Venture Leaders Technology roadshow: A report from Silicon Valley

The Venture Leaders Technology roadshow 2024 brought 10 handpicked Swiss entrepreneurs to Silicon Valley in early April. The selected startups benefited from market exposure, pitch sessions with investors and experts, and hands-on business development.

Venturelab has been organizing international roadshows for the Swiss National Startup Teams for 18 years. The ambitious entrepreneurs and their promising startups are introduced to high-class investors and potential customers in leading technology hubs such as Silicon Valley, Boston, Asia, Barcelona, Munich, and London.

The Venture Leaders Technology roadshow offers a one-week deep dive into the Silicon Valley startup ecosystem. The program includes pitch sessions with US investors, expert workshops, and industry insights. The participants, selected from over 200 applicants, not only build a strong network in the United States but are also part of a team of entrepreneurs who share the same objectives and challenges.

Alumni comprise high-flying startups such as Lemoptix and Composyt Light Labs (acquired by Intel), Faceshift (acquired by Apple), HouseTrip (acquired by TripAdvisor), Kooaba (acquired by Qualcomm), Dacuda (acquired by Magic Leap), and the unicorns GetYourGuide and Scandit. Success stories of some of last year's Venture Leaders Technology underline the momentum that can be built on by expanding their network and insight: The Engineering startup Ecorobotix celebrated a capital injection of USD 52 Million and the EPFL spin-off Tune Insight raised USD 3.4 Million, reaching significant milestones in their growth.

VENTURE LEADERS IMPRESS SILICON VALLEY INVESTORS
The week-long roadshow in the Bay Area including Silicon Valley and San Francisco included investor pitch sessions with some of the most established venture firms: Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund, Bessemer Venture Partners, DN Capital, Five Arrows, Fyrfly, Intel Capital, Partech Partners, Samsung Next, Tenacity Venture, and True Ventures. Swisscom Outpost organized an investor pitch session for the Swiss National Startup Team in Palo Alto as well.

“Fantastic exposure to the Silicon Valley ecosystem, investor contacts and people - all condensed in just one week. Absolutely valuable for any Swiss startup that wants to go big!” stated Roberto Iannone, CEO of Zoundream and Team Captain of Venture Leaders Technology 2024.

Participants were not only able to build a strong network in the Bay Area but also amongst one another as part of a team of entrepreneurs sharing similar objectives and challenges. Beyond the investor meetings, the founders expanded their knowledge with a valuable U.S. pitch training session with Matt Abrahams, a pricing workshop by Jeffrey Tjiok at Simon-Kucher, a session on how to scale the company by successful entrepreneur Gabor Cselle, a legal workshop at Silicon Legal Strategy, a workshop at Google and attending the Berkeley SkyDeck Demo Days.

"The quality of the roadshow meetings is impressive. The people we met are top-notch. It was a real immersion into the Silicon Valley ecosystem. The friends you make will last for long," added Aldo Lamberti, CEO and Founder of Syntheticus.


 

Thanks to Balz Abplanalb, the Swiss Consul in San Francisco, and the Swiss Business Hub USA the Swiss National Startup Team could also enlarge their business network at a great networking reception.
 

The Swiss National Startup Team is finally in the US to a great week of investor meetings and expert sessions as part of the Venture Leaders Technology 2024 roadshow.#VLeadersTech pic.twitter.com/Mwdj3KrcUK

— Venturelab (@venturelab_ch) April 9, 2024

This year's Venture Leaders Technology is organized by Venturelab and supported by DPD Switzerland, EPFL, ETH Zürich, Helbling Technik, Kellerhals Carrard, Rothschild & Co, Unicorn Anchor, and the Canton of Vaud.

The Venture Leaders — the Swiss National Startup Team members — have a clear objective: They envision themselves as global players and aim for international expansion. Pitching to industry experts, VCs, and investors, the ten innovators took a decisive step in their venture's growth. They are connected to the startup ecosystem of one of the world's central tech hubs.



The Venture Leaders Technology 2024 that traveled to San Francisco: