The Founder’s Story @Google – If you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together.

The Founder’s Story is an event series created by Google that invites founders & CxOs of startups and scaleups to share their founding stories including their challenges, lessons learned and insights on what’s driving their businesses to success today. 

How Digital Native companies disrupt Industries through Technology, From Founders to Founders was the theme of yesterday’s event at Google in Zurich, Switzerland.

Thanks to Hans Tran, Industry Lead Digital Native, Google Cloud, for hosting us and the great panellists Urs Hölzl, Google Fellow, Employee No 8 at Google, Isabelle Siegrist, Founder & CEO Sandborn, Thomas Dübendorfer, President SICTIC and Merle Zur, Lead Programs & Partnerships Impact Hub Zurich for sharing their insights & experiences.

My key take aways from this event were:

• Only 2% of Venture Capital goes to female founders in Switzerland. With ENGAGING MORE FEMALE OWNED BUSINESSES in your supply chain, you can help to CHANGE THAT!

• BE OPEN as a founder, talk not just about what is going GREAT, but also about what is NOT GOING WELL!
• ASK FOR HELP when you smell smoke, don’t wait until the whole house is on fire!

• BUILD YOUR NETWORK with Venture Capitalists BEFORE you need money!
• BE PART OF COMMUNITIES and build your network. Switzerland had no startup communtiy 20 years ago! We now have over 250 startup networks in Switzerland.
• When you’re founding a company, most of your friends are usually not founders, therefore BUILD YOUR NETWORK IN THE ENTREPRENEURIAL SPACE.
• DON’T UNDERESTIMATE your network! People buy from people.
• Engage with the communities that are RIGHT FOR YOU AT THIS MOMENT. This can change over time.
• Don’t forget, being part of a community is a GIVE AND TAKE!

Thanks again for these valuable inputs. I’m very much looking forward to the next Founder Story events at Google!

#thefoundersstorygcp