HSG Founder of the Year 2017

24 March 2017. Lea von Bidder and her team have developed a bracelet which is intended to identify women’s fertile days. If a woman would like to have children, the bracelet helps identify the ideal point in time for conception. For this purpose, the bracelet must be worn on the wrist at night and synchronised with the concomitant app on the following morning. It will then show at which stage of the cycle the woman is at that moment. "Our technology measures nine parameters with which we recognise change in the cycle-relevant hormones estradiol and progesterone," explains von Bidder. "In this way, the bracelet wearer will quickly be able to identify the fertile stage." Von Bidder founded Ava together with Philipp Tholen, Peter Stein and Pascal König.

They conducted a government-funded study in cooperation with Zurich’s University Clinic in order to develop the bracelet on the basis of sound scientific findings. In autumn 2016, Ava received more than nine million US dollars. The sponsors of the start-up included the Swiss investors Polytech Ecosystem Ventures and Swisscom.

HSG Founders’ Garage

The Entrepreneurship Day is part of the HSG Founders’ Garage event series and again took place this year in the context of the Start Summit founders’ congress. In workshops and lectures, the format provides corporate founders, investors and students with room for an exchange of ideas and experience on the campus of the University of St.Gallen and on the premises of the St.Gallen Olma Fairs. The competition for founders is supported by HSG Alumni and researchers of the Business Innovation profile area at the University of St.Gallen (HSG).

HSG Founders of the Years 2011 to 2017

• "on" running shoe inventor Caspar Coppetti (2016)
• Laura Behrens Wu (2015), founder of the Shippo shipping software company
• Alexander Graubner-Müller (2014), founder of the Kreditech mini-loan platform
• Soma Analytics founder Johann Huber (2013) with his anti-stress app
• DeinDeal.ch founder Adrian Locher (2012)
• Dr. Alexander Ilic (2011), founder of the Dacuda scanner computer mouse company

The jury members of the 2017 founder competition

• Prof. Dietmar Grichnik, Professor of Entrepreneurship at the HSG
• Dr. Charlotta Sirén, Assisstant Professor of Strategic Entrepreneurship
• Diego Probst, head of Startup@HSG
• Manuel Hess, founder coach and team member at Startup@HSG

Photo: HSG Founder of the Year, Lea von Bidder. Copyright: Ava.