Most have the means. Fewer have made the move.
A morning on how family businesses start venturing – with NextGens who did it and a Zurich VC on what worked and what didn’t. Curated with FBN NxG Switzerland.
Family businesses endure when they renew themselves: new talent from inside and outside the family, and real innovation brought into the core. Venturing is one of the most direct ways to do both, yet most family businesses are more able than willing. The capital, the networks and the patience are there. The playbook often isn’t.
Together with FBN NxG Switzerland, we get concrete: how to take the first step, which venture vehicles exist – from direct investments to funds to venture building – and what each one demands of the family. Then we go into practice, with NextGens sharing their own venturing journeys and a Zurich-based VC bringing the investor’s view.
An open, relaxed panel morning. Thirty guests, fresh coffee from the ViCAFE roastery, and conversations that run into lunch.
Damian Felchlin
NextGen, Max Felchlin AG; entrepreneur & venture builder
Co-founded High Time Foods in Boston and Switzerland’s first Venture Capital Academy with UC Berkeley. He knows both sides: the heritage and the zero-to-one.
Cristina de Mendieta
Founding Partner, GOTA Ventures; NextGen, S. de Mendieta S.A.
Invests in early-stage food tech and runs Mendicafé International, part of her family’s Swiss trading house.
Leopold Schlenk
Co-Founder, FamilienUnternehmerTUM; NextGen, SCHLENK SE
Fifth-generation shareholder and family business angel – the family’s “venture client”.
Noah Ghisleni
Associate, Forlam Ventures
The investor’s view from the Zurich firm that builds companies like ViCAFE, our host.
