Our lecturers and teaching assistants all have experience as founders themselves. They support interested students individually as mentors in regular meetings before (and after) the start-up.
“The students are individually supervised by experienced mentors. Each mentor has already founded their own startup or was involved in a startup from the beginning. The mentors support the students in regular meetings before (and after) the start-up. Mentoring can begin as early as the 5th semester and usually lasts one year.
Mentoring topics:
The product: What exactly is my product? Who might be interested in it?
The market: Do I know the market and how big is it? What market share could I possibly serve in the future?
The competition: Who is already in this market and with which products? How do I differentiate myself from the competition (USP)?
Team: How do I build a team? What do I need to pay attention to when recruiting?
Finances: How do I finance the start-up phase? How much money do I need? How much money do I spend each month (burn rate)?
Investors: Do I need investors? What kind of investors should I approach? FFF, angels, VCs? How do I approach them?
Seed support:
In addition to mentoring, students can apply for seed support. This is a minimum 20% employment at an institute of the School of Engineering, with 10% “”Seed Support“” funded directly by the School of Engineering and another minimum 10% covered by the institute.
Advantages for students:
Seamless transition to part-time income after completing the Bachelor's degree.
Access to ZHAW infrastructure (meeting rooms in Zurich and Winterthur, software tools, library and access to scientific publications, etc.).
Access to the institute's infrastructure (workplace, specific infrastructure such as laboratories, servers and Internet, specialist knowledge of institute staff, etc.).
The 10% seed support from the SoE is in any case intended for the startup and its further development.
Pitch events (once a year)
Once a year, the coached companies present their cases at the SoE Entrepreneurship Event and give a status update. All start-ups, mentors, ZHAW Entrepreneurship Initiative and interested students are invited to this event. Aperitifs and networking are also an important aspect of this event. ”
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
