The University of St. Gallen, and in particular the School of Management, devotes its educational goals to a vision: the development of talent able to integrate perspectives and to act both entrepreneurial and responsibly.
Especially in today's world, where a pandemic shocks and changes the population and the economy, entrepreneurship, innovation, and responsibility are essential. This pandemic also meant that the annual START Summit, Europe's leading talent conference for entrepreneurship and innovation, had to be canceled. It is now that entrepreneurs should receive the necessary recognition for their work: In such times, entrepreneurs can serve as role models, since they are masters in dealing with uncertainty.
Therefore, we award again the new HSG Founder of the Year 2020 – An award dedicated to
- innovation in a sustainable market
- combined with a sustainable business model
- and executed by a strong entrepreneurial personality.
As in any business or life case, it is the individual who makes things work, who thrives for achievement, who puts believes, thoughts, and concepts into action. In the case of venturing, this individual has to show an incredible degree of perseverance to make the way from an idea to a business, which on top satisfies the prior requirements.
We feel really honored to award this prize. Thanks to the Dr. Werner Jackstädt Foundation, this prize does not only have reputational character but is endowed with 10’000 Swiss Francs. In entrepreneurship, this is the kind of special support that we need, to send out signals and award role models, which encourage others to see possibilities, and to become entrepreneurial active.
Dear Dr. Werner Jackstädt Foundation – Thank you for supporting us and our entrepreneurs!
This year, the decision for the founder of the year was quite difficult. There were many talented and ambitious entrepreneurs to choose from, who lead a successful company every day through their best performance.
To us, the candidates are all impressive nominees. We pay my highest respect for their achievements.
In the end, the choice of the founder of the year 2020 is:
Julian Teicke, Wefox
Julian Teicke holds a bachelor degree in Business Administration from the University of St.Gallen in 2010. Julian is a real Serialpreneur. He started his entrepreneurial career as an Entrepreneur in Residence for the startup chocri. In 2010, he co-founded the well known company DeinDeal. Since 2017, he has been acting as Founding Investor for several startups. However, today, Julian is nominated as Entrepreneur of the year for the founding of Wefox. Wefox is a digital platform that shifts a classic industry to a integrated digital platform. The startup serves customers, brokers and insurance companies by offering an intelligent and efficient way to manage insurance and financial products. Since the beginning, Wefox has already welcomed more than 300,000 clients. Also, the investors are quite thrilled about them: Wefox has raised $235 million in new capital in two financing rounds in 2019.
