EP #136 - Judith Bellaiche: Priming Switzerland For Risk And Success

Judith Bellaiche is a Swiss national politician (Swiss Green Liberal Party, GLP) and co-initiator of the Parliamentary Group for Startups and Entrepreneurship. She was first introduced to the Swiss startup landscape during her tenure in the Zurich cantonal parliament. In 2016, she, together with other politicians and lobbyists, pressured the administration to abandon a new, disadvantageous way of calculating the wealth tax for early stage founders. In 2019, Judith was elected to the Swiss National Parliament (Nationalrat). There, she teamed up with fellow parliamentarian and former Swisspreneur guest Andri Silberschmidt to launch the Parliamentary Group for Startups and Entrepreneurship. Through this working group which managed to attract politicians from across the political spectrum, they hope to improve the framework conditions for startups in Switzerland, starting with easier access to talent from non-EU countries through a dedicated startup visa. Judith holds a Law degree from the University of Basel and an executive MBA from the University of St. Gallen.

Memorable Quotes

"The broader our reach, the more support we have from every party, the stronger we will be."

"We need to make people realize how important startups are to the economic prosperity of our country."

"We need to engender in Switzerland an appetite for risk and for success."

If you would like to listen to more episodes on startups & politics, check out our conversations with Andri Silberschmidt, Karim Maizar and Simon Enderli.

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