Building World Class Startups at VentureLab | Raffael Kellner
Raffael Kellner of Venture Kick and Venturelab on Switzerland's deep tech advantage, founder resilience and taking research-led companies to global markets.
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Key insights: executive summary
- Switzerland's advantage combines top-tier intellectual property from ETH Zurich and EPFL with an international, English-speaking talent pool.
- The startup journey can take a decade, so founders need deep commitment to survive repeated setbacks.
- Scientific training can prepare founders to endure difficult feedback and keep testing their assumptions.
- Perfectionism can block commercialisation when an academically elegant solution ignores scalability and user experience.
- Swiss startups need to engage with fast-growing Asian markets as well as traditional Western markets to achieve global scale.
“The good thing about being a scientist is that you've already learned how to suffer.”
“Ultimately you will not make any meaningful impact unless you are successful on the market.”
What is the Swiss startup advantage and why does it matter now?
Switzerland combines precision engineering, long-term public and corporate research investment, and world-class academic institutions. This creates high-quality intellectual property that can compete in technology fields where other regions lack the same depth.
How can academic researchers transition into successful entrepreneurs?
Researchers need to validate concepts with real customers before building the final product. The resilience learned in academia must be paired with openness to investor and user feedback, including evidence that challenges the original vision.
Validate before you build
However strongly you believe the world needs the technology, speak with prospective users before committing to the final product.
Look outside your comfort zone
Global economic growth is shifting, so Swiss founders should build relationships with emerging Asian markets early.
Who is Raffael Kellner?
Raffael Kellner leads Academia Relations at Venture Kick and Venturelab, helping researchers and deep tech founders turn strong intellectual property into globally relevant companies.
Episode show notes
Raffael Kellner draws on years of experience at Venturelab to explain what separates a promising research project from a world-class company. He discusses the Venture Kick model and the long-term resilience required to commercialise deep technology.
What stood out was his personal standard for starting a company today: build products that improve lives and create broad economic value while avoiding technology that contributes to conflict.
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