiss innovation, and we hope they will motivate many attendees to turn their ideas into reality. Our team at Venturelab is ready to support them,” said Stefan Steiner, co-managing director of Venturelab. 

The Venture Leaders programs are organized by Venturlab. The Venture Leaders Technology 2021 program is supported by dpd Switzerland, EPF Lausanne, ETH Zurich, Intel, Kellerhals Carrard, Rothschild & Co, and the Canton of Vaud. The Venture Leaders Deeptech 2021 program is supported by swissnex, EPF Lausanne, ETH Zurich, Helbling Group, Walder Wyss, the Canton of Vaud, and the Canton of Zurich.


Learn more about the Venture Leaders Technology and the Venture Leaders Deeptech: