26 May 2018. Valentin Stalf quit his job in 2013 in order to set up his own bank. His feel for financial matters is something that he had already developed during his time at the University of St.Gallen, where he studied Business Administration and obtained a Master's degree in Accounting and Finance. In 2013, he and his partner finally set up Europe's first mobile bank, N26, which by now has just under a million customers. N26 has optimised banking for smartphones: simple, fast and in tune with the times. An account can be opened completely on the smartphone in a mere eight minutes. Customers can send money to friends and contacts by e-mail or SMS in the same second. By now, Valentin Stalf leads a team of more than 200 employees at N26.

HSG Founders of the Year 2011 to 2017

• Ava founder Lea von Bidder (2017)
• on running shoe inventor Caspar Coppetti (2016)
• Laura Behrens Wu (2015), founder of the shipping software company, Shippo
• Alexander Graubner-Müller (2014), founder of the Kreditech mini-credit platform
• Soma Analytics founder Johann Huber (2013) with his anti-stress app
• DeinDeal.ch founder Adrian Locher (2012)
• Dr. Alexander Ilic (2011), founder of Dacuda, which developed a scanner computer mouse

The members of the 2018 founder competition

• Prof. Dietmar Grichnik, Professor of Entrepreneurship at the HSG
• Dr. Charlotta Sirén, Assisstant Professor of Strategic Entrepreneurship
• Diego Probst, Head of Startup@HSG
• Dr. Manuel Hess, founder coach and member of staff of Startup@HSG

Further information about the programme can be found at www.startuphsg.ch