Laura L. Erickson

SAFT

An international acceleration program for energy startups

— PROJECT NAME

SAFT


— ROLE

Instigator

Program Design

Sponsorship Development

Startup coach

Industry Liaison


— DATE

Feb – Jun, 2016

To help Switzerland accelerate its Energy Strategy 2050, I got together with the Impact Hub Zurich to support the internationalization of its early energy startup rock stars.


We designed an internationalization bootcamp that was held in Zurich to support an international market expedition to the San Francisco Bay Area. Key to this accelerator design was getting support for it from a mix of public and private entities, including a Swiss utility company, a Swiss telecom company, a European cleantech foundation, and a private Swiss foundation. Funding partners were also invited to join the international market expedition, which led to pilots and commercial deals between the utility and a couple of the startups.


Doing this program also helped to put me in touch with a German utility company, innogy (now E.ON), a relationship that ultimately led to the creation of the Free Electrons global energy accelerator.