IT's ABOUT TECH #6: Starting a tech company today: Where are the sweet spots? Where the blind spots?

Buy a decent bottle of wine, brainstorm your idea, sketch it out on a napkin and approach a Business Angel? This were the good long gone times of the Dotcom Boom in the late nineties. Although it never really happened like this the startup frenzy is still going on and Switzerland has markedly caught up creating substantial funding in Digital startups in the recent decade. Still, if we look at the hard facts, most of swiss made software is mainly run by old fashioned founder driven companies financing themselves by keeping the cash flow positive. Boring? A lack of ambition? Or a virtue? We will find out at our next IT’s ABOUT TECH EVENT: „How to start a tech company today?“, taking place on November 28, in Klybeq, starting at 17.30.

We will hear from Christoph Hugenschmidt, long-time IT journalist and author of the recently published book "Inside Abacus and the crazy history of the Swiss IT industry", about the exciting history of Switzerland's software success stories. We then want to look ahead to the future. Tech founders from Basel report on their experiences, industry proven entrepreneurs take stock and discuss what has changed since the dot-com boom, how they would start a tech company today, bootstrap, partner or go with a VC? Where they see the see the sweet spots, where the blind spots  and whether Switzerland is the right place to be?

AGENDA

17.00 Registration

17.30 Welcome an introduction

Thomas Brenzikofer, swiss made software

Elijah Appius, BaselTech, a program by the Economic Promotion Canton Basel-Stadt,

17:45 Keynote: Be eaten or be eaten – Insight into the shark tank of Switzerlands’s software industry, Christoph Hugenschmidt, author und journalist

18:10 Basel Tech Entrepreneurs present their stories:

Tim Senn, Narrowin

Matthias Mau, ML Architects Basel (MLAB)

Marco Vogt, Polypheny

Thierry Gilgen, Machinalabs

Amit Gadhia, Edelion Technologies GmbH

19:00 Talk across the big pond (remote): David Nüscheler, Adobe (ex Day Software), USA

19:15 Panel Discussion

Christoph Hugenschmidt, Autor und Journalist; Dennis Teichmann, BT Ventures (ex jacando); Luc Haldimann, Unblu; Daniel Senn, Abacus; Sandro von Ins, B.telligent

20:00 Networking

“IT’s ABOUT TECH” is run by the swiss made software in collaboration with BaselTech, a program by "Economic Development of Basel-Stadt".

A special thanks to:

leading partners: “cyon” and “ti&m”

presenting partners: “Magnolia” and „prodyna“

supporting partners: “brix IT Solutions”, „CSEM“, "b.telligent", „Karakun“

networking partners: “BaselHack”, “BaselOne”, “TechLounges”

Thank you for co-hosting this event: KLYBEQ, the area activation by Swiss Life