Impact Hub Zürich ist eine Gemeinschaft von über 800 unternehmerischen Menschen in und um Zürich. In diesem Blog stellen sich unsere Startups vor. Diese Woche stellt Maria Youssefzadeh ihr Startup Body & Mind Academy vor.
Wenn man das Wort “Startup” hört, dann ist man erst mal ganz schön eingeschüchtert. Startup-Gründer sind doch Junge, die programmieren können, 20 Stunden am Tag arbeiten und zwei Jahre bei ihrem besten Freund auf dem Sofa schlafen. Ein “Entrepreneur” wiederum ist einer der irgendwoher Geld hat zum Investieren und Superwissen in Biotech oder Fintech oder irgendwas-Tech und damit supertolle disruptive Dinge für das Wohl der Menschheit entwickelt.
Vor zwei Jahren verlor ich bei Umstrukturierungen meinen unbefriedigenden Job. Ich war froh, aber als Solo-Mami mit zwei Kindern war ich nicht heiss begehrt auf dem Arbeitsmarkt. Ich musste also selbst den Job kreieren, der zu meinem Leben passte. Ohne Programmier- oder Tech-Wissen, ohne Eigenkapital und mit wenig Zeit.
Jeder kann etwas
In unserer Experten- und CV-besessenen Welt vergessen wir oft Fähigkeiten, die aus einer Breite von Erfahrungen hervorgehen. Ich habe in sieben Ländern gelebt und kann vier Sprachen fliessend. Ich kann mich daher sehr schnell an neue Kulturen anpassen. Ich liebe Sport und Kultur und habe ganz viele verschiedene Sport- und Kulturangebote für meine Kinder ausgekundschaftet. Ich bin Mutter zweier Kinder. Das in sich ergibt eine Reihe von Skills. Ich kann mich in andere Menschen und ihre Wünsche hineinversetzen und habe Freude daran, diese Wünsche zu erfüllen. Dabei kann ich ohne ein Back-Office vieles effizient organisieren und komplexe Führungsaufgaben erfüllen. Ich weiss, was ein enges Budget ist.
Jeder kennt einen Markt
Da meine Kinder auf einer internationalen Schule gehen, kenne ich viele Expats. Diese haben es schwer, das richtige Sport- und Kulturangebot zu finden, weil sie die Schweiz nicht so gut kennen. Sie haben keine Zeit, sprechen die Sprache nicht oder können sich nicht so leicht organisieren. Ihre Kinder haben andere Ferien als die Schweizer Schulen und es gibt kein passendes Betreuungsangebot. Ihre Kinder würden sich gerne integrieren, sprechen aber die Sprache nicht und Schweizerdeutsch lernen sie nicht in der Schule.
Es muss nicht immer Tech sein und Du musst nicht investieren
Frei nach Leonardo Da Vincis Innovationsstrategie „Verbinde das Unverbundene“ habe ich etwas, was es gibt (Feriensportcamps) mit dem Bedarf nach Spracherwerb (Schriftdeutsch)  für einen eigenen Nischenmarkt (Expats) angeboten. Verbunden habe ich auch mein Interesse für Sport, meine jahrelangen Angebotsrecherchen, meine Sprach- und Kulturkenntnisse und mein Organisationstalent. Mein Startup ist ohne Eigenkapital und mit wenig Zeit entstanden. Der Umsatz war schon im ersten Jahr sechsstellig.
Pitch yourself perfect
Den Prozess haben viele Menschen begleitet. Ohne den Austausch mit den Mitgliedern des Impact Hub, hätte ich heute keine eigene Firma. Als Hubonaut hatte ich die Gelegenheit vielen Leuten meine Idee zu pitchen und mir Inputs aus allen Ecken zu holen. Dadurch konnte ich meine Idee ausfeilen und reifen lassen. Das Impact Hub Fellowship, das ich 2016 gewann, hat mir neben etwas Geld auch einen Coach beschert, die mit mir an der Perfektionierung meines Businessplans gearbeitet hat. Er ist noch nicht fertig und noch nicht perfekt, aber er ist, lebt und wird immer besser.
 
Über die Autorin

Maria ist in erster Linie Mami von Emma und Paul. Sie ist gebürtige Iranerin mit deutschem Pass, hat BWL studiert und viele Jahre im Hochschul-und Forschungsumfeld gearbeitet. Sie ist interkulturelle Trainerin, Mobilitätsspezialistin und Startup-Gründerin. Sie liebt Züge, Schwimmen und indisches Essen. Neben ihrer eigenen Firma leitet sie den Weiterbildungsstudiengang „Mobilität der Zukunft“ an der ETH Zürich. Ihr nächstes Projekt sind dreisprachige Ski & Snowboardcamps im Februar 2018. 


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Impact Hub Zürich is a community of over 800  entrepreneurial  people. In this blog we introduce one of them every week and this week Michel Bourqui, founder of Climanosco , talks about his journey from academia to entrepreneurship.  Every year, researchers around the world publish over 15,000 papers on climate science. Since the 1990’s, researchers publish a summary every 5 years on the state of climate science at the request of governments from 195 countries. This represents a vast collection of knowledge that could be vital in creating informed, interconnected and viable solutions for climate challenges that impact us all. 
But what do we, the world’s citizens, see from this unthinkable body of knowledge? And how, if at all, does society benefit from it?
My story started as I was teaching climate science to undergraduate students at McGill University. I was teaching about the climate knowledge that has flourished over the past 20 years. Despite the continuous questioning of every single aspect which lies at the heart of scientific research, the big picture about climate change has remained consistently confirmed over these same years. But nearly nothing about it had been successfully conveyed in the public during that time. How about the coming 20 years?
I could sense clearly the disconnect between research and society, but it took me a couple of years to crystalize what I could do about it. I understood that individuals and institutions are not the issue, but that the divide between scientists and citizens is. With this realization, I and a few others embarked on a journey to build a bridge to span this divide.
The bridge is called Climanosco, a name based on the Latin words for ‘climate’ and ‘knowledge’. It was founded in Zurich as an independent, non-profit association in 2015. Our mission is to provide free access to high quality, accessible climate science and to support citizens and scientists to work together in developing and communicating climate research. Today, Climanosco has over 120 members around the world and has published its first collection of accessible climate articles.
These past few years have been extremely intense and rich in learnings. My biggest learning has been that success is the ability to persist in spite of obstacles and to progress step by step with a clear vision. Failures are just a normal part of this journey. They present us with opportunities to learn and to improve.
This whole month of December, we are raising funds to support Climanosco’s upcoming activities. Please visit climanosco.org/give to learn more.
 About the Author

Michel Bourqui  graduated in Physics at the EPFL and completed his doctorate at the ETHZ in atmospheric sciences. After a 15-year international career in academia, he founded the independent, non-profit organisation Climanosco to help increase climate literacy.
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Impact Hub Zürich is a community of over 800  entrepreneurial  people. In this blog we introduce one of them every week and this week Christian Hirsig, founder of Powercoders , a coding academy for refugees, tells the story of how it all came to be:  "On a trip to Washington summer in summer 2016 I met Cornelia and Dita. Cornelia has a catering company where she cooks with refugees. And Dita has a coding academy for women. Together we came up with the idea of a coding academy for refugees. Since I was the only one who had some time left I suggested to run a pilot in my home town in Bern.
After finding the funds for Bern we put a team together consisting of IT people and social workers. Within just a few weeks we had 150 student applications and over 100 volunteers. The solidarity was just unbelievable. On the 16th of January 15 students from 8 different nations started school. In February we were able to match all of them with an internship company. And after 12 weeks of intense school in April we had our graduation. The students then went into their internships. We just read on Slack how they were doing and saw them once a month for a meet-up. In August we received a message by on of our students that he got a working contract that made him independent from social welfare. The week after next one followed. And on and on it went.
7 weeks ago 18 students started in Zürich. And last week they had job interviews. And since Powercoders became recently a project of the federal government we will run during the next 3 years 6 more Powercoder programs in 6 different Swiss cities."


Christian Hirsig - Founder of Powercoders.org, Founder and former CEO of Atizo, Initiator of TEDxBern, Technology Entrepreneur degree of University St. Gallen. Based in Berne, Switzerland.
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Impact Hub Zürich is a community of over 800 entrepreneurial people. Every year in autumn we organise the Kickstart Accelerator - an eleven week support programm for 30 start ups from all around the globe. Five of them will introduce themselves. This week: Jamie & I an Australia based company with Swiss roots. 
Have you ever watched a TV show that plays in a different era and thought to yourself: “how come everyone was dressed so well back in the day?” And yes, I am referring to Mad Men...
I definitely have had those thoughts - plenty of times - and I couldn’t help but notice that our society has been shifting from Sunday’s Best to Fast Fashion. Designed, purchased, worn and thrown out - all in less than four weeks. This got me reminiscing about all the amazing little labels, which I discovered on my city trip strolls through the streets of Amsterdam, London and Paris…  And then I realised, when I shop at home instead of finding these amazing little gems, more but often I end up in the nimbus of Zalando somewhere between page 4 and 3-gazillion. Suddenly it hit me, what most of us are missing in our daily lives, is the time to stroll (offline or online) and discover cool, new emerging designers. Hence, our lack of time often chases us away from small, hard-to-find gems into the arms of big, convenient fast fashion retailers for a quick fix.
How the idea sparked
A couple weeks after my little fashion philosophy deep dive, I found myself rushing to get ready for a friend’s birthday party. I was living in Sydney, Australia at the time in a little beach suburb called Manly. In a hurry I opened my wardrobe, only to make the shocking discovery that I had absolutely nothing to wear (it goes without saying, that my wardrobe was filled to the top – but ladies you feel me). I put something together anyway and ran out the door. While I was catching my breath on the ferry heading into the city, I started listening to my Spotify ‘Discover Weekly Playlist’- the one that is put together just for you based on what you have been listening to. Every week I listen to it and every week I am blown away by how on point they are, and that was when I thought: “I need that for fashion!” And that’s how the idea for Jamie & I was born.
Jamie & I
The vision started forming in my mind. The vision of creating a virtual shopping assistant, a virtual stylist, which later on we named “Jamie” (after James Dean, which is my personal style icon – who doesn’t love white t-shirts and leather jackets!?).
So, we started our mission to create an artificially intelligent, virtual assistant that gets to know your personal style and searches through the endless options in the e-commerce sphere, only to come back with the perfect outfit for you - ready-to-shop outfit inspiration.
With Jamie & I, we also aim at creating a platform that strengthens the ecosystem of small, independent designers and fashion labels, which put their heart and soul into their designs but unfortunately don’t have the resources to compete against the online retail behemoths of this world.
So, shopping on Jamie & I is like a city trip stroll through the street with all the cool, new fashion labels - guided by your best friend, who is a local and knows your personal style inside out: Jamie.
Call to Action
Head to www.jamieandi.com and sign up for Jamie’s service (it’s free). All you need to do, is play a short, fun style game and voilà – you will receive weekly ready-to-shop outfit inspiration tailored to your taste, as well as access to your very own, personalised online boutique.
Also, if you are a designer or know any cool, little fashion labels, I would love to hear from you! Just drop me a line on: [email protected]

 
About the Author
Antonia grew up in Bern before studying for her Bachelor in Business & Economics at the University of Zurich. Having completely fallen in love with Australia, Antonia moved to Sydney, where she obtained her Master’s degree in in Strategy, Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Sydney. Antonia has always had a strong passion for fashion and design and a deep interest in e-commerce and digital marketing. She loves the ocean, surfing, scuba diving and snowboarding and never says no to a glass of wine. Antonia now wanders between Switzerland and Sydney. 
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Impact Hub Zürich ist eine Gemeinschaft von über 800 unternehmerischen Menschen in und um Zürich.  Jedes Jahr im Herbst organisieren wir den Kickstart Accelerator - ein 11-wöchiges Förderprogram für 30 startups aus der ganzen Welt. Fünf davon stellen sich hier vor. D iese Woche gibt uns Rent'n'Share Einblick in ihre Reise vom Grossraumbüro in einen Schiffscontainer.
Es ist ja nicht so, dass wir auf den Weltmeeren unterwegs sind – aber es fühlt sich fast so frei an, wenn wir unseren Arbeitstag in einem Schiffscontainer im ehemaligen ewz Unterwerk Selnau starten. Unser Fokus liegt aber eher auf Schweizer Strassen: Mit Rent'n'Share möchten wir das Autofahren so flexibel wie möglich machen und die Nutzung der Fahrzeuge optimieren – denn wer muss heute noch ein Auto besitzen?
Vom Grossunternehmen zum Startup
Wir, das ist ein kleines, temporär zusammengestelltes Team von ICT-, Mobilitäts- und Innovations-Experten der AXA Winterthur und der Swisscom: ein sogenanntes Intrapreneur-Team. Im Rahmen des Kickstart Accelerators  sind wir die einzigen Teilnehmer, die kein Start-up, sondern eine Initiative von zwei Grossunternehmen sind. Trotzdem haben wir uns mit der Teilnahme am Accelerator-Programm dazu verpflichtet, wie ein Start-up zu agieren – und das ist gut so.
Denn als Intrapreneur-Team können wir aus dem Arbeitsalltag der eigenen Firma ausbrechen und uns voll und ganz unserer Idee widmen, um diese schnellstmöglich voranzutreiben. Inspiriert von einer lebendigen Atmosphäre, unkonventionellen Räumlichkeiten und offenen Menschen, die uns mit hilfreichem Feedback oder Produktideen zur Seite stehen – oder sogar eine neue Pilot-Idee mit uns starten. 
It's rolling… meistens
Die ersten Testkunden sind bereits mit unserem Auto-Abo unterwegs. Und sharen es mit ihren Nachbarn oder Freunden. Um Services, Versicherung oder Pneu-Wechsel müssen sie sich nicht kümmern – das ist alles inklusive.
Bis es soweit kam, dauerte es knapp 6 Wochen. Rekord-Zeit, wenn man bedenkt, dass zwei Grossunternehmen beteiligt sind! Trotzdem lief nicht immer alles nur rund. Diese Learnings nehmen wir deshalb für weitere Projekte mit auf den Weg:
- Gerade wenn das Team aus verschiedenen Unternehmen zusammengestellt ist, ist räumliche Nähe unerlässlich
- Eine eigene Start-up-Kultur in einem Intrapreneur-Team aufzubauen, dauert etwas – auch dafür muss Zeit eingeplant werden
- Das Mitnehmen der beiden Firmen auf die Reise in die Start-up-Welt beschleunigt das Projekt zusätzlich und gibt Inspiration in viele weitere Teams weiter
Du möchtest in Zukunft auch mit uns auf Reisen gehen? Dann registriere dich auf unserer Website und geniesse die Freiheit, ein Auto zu fahren, wenn du es brauchst – ohne es zu besitzen.
About the authors


  Cécile Oberholzer und Christina Meyer arbeiten seit zwei Jahren als Innovation Manager bei der AXA. Im Jobsharing begeistern sie sich gegenseitig von neuen Ideen, arbeiten an spannenden Projekten (aktuell gerade an Rent'n'Share) – und vertreten sich nahtlos, wenn die eine nicht da ist (und sich dafür gerade auf Spielplätzen tummelt oder Roboter aus WC-Rollen bastelt).
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Impact Hub Zürich is a community of over 800 entrepreneurial people. Every year in autumn we organise the Kickstart Accelerator - an eleven week support programm for 30 startups from all around the globe. Five of them will introduce themselves. This week: Adjoint from the US & the UK.  Imagine a future where you can use your unique digital identity to vote in elections, where you can buy solar power generated by someone in your neighbourhood as opposed to a national grid, access and securely share your digital records, or rent and share a car or other property owned by you within a network. You can even trace where your food at your grocery store comes from. Furthermore, you can use your digital identity to enter into financial transactions with others in a secure, reliable manner with no unnecessary delays or extra layers of fees. This future is closer than you think, thanks to the fast evolving blockchain technology.

As co-founder and CEO of Adjoint Inc., I am passionate about bringing the disruptive technology of distributed ledgers and smart contracts to market. Distributed ledger technology or blockchain technology offers the next layer of value creation on top of the internet.
The technology that we are developing can be used in a variety of industries. It ensures that a single source of truth is maintained between parties in a fashion where no one can tamper with the data. With the data maintained by all the participants in the network in a secure manner, there is no single point of failure. It eliminates the need for centralized intermediaries to provide a function of trust between counterparties. Moreover, a smart contract that works on top of this single source of truth automates the processes thus eliminating manual reconciliation processes that firms currently waste resources on. Think of all the new applications that can be built where the participants in the network retain the value of transacting with each other as opposed to paying a third party to facilitate this.
Adjoint is initially focused on making this technology usable by business professionals in the Finance industry by developing a smart contract templating platform.  We have abstracted out the complexities of the underlying technology components to make it user friendly, while ensuring that security, accuracy, privacy and scalability is not compromised. Large financial institutions, such as banks, commodity trading firms and insurance companies currently still use redundant, inefficient processes to record business-2- transactions between themselves and to process these transactions. We are focused on automating this and bringing efficiency to this ecosystem. At the end of the day, by removing unnecessary costs from the system, end customers, like everyday individuals, will benefit from faster, less expensive services and products offered by these institutions.
We got started on this journey a little over a year ago, and are excited for what the future holds. Kickstart Accelerator has provided us a significant boost. We are already launching pilots with several Swiss institutions and receive new inbound enquiries on a daily basis from firms and technology partners that want to work with us. We are happy to launch our platform in the Swiss ecosystem and are encouraged by the innovation mindset that the Swiss institutions are embracing and putting into action.
About the Author

Havell Rodrigues
 
"Prior to becoming a Fintech entrepreneur, I spent over eight years at a hedge fund focused on arbitrage and relative value trading. I have an MBA from Babson College in Finance and Entrepreneurship and a BS in Statistics. I am on the Steering Committee and founding co-Chair of the Babson Forum on Entrepreneurship and Innovation."



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