The Swiss startup scene lacks a good online magazine

Unfortunately, the Swiss startup scene is lacking in a number of things: There are not enough risk-taking investors in this country, there is a lack of lighthouse startups with international appeal, and we only have very few companies that specifically work with startups, such as PR agencies for startups. This list could be continued as desired.

An important part of a startup ecosystem is specialized media that observe, analyze and comment on the scene. In Germany the scene is covered by the two big magazines Founder sceneand German startups very well covered, by the end of 2014 the excellent one was also there Netzwert.com busy with startups.

It is widespread in Switzerland startupticker.ch Press releases from startups (and often other more or less young companies) 1:1. Unfortunately, apart from a small intro in the weekly newsletter, no personal contributions are made at all. Addendum from March 29, 2015: In the meantime, Stefan Kyora from Startupticker.ch contacted me and rightly objected that the Swiss Venture Capital Report was an in-house effort. In addition, around a third of the reports were personal contributions, although they were not recognizable to me as such. In my opinion, however, one could go much further and also report critically, publish analyses of the Swiss scene, conduct interviews with protagonists, etc. Thank you for the feedback, which I have included in the blog post below!

The quality of Startwerk.ch has again decreased significantly in the last few months and has existed since it was completely taken over by the IFJalmost exclusively from PR for our own events and courses. Jan Rothenberger, the former editor-in-chief, wrote his own analyses, critically questioned startups and their business models and also sought out external guest authors who often provided important advice and expertise. Back then, Startwerk.ch was a real added value for the Swiss startup scene.

I would like to see a good specialist medium that deals with startups. It would fulfill several functions: For very new companies, an article is often the first sign of life and offers them valuable attention. The critical appraisal of the business models provides important feedback and also helps other founders to learn. High-quality reporting shows investors that the local scene is alive, makes it more attractive for investments and also has a signaling effect for the companies portrayed. How To's, best cases, experience reports and expert contributions are an important source of learning for those interested in starting a business and may even encourage some people to actually implement a business idea.

The initiative for such a startup online magazine would have to come from the scene itself so that the writers are very close to the action. The editorial team would have to be staffed by young, interested people, for example students who are enthusiastic about startups. The two Berlin media mentioned above were supported by investors; Holtzbrinck and the Samwers, for example, have invested in German startups, and the start-up scene has even been taken over by Axel Springer in the meantime. I am convinced that some donors could also be found in Switzerland, as investors also have an interest in reporting on their portfolio companies.

I would be very happy if someone would take on this project!

Addendum from March 29, 2015: Email from Stefan Kyora (Startupticker.ch), which I am showing here with his permission:

Interesting post and I can assure you that our goal is to become the leading online magazine. Your statement "Unfortunately, apart from a small intro in the weekly newsletter, no personal contributions are made at all." is, however, wrong. Around a third of our reports are our own contributions. Examples from this week: http://www.startupticker.ch/en/news/march-2015/dynamic-start-ups-dynamic-supporter#.VRfKNuFBSpo http://www.startupticker.ch/en/news/march-2015/lemoptix-sa-has-been-acquired-by-intel-corporation#.VRfKaOFBSpo http://www.startupticker.ch/en/news/march-2015/ueberall-app-event-zum-ersten-mal-in-zuerich#.VRfKouFBSpohttp://www.startupticker.ch/en/news/march-2015/plaetze-frei-bei-plug-start#.VRfKxeFBSpo . These are just a few examples from the last few days.

Many of our other articles are heavily edited examples: http://www.startupticker.ch/en/news/march-2015/startups-mischen-export-award-auf#.VRfK--FBSpohttp://www.startupticker.ch/en/news/march-2015/successful-first-startup-weekend-in-biel#.VRfLFuFBSpo http://www.startupticker.ch/en/news/march-2015/application-open-for-seif-awards-for-social-entrepreneurship#.VRfLP-FBSpo etc. I could give countless examples here.

I would also like to remind you of our Swiss Venture Capital Report. The report took over six weeks of work. I completely forego the Christmas holidays in order to be able to work on the report. In my opinion, it also sets international standards.

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