Creating Pathways to Entrepreneurship
Our goal is to create structured pathways into entrepreneurship that allow students to explore building ventures in practice. By lowering opportunity costs and making early experimentation accessible, every student has the chance to try entrepreneurship. Through this process, the most committed and capable talents reveal themselves in action, since no one can predetermine who will succeed before they are tested in practice. This self-selection, combined with practical validation, results in stronger founders, better prepared teams, and ultimately a higher rate of successful entrepreneurial ventures.
To deliver on this goal, we focus our work on three areas. First, we support student-led initiatives that spark interest and build early communities. Second, we design structured programs that help students turn ideas into validated ventures. Third, we connect talents with downstream opportunities through our network of partners so they can continue their journey beyond the student stage. Together, these three pillars create a coherent pathway from first exposure to entrepreneurship to building ventures with real market traction.
Supporting Student Initiatives
We empower student-led initiatives that act as entry points into entrepreneurship. By supporting platforms such as START Global, START Network, and ETH Entrepreneurs Club, we enable students to experience entrepreneurship at an early stage and within strong peer communities. These initiatives help students spark their first interest in entrepreneurship, connect across disciplines, and become conversant in both technical and business “languages.” They also offer a safe space to test early skills, gain exposure to ecosystems, and form personal relationships that serve as the foundation for future entrepreneurial teams.
Creating Programs for Students
We design and operate structured programs that provide a direct bridge from interest in entrepreneurship to building real ventures. Students are given the opportunity to work in interdisciplinary teams, address validated problems, and achieve meaningful first milestones such as early revenues, first customers, and initial investor attention. This creates the critical “aha” moment when students realize their work can turn into viable companies. Our two flagship programs are the ETH HSG Student Project House (Collaborate stage), which fosters hands-on learning and cross-disciplinary teamwork, and START Labs (Build stage), which provides the environment to turn projects into validated ventures ready for early market traction.
Switzerland has a rich ecosystem that offers strong support once ventures are incorporated, yet access at the earlier talent stage remains limited. The START Foundation closes this gap by preparing students through our programs and then ensuring they have downstream opportunities to continue their journey. By working closely with partners across our network, we connect talents to first customers, design partners, mentors, and investors who help them advance beyond the student stage. This collaborative approach ensures that promising individuals are not only prepared but also able to seamlessly transition into Switzerland’s world-class startup ecosystem, strengthening the pipeline of future ventures.
“My time at START was a very entrepreneurial experience and laid the foundations for much of what I later achieved as an entrepreneur and investor. In fact, I am still working together with some of the amazing people I met at START.”
Stefan Jeschonnek
Co-founder | SumUp & Discovery Ventures
ETH HSG Student Project House
Talented students in both commercial and technical disciplines show strong entrepreneurial potential, yet they face structural barriers and cultural hurdles in the European ecosystem that often prevent them from moving beyond ideas. Most university programs still operate in single-discipline silos, limiting cross-disciplinary collaboration, while entrepreneurial education at school ranks among the weakest of all framework conditions. Insights from conversations with hundreds of students and ventures, pilot projects, and leading entrepreneurs in Central Europe confirm that without early opportunities to experiment, collaborate, and test ideas in practice, Europe risks losing its next generation of founders before they even get started.
START Labs
Talented students in both commercial and technical disciplines show strong entrepreneurial potential, yet they face structural barriers and cultural hurdles in the European ecosystem that often prevent them from moving beyond ideas. Most university programs still operate in single-discipline silos, limiting cross-disciplinary collaboration, while entrepreneurial education at school ranks among the weakest of all framework conditions. Insights from conversations with hundreds of students and ventures, pilot projects, and leading entrepreneurs in Central Europe confirm that without early opportunities to experiment, collaborate, and test ideas in practice, Europe risks losing its next generation of founders before they even get started.
