Wyss Zurich Annual Event 2024
07-11-2024 – Resilience and its multi-dimensional aspects was the central theme of this year's Annual Event.
On November 6, 2024, the Wyss Zurich family and ecosystem gathered at the StageOne Event and Convention Hall for the 9th Annual Event where the multi-dimensional concept of resilience was explored.
Founding Co-Directors Roland Siegwart and Simon P. Hoerstrup emphasized the impact and value that Wyss Zurich has created to date including:
- > 700 jobs created
- > CHF 290M investments raised by startups
- > CHF 55M non-dilutive grants raised by projects / startups
- > CHF600M combined valuation of the startups
The groundbreaking science and developments from the Wyss Zurich projects have achieved:
- two successful exits in the robotics portfolio and,
- 12 clinical trials from the regenerative medicine and medical devices / bionics portfolio combined.
Photo credit: Barbara Werren
A major highlight of the program was our project presentations. In this segment moderator by our Project Portfolio team, Amanda Gogates and Tiffany Held, projects of varying stages took to the stage to share their learnings and how they practiced resilience.
Greta Preatoni, Project Leader of MYNERVA, shared that it took resilience to understand where the team needed to focus their efforts on, by streamlining possible solutions and a target problem to solve. Her advice: “Avoid falling in love with the solution but the problem”.
Ana Montalban-Arques, Project Leader of Recolony has an overall goal of bringing an asset to the clinic that can benefit the biggest number of patients. One of her key learnings: “Listen to feedback from your stakeholders. Be open to feedback”.
Nanoflex, a gamechanger in the field of telerobotics, was represented by Christophe Chautems and Grace Katzschmann. Their 3 years at Wyss Zurich since 2021 offered a safe testing ground for developing their resilience, as they developed a comprehensive understanding of the entire clinical workflow and potential emergency scenarios to work towards a holistic product.
Lastly, Gregory Hitz, Co-Founder and CEO of Sevensense Robotics highlighted the importance of having a resilient team that was flexible and could solve problems independently. His key learning: “Choose your battles wisely – embrace the problem and fall in love with it”.
In the final segment of our program, a dynamic panel discussion ensued, moderated by the Founding Co-Directors Roland Siegwart and Simon P. Hoerstrup. The topic of resilience was tackled by an expert panel of seasoned startup founders, industry leaders as well as entrepreneur and philanthropist, Hansjörg Wyss.
Panelists:
- Dominik Escher, biotechnology entrepreneur and Managing Partner, Pureos Bioventures
- Carla Kriwet, Chairperson, Evidia and Member of the Supervisory Board at Merck
- Felix Mayer, Co-Chairman, Sensirion
- Hansjörg Wyss, Entrepreneur and Philanthropist
Here are some key takeaways from the discussion:
- On financial resilience, it is important to remain flexible in sourcing for financial alternatives. The exit (of a startup company) is something which comes but should not be at the forefront of your mind.
- It is imperative for top management / leadership to take time to pause and reflect on the journey.
- Openness and transparency is key to building confidence within the team.
- To be a long-term, resilient leader, one has to be extremely disciplined in self-care and trusting your team. It is also about letting others shine and getting satisfaction out of seeing their team progress.
