Fintech FUSION: “We Need To Educate Children To Entrepreneurship.”

Describe Fintech FUSION in 50 or less words.

Fintech FUSION is the leading Swiss Fintech Acceleration program. FUSION is a 12 months program and has an equity-free, multi-sector and multi-partner approach.

What is your role at Fintech FUSION and how did you get involved?

I’m Program Director, in charge of the definition and management of the program (training, workshops, mentoring, etc.) and of all marketing activities.

I contacted the founders of FUSION, Laurent Bischof and Guillaume Dubray, in February 2015 to offer them my help (I knew them for years). They presented me FUSION and offered me the position!

Which technologies, industries or regions do you focus on?

We are very bullish about blockchain and artificial intelligence. But we are open to any kind of technologies. Switzerland is a very strong place for wealth & asset management, insurance, cybersecurity and commodity trading. Therefore, we focus more on projects in this space (without excluding the other sectors).

We welcome startups from all over the world!

Tell us a bit about your programs – what can startups expect and what do you ask for in return?

Acceleration! As an accelerator, we want to challenge the 10 selected startups and find the path to growth as quickly as possible. With training, mentoring and all the networking opportunities, we will probably save some years of entrepreneurial life outside of the program: everything goes quicker, you do not lose time to find the right contact, etc.

Why should a startup apply at Fintech FUSION?

To move from a Beta Product to revenues! That’s our promise and our motto. Even a startup already generating sales can apply, as FUSION acts as catalyzer and speeds up the process.

What do you think makes a startup successful? Which of the mentioned qualities are usually missing?

Generating sales, that the single and most important metric. It’s not about how much you’ve raised, in the end of the day, it’s how much money come from customers.

Mostly, startup teams lack of marketing & sales experience. The good news is that everyone can learn!

What is the best, an executive MBA or launching a startup?

Go launch your startup, it’s the best MBA you can have (and it does not cost more than paying an expensive MBA).

With insane growth of accelerators joining the ecosystem in Europe – how do you make sure you stand out?

First, we are free for startups to join. Secondly, we have secured amazing and various corporate partners like Temenos, Notz Stucki, Swisscard and BNP Paribas, which are deeply involved in the program. Third, Switzerland in a whole is one of the top 3 worldwide financial hubs.

Finally, the success of startups taking part to FUSION will also help us stand out of the crowd.

Which startups success stories went through your program already?

We are still in the first batch, but some of our startups generate hundreds of thousands of sales already.

In what ways do you measure your success and how do you make sure you don’t lose track?

What matters is the sales generated.

If there is one thing you can wish for improving the European startup ecosystem, what would it be?

We need to educate children to entrepreneurship at the youngest age and having failure more widely accepted.

What advice would you give entrepreneurs for their startup?

Go out of your comfort zone! The reality check is to meet potential customers (I say customers, not investors!).

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