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Re: startup: State of the Venture Capital in Switzerland

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From: Vladimir Bossicard (click for textversion of email address )
Date: Thu Jul 19 2001 - 17:39:36 PDT

> Telecommunication was something which was more
> important here in the States than it was in Switzerland

Partially true; just compare the % of cell phones in Switzerland and in the US...

> The other thing is that cable modems are already available in
> Switzerland for about 3 or 4 years.

it's not a question of availability, but affordability. I have DSL here for
$49 a month and a cable modem in Switzerland is 90 CHF a month. For me it's
too expensive..

In the US, you can choose between $20 for 56K or $49 for cable/dsl
In Switzerland, it's between 10.- and 90.-.

I don't mention that you can use NetZero and Sunrise. I haven't used NetZero
but I was told that their service was not 100% available.

> as well as other alternative Internet connection. It still will
> take a long time.

offer a cable modem for 20.- a month and I'm sure it won't take that long.

> This is true - but also explainable.

For me, it is not explainable that if you want to transfer money from one
account to another (in the same bank), that bank writes a check and send it via
mail to the recepicient! (true story)

> This makes paying with invoices possible, which is
> impossible here in the States.

I still don't understand why I cannot send money from one account to another.
All I need to know is the bank clearing number and the account number.

> which will be reliable - people are paying by check.

If paying by check is maybe reliable... but way too slow!

> Switzerland has probably the more sophisticated and high-end
> quality companies, but less dreams and risks...

I am always amaized when I look at what Swiss people did achieved (remember,
Swiss has _only_ 7 mio citizen):

- the Swiss banks
- Novartis
- Nestle
- Kudelski

I think these are remarquable achievements. If you compare Switzerland with
Austria, I don't know many Austrian companies ruling in their domains. Ok,
maybe in ski racing :-)

> But while the US is ready to take risks, Switzerland is not.

These days, I think that US firms are taking less risks... just look at the
Nasdaq.

-Vladimir

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