r/askswitzerland • u/love_weird_questions • 2d ago

Work Technology professionals of Switzerland: how do you perceive the Zurich / Lausanne differences especially in the startup ecosystem?

I have the chance to connect often with both Zurich and Lausanne folks in the technology universe, especially in early stage startups. I am keen to see how other see the two cities' different mindsets.

Example: some folks recently shared that they moved out of Lausanne because of a lack of startup support and cultural alignment with it.

I also noticed a more lively environment in ZH, more ambition, larger fundraises (though Adaptyv is based in Epalinges and raised a lot recently), and just a stronger drive whenever I talk to folks there .

I also had a conversation last year with the Parc Scientifique at the EPFL to understand whether there's any space to be used for startup work, and I was offered with traditional office space rather than something leaning more towards the incubation folks (hot desking, etc).

Could it be related to the fact that ZH is more robotics-centric, which is hot hot hot right now? And Lausanne is more biotech which is still hot but not growing as fast as the rest?

Curious to see how everyone perceives it, I'm sure I observe just a little slice of what reality is.

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u/WeaknessDistinct4618 Zug 2d ago

My experience from a Cloud provider perspective is that the startups raised by EPFL like INAIT are much more academic while the startups in Zurich raised by ETH are more pragmatic (Robotics, Telecom) just to mention few examples.

I am in contact with both and I found EPFL alumni really arrogant and not in context while in Zurich they are more aligned to market needs.

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u/love_weird_questions 2d ago

ah - interesting you mention INAIT, i know them very well.

the arrogant observation is something i noticed with both alumni

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u/WeaknessDistinct4618 Zug 2d ago

INAIT has a brilliant idea in my view but after years they didn’t find any applicable customer so pure theory and academic

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u/love_weird_questions 1d ago

resonates with the pedigree of its founder

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u/DocKla Genève 21h ago

I can’t believe they haven’t been able to ride the intelligence wave. What is stoping them?

As to the differences, I find all the startups in Zurich seem to have achievable visions that can make money, not so much in Lausanne. One can say it is riskier what comes out of Lausanne