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This anniversary book published to mark the tenth edition of venture celebrates Switzerland´s most important start-up competition-and Swiss entrepreneurialism. From fledgling firms based in student dorms to companies with over 600 employees, sales above a hundred millions, and IPOs, the book lets successful venture graduates tell their own stories, thereby providing advice and encouragement to the next generation of founders. How did they come to start a company? What were the greatest obstacles? And why can failure be a blessing?
Looking for role models? Here they are!

"To date, 2,500 teams have participated in venture, 650 businesses have been founded, and over 6,000 jobs created. And, as this book shows, some of these new companies have been enormously successful."
Federal Councillor Doris Leuthard

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Thomas Knecht comes from a family of Aargau entrepreneurs. After receiving an engineering degree from ETH and an MBA, he worked for McKinsey & Co. for 30 years, where he was head of the Swiss branch and sat on the consulting firm´s international governing board. In 1996 he came up with the idea for venture , and the first competition was held one year later. Today he directs Knecht Holding, a travel and transportation company with 1,000 employees. He is married to the entrepreneur Danielle Knecht-Lanz, co-founder of the advertising agency Ruf-Lanz.

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