From Participants to Organizers: Why We Keep Coming Back to Startup Weekend Zürich
Introduction
I'm writing this from my kitchen table while prepping for another Startup Weekend Zürich, and honestly, I can't help but smile thinking about how we all ended up here.
It started with me. I was one of those serial participants - did Startup Weekend three times before they finally asked me to become an organizer. Classic move: once I got hooked on something, I had to drag the rest of the team along.
Enter Katy. I basically peer-pressured her (in the nicest way possible) to join as a participant. Then COVID hit and she could only partly attend, but she was hooked. That experience sparked something in her - she went on to create her NON-networking events after getting deeper into the startup world. Funny how one weekend can plant seeds you don't even realize are growing.
And then there's Roya. She'd been watching from abroad, always wanting to jump in but never quite able to make it work. When she moved to the Swiss-German border, it was like the stars aligned. Finally, she could be part of what we'd been raving about.
Now here we are, three organizers who came to this whole thing from completely different angles. But that's exactly why it works. And here's the kicker - everything we're doing now at Pyango, Katy's events, our whole approach to community building? It all traces back to that first Startup Weekend experience. That's the real power of this event: it doesn't just change your weekend, it can change your entire trajectory.
Picture this: Friday evening, 100+ people walk into a room with nothing but ideas. Sunday night, they walk out with working prototypes, business plans, and sometimes actual companies.
That's Startup Weekend Zürich in a nutshell. It's part of the global Techstars network, which means we're connected to startup communities worldwide. But what makes our Zürich event special is the Swiss touch - we're methodical when we need to be, but we're not afraid to take big swings.
The format is beautifully simple: 54 hours from idea to pitch. No previous experience required, no perfect business plan needed. Just bring your curiosity and be ready to work alongside people you've never met before.
I've seen teachers team up with software developers, marketing folks pair with engineers, and students collaborate with seasoned entrepreneurs. The diversity is what makes it work.
Behind the Scenes: What It Takes to Organize SWZ
You know what nobody tells you about organizing Startup Weekend? It's not the 54 hours during the event that'll test you - it's the three months before.
Two months out, we start our weekly organizer sessions. It's like running a mini startup - we've got our own GitLab instance (sponsored by Pyango, naturally) where everyone has their tickets assigned. Katy's tracking mentor outreach, Roya's coordinating venue logistics, and I'm usually stuck with the spreadsheets that somehow multiply overnight.
The structure helps. For us three, it's just an extension of what we do daily at Pyango anyway - project management, task tracking, team coordination. The difference? This time we're doing it for free, in our spare time, while trying to convince people to give us money.
And that's the real challenge this year: sponsor hunting. We've got the food and snack sponsors locked down (thank goodness), and drink sponsors usually come through. But finding companies willing to write checks for a volunteer-run event? In this economic climate? That's where the stress lives.
Right now, I've got seventeen browser tabs open. One is a venue contract that needs signing by tomorrow, another is a spreadsheet tracking mentor confirmations, and somewhere in there is our budget calculator that keeps reminding me we need more cash sponsors.
Then there's ticket sales. We need people to actually show up, which means convincing busy professionals to spend their weekend building something from scratch. If you're reading this and thinking 'that sounds crazy enough to try' - here's your sign: grab your ticket now.
Last year, two days before the event, our main venue had a plumbing emergency. I'm talking about 120 registered participants and nowhere to put them. We spent 48 hours calling every coworking space, university, and tech company in Zurich. Finally found a backup location, but then had to coordinate moving all the equipment, updating all the communications, and somehow making sure everyone got the memo.
The thing is, these crisis moments? They're oddly addictive. There's something about pulling together as a team when everything's falling apart that just works. Maybe it's because we've all been through the Startup Weekend experience ourselves - we know what it feels like to have everything on the line and somehow make it work.
But here's what keeps us coming back year after year: it's not the adrenaline rush of problem-solving (though that's fun). It's watching someone present their idea on Friday night, voice shaking, barely able to get through their 60-second pitch. Then seeing that same person on Sunday, confident and clear, presenting a working prototype to a room full of people.
That transformation doesn't happen by accident. It happens because someone spent weeks making sure the WiFi works, the mentors show up, and there's enough coffee to keep everyone going until 3 AM.
The Magic Moments: Stories from the Floor
Village: From Weekend Idea to Winning Solution
And the winner is… VILLAGE! 🎊
This past Startup Weekend Zürich perfectly captured what makes these 54 hours so special. The "Village" team walked away victorious with a platform that connects parents with migration backgrounds to other parents in their area, helping them "build their village" of support and community.
What struck me about Village wasn't just the solid execution or the clear market need they identified. It was watching this team come together around something deeply personal and universally important - the challenge of finding your community when you're starting fresh in a new place.
Think about it: Friday night, someone pitched the kernel of this idea. By Sunday evening, they had a working platform and a clear vision for helping immigrant parents connect with local families. That's the Startup Weekend magic right there - taking something that matters and turning it into something real in just one weekend.
Village represents everything we love about this event. It's not just about the tech or the business model (though both were solid). It's about identifying a real human need and building something that could genuinely make people's lives better.
Congratulations to the Village team - you came, you learned, you built, and you conquered. This is exactly why we keep organizing these weekends.
LENTL: When One Weekend Plants Seeds for Real Impact
Sometimes the best success stories take a little time to unfold.
Sien van Boven walked into my first Startup Weekend as an organizer back in fall 2024. She was 26, from Belgium, had been living in Switzerland for just three years, and carried this dream of starting her own company someday. You know the type - that quiet determination mixed with just enough uncertainty to make you root for them.
What happened that weekend? I honestly can't tell you the specifics of her pitch or which team she joined. That's the thing about Startup Weekend - you're managing a hundred moving pieces, putting out fires, making sure the coffee doesn't run out. But what I can tell you is that something clicked for Sien during those 54 hours.
Fast-forward to spring 2025. Guess who came back? Sien, but this time she wasn't just a participant. She had a product to test, a company called LENTL, and she spoke on stage to inspire the new batch of weekend warriors. Talk about coming full circle.
Here's what gets me about her story: LENTL isn't just another food startup. Sien figured out how to make lentils - yes, lentils - the hero of her business. She's creating organic spreads that are packed with protein, fiber, and iron, while partnering with local Swiss farmers to strengthen the entire lentil supply chain. Every farmer partnership comes with a purchase guarantee and a CHF 1,000 government subsidy. It's the kind of business model that makes you think, "Why didn't I think of that?"
But the real validation came recently. Sien entered the Luzerner Kantonalbank Zukunftspreis, competing in the ecology category. Remember, she's got a relatively small network in Switzerland - three years doesn't give you the same voting power as someone who's been here their whole life. But her idea resonated so strongly that she collected 1,309 votes and won CHF 40,000.
Her LinkedIn post about the win hit me right in the feels: "A few years ago, I was still hoping that someday, I would find the courage to start my own company. A few months ago, I stopped hoping and started doing."
That's what Startup Weekend does. It doesn't just give you business skills or networking opportunities (though it does that too). It gives you permission to stop hoping and start doing. Sien's journey from nervous first-timer to confident entrepreneur speaking on our stage? That's the transformation we're addicted to facilitating.
PitchPerfect: From Weekend Idea to Build in Public Success
And then there's Roya's story - another perfect example of how Startup Weekend ideas don't just end on Sunday night. Spring 2025, Roya attended her first Startup Weekend Zürich as a participant. Her team was working on something they called "PitchMaster" - an AI-powered pitch judging agent that could analyze and score startup pitches. The concept was solid, the team was energetic, but you know how these things go. Sunday night came, the presentations happened, and like many weekend projects, the team didn't continue development afterward. But Roya saw something in that idea. She brought it back to Pyango, and we decided to turn it into one of our Build in Public projects. We renamed it PitchPerfect, rebuilt it from the ground up, and documented the entire journey on our YouTube channel. Here's where it gets interesting - we knew we needed real expertise to make this work. Enter Dominique Rey, co-founder of Numeric and someone who's pitched to VCs across Europe and the US, raising roughly CHF 20 million over five years. The guy knows pitching. We invited Dominique to join us for a Build in Public episode to test PitchPerfect and share his insights. What started as a simple product demo turned into a masterclass on what makes a great elevator pitch:
Watching Dominique break down the six essential elements of an elevator pitch - problem, solution, target, USP, vision, and delivery - while testing our AI analysis was pure gold. He emphasized something crucial: "Most investors invest into you when they see that spark in your eyes because they invest in teams first, products second." The episode revealed something we hadn't expected. Dominique suggested that starting with longer pitches and working down to 30-second elevator pitches might be more effective than our approach. "No one can do 30 seconds right away," he said. "This is super hard to train." Classic Build in Public moment - getting real user feedback that challenges your assumptions. By early 2025, we launched PitchPerfect as a live product. It analyzes elevator pitches across multiple dimensions - timing, word count, speaking pace, voice quality, hook effectiveness, problem statement clarity, and differentiation. Users upload their pitch video and get detailed AI-powered feedback to improve their delivery. From Roya's weekend idea called "PitchMaster" to a launched product helping entrepreneurs perfect their pitches - that's the Startup Weekend ripple effect in action. Sometimes the best ideas need time to find the right team and the right moment to shine.
Conclusion
So there you have it - three different paths, three different stories, but all leading back to the same place: the transformative power of Startup Weekend Zürich.
From my serial participation to organizing, Katy's COVID-interrupted experience that sparked her NON-networking events, Roya's PitchPerfect journey from weekend idea to launched product, Sien's evolution from nervous first-timer to award-winning entrepreneur - these aren't just feel-good stories. They're proof that 54 hours can genuinely change your trajectory.
The magic isn't just in what happens during the weekend. It's in how those connections, that energy, those "what if" moments continue to ripple outward. Village is helping immigrant parents find their community. LENTL is building sustainable food systems with Swiss farmers. PitchPerfect is helping entrepreneurs perfect their pitch. And somewhere in Zürich right now, someone is working on the next idea that started at a Startup Weekend.
If you're reading this and thinking "maybe I should try this crazy weekend thing" - that's exactly the feeling we're hoping for. Don't overthink it. Don't wait until you have the perfect idea or the perfect team. Just show up.
The Swiss startup community is waiting for you. Your entrepreneurial journey starts with one decision: will you spend this weekend on the couch, or will you spend it building something that could change everything?
Grab your ticket now and find out what 54 hours can do.
