The Foundations Behind Talent Kick
"The Gebert Rüf Stiftung was among the first institutions to support the Talent Kick program and the journey of young entrepreneurs in Switzerland. As a founding partner, the Gebert Rüf Stiftung brings invaluable expertise thanks to their strategic vision and their experience in driving the success and growth of the Swiss entrepreneurial ecosystem. The Gebert Rüf Stiftung continues to be a strong partner up until today with major contributions to the funding and as part of the Strategy Board of the program.
Pascale Vonmont
“Talent Kick fills a crucial gap in the Swiss start-up ecosystem. The program is personalised, integrative and creates synergies between entrepreneurship and studies. The focus on developing entrepreneurial teams with a program jointly anchored at Swiss universities is unique and central”
The Ernst Göhner Foundation (EGS) is the gift of the entrepreneur Ernst Göhner (1900–1971) to posterity. Based in Zug, the foundation has both entrepreneurial and philanthropic characteristics and also pursues the objectives of a family foundation.
Carl W. Hirschmann Sr. established the Hirschmann Foundation in Zug in 1985. He had originally intended it to be a corporate foundation. The Hirschmann Foundation has existed in its current form since 2001. It is primarily engaged in the areas of research and education, development cooperation and social matters.
The purpose of the Hasler Foundation is to promote information and communications technology (ICT) for the well-being and benefit of Switzerland as an intellectual and industrial centre. The Foundation aims to play an active role in ensuring that Switzerland continues to take a leading position in science and technology in the future.
University Partners
We collaborate closely with some of the best universities in Switzerland as we want to see their Master- and PhD-students well represented in our cohorts and ensure that their best talents get access to Talent Kick.
With university ambassadors and task forces at the most important campuses we ensure together that the students going through Talent Kick also easily integrate with the many great entrepreneurship programs offered locally and actively use synergies with their academic programs.
Talent Kick is always open for new academic partners to provide the best environment for interdisciplinary teams to form and develop across Swiss universities.
To become a partner university reach out to us!
Startup@HSG was majorly involved in the development of the Talent Kick Program shaping and enriching the structure and content of the first-semester incl. all bootcamps and events with their in-depth know-how, research, expertise, in-kind resources and network! The University St. Gallen further has been one of the first academic institutions to support and embrace the first pilot of the Talent Kick Program and has a strong representation of their students in our batches up until today.
Prof. Dr. Dietmar Grichnik
“For us, Talent Kick stands for the targeted support and fostering of entrepreneurial personalities - and that already during their studies. As an entrepreneurial university, we offer our students at the University of St. Gallen the necessary toolset to realise their own start-up during their studies. With Talent Kick, we promote talents in an integrative and interdisciplinary way with entrepreneurial best practices.”
The ETH AI Center has been a strong partner of the Talent Kick program from the very beginning offering in-kind support through office space and organizational infrastructure. Up until today, the ETH AI Center has close links to Talent Kick creating a vivid exchange between the community of both partners and leveraging synergies between the organizations. Startups and talents from both networks benefit from the close relationship between the two entrepreneurial hubs.
PD Dr. Alexander Ilic
"I'm excited that after developing the early foundations for this program, it finally comes to life! Especially in the area of AI, it is super critical to bring together a strong interdisciplinary team. That is why we support and participate in Talent Kick already since the beginning. At the ETH AI Center we continue to see Talent Kick as a strong building block and we encourage our best talents with entrepreneurial ambitions to apply."
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Swiss-wide Partners
Venture Kick was launched in 2007 with the vision to double the number of spin-offs from Swiss universities, to accelerate their speed-to-market and to raise the attractiveness of these young companies among professional investors and industry partners. We encourage our teams to go onwards to the nine-month kicking process to solidify and strengthen their journey from science to market.
Venturelab has been improving and expanding the support offered to Switzerland's top entrepreneurs, continuously developing and deploying new tools and programs. To date, Venturelab has backed more than 1,000 startups in their global growth, supporting over 50,000 people in the startup ecosystem across various programs and events.
«First Ventures» provides up to CHF 150,000 for students and graduates of Universities of Applied Sciences eager to launch their own spin-off.
The Swiss Startup Association (SSA) is the umbrella organization of the Swiss startup ecosystem. The SSA focuses on bringing all stakeholders closer together to achieve two main goals: more startups and improving conditions for existing ones in Switzerland. With 1,600 members, the SSA serves as the central point of contact and provides startups with a comprehensive range of services.
The IPI is the Swiss authority for trade mark, patent and design protection and for questions on indications of source and copyright.
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»venture», Switzerland’s leading startup competition, is an initiative by ETH Zurich, McKinsey & Company Switzerland, Knecht Holding, Innosuisse and EPFL Lausanne. It awards over half a million Swiss francs annually and provides access to experts, investors, mentors, and top executives across all industries. The competition helps entrepreneurs challenge their startup plans, develop implementation strategies, and connects participants to an extensive network without taking any equity, interests, or fees.
S2S Ventures is an independent students-2-students Venture Capital fund. S2S helps teams demystify the funding process, offering personalized feedback and support, and investing CHF 25'000 pre-seed capital into promising startups.
Rready is a Zurich-based startup that engages third party employees to unleash their full potential. They stand for a playful approach without buzzword-bingo or innovation theatre. Talent Kick uses their KICKBOX method in our program, KICKBOX, based on a methodology used by +1000 of companies, works bottom-up by tapping into the distributed knowledge of their employees and allows them to go from a raw idea to a successful implementation.
Swisspreneur is a nonprofit on a mission to promote and advance entrepreneurship in Switzerland. It does so by regularly producing high-quality audio content covering the stories and know-how of Swiss founders, helping to finance tomorrow's success stories through the Swisspreneur Syndicate, and fostering a stronger startup ecosystem through in-person events and an online community.
Global Program Partners
Swissnex is the Swiss global network connecting Switzerland and the world in education, research and innovation. Our mission is to support the outreach and active engagement of our partners in the international exchange of knowledge, ideas and talents. We thereby contribute to strengthening Switzerland's profile as a world-leading innovation hotspot.
Mentors, Business Angels & Domain Experts
Are you interested in supporting the best entrepreneurial talents in Switzerland through Talent Kick?
Fill out the form and join our community of mentors, business angels, and domain experts. We will save your contact details and share those with selected teams that can benefit from your experience. If a team is interested in your expertise, we will facilitate an introduction.
