Testimonials

ICC'2023

 

ICC'2022

 



Anonymous testimonials
ICC was great and the organisers were so sweet and caring!

I would like to thank the hosts of the event, who were wonderful, helpful, kind and very polite. The three of them helped me when I needed it, they were concerned about giving their best; I wish you the best and thank you so much for the event ❤️ The event was amazing and I'm very happy to have had this experience! It was much better than I expected and very grandiose; I will take many lessons and friends from here ❤️

J'ai adoré l'ICC. D'un point de vue personnel, ça m'a beaucoup aidé dans l'aisance à entamer une conversation en anglais, dans les techniques de pitch et j'ai également appris quelques trucs supplémentaires d'un point de vue technique. Globalement, c'était donc une expérience fantastique, où j'ai fait des rencontres géniales. Je referai l'ICC, c'est certain.

Overall, I really enjoyed it (especially rafting and the debate after movie night) ! The organization was great and you, the hosts, were so nice and easy to talk to ! Thanks again for everything

It has been an amazing opportunity. You as hosts made an AMAZING job and a very pleasant experience to all of us. All the activities were amazing and made the interactions with other groups easy and enjoyable. I'm really happy and thankful for being able to come to this hackathon. Thank you!

ICC'2020

 



G’Express
Thank you once again for organizing this unique hackathon event with love. I will be one of your ambassador in France :) – Di Ai, Team G’Express

Very good environment and exchange with other teams. Lots of activities organized. Thank you for all the organizers. I really appreciate every details of your work. It was absolutely a memorable experience for me. – Long Jiao, Team G’Express

Movement Coach
Yes, I would recommend the ICC to other people. The main reason is, that you can really focus on one project for 9 days, which is enough to make something cool, but you are finished after these days. Furthermore, the organization was very lovely. I really loved the activities around the hacking phases, which just made the 9 days really really cool. The organizers really put much effort into this ICC. A big thanks to all organizers, you did a fantastic job! – René Schäfer, Team Movement Coach

ICC'2019

 

AIvidence
I would like to give many thanks to ICC for their intensive startup training. Your selection of coaches is top notch and I had more than one difficult day where my assumptions where challenged and I had to reconsider everything. I can only recommend to future ICC alumni to come prepared, spend some time to at least contact your prospective customers because time flies so fast and you don’t have only a project to mature, but also a team.
Ludovic, for AIvidence.

Virtual Fitting Room
The ICC challenges provides my team a wonderful learning experience that broadens our business viewset. By practising with VCs and startups and receiving feedbacks, our team experiences what should be the real customers’ needs and also investors’ demands which prepare us in the future development of our startups. Moreovers, at ICC, we have the chance to work in an international environment with other teams from different countries, experiences and perspectives. What I consider the most valuable experience from ICC is the opportunity to meet and share our team’ idea to other competitors and also having the chance to learn from other teams. As being an entrepreneur demands us to firstly survive by continuously extend our network, establishing partnership with people with various expertise of business development, marketing, technical skills is eventually my team’ best prize.

Mixoper
ICC was a great chance for us to meet new and interesting people, experiencing new cultures and working on something we love. We did learn many things and our project evolved to be something better in this 3 weeks.We've added new experiences to our previous entrepreneurial experience. We will continue to work and succeed. Mixoper Team Testimonial ‘19

TEN
This event makes you think. You might be an experienced developer and you are probably quite smart. Even I, with 35 years of experience in IT, had to work hard to make it to the final day.

The challenge is a challenge and it is what I needed to spur me onwards. I found answers to questions at the back of my mind. My most important learning point is that I know how I am going to approach the development agency in my local region. ICC 2019 has provided me with the toolkit to join my local start-up programme as a professional.

I was able to separate the detail of my technology development work and the big picture plan. I now know how to communicate both to people like my bank manager or the employment office in my home town.

I will also pitch ICC 2019 to my local University. I think a team from my home town needs to take part in ICC because they will learn what it really means to be a developer.

Graeme Blundell. Martigny, 16-Sep-2019

DPE
“What a wonderful 3 weeks the ICC experience is. From intense learning sessions, to top notch coaching from experts, to the group dinners and social events on the ICC calendar, ICC has been nothing but transformative.
If you need to find out the viability of a project, or test out its market potential, the ICC is the opportunity of a lifetime to do that.”
Dennis and Edward (DPE team)

Message from a team member:
Vers une qualification à la finale de la compétition IEEE R8 Entrepreneurship Initiative.
Bonjour Monsieur Foglia,
Tout d'abord, je voudrais bien vous remercier pour toutes les formations que vous aviez organisé durant le ICC 2019. J'aimerai vous informer que c'est grâce à ces formations que j'ai pu gagné une compétition d'entrepreneuriat au maroc et nous avons été sélectionné parmi les 16 meilleures équipes du monde entier pour la phase suivante. Actuellement, nous sommes dans la phase finale de sélection où les deux équipes avec le plus de votes seront qualifiées pour la finale en Suède.
Merci pour votre soutien: PlantifAI

 
ICC'2018

 

 
ICC'2017

 

“ICC was the first time we had 20 days to work on something. You had support from mentors and we changed our business plan completely. To pivot a strategy in 20 days, it’s crazy. And we did it because the keyword here was iteration. We had the opportunity to ask people how to do something or if it was good or not, to receive feedback, go back, change stuff and talk to them the next week. We had the opportunity to grow and grow fast. Thanks ICC.”
Bruno Felipe de Azevedo Santos from ThinkMilk

ICC is great. It’s a great place to create something from scratch, work a lot and find, find new knowledge and try new things. It’s great. You should come and try.”
Robobay team

“For me, ICC is the best experience I have ever had. Idiap offers an innovative environment where you have a structure to develop your project. I will head back to Brazil very satisfied. Thank you for the opportunity.”
Fabién Giovanni de Oliveira from TopDown

 
ICC'2016

 

“For me, ICC is the best way to sharpen your idea and turn it into a business.”
Pham Ha Anh Viet from GoEat

“For me ICC is the ideal laboratory to develop a business idea. I came here three weeks ago with a broad idea and two friends. I am leaving now after three weeks of coaching and support with a project, a project that can be implemented and a team I believe in.”
Fabiana Visentin from Vidprodev

“The ICC program is for me a good opportunity to improve my abilities and my skills about entrepreneurship. During these days here, I learned about different tutors and about different subjects for entrepreneurship, and how to improve my project. If you have the opportunity, come here to the ICC at Idiap because it is the best program.”
Renato Tadeu Rodrigues from coaShe

 
ICC'2015

 

“For me ICC is a wonderful opportunity to create something innovative and valuable from our ideas. It gave us the right balance between product implementation and business development. We also got to interact with all type of experts related to business creation. This atmosphere here was friendly. Idiap is a great institution and Valais is a beautiful place with the right conditions to create our company.”
Kenneth Funes Mora from Eyeware

“ICC was an amazing experience. I especially enjoyed working with Idiap technology and I am looking forward to continuing our collaboration in order to bring to bring voice recognition to our App4Autism.”
Josef Kalleder from App4Autism

“For me ICC is a great opportunity to make a reality-check of your business ideas. ICC was a great experience, very, very positive. During these weeks, we were able to acquire des necessary foundation for the realization of a project. We got very good advice and met great, great people. More than a challenge, it was a real opportunity. Now I think we have a solid basis to continue. Thanks to the entire ICC team. ”
Thomas Crausaz and Hubert Smulders from OurHeritageRelive

 
ICC'2014

 

“I worked with my teammates during 3 weeks at ICC’2014. It was amazing! Our project made a huge progress. It gained a lot in maturity, we could make various strong contacts, and we had very good advice from very smart people. It was an amazing experience.”
Julien Pilet from Anemomind

“For me ICC is a great opportunity to meet people. It’s a great experience where you can make your idea come true. At the same time, you meet friends.”
Zoe Zindrou from MSMaya

“For me ICC is not a competition, it’s an opportunity. An opportunity to see my project grow up, to meet new people and enjoy new friends.”
Benedetta Magri from Horus

 
ICC'2013

 

"The ICC has given us the opportunity to properly develop and validate our idea. I'm really thankful towards the organization for giving us such a choice to work so deeply and hard while also having a great time in an international environment." Cristina Pérez Ferrer from CloudGuide

"The ICC is filling up a real gap on the startup ecosystem in Switzerland. I hope to see it thriving and that it gets a lot more international attention as it truly deserves! Amazing work by the organizers!!!" Anonymous

"Overall, I think you did a splendid job, and I salute you for all your efforts. I am sure you changed the professional course of many people with these 3 weeks." Leila Karimzade from BabelBytes

"I was very pleased with the program, thanks. And congratulations on organizing this excellent opportunity! I hope it can continue in the future." Arlo Faria from ReMeeting

"ICC has given me an opportunity to bring out the enterprising spirit in me. Participating in a competition such as ICC is "electrifying". It has driven my team to put in 110% of our effort to develop our project. We don't have to worry about the meals and everything else. Bring us together in one location, and cutting out our routine means that we can really focus on our project. We have been able to put into practice what we have learnt. For example, personas are a great way of conveying the messages; and we have turned them into screencast videos. I have also learnt a great deal about pitching and that "no business is like show business". Last but not least, I also discovered the various startup opportunities being offered by Valais and Switzerland. They are very attractive, indeed! I haven't found any similar level of offer elsewhere in Europe. Well done for the organizing team!" Norman Poh from Exo-Brain

 
ICC'2012

 

"The ICC was easily one of the most interesting experiences I've ever had. All the participants and speakers were great and I learned at ton from everyone. It's shocking what can be done in 3 weeks when there's a little bit of friendly competition. Our project is still going strong and it never would have existed without the ICC." (Erik Ziegler of Biomod)

"The ICC was really an adrenaline shot for me. A week before the commencement of the program, my start-up dreams were in tatters because of various unfortunate circumstances. But François [Foglia] pushed me to attend the program nevertheless, courtesy of which my entrepreneurial dreams and ambitions are truly alive and kicking. It was a really important 3 weeks for me, which could restore and sky-rocket my ambitions." (Appu Shaji of Croppola/Insight)

"It was a great job well done! A great learning experience." (Lakshmi Saheer of EmoGen)

"I really enoyed my three weeks at the ICC and got a lot of useful information from the sessions as well as feedback from the coaches." (Angela Yao of BodyPose)

"Your ICC has really been a succes, but we all know it! The strenghts: overall organization, density, great talks, many start-up teams, overall coaching to tranform a theoretic idea into a real potential business. The fact that everything was free is also something amazing, and during 3 weeks!" (Tristan Renaud of BioMod)

"Excellent organization for a 1st-time event!" (Anonymous)

"I'm very thankful for the opportunity, I really hope this event [...] grows more as it has a lot of potential." (Anonymous)

"The ICC'2012 was a very exciting experience.I enjoyed the friendly environment and the positive attitude of all the participants. My team greatly benefited from the program and we learnt a lot about how to startup from scratch, as for instance:

1. Get yourself out of the inertia and if you want to start up, just get it done.
2. Build fast a minimum viable product or a service that interests your customers so much that you are able to build a great business out of it.
3. Fund your idea but asses wisely why and how much money you need.
4. Build a winning team. Look at people who are startup ready and people who can multi-task and take on much more than just what they are "experts" at.
5. Get ready to be on the market.
I would strongly recommend to join the program to all of you who have a good idea and want to startup in the wonderful region of Valais!!" (Elena Gianfranco of Connect 4 Business)