Spring Sessions 2020, Berne
The dates for the spring 2020 session will be published soon.
Program
Day 1
BASICS FOR STARTUP BOARD MEMBERS
- What’s so special about start-ups?
- Roles and duties
- Company bodies (General Assembly, BOD, Auditors)
- Swiss legal framework
- Responsibilities of a BOD member
- Being a BOD member in a start-up
- Principles of good governance
- Best practices for start-ups
- Role of the BOD at key stages in the life of a start-up (future rounds, merger, exit, key person resignation)
- Start-up environment
- Classical risks and pitfalls for BOD members in start-up
- What questions to ask before joining a BOD?
- Improving relations between shareholders, BOD and management
- Building a successful BOD
- BOD remuneration, what model to apply in start-ups?
- Compliance
- BOD members liabilities
- Conflict of interests
- Insurances
Day 2
FINANCE FOR STARTUP BOARD MEMBERS
- Understanding the Business Model
- How solid is it?
- What are the key success factors?
- Case studies of successful and failed business models in start-ups
- Financial checklist
- Key reminders
- How to monitor the finances of a start-up ?
- Financial tools
- Case studies of start-ups financials in good and bad shape
- Overindebtedness (art. 725 CO)
- Duty of the BOD
- Risks for the BOD
- Case studies
- Role & Responsibilities of BOD members in financial management
- Relation with auditors
- Start-up financing and BOD involvement
Day 3
CRISIS MANAGEMENT FOR STARTUP BOARD MEMBERS
- Crisis Management in a start-up
- What are the common causes of start-up crises?
- How to identify the early signs of a crisis?
- Crisis response recommandations
- What actions to take as a BOD member?
- Communication in the crisis
- Groups role play
- Insolvency
- Type of enforcement proceedings
- Role and responsibility of the BOD
- When to call the judge?
- What actions to take ?
- How to present the case to the judge ?
- BOD liability in a bankruptcy procedure
- Groups role play
Day 4
BOARD DUE DILIGENCE - LIVE SESSION
- 4 start-ups, which have already incorporated, are invited to present to participants, acting as potential BOD members
- At the end of the presentation, each start-up describes its ideal board (skills & personality)
- 4 groups are created among the participants with the closest match with each of the start-up requirements
- Each group, with the support of a trainer, conducts its due diligence as future BOD member, interacting with the start-up management team
- Each group gives the results of its due diligence to the start-up with a list of recommendations
- Start-ups give their feedbacks to the due diligence team (how they feel about this experience, lessons learned, communication process, etc..)
Spring Sessions 2020, Berne
Register nowCourse Lead
Virginie has a strong background in energy, clean-tech, telecommunication and IT sectors. Often called in during transition periods, she helps companies in their fast growing and restructuring phases. She brings her hands-on expertise in C-level management, finance, marketing & communication, and international business development.
Fascinated by organizations in transition, she took part in two IPOs, led a full privatization process and restructured various SMEs as well as MNCs departments in multicultural environments. She is chairman of the board of a government-owned company and serves on the board of directors of several SMEs and start-up companies.
Jacques Hefti has a strong background in founding, developing and coaching startups in ICT, in advanced engineering and in social entrepreneurship. He is currently serving on the board of two service organizations and advises entrepreneurs and board member candidates for startup boards.
Jacques is Co-Director of Startup Campus, one of the leading training and coaching platforms for spin-offs and startups coming from ETH and all major Universities in the German part of Switzerland. He has been teaching strategic management, innovation & entrepreneurship for more than five years and is coordinating the startup activities at the Zurich University of Applied Science in his role as a head of entrepreneurship@zhaw.
Moreover, he has a track record of over 25 years in management positions as a CEO or senior vice president in the interior design, tourism and public transport sectors.
Trainers
Jean spent over 20 years in technology oriented companies. His domains of expertise range from international sales to management of large telecom projects. While an executive in large multinational companies, he experienced many of the domestic and international development stages of a corporation. Jean is also an entrepreneur and started several ventures which have been successfully sold. Jean is currently a partner and board member of several small and medium-sized companies and start-ups. He also works as a consultant, advising entrepreneurs and SMEs.
Brigitte Baumann is the Founder and ex-CEO of Go Beyond Early Stage Investing. In May 2015 EBAN (the European trade association for Business Angels and Seed Funds) named her European Investor of the Year. She is President Emeritus of EBAN and Chairs the Young Presidents Organization’s global Angel Investing group.
Brigitte has 20+ years experience in bringing new technologies to market in the US and Europe. She was the CEO and Director of iWORLD Group, a VC backed, global developer of mobile content. She was Senior Vice President and General Manager Internet at American Express (Amex) Corporate Services. Prior to that, Brigitte spent three years as President for US/Canada of Gemalto, a world leader in smart card technology. She also worked at McKinsey & Company as Senior Engagement Manager.
Brigitte has a B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from Tufts University, Boston and an MBA in Finance from the Wharton School, Philadelphia.
Michel Jaccard is the founder of id est avocats. He has been involved in the last 20 years in more than a hundred corporate finance and M&A deals in Switzerland and abroad, acting for entrepreneurs and owners, venture capital and private equity firms, industrial buyers and financial sponsors. Along his corporate expertise, he sits on several advisory boards and regularly helps C-level execs and board members of SMEs and global brands navigate the world of advanced technologies, distributed computing, open source, data protection and cybersecurity, and more generally manage their online presence and digital transformation.
Michel holds a JD and PhD from the University of Lausanne and an LLM from Columbia Law School (Stone Scholar, Fulbright grantee). He is admitted to practice in Switzerland and New York, and has been highly recommended in Corporate/M&A, Technology, Media/Telecoms and Intellectual Property for the past 10 years by leading guides such as Chambers and Legal500.
He also maintains a blog on innovation and technology law and frequently acts as jury member or mentor in national and international startup competitions.