June 16, 2026 | New York

Swiss startups coming to the US often experience a sort of paradox: Americans can be surprisingly open, friendly, and willing to share advice — but it can be nearly impossible to get your foot in the door. For Swiss entrepreneurs used to a more reserved but straightforward business culture, it can be a challenging dynamic to navigate. “I like to ask tactical questions like, ‘How did you do it? How many emails did you write, how do you handle being ignored all the time?” said Stas Vaisman, co-founder of Automadic. “We actually met someone yesterday, and we started asking questions just to get insights. Like, for example — don’t even try to email them cold. They’re not gonna read it. It’s either a warm introduction or nothing.”

Seven Swiss startups got to experience this first hand during the New York Tech Week Startup Camp, powered by Innosuisse and managed by Swissnex. The startups spent the first week of June connecting with experts, investors, and entrepreneurs, getting insights the intricacies of hiring, IP, and sales, and banking in the US, as well as personal perspectives from Swiss startups who’ve already made the jump across the Atlantic. Throughout the week the founders refined their pitches, and on June 2 they took the stage in front of New York investors at a Swissnex-organized pitch event. But some of the most valuable insights and breakthroughs came outside of the scheduled sessions, as the startups explored the more than 1600 events that took place during the largest ever edition of New York Tech Week, including the European Innovation Summit on June 4, co-organized by Swissnex.

“Too much is happening at the same time — but that’s part of the game,” said TALPA Inspection co-founder Federico Martinelli-Orlando. “The beauty of it, on the other hand, is that you just go and talk. Yesterday we met this guy, a photographer, and this guy apparently is connected with everybody in the world. Everyone.” “He wanted to help all of us,” interjected Vaisman. “Like, ‘Yeah, I know this guy. I know a guy for you. I know a guy for you. I know a guy for you.’” “That was completely random, no?” said Martinelli-Orlando. “And that’s the beauty of the US to me. Because in the end, you talk to somebody, and this person just says, ‘Okay, I’ll just forward your contact to somebody.’” Julia Wagner, COO of UNOMR, had a similar experience. “There was a lot of serendipity in running to investors. They’re like, ‘Oh, actually I know a colleague in Boston, I’ll make an intro. Let’s see what comes out of it.’ We actually met a potential customer who I have a meeting with later today, but completely randomly.”

Luck certainly plays a role, but David Giron knows that you can improve your chances with a bit of hard work. “You just gotta go shake as many hands as you can,” said the eFrontiers co-founder. “Start going all out, spamming anybody that you think is remotely close to an interesting conversation. You just never know what you’re going to get when you knock on that door.” His efforts paid off when a cold call turned into the highlight of his camp. “I did a call outbound just praying for a reply, and the CEO of the company met me and shared a lot of incredible information. It was 30 minutes that were gold for us,” said Giron. “He’s like, ‘Meet me at this Starbucks.’ He just came down from his office and was so cool. And it was just so open, such an easy conversation.”

Reaching these breakthrough moments sometimes requires a mindset shift for Swiss startups. This can mean embracing spontaneity, as Happy Pot co-founder Habiba Alami discovered. “In the US, people ask bigger questions,” she said. “They think big, and everything moves very fast, and everything can happen in a random conversation.” It can also mean rethinking the way you sell your startup. “You may have the best precision, the most scientific foundation, but they don’t actually need the most precise solution,” said Elena de Weck, CEO of Yainvest. “To break that cultural barrier is quite hard.” It’s not enough to let the product speak for itself, echoed Vaisman. “You have to be loud. You need to make sure that people understand that you really want to change the world, and this is not something that comes naturally to us.”

Above all, the week demonstrated that there’s no substitute for being on the ground. Whether it’s a chance encounter that leads to an investor introduction, a cold call that unexpectedly lands, or the intangible insights that you can only gain from experience, there are some things that can only happen in person. “I really had no idea what it actually takes to scale in the United States,” said de Weck, “You need to come to understand. You’re not going to learn it by visiting a website.”