No, I’m not going to the Valley. The Valley is coming to me.

I admit that I fibbed a little two years ago when I wrote that the next few years in Switzerland and politics would decide for me personally whether I would stay here or emigrate to a foreign “start-up valley”. In reality, the matter was actually clear to me – I was going to leave.

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Physical and mental mobility

At some point, I realized that the environment plays a decisive role in what you can achieve as a start-up entrepreneur. Germany and Switzerland were not such great places. Investors who are not very willing to take risks, masses of very good, potential employees, but who have zero incentive and motivation to swap their sensationally paid and pleasant jobs for a start-up adventure.

In addition, there is a culture that is irritatingly skeptical of those who want to get something off the ground themselves. Two years after founding my first company, which already had employees and had to be self-supporting because there were no investors, my father blissfully advised me over Sunday lunch to take a great job in the pharmaceutical industry. It was only when I came “home” one day with a new BMW that the subject was off the table.

And so over the years I have had the feeling that if you don’t have mental mobility, you have to develop physical mobility yourself. To move to those areas where the environment for entrepreneurial activities of the future is better positioned, to put it that way. The fact that the competition there is completely different – namely very tough – is usually completely forgotten.

Silicon Valley – no, thank you.

On the one hand, there are quite banal, practical reasons why this step was not taken. The intercontinental relocation of a family of five is, if it is not completely organized by a large corporation, a rather complex matter. Nothing that would put you off a good idea in principle. But also nothing that you can just do.

Secondly, and this is ultimately the decisive factor, something like the epicenter of a new (digital) financial industry is emerging in Switzerland. If you look at the volume of added value that the global financial industry has available for start-ups to model with new business concepts, it is simply immense.

I deliberately chose the fintech sector when we decided to do machine learning in RPA. It was clear that the potential was huge. It was also clear that the existing players would be desperately and frantically searching for a way into a digitalized future. But two years ago, I wouldn’t have bet on the fact that Switzerland would offer an almost perfect environment for this in the future.

Wealthtech Nation

There are various reasons why this happened. One of the main reasons is certainly that Switzerland offered a very unusual combination of total political and social security with very minimal regulation. In addition, the cantons and the Confederation have created a certain welcoming culture for fintech start-ups. Not all of them, of course, and occasionally with, shall we say, “hiccups”. Perhaps a lot of it was also a bit of luck and coincidence. So be it.

Today, however, there is an increasingly obvious plan behind it. When Federal Councillor Schneider-Ammann announces that Switzerland will become a “crypto nation”, this sends out an enormous signal both externally and internally.

I would almost have preferred him to proclaim Switzerland as a wealthtech nation. The largely unregulated ICOs around the world seemed too dubious to me. The risk of ruining our own economic and political reputation as a nation and location was and still is not insignificant.

In my opinion, however, the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) took an important step on February 16 by announcing how ICOs/ITOs should be treated in the future. The paper, still somewhat vague and narrow in my opinion, sets out the relevant principles. How this is handled in detail is not so important for the time being.

A signal to the world

Much more important is the message behind it:

We welcome ICOs/ITOs and we want to apply regulations that ensure that an ICO that takes place in Switzerland is a trustworthy, resilient affair.

As a result, a Swiss, regulated ICO became a serious funding alternative for our company almost overnight. After all, implementing risky and daring business models is one thing. Remaining trustworthy and reputable is the foundation on which to build.

This is good timing. The Swiss authorities have generally had a good run in promoting and portraying a financial center of the future. Precisely this wealthtech nation.

Nothing there.

And so I’m not going anywhere for the time being. Much to the chagrin of my wife, who would like to get away from here. At least a change of scenery. One of our companies, Accounto, has already been in the region since the beginning of 2018. Maybe we will actually move to Central Switzerland in the foreseeable future. With our company, children and family.

For a company that is committed to the motto “Accelerating paradigm shifts in the financial industry by leveraging new technologies“, there is currently no better location than Switzerland and probably no better time. The conditions for fintech and wealthtech start-ups have never been better in Switzerland. And we are only at the beginning.

If politicians now manage to welcome enterprising fintech people from all over the world in the truest sense of the word and facilitate easy access to the location, then the “Crypto Valley” will be in no way inferior to Silicon Valley in a few years’ time.