NEUR.ON

Neur.on is looking forward to welcoming all Legaltech aficionados for a gourmet breakfast "à la fribourgeoise" and an animated discussion on current digitalization opportunities and challenges facing legal professions 🥐☕🥖🍊 #fribourg #legaltech

How do these people help me grow? There's an often-cited quote I personally quite like: "If you want to reach new heights, surround yourself with people who already climbed further up than you." A perfect example of such a group of people gathered at the end of last week at Belvoirpark Restaurant in Zurich. All of them are alumni of INSEAD, the one international business school breeding the highest numbers of entrepreneurs outside of the US, based on capital raised. (Highly talented Anat Bar-Gera, the woman on the left of the picture, and her husband Dov Bar-Gera might have added greatly to those numbers, too: they're both as industrious and skilled in building and investing in startups as they are in promoting the school and making others grow.) What were we celebrating? Mainly INSEAD's new Dean, Francisco Veloso's first official visit to Switzerland. And the very positive news that Poets&Quants (basically the go-to reviewers for all things MBA education) ranked INSEAD "best MBA program of the year" – for the 9th time in 14 years, mind you. Poets&Quants argues that INSEAD did a fantastic job revamping their accelerated MBA, writing: "No B-school on Earth has done more to weave sustainability into its programming than INSEAD. This past year INSEAD revamped its MBA curriculum to more deeply incorporate sustainability in its 14 core courses. The change, which takes effect in January, helps INSEAD align with its mission to be a force for good. Even more, it helps the school stay relevant with students and employers who are clamoring for greater understanding in sustainability-related concepts – and the opportunities inherent to the field." It was an invigorating evening filled with inspiring talks and speeches. Big thanks to the head organisers, Mafalda T. and Philippe M. (both in the picture), and Lorenzo Garofano, Anelia Uzunova, Reto Gygax and many others.

Angel investors: yay or nay? Is it better to skip angel investors? To not deal with the time stealing, the high maintenance communication, the pressure angels put on top of an already dense day-to-day? "Go VC or go home" tends to be the go-to position in lots of startup communities. Yet, here I am, singing praise to those angels, clearly sent from above to give startups wings and guide them on their paths to get closer to the sky. Having just closed a bridge round with ALL of our current seed shareholder re-investing, shows how fruitful relationships with angel investors can be. (And leaves me and the team at NEUR.ON very thankful.) Here's three factors that helped us attract the right angels: 1. Specialize: great B2B SaaS solutions are often built by industry specialists. That again attracts angel investors who are well-acquainted with that respective industry. In our case: people who know about the scope and shortcomings linked to legal translation: lawyers, bankers, #LegalTech entrepreneurs etc. 2. Look for complex problems: people who can lessen complexity always attract attention, especially when it concerns a global and profitable niche. In our case: AI-supercharging legal translation and making it both simple and efficient, but also reliable and accurate, caught the interest of savvy VC experts, investing privately as angels. 3. Think internationally: The more culturally diverse your investor pool is, the easier it will be for your to foresee and solve possible hitches in scalability. In our case: beyond Switzerland, we attracted investments from Germany, the UK, the US, Israel, the Bahamas, and Brazil. In short: it's the same with angel investors as it is with any relationship. You first have to make sure you understand who YOU are, before you can attract that perfect match. To all of our perfect matches, I can only extend a heartful THANK YOU for believing in us, and gifting us your time when we ask for advice, introductions, and market insights. You lot are truly angelic. #angelinvestors #vc #startups #entrepreneurs #venturecapital #bridgeround #thankful

The Financial Times wants to have a word... "Why are Merle Zur and Marcela Durand from Impact Hub Zürich so happy?", you might be asking yourself. There's a simple reason for those bright smiles: Together with Vanessa Mohrig, they were instrumental in creating the FF+ Female Founders Initiative. This program, in which NEUR.ON took part earlier this year, offered tailored mentoring to female-led startups, by high-caliber experts like Pascal Stämpfli, CFA and Chaithra Murali, Regula Buob, Stefan Huber, Matthias Filser, Fabian Bamert, and Michael Kuhn. Now, the Financial Times is creating a ranking of acceleration programs in Switzerland, and they've asked the FF+ to be a part of it! 🎉 So to anyone in my network having taken part in their FF+ Acceleration Program – please vote and make them shine! You'll find the link to vote in the first comment. It will only work until September 14th.

Die Zukunft der Innovation ist hier und jetzt! 🚀 Mit diesem Motto startete gestern Abend das Innovationsprogramm von Kickstart Innovation mit einer aufregenden #OpeningCeremony. Wir von der AXA Schweiz sind begeistert und stolz, erneut Teil dieser Reise zu sein. #makeithappen 42 internationale Startups, darunter B'ZEOS, Enterprise Bot , irmos technologies AG, Moodtalk, NEUR.ON, PlaynVoice, proseed GmbH, Solskin by Zurich Soft Robotics, upgrain, wyrd, hypt, enerjoy, Öko-Kompass, AI Buddy, Opineo, Fetal Monitoring, Visenco, Protonica, Watchibia und viele andere, haben in den kommenden Wochen die Chance, mit Entscheidungsträgern in Kontakt zu treten, ihre Geschäftsmodelle zu testen, auszubauen und vielleicht den ein oder anderen spannenden Deal abzuschliessen. In diesem Jahr beinhalten fast die Hälfte der Geschäftsideen nachhaltige 💚Lösungen, was die wachsende Tendenz in Richtung nachhaltiger Innovation widerspiegelt. Von KI, die Gespräche von Patienten aufzeichnet, bis hin zu Seetang als Verpackungsmaterial – diese Startups adressieren die grössten Herausforderungen unserer Gesellschaft mit bahnbrechenden Lösungen. Wir sind gespannt und freuen uns schon auf zukünftige #ProofOfConcepts, die aus diesem innovativen Programm hervorgehen werden! Ihr auch? Perfekt! Wir werden weitere Updates hier mit euch teilen, denn die neuen Deals, POCs und Partnerschaften werden auf der Abschlussfeier am 28. November im Kraftwerk in Zürich bekannt gegeben. #Innovation #Startups #Nachhaltigkeit #TechFürEineBessereZukunft #KickstartInnovation 

And we're off! On Tuesday, we officially started into this year's Kickstart Innovation cohort in our Finance & Insurance vertical. At the opening ceremony on Tuesday, the industrious spirit was palpable, and I had the pleasure of pitching NEUR.ON to the program partners, investors, and my peers. Now follows a week of talks and meetings with national and international collaborative partners, experienced mentors, subject matter specialists, and aligned colleagues in Zurich and Fribourg. What's the goal of all this? Kickstart Innovation allows us to find new clientele by matching them with our respective cohorts and initiating talks. All of this under the attentive eye of the Kickstart team, and in particular of Katka Letzing, whose favorite line is "if you don't sign PoC agreements by the end of this month, I will find you." The very driven people standing around me are Pascal Sollberger and Tobias Wegmüller (both hypt), Markus Geissler and Elisabetta Maria Chiarantoni (both Kickstart Innovation), Ravina Mutha from enterprisebot, and Mathias Höllerl from Keyless.

The first Linkedin Post about Neur.on in Chinese! Certainly not the last...

Can you give me a hand in welcoming Eloi Eynard? With his bright analytical mind, Eloi starts as our newest expert data scientist. His target: leveraging NEUR.ON's expertise in NLP and LLMs. As an EPFL graduate, Eloi is dedicated to bridge the gap between data and meaningful systems. He values transparent and user-centered solutions, meaning that he fuses together effective and trustworthy systems with intuitive user experience. (With a mind that forward-thinking, would it surprise you that Eloi is also an avid poker player, regularly organizing tournaments with friends and family? I thought not.) Quite literally, he wants to make the world a better place using AI. For example: During his studies, Eloi worked a summer job as a data entry clerk. He felt that the position was so drab and mind-numbing that for his Master's project, he automated the whole process with LLMs, stating: "I wouldn't want any other human being to do that job". Thank you for coming on board, Eloi. I can't wait to see what great ideas we can make a reality together. (Also, I'm not in the picture of our feasting team because I, for once, took the photo.) #newhire #welcome #legaltech #translation #llm #nlp #jobs

How can law firms stay ahead of the curve and not miss any of AI's most disruptive features? As you read this, law firms are rushing to test and adopt AI solutions to avoid falling behind in the industry's most defining tech revolution to date. But are these investments (both in license costs and human resources) really worth it? Is it possible for SMEs to get a grand ROI with AI in 2024, both in and outside of the #LegalTech world? Let's talk about the secrets, and how to make sure the efficiency gains and/or additional revenues will make such a new endeavour worth your while: Join me on September 16th at the "AI in Business" panel at Google Campus in Zurich. Together with Dorian Selz of Squirro, Karol Mierzwa of iteo , Michal Rachtan of Unit8, and our moderator, Silvan Andermatt of Sielva Management SA, we'll discuss the pitfalls of (in)famous AI projects, proven recipes for success, and experts' tips and tricks to make the most out of the current FOMO-inducing AI landscape. You can book a ticket to the event via the link in the first comment. I'm looking forward to seeing you there.

Die Würfel sind gefallen! 🚀 Wir freuen uns sehr über die Ankündigung von Kickstart Innovation, dass 42 internationale Startups für das 11-wöchige Kickstart-Innovationsprogramm in der Schweiz ausgewählt wurden. Diese Startups, darunter B'ZEOS, Enterprise Bot , irmos technologies AG, Moodtalk, NEUR.ON, PlaynVoice, proseed GmbH, Solskin by Zurich Soft Robotics, upgrain, wyrd, hypt, enerjoy, Öko-Kompass, AI Buddy, Opineo, Fetal Monitoring, Visenco, Protonica, Watchibia und viele mehr, haben nun die Möglichkeit, mit Entscheidungsträgerinnen und Entscheidungsträgern in Kontakt zu treten, ihre Geschäftsmodelle zu testen und zu skalieren und vielversprechende Deals 🤝 auszuhandeln. Fast die Hälfte der Geschäftsideen, die es in die Auswahl geschafft haben, beinhalten nachhaltige Lösungen 💚 , was den wachsenden Trend zu ressourcenschonenden Innovationen widerspiegelt. Von der KI, die Patientengespräche aufzeichnet, bis hin zu Algen als Lebensmittelverpackung – diese Startups stellen sich den grössten Herausforderungen unserer Gesellschaft. Die AXA Schweiz ist stolz darauf, zusammen mit anderen wichtigen Playern Teil dieser Initiative zu sein. Setzen wir uns also für nachhaltigen Fortschritt ein, indem wir das schützen, was zählt. 🌎 #Innovation #Startups #Nachhaltigkeit #TechForGood #KickstartInnovation #AXAnauten Claudia Bienentreu Daniel P. Steingruber Isabell Neumann Louis de Montmollin 🏡💚