PROJECT: E-Bike

ANNOUNCEMENT: 06-01-2011

Final Project Review

Project Description: VeloElectra is developing a low cost bicycle retrofit kit which converts regular bikes to E-bikes. The kit is designed for the regular person to install it in under 10 minutes and without a wrench. The company's Go To Market strategy is to sell the kit via Online stores and bike distributors. First prototypes are available. The company is currently looking to raise $250,000 to 500,000 to build up to 20 kits and hire a marketing person. Should any Chamber of Commerce Member be interested in help our entrepreneur further, please contact Ben at: ben@huangengineering.com

Period: January to May 2011 Project Entrepreneur: Ben Huang Project Head: Alex Fries - Chamber of Commerce Panelists: Cyril Vancura: Investor Partner at Robert Bosch Venture Capital (www.rbvc.com) Andres Pineda: Founder and CEO: Limeamps Inc (www.limeamps.com) Milos Ribic: Senior Investment Associate at Expansion Capital (www.expansioncapital.com)

Mentors: Hugo Rohner Tony Wessling Fabio Rupp Stephan Steiner Beata Lewis Donna Hines Christine Zaugg Heinz Baumann Kurt Meier Ann McArthur Roger Royce Adam Furst Jerom Crochat Brigitte Brinkert Zuzana Goldstein

ANNOUNCEMENT: 05-05-2011

We will have the final presentation to a group of panelists during the week of May 16th. The day and time will be announced shortly. Over 10 mentors signed up to support the entrepreneur.

ANNOUNCEMENT: 10-14-2010
We are happy to announce "E-bike" as our next Swiss American Chamber Club Entrepreneur project. E-bike falls under CleanTech, something we have never supported in the past. Please find a short summary HERE.

We are looking for MENTORS that would like to support this project. We are in need of experts in all areas, from finance to legal, marketing, manufacturing, production and HR. The time commitments are not large, 4-6 hours over the entire project. Location of meetings are determined by the Mentor. Your job is basically to provide feedback and recommendation to the Entrepreneur so that he can create an Investor proof presentation. The final presentation will be presented to a panel of experts.

If you are interested in helping out or if you have further questions, please contact Alex Fries, Head of the Club Entrepreneur sub-chapter. (fries@ecosystemventures.com or call 408-426-8040)

 

PROJECT: Voicebase, Inc.
(www.voicebase.com)

ANNOUNCEMENT: 04-30-2011

The company has been growing very fast. It got funded almost 12 months ago by American and Swiss Angels. Since than, it has managed to save thousands of hours of speech and registered thousands of members. VoiceBase now employs 5 people.

ANNOUNCEMENT: 10-09-2008
The Club Entrepreneur selection committee selected Voicebase Inc. (no website yet) from an exciting group of start-up companies.

Voicebase is a California based company working on making “Oral conversations / communication” more relevant to the corporate and personal life. This is about storing voice, retrieving voice and sharing voice communication. The Founder is Mr. Walter Baechtiger, whom some of you may know from his other very exciting venture Point-X.com

We are looking for Mentors to support Voicebase’s venture. The company, which is still in the IDEA PHASE, needs help in all areas: Marketing, Sales, Public Relations, Finance, Legal, IT and Strategy. Please contact Alex Fries at fries@ecosystemventures.com or 408-426 8040.

 

PROJECT: Hera Biomedical Inc. 
(www.herabiomedical.com)

UPDATE: 04-30-2011

Unfortunately, HERA Biomedical was not able to raise enough money to bring its innovation to market. Hence, the company decided to cease operations.

UPDATE: 06-03-2008
After almost 12 months, HERA BIOMEDICAL successfully presented to a very prominent Panel of experts, which included the Head of Research at Amgen Biotech; Head of Incubation at Roche; a Partner at Monitor Ventures; The Head of the promotion office for Heidelberg Germany and a prominent Biotech executive and professor at UC Berkeley. The mentoring of HERA BIOMEDICAL not only took place in San Francisco and the Bay Area but also in Switzerland. After numerous mentoring meetings, HERA has been launched into the fundraising path.

Hera Biomedical, Inc. is a biotech company dedicated to the development and marketing of innovative diagnostics of and therapies for pregnancy disorders. Our initial objective is to develop a diagnostic test for the early detection of pre-eclampsia, a disease that affects over 40% of all pregnancies.

Idea Owner: Fabio Rupp, PhD, Founder & CEO Program Management: Alex Fries

Mentors & Volunteers: Tony Wessling Phillip Stauffer Zuzana Goldstein Robert Rieder Marc Dangeard Michael Muller Ben Perkins Jenny Finchman Pius Kampfen Michael Schuppenhauer Devi Ramanan Ruedi Sandmeier Martina Frank Julie Pearl Peter Matlock

 

PROJECT: S'Art AG 
(www.s-art.ch)

UPDATE: 01-30-2008
SArt has expanded to other Swiss cities in the past 6 months. Further, Susanne Schroetter, CEO of SArt has hired a Chief Operating Officer to handle the increasing business and manage the expansion in Europe.

Susanne will be focusing on the new USA business that has increased since her presentation to the Club Entrepreneur. SArt is also redoing its branding. The company retained a member company from the Swiss American Chamber, The Wessling Creative Group for this job.

UPDATE: 03-22-2007
The SArt project was successfully concluded on March 14th, 2007. The interest from our members to participate and support this project was overwhelming.

SArt AG, a Firm based out of Zurich, Switzerland, providing Classes and Tours in European Fine Arts, needed advise in deciding if it should replicate its very successful business in North America, specifically in California.

After over 40 meetings with various mentors and volunteers, a final presentation was made to a review panel that included experts from the Travel, Legal, Academic and Business Industries. Even more so, we had the honor to have our own Swiss American Chamber CEO, Mr. Martin Naville, as one of the panelists.

Idea Owner Susanne Schroedter, CEO Program Management Alex Fries Bruno Schurter

Mentors & Volunteers Alex Fries Bruno Schurter Robert Rieder Julie Pearl Daniel Hiltebrand Kennith Ebanks Tony Wessling Roger Steiner Gretchen Turner John Maillard James Bridgman Gaby H Burkert Zuzana Goldstein Marc Dangeard Beata C. Lewis Esther Scott Kenneth D. Ebanks

 

PROJECT: COLLANOS, INC. 
(www.collanos.com)

UPDATE: 01-24-2008
Zurich, San Francisco, January 24, 2008 – The third largest Swiss Bank, Zurcher Kantonalbank (ZKB), comes on board as an additional institutional investor in Collanos Software, a Swiss-American start-up. Read Press Release

UPDATE: 04-20-2007
Company has made a lot of progress in all areas. Product version 1.0 was released and thousands of users have downloaded it. A few strategic partnerships have also been closed.

 

UPDATE: 08-14-2006
Successful closure of project. Collanos successfully presented to the Review Board in June. Two Angel Investors decided to invest into the company.

 

UPDATE: 02-16-2006
Collanos, a team collaboration software company, has been selected to be the next project for CE.

Collanos allows dispersed teams to access their shared work spaces locally on their computers, communicate with their colleagues using existing channels, and, using peer-to-peer technology, keep members' work spaces in sync.

The project was officially launched during the kick-off meeting on February 13, 2006 at the Swissnex offices in San Francisco.

The project team is composed of the following Members and Friends of the Chamber (alphabetically):

Idea Owner Franco Dal Molin Gil Heiman Program Management Bruno Schurter Marc Dangeard Pius Kampfen

Mentors & Volunteers Achim Hoelzle Alex Fries Beata C. Lewis Christine Kohl-Zaugg David Musavi Jennifer Marks Jenny Fichmann Jurgen Auerbach Karin Immergluck Max Gygax Philipp Stauffer

 

PROJECT: SDK Biotechnologies Inc. 
(www.sdkbiotechnologies.com)

UPDATE: 04-30-2011

Canderis Inc has renamed itself to SDK Biotechnologies Inc. (www.sdkbiotechnologies.com ). The company opened an office in Landquart – Graubunden and maintains its US operations in Berkeley, California. The company currently employs 4 people.

UPDATE: 04-20-2007
Canderis Inc, as the company incorporated, was able to secure an important partner to conduct tests. This partner happens to be a member of the Swiss American Chamber of Commerce. The company is still under stealth mode and hence not much information is being provided.

 

UPDATE: 01-18-2005
The CE just completed its very first cycle. The idea selected for evaluation was for a new device in the area of life science diagnostics. This project started on November 1st, 2004 and was presented to the Review Board on January 17, 2005. The project team was composed of the following Members and Friends of the Chamber:

Idea Owner Stephane Follonier, Pierre Indermuehle Program Management Bruno Schurter, Daniel Hiltebrand Program Facilitator Marc Dangeard Volunteers David Musavi Marina Helm Sven Loetscher Maria Pantoja Manfred Heidecker

Review Board James Bridgman, Intellectual Property Peter Craddock, Venture Capital Dick Fredericks, Venture Capital Pius Kampfen, Investment Banking Michael Mueller, Academia Fabio Rupp, Science Robert Rieder, Business & Finance Ruedi Sandmeier, Biotech Ben Perkins, Venture Capital Mentors Philipp Stauffer (Market Study & Business Development) Jennifer Marks (Market Study & Business Development) Michael Fisch (Legal) Alex Fries (Business Development) Andreas Glocker (Financial Planning) Jens Kordetsky (Financial Planning) Pius Kampfen (Fund Raising) Ruedi Sandmeier (12 Magic Slides)

Due to the confidential nature of the project, we apologize for not being able to make the final summary report available on-line.