Startups & SMEs
This matching platform will help you find Accredited Board Members. There are many reasons why you need to have a performing Board or Advisory Board:
- Set up strong governance
- Bring the right skills and experience at the right time
- Help you to assess pitfalls and risk for your company
- Understand the roles and duties of your stakeholders
Assess your needs and reinforce your Board!
Board Members
Only Accredited Board Members who successfully completed the Fast Track Board Academy by EPFL Innovation Park or Startup Campus can be profiled on the platform. The yearly membership fee is CHF 500.- If you are an experienced and successful Board Member, but not yet accredited for this platform, then find out more below.
Latest updates
Expert corner
Start-up governance in Switzerland: practical guidelines for founders and board members
Steering a start-up is like driving a race car. Legally speaking, the board of directors is in the driver's seat. With the right crew as board members and management team, working together smoothly, you will significantly increase your chances of crossing the finish line. Enjoy the ride!
Use cases
The chairman/majority shareholder cannot be reached
The company Earth SA has been co-founded by 2 associates: Mr. Tulip with 45% who is running the operations and acting as CEO and Mr. Marigold with 55% who is sitting on the board a...
Latest Testimony
Kaspar Danzeisen, CEO of Voisins SA
Find out what Kaspar has to say about how the Board Matching Switzerland platform services have helped his company making important business decisions.
Community
Testimonials
Aiming for an aggressive growth strategy, the platform has been very helpful guiding us through the process of finding board members that have the skills, experience and network we needed, while aligned with our values and culture.
Despite Covid-19 circumstances, the platform team helped us find two excellent board members with a super smooth and well organised process.
I can only recommend fellow CEOs to recruit external board members, and if you do so, the Board Matching platform is definitely the best place to go!
The Board Matching Platform is a unique opportunity for startup founders. It allowed us to onboard the skills and network capacity we were missing in the form of advisors to our company. The matching process was quick, easy and connected us to people we were searching for. We found two businesswomen with great knowledge about AND contacts in our key industry. This helps support our initial growth plans and increases the diversity in our team.
The value brought by my board is just priceless. Thanks to the Board Matching Platform and the consulting of Virginie Verdon, I have been very rapidly in touch with great people able to help me reach the next milestones.
Just after I found the right board members for my company, I received support, advice and contacts that immediately helped me solve different issues in order to accelerate our growth. Not only do my board members increase my motivation to run the next race, but they are also essential to raise issues I didn’t think about.
I strongly recommend the Board Matching Platform to all entrepreneurs willing to succeed.
I dragged the idea if and how to form an advisory board for a long time as I did not know how to find great people specialised and available for this. Then I found this platform.
What I really loved was how clear, pragmatic but professional the whole experience from the startup survey to the matching to “closing the loop” with gathering this testimonial was. Besides that, I herewith found another great resource to provide to my B2B technology startup clients bringing more value for them. I can only recommend using this platform to any founder looking to form a board in the most effective, professional and even fun way.
As my new coach says: No athlete gets to the Olympics without a great coach!
As a Fintech startup, we have been very busy working hard in a highly specialized domain. It became obvious that we needed an “Advisory Board” to help us on the big picture aspect of certain key areas. Having additional inputs from various backgrounds gave us the visibility we needed to establish certain business decisions. In troubled times, these board members have been particularly active and have shown amazing initiatives. Their knowledge and background gave us access to new horizons and partners. The broad scope of the members proposed by the Board Matching platform gave us the opportunity to pick the right board members, with the needed know-how. It has been a game-changer for us!
As a young cyber-security startup, finding our way for the development of our product with a viable strategy on the right market and facing a fundraising at the same time was difficult. We were struggling with a lot of issues when Virgine Verdon (Head of Board Academy Program) proposed us to use the Board Matching Platform. We were quickly connected with several potential selected board members that matched our profile. The quality of the people we met was exceptional and they are now involved in our organization’s strategy, reinforcing our company. We would recommend using the Board Matching Platform to any company that needs to gain competitive advantage.
The Board Matching platform has been invaluable in helping us to find the right skill, experience, and mindset in a board member for Biospectal. As a young Swiss/US startup with our headquarters in Lausanne, we are growing rapidly. Yet our small size naturally limits the ability to do an extensive search to find the best members for our board. This platform helped us to identify several candidates and to settle on the right one who had experience in US and European business in startups, but also aligned closely with our attitude, culture, and passion for our mission. We wholeheartedly recommend the Board Matching platform for its high quality, well-matched board candidates and the ease of interacting with the folks from the platform team!
Thanks to the very precise Board Matching platform tool, I got in contact with startups matching the specific skills and experiences I could provide. As an experienced senior advisor, it is a new and exciting challenge to help a startup to get operational. Strategic decision making also includes areas where the experience, acquired in many different positions of the career, is essential. The specifics of small and fast moving companies is fascinating and thanks to the course at the “Fast Track-Board Academy” I felt well prepared before joining the first startup. For me, it is a pleasure to share the knowledge and experience with others.
As an early-stage startup, new to the industry we’re active in, we were on the lookout for the network and skills in several crucial domains. Thanks to the Board Academy, we got in touch with the Board Matching Platform. Virginie prepared us a shortlist of board member candidates, which was spot on! After several interviews, we successfully on-boarded a compliance officer. Through these conversations, we also got in touch with a coach at Innosuisse, so a perfect overall score.
I took the Fast Track Board Academy training program in that it was something I had always wanted to do. It was an excellent course, learned a lot and met many interesting people. On top of all that, they have a platform for matching companies with board members! The team who runs it is very pro-active and professional in matching competence with need. I have just accepted a role at Slavefreetrade.org and could not be happier. Thank you!
We have had an independent Board member since our Round A of financing in 2010, which was followed by several rounds. This set-up of 2 founders, 2 investors and 1 independent Board member has proved very efficient in aligning the interest of all categories of shareholders. In addition we are building a strong Advisory Board with senior persons from our industry as well as experienced business people with a strategic mindset. We are always searching for the best talents to support the expansion of Attolight.
The Board Matching platform is such a brilliant and unique idea. Not only that, but it is also very efficiently executed by the platform team. It’s been a great opportunity to let me collaborate with Startups in Switzerland and also to learn from them. I highly recommend both the Board Academy program as well as getting on the Board Matching Switzerland platform.
Services
Matching
Find Board Members
Specific skills and experiences are required at various stages such as: fund-raising, internationalisation, negotiation, network, finance. Get the right advisors and Board Members.
Training
Startups & SMEs
We have developed a series of interactive, real-life experience courses for Board Members of innovative startups and SME’s. Our trainers have extensive experience with successful companies.
Coaching
Expert Services
Our experts can help you better assess and optimize your Board performance. Contact them when going through challenging situations or anticipating changes.
Board matching specialists
Virginie is sitting on startup, SME and public owner companies’ boards since more than 10 years. Acting as independent or investor representative non-executive Board Member, Virginie has an extensive experience as chairperson. Driven by her passion for board governance, she is advising boards and chairpersons, conducting board assessments and helping boards improve their performance.
Jean-Marc has been active as advisor and director on various boards of directors for high-technology startups for over 15 years. He is keen on helping boards composed of a variety of members representing diverse interests to align on the company vision and objectives, to identify and track key risks, success factors and indicators, and to find the right balance between strategic and operational discussions, as well as provide maximum value to operating management.
Jean de Wolff is currently serving on several hi-tech companies’ boards. Throughout his career he participated as Board Member in the successful exit of several companies, but also in the liquidation of two startups. He has learned from those experiences the importance of having the most adequate profiles, but also the most committed Board Members governing startups. He has developed an expertise in risk management and good practice for Board Members of startups.