START Summit - Europe's Leading conference for entrepreneurship & technology

Connect with students, founders and investors on our brand new virtual platform
Streaming live from our hubs in San Francisco, Boston, Shanghai, Rio de Janeiro and Bangalore hosted by our partner Swissnex
Expand your network and build up your knowledge over the course of a week
CHECK OUT YOUR BENEFITS
EXPAND YOUR NETWORK AND BUILD UP YOUR KNOWLEDGE
Roulette
Use the chance to quickly get to know a variety of interesting personalities through randomly assigned 5-minute video calls.
Masterclasses
Expand your skill set by joining masterclasses hosted by successful founders, investors and specialists.
Campfires
Take the opportunity to pitch your idea, get first-hand advice and connect personally with our Pioneers in intimate networking sessions.
Speeches
Get inspired by speakers from all around the world through keynotes, fireside chats and panel discussions.
Matchmaking
Filter over 5000 participants by various criteria like origin, industry or funding stage and find your perfect match.
Workshops
Join interactive group sessions and develop innovative solutions to today's most pressing challenges.
JOIN FROM ANYWHERE
Pitching competition
Win 25,000 CHF
The START Summiteer is a unique opportunity for startups to pitch their business idea in front of industry leaders, investors, and potential new customers. It offers an unpretentious environment where you can learn from your mistakes and get vital feedback. Use our platform as the stepping stone for your startup to reach the next milestone.
OUR SPEAKERS

Ola Källenius
Chairman Daimler AG & Head of Mercedes Benz
Ola Källenius was born on 11 June 1969 in Västervik, Sweden. After graduating from the Grammar School in Danderyd (Sweden), he did his military service in the Swedish army in 1988/89. From 1989 to 1993 he studied at the Stockholm School of Economics (Master in Finance and Accounting) and as part of the CEMS programme (Master of International Management) at the University of St. Gallen. In 1993 he joined the international junior research group of the former Daimler-Benz AG. Källenius has been a member of the Board of Management of Daimler AG since January 1, 2015 and will become Chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler AG at the end of the Annual Meeting of Daimler AG on May 22, 2019. He is also Chairman of the Board of Management of Mercedes-Benz AG and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Daimler Truck AG.

Tina Sharkey
Co-Founder Brandless
Tina Sharkey has driven innovation in media, commerce, and community for more than two decades, pioneering the development and adoption of pivotal consumer brands and platforms that bring data and technology together. A C-suite executive, board member, founder, and change agent, she has created, led, and scaled global brands and businesses transforming the way we communicate, shop and share.

Igor Perisic
CDO & VP of Engineering LinkedIn
Igor Perisic is the Chief Data Officer and VP of Engineering at LinkedIn. In the past, he has worked as a Senior Product Manager at Microsoft, Chief Scientist of Entopia's research program, Statistical Consultant at Turn, and CTO at Healthline.com. Igor holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) and a doctorate in statistics from Harvard University. His current interests are in the areas of statistics, data mining, social networks, search, semantic engines, unstructured data analysis, information retrieval, distributed systems and data infrastructure. Additionally, Igor is part of START Global's ROSE Framework Advisory Board and has been supporting its development since 2019.

Charlene Li
Founder Altimeter and NYT Best Selling Author
For the past two decades, Charlene Li has helped people to get a better understanding of what the future might bring. She is an expert in digital transformation, leadership, customer experience, and the future of work. She is the author of six books, including the New York Times bestseller "Open Leadership" and co-author of the critically acclaimed book "Groundswell". Her latest book is the bestseller "The Disruption Mindset". She is the founder of Altimeter, a disruptive analyst firm acquired in 2015 by Prophet. Charlene is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Business School and was named one of the most creative people in business by Fast Company.

Verena Pausder
Serial Entrepreneur & Bestselling Author
Verena Pausder is one of the leading figures in Germany's digital education landscape and has founded several ventures herself, the biggest one being HABA Digitalwerkstätten. 2016, she was announced a "Young Global Leader" by the World Economic Forum for her ongoing commitment to providing all children with equal access to digital education. Her initiatives in this area, like the hackathon #wirfürschule (translated: we for school), have earned recognition all over Europe and her newest book "Das neue Land" has won several awards.

Markus Witte
Founder Babbel
Markus Witte is founder and Executive Chairman at Babbel, the world’s number one language-learning app. Markus began his career at NYU, and later lectured at Humboldt University in Berlin, where he discovered his passion for teaching. Following his time as an academic, he managed the online and systems teams at music software company Native Instruments. Coming back to learning and teaching, he founded Babbel with three others in 2007 and steered the company as CEO until 2019. He has taken an unusual route from academia to the tech industry and later entrepreneurship. Independent study, however, has been the constant theme uniting these disparate paths. Markus’s passion for autonomous learning was sparked by teaching himself programming in 1984 on an Olivetti L1 M44 computer in order to fund the purchase of his first drum kit. Since then, he views continuous learning as an approach to life.

Miriam Wohlfarth
Co-Founder Ratepay and Banxware
Miriam Wohlfarth is Founder and Managing Director of Ratepay and Co-Founder of Banxware. In both companies she is responsible for the areas of Innovation, Marketing and Sales. With almost 20 years’ experience in online payment, she was most recently Country ManagerGermany of the international payment service provider Ogone (Ingenico Payment Services). Prior to that, she played a significant role in establishing the electronic payment transaction business for the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and its payment services subsidiary Bibit in Germany.

Christian Sewing
CEO Deutsche Bank
Christian Sewing, born in 1970, has been a member of the Deutsche Bank Management Board since January 1, 2015. He has been Chief Executive Officer since April 2018. He joined Deutsche Bank in 1989. From January until June 2015, he was responsible on the Management Board for Legal, Incident Management Group and Group Audit, and assumed responsibility for Deutsche Bank’s Private & Commercial Bank between July 2015 and April 2018. He was Head of Group Audit from June 2013 to December 2014, prior to which he held a number of management positions in Risk. From 2012 to 2013, he was Deputy Chief Risk Officer. From 2010 to 2012, he served as the Bank’s Chief Credit Officer. He has worked in Frankfurt, London, Singapore, Tokyo, and Toronto.

Matt Cohler
Partner at Benchmark
Matt Cohler has been a partner at Benchmark since 2008, serving as a board member and investor at numerous Internet and enterprise software companies. Prior to Benchmark, Matt was among the first employee hires and a member of the management team at Facebook and LinkedIn. Matt serves on the investment committee at Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and the Yale Investments Office, and as a board member at Environmental Defense Fund and the San Francisco Symphony. He studied music at Yale University.

Esther Wojcicki
Co-Founder TRACT
Esther Wojcicki is famous for three things: teaching a high school class that has changed the lives of thousands of kids, inspiring Silicon Valley legends like Steve Jobs, and raising three daughters who have each become famously successful. What do these three accomplishments have in common? They are the result of TRICK, Esther’s secret to raising successful people: Trust, Respect, Independence, Collaboration, and Kindness. Simple lessons, but the results are radical. Esther Wojcicki is a leading American educator and journalist. Mother of YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, Fulbright scholar Janet Wojcicki, and 23&Me founder Anne Wojcicki, as well as a teacher and mentor to James Franco and Lisa Brennan-Jobs, Esther is widely heralded as the most successful parent and educator in the United States. Esther offers essential lessons for raising, educating, and managing people to their highest potential. She is the author of Moonshots in Education (2014) and best seller How to Raise Successful People (May, 2019). She is co founder of Tract.app (2020) an innovative way to empower students by gamifying education using a peer to peer model.

Adam Cheyer
Co-Founder Siri & Viv Labs
Adam Cheyer is an inventor, entrepreneur, engineering executive, and a pioneer in AI and computer human interfaces. Adam has been a co-founder or founding member of four successful startups, including Siri (sold to Apple, where he led server-side engineering and AI for the Siri assistant), Change.org (the world's largest petition platform), Viv Labs (sold to Samsung, where he led product engineering and developer relations for Samsung’s voice assistant), and Sentient (massively distributed machine learning). Previously, Adam was VP Engineering at Verticalnet (enterprise software) and Dejima (mobile software). Adam also spent more than a decade at SRI International, where his most recent role was as Chief Architect of CALO/PAL, the US government's largest funded AI project. Adam has authored more than 60 publications and 38 patents. He graduated with highest honors from Brandeis University and received the “Outstanding Masters Student” award from UCLA’s School of Engineering.

Bracken Darrel
CEO Logitech
As president and chief executive officer of Logitech, Bracken P. Darrell is responsible for Logitech’s strategy for growth and profitability, for the vision for the brand as well as for the company’s operations. Mr. Darrell joined Logitech as president in April 2012, and assumed the role of chief executive officer in January 2013. Mr. Darrell brings to Logitech more than twenty years of experience in business management and brand management in successful global consumer companies, including Whirlpool, Procter & Gamble and General Electric. His broad executive management experience has spanned manufacturing, supply chain, product innovation, consumer services and marketing – targeting customers in mature and emerging markets. He has led growth and reinvention for iconic brands such as Old Spice, Gillette, Braun, KitchenAid and Whirlpool.Prior to joining Logitech, Mr. Darrell was executive vice president of Whirlpool Corporation and president of Whirlpool EMEA, where he guided the company through the economic downturn of 2008. Previously, Mr. Darrell was with Procter & Gamble, most recently as the president of Braun, the home appliance business. In addition to a total of twelve years with Procter & Gamble – in executive management positions as well as earlier years in brand management – Mr. Darrell served with General Electric Company for five years, most recently as the general manager of Consumer Home Service. Mr. Darrell began his career with Arthur Anderson and then PepsiCo.Bracken Darrell holds an M.B.A. degree from Harvard Business School and a B.A. degree in English from Hendrix College in Arkansas.
Challenge yourself
START Forum
26th - 27th March | Live from the HSG Learning Center
With the START Forum, START returns to its roots. Celebrating its 25th anniversary, START Forum 2021 will be produced where it all began: On the campus of our alma mater, the University of St.Gallen.
Even more: as the first event, the Forum will be a guest in the shell of the HSG Learning Center - the place where the HSG wants to shape its future and the mindset of the next generation of entrepreneurs.
As an initiative of the HSG Foundation and a kind of «Startup» of the university, the HSG Learning Center will help shape the way we think entrepreneurship and act entrepreneurially in the future.