Dübendorfer: Opportunistic behavior will fail in Switzerland due to societal rejection
Thomas Dübendorfer · With a Swiss Founder-Investor Who Built 9 Startups and Funded 40 | Thomas Dübendorfer · Oct 14, 2025 · at 9:02
Thomas Dübendorfer, founder and president of SICTIC, discusses the cultural requirements and business ethics necessary to operate successfully in Switzerland.
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“If you are very opportunistic here, you're going to fail very badly because society doesn't accept it. If you start to do things which is against people in society, they will not trust you anymore, and if nobody trusts you, you're going to be dropping out of society.”
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“Unicorns, the companies that had a billion dollar valuation or more in the last 12 years, we found 58 of them, where we have a public proof that they reached a one billion valuation.”
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“Switzerland has a stock exchange, but it's not really well suited for startups, right? And if you don't have enough revenues, don't have enough valuation, then no way to even have a chance.”
Dübendorfer: Switzerland has Europe's most diverse startup ecosystem
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“What you're really bad at, I would say it's doing things at scale at the masses, B to C, just cheap. And go big. Don't have the right cost structure here.”