Venture Mentoring
You came up with a great invention, perhaps during your doctoral thesis or employment, and are thinking of turning it into a startup? But what to do next? Here are a couple of typical questions we often get from the startup founders we support:
- My employer offers a license for my invention. Are their conditions fair and startup-friendly?
- I need investment! Is my business case generally interesting for investors?
- How much investment do I need to begin with?
- I have invented a medical device. What do I have to do to get market approval?
- Will health insurance companies reimburse my product – or who else would pay for it?
You might neither have the money nor the time to research all the answers yourself. Accelerator programs and competitions might be out of the equation, too, because they want exactly the answers from you that you want from them.
Don’t worry. You shouldn’t give up on your dream too soon just to take that high-paying, soul-dulling job in the industry. We answer your questions to help you turn your idea into a startup.
Venture Mentoring service
What we can do for you and your startup
Get rapid access to expert advice on high-level strategic questions to shape a solid business case for your innovative technology. We help you get investor ready. Depending on the question at hand, you will receive pinpoint professional advice. We match you with an expert in the respective field in individually organized one-on-one meetings.
What we need from you to support your entrepreneurial journey
We welcome projects that are or intend to be incorporated in the cantons Basel-Stadt, Basel-Landschaft, or Jura. We support innovation on the way to commercialization from any high-tech field as well as digitally transformed business models. The program is geared to projects on the verge of incorporation and/or at the pre-seed to seed funding stage. Our condition: Your idea needs to have a chance for economic protection through intellectual property or software copyright.
Start shaping your business case
About the mentoring for startups
Founding a startup should be straightforward – that’s why we keep things easy for you: no application deadline or selection process. You simply contact Dr. Adrian Sprenger, explain your technology and ask questions. If you meet the above criteria, you can register your project within 10 minutes here and you are on your way.
What do founders say about the program?
Startup mentoring program scope
The Venture Mentoring format addresses high-level strategic questions in consultation with carefully selected experts. Topics typically include:
Stakeholder feedback
- Business case checkup. Get an assessment from an experienced business angel or investment manager about the chances of financing your project. Find out first hand what is important to investors and what is missing from your business plan.
- Company Valuation. At the seed stage of their venture founders struggle with being under-prepared for investor meetings and unable to defensibly quantify their venture’s worth. Learn about the stages of financing, how VCs measure themselves, how to value your startup, and finally how to maximize your startup’s valuation.
- B2B customer feedback. As a startup, it is often difficult to get to the people in large companies who decide to buy your B2B solution. We try to get these people to come and mentor you so that you know early on if there is a neeed for your product and what it needs to look like.
Development plan
- IP strategy. Together with a patent attorney, you will analyze the patentable aspects of your technology and draft a patent strategy with regard to scope of protection, countries, schedule as well as cost plan. If required, a guided patent search can be carried out at the IGE, “Institut für geistiges Eigentum” free of charge (fee normally CHF 300).
- Regulatory Pathway. In a mentor meeting, an initial regulatory objective is defined and, based on this, the classification of the product is assessed. This will help to sketch out indications for time and cost planning for registration in the initial market in preperation of investor discussions.
- Reimbursement chances. Discuss with experts from insurance companies your healthcare innovation’s chances for a refund on a private supplementary insurance. Get an initial assessment of the reimbursement strategy for planning market access.
Marketing and PR
- Marketing strategy. Get feedback on your marketing strategy from a marketing specialist. Learn from a successful Kickstarter veteran how to achieve your financing goal through crowdfunding. Learn from Internet founders do’s and dont’s with product launches.
- Pricing strategy. More than 50 percent of customers’ purchasing decisions depend on the price. Learn from a pricing expert how to use psychological price levers in your pricing and develop an individual pricing strategy with them.
- International expansion. Find out how to adapt and implement your business model internationally, how to find access to crucial information and stakeholders in other markets and how best to take your first concrete steps abroad. (in collaboration with Switzerland Global Enterprise)
