A strong finish for »venture» 2012: We are very pleased to announce that 137 Business Plans were submitted in Phase II of Switzerland’s leading start-up competition. This number of submissions matches the all-time record of 2010 and underlines the popularity of »venture».

We’ll publish in-depth statistics here shortly, but one trend is already clear: Of the 137 business plans, 1 in 4 is from the “digital world” meaning, it is a software or web & portal project. It seems the American, and more recently, European success stories in this domain have encouraged young entrepreneurs. From Facebook to DeinDeal – the founders are stars and perceived as role models.

In 2004, the term “Web 2.0” gained popularity through the “O’Reilly Media Web 2.0” conference in San Francisco. Much discussed then, many “Web 2.0” fundamentals appear in the business plans of today. “User-created content”, “social network”, “mash-up”, and “interoperability” are mentioned frequently and prove to be more than “buzzwords”. Perhaps today, the famous World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee wouldn’t say “Web 2.0” is a mere “piece of jargon – nobody even knows what it means” (2006).

However, to Berners-Lee’s credit, it seems that “Web 2.0” today is implemented much more broadly than as defined by its founders. We noticed almost every business plan includes some sort of (digital) business intelligence, a digital interface, “crowd intelligence” or at least mentions a computer chip. Come to the Prize Awards Ceremony on May 24 at the ETH and see for yourself!

Stay tuned for details.

Your »venture» Office

More than 70 female entrepreneurs took part in our women@venture workshop, held at McKinsey & Company’s airport office on Tuesday, March 20, 2012.

The evening kicked off with a networking session where the participants divided up in small groups and interviewed each other. Back in the plenary, Dr. Martina Bender, project leader »venture» 2012, shared some key statistics on the role of women in entrepreneurship and within the »venture»  2012 competition. “We saw greater participation in the first phase of the competition from female entrepreneurs compared to 2010, although the absolute number is still low: we counted 27 female team leaders, which represents 14% of total participants”.

Brigitte Baumann, founder and CEO of the “Go Beyond” business angel network and a McKinsey alumna, led the following panel discussion. Panelists were Dr. Randa Grob-Zakhary (founder and director of the Babyboost Institute for Early Childhood Learning & Development and a McKinsey alumna), Jeyran Hezaveh (co-founder and head of technology of Innovaradio), Dr. Carole Ackermann (CEO and co-owner of DiamondScull AG and president of Business Angels Schweiz (BAS)) and Dr. Katharina Lichtner (managing director and co-founder of Capital Dynamics and a McKinsey alumna).

The entrepreneurs and investors shared their personal stories on how they entered the entrepreneurial world and what the main challenges and success criteria were to establish their businesses. Workshop participants had the opportunity to interact with the panelists not only during the Q&A session, but also during the networking aperitif following the event.

“Think big and stand up for your values”, Katharina Lichtner said to the participants. She emphasized how important it is to be bold when scaling your business while making sure to embed your own values in it. “I reserved the hours between 5 and 8 p.m. exclusively for my kids when they were small”, she pointed out. Carole Ackermann reinforced that point: “I am working with a women-led start-up where we schedule conference calls at 10 p.m. when the kids are asleep.”

The audience asked questions on how to attract the right employees and how to handle flexibility versus security aspects when starting a business. Randa Grob-Zakhary brought up an important point in this context: “You have to define your own success criteria when founding and running a company. Be aware that the definition of success may vary between individuals.” Jeyran Hezaveh, one of the ten winners in the »venture» 2008 competition, encouraged potential entrepreneurs to take advantage of any networking opportunity offered by platforms like »venture».

Feedback from the participants was extremely positive: “Thank you for an inspiring evening”. “Satisfaction with the overall event exceeded my expectations”.

Zurich, January 12, 2012 – McKinsey & Company together with the ETH Zurich and the KTI, the Swiss federal innovation promotion agency, are running the eighth edition of the start-up competition that supports innovative young entrepreneurs in founding start-up firms.

This year’s competition entries range across various sectors, including electronics, medical technology, and pharma/biotech. However, “This time, there’s a clear move in the direction of IT and web portals. It’s very promising and I hope we’ll see the next Mark Zuckerberg come from Zurich, Lausanne, or somewhere else in Switzerland,” says Dr. Thomas Knecht, ex-director at McKinsey & Company, founder of the competition, and a long-time observer of the Swiss start-up scene.

Four of the ten winning projects began life at the ETH Zurich. The number of participants having been to technical universities has doubled. In addition, the share of women participants grew from 11 percent to 14 percent. For Dr. Silvio Bonaccio of the ETH, this is a welcome sign: “Young entrepreneurs are a very important and efficient means to integrate new ideas and technologies from the universities into the economy and society.”

Dr. Daniela Meier of the KTI adds, “The strength of »venture» is not only its knowledgeable jury, but also that teams benefit from professional coaching and a networking platform.” The jury, comprising experienced entrepreneurs, investors, and venture capitalists, has now made its choice and selected the ten most promising projects of this first phase of »venture» 2012.

Here they are in alphabetical order:

AppAware (ETH Zurich)

AppAware is a social network for mobile apps and games: it is a quick, fun, and beautiful way to discover new applications for your smartphone with friends! And it is already available free on Android Market: appaware.com

Electrochromic Window Film (EPFL Lausanne)

We have developed an electronic tinting film that can be applied to surfaces such as windows or mirrors (e.g., the rearview mirror of a car). The wireless film reduces energy consumption and is suitable for both refits and new installations.

KB Medical (EPFL Lausanne)

KB Medical, a spin-off company of the EPFL Lausanne, has specialized know-how in the development of cutting-edge medical devices for robot-assisted operations. With the development of the Neuroglide, a high-precision surgery robot for spinal screw placements, both operation risks and recuperation time are cut significantly.

Mabimmune Diagnostics (University of Zurich)

Mabimmune prevents heart attacks through early diagnosis and targeted treatment. PlaqueVision is a human antibody-based imaging agent that identifies high-risk patients by locating life-threatening atherosclerotic plaques. FlowMab is a human antibody-based therapy that stabilizes life-threatening plaques to prevent heart attacks.

OsmoTech (EPFL Lausanne)

OsmoTech’s innovative technology provides a profitable and sustainable solution for recycling waste heat to generate power. OsmoTech will produce electricity and high-voltage capacity operating at very low temperatures (below 100°C) compared to other technologies.

PumpTire (Geneva)

PumpTire is marketing the first self-inflating bicycle tire. Imagine if you could take your bike out of the garage without ever having to pump up the tires or measure the tire pressure.

Scrona (ETH Zurich)

Scrona has developed the first scalable method to create high-definition nano structures (<100 nm) using a bottom-up 3D method. This contact-free printing technique will provide huge cost advantages in the manufacture of many products in high-tech industries.

SwissLitho (ETH Zurich)

SwissLitho markets a unique nano-manufacturing tool: the NanoFrazor. Researchers and nanotechnology manufacturers can apply this affordable and easy-to-use machine to create nano-structures quickly and to investigate those to use, for example, in future electronic, optical, or quantum nano-devices.

Taenia Tec (ETH Zurich)

We have developed a new generation of high-performance films combining high rigidity and strength with outstanding inhibiting and mechanical-damping properties. These new films enable a wide range of cost-effective products from thinner (green) food packaging to high-performance composites.

Uepaa Swiss Alpine Technology (Zurich)

Uepaa converts smartphones into mountain rescue and alarm devices via a highly effective, wireless Peer2Peer technology. Uepaa tracks and finds mountaineers even in areas without mobile network coverage or converts smartphones into avalanche transceivers.

• After the business idea comes the business plan: »venture» 2012 now enters its second phase. On May 24, 2012, the next round of winners is scheduled: the choice of the best business plans. Over 180 coaches from the worlds of business and science are standing by to give professional advice to the participants in developing a business strategy and a financing plan. The closing date for entries is April 1, 2012, so even latecomers that did not take part in the first phase can still participate.