Who are you and what are you doing?

I’m a Brit who has lived here, there and everywhere but now based in Zurich. My background is rooted in the mobile industry and I’ve been involved in this highly charged, fast moving environment since 1998 – before smartphones were called «smartphones».Until last Summer I was working at Skype where I was part of the core team which launched and created Skype’s mobile presence. I’m now pursuing a number of initiatives to help stimulate the Swiss ecosystem – specifically around mobile and ICT such as the highly acclaimed Swiss Mobicamp initiative. I’m also a coach at the recently launched Basecamp for Hi-Tech in Bern and have recently been appointed a specialty advisor to CTI.

Why did you start this initiative?

Martin Coul, Swiss Mobicamp, www.mobicamp.ch

Swiss Mobicamp started as a crazy idea following a number of conversations resulted from numerous conversations with Swiss CEOs, venture capitalists, angel investors, lawyers, academia, aspiring entrepreneurs and coaches. From these discussions, one observation about the Swiss ICT ecosystem struck me more than any other: Despite the phenomenal support network that exists in Switzerland to help start-ups with research, funding and coaching I found that Swiss start-ups and entrepreneurs in ICT, and mobile in particular were struggling to climb the hockey stick growth curve towards ubiquity and evangelize and sell their solutions beyond the Swiss borders.

How do you think does your initiative fit into the current ecosystem?

We harness a lot of the good work already under way – but the Mobicamp formula offers attendees a holistic, vertical overview of the mobile ecosystem – and it turns out mobicamp is the only event of its kind in Switzerland solely dedicated to mobile. I’m able to leverage my global industry contacts and bring a wealth of international experience and talent to Switzerland who are willing to share their knowledge with the attendees. We would not be able to deliver such an event without the support of a lot of sponsors across Switzerland including but not limited to Swisscom, CTI & CTI Invest, ALP ICT, EPFL, Scout24 and Nokia.

What else would you change to improve the current ecosystem?

Time to market and the lack of urgency or hunger shown by some start-ups is for me something I’d like to improve. In addition the time between a company raising seed money to series A is far too drawn out and needs to be compressed if Swiss start-ups are to succeed and make a meaningful impact in their respective domains. I’m working with a couple of colleagues who share this viewpoint (we’re in stealth mode right now). Hopefully, in the next couple of weeks, we can share more about our ideas to help stimulate and grow the Swiss innovation ecosystem so that it’s a win-win situation for all concerned.

What is the hottest start-up right now and why?

That’s a really tough question as there are so many companies across all domains doing great things. I’ve always been a big fan of using technology to improve people’s lives. Thus for me, one of the hottest start-ups right now is a company in the UK who is developing a mobile phone for the blind and the visually impaired. In itself, this is not a new area, but they’ve designed a stunning handset that takes advantage of the latest technology – and that does not look like something you’d buy in Toys R Us. They’re selling the phone in developed markets for a healthy premium – which allows them to provide a lower cost handset to the disadvantaged in countries like India which is home to a third of the world’s poor. They’ve recently raised funding from Qualcomm, ARM etc. and the board includes Nokia’s former design director and the co-founders of Vertu.

We would like to thank Martin Coul from Swiss Mobicamp for the interview and wish him all the best.
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