2 May 2012. 30-year-old Adrian Locher is a serial entrepreneur. He founded and sold his first company while he was a student at the University of St.Gallen. He subsequently worked as a consultant for two years and then launched another start-up in Berlin. In spring 2010, he established DeinDeal.ch; in mid-2011, he sold 60 per cent of the company to Ringier. The deals on the website are characterised by discounts of 50-70 per cent, which can be granted through bulk purchasing power. DeinDeal.ch grew from 5 to 180 employees within two years and is now Switzerland’s market leader in the field of the social buying platforms.

Three further start-ups nominated

Adrian Locher and his enterprise were selected from a great number of interesting projects. Official nominee awards were also given to David An of Dracoon Media (a distribution network for mobile games and apps based on Android), Samuel Scheer and Simon Kreuz of NoTube (enables the increasing number of small children suffering from nutritional problems to be treated with a success rate of more than 95% in a four-week internet-based process), as well as Tim Hammermann, Laurenz Meckl and Max M. Diez of Cultoria (helps to make administrative processes in schools more open and transparent for all those involved by means of a modern internet platform).

Business ideas for the future
The “HSG Founder of the Year” competition promotes innovative and sustainable start-ups by HSG members through the “HSG Founder Lab” at the Institute of Technology Management (ITEM-HSG). The business idea of “HSG Founder of the Year” is characterised by a high degree of motivation and a special kind of sustainability. The competition is run annually; it was launched in 2011.