The Swisspreneur association promotes Swiss entrepreneurship – and several HSG alumni are behind it

Image caption: Silvan Krähenbühl (far left) is the managing director of Swisspreneur. The association promotes entrepreneurship in Switzerland and trains young startups.

Silvan Krähenbühl completed a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration at HSG and founded Gymhopper in 2015 at the same time. ‘I always say that Gymhopper was my master's degree,’ says the 32-year-old from Bern, laughing. Krähenbühl went all in with his start-up after graduating with his bachelor's degree, and three years later he was able to sell Gymhopper to an Austrian platform. “While I was working on my startup, relatives kept asking me when I would go back to university and look for a real job,” he recalls. This attitude is widespread in Switzerland, says Krähenbühl. One of the reasons he became managing director of Swisspreneur was to change this mindset.

On its website, Swisspreneur writes: ‘We believe that fostering an entrepreneurial mindset among Swiss youth is crucial to Switzerland's competitiveness in the global economy.’

Several HSG graduates, often entrepreneurs themselves, are on the management and founding team of the association, which has been active since 2016 – including Dominique Kunz, Björn Fröhlich and Nicola Flückiger. ‘I went to  HSG because I perceived it as a university where entrepreneurship plays an important role,’ says Krähenbühl.

During his studies, he was involved in the student Young Entrepreneurs Club and built up a network of founders and investors. ‘That was helpful when I became an entrepreneur myself,’ he recalls. Krähenbühl is currently working on setting up his latest start-up, Delos Analytica.

Free training for young entrepreneurs

Swisspreneur is working on several levels to advance its vision: on the one hand, the association provides free training for startups in so-called ‘masterclasses’. These are video tutorials on topics such as market entry, angel investing, finding investors or B2B sales. In the videos, entrepreneurs or investors talk about a topic that they themselves know well from their own experiences. ‘Most questions from startup founders revolve around the search for investors,’ says Krähenbühl.

That's why Swisspreneur also connects startups with potential investors on its website. “The investors usually come from our network, and are often private individuals and smaller investment companies,” says Krähenbühl. The focus is therefore on pre-seed investments for startups in the early stages.

Since the introduction of this matching three years ago, over 30 investments have been made possible. The Swisspreneur association is financed by partners such as Google, UBS and Properti. ‘We all work for the association on a voluntary basis,’ says Krähenbühl.

Large financing gap in Switzerland

In addition, Swisspreneur publishes a podcast episode every three to four days. There are 480 episodes so far, in which host Krähenbühl has discussed with On founder and HSG graduate Caspar Coppetti, Nikin founder and HSG graduate Nicholas Hänny, UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti and former professional footballer Beni Huggel. ‘We are interested in leaders who have a connection to the Swiss economy,’ says Krähenbühl.

The digital content is supplemented with events where entrepreneurs in different business phases can meet with investors. ‘A lot has happened in Switzerland since I founded a startup in 2015. However, there is still a gap in the financing of startups that are in an international growth phase and require tens of millions in investment,’ says Krähenbühl. Many start-ups then turn to investors in other countries, often in the US. ‘This is a shame, because a lot of added value is lost for Switzerland, even though it has trained the young people.’