AI meets entrepreneurship - "Startups in the AI Era: From 'Why' to Due Diligence Realities" - Klea Wenger & Julien Weissenberg

Featuring two complementary talks, this session brings together Klea Wenger (Swisscom Ventures) and Dr. Julien Weissenberg (CEO, Deep Tech Experts), who will share their perspectives on building companies from research, asking the right founding questions, and navigating technical due diligence for AI and deep-tech startups. The event will conclude with a joint discussion and Q&A, offering participants the opportunity to engage, ask questions, and exchange ideas on the challenges and opportunities shaping startups in the AI era.

Hosts: Profs. Olga Fink & Josie Hughes

! Please note: Registration is required, priority is given to the EPFL community!

About Klea Wenger

• Talk's title: From Research to Venture: Starting with “Why” in Entrepreneurship
• Abstract: Startups emerging from leading research institutions often begin with outstanding technology, but technology alone rarely builds a venture-scale company. Drawing on her experience as Investment Director at Swisscom Ventures, Klea explores how founders can move beyond the “what” to clarify why their company should exist, how it can win a real market, and what kind of team is needed to succeed. The talk offers a VC perspective on market sizing, exit thinking, and founder team composition, helping researchers make more informed entrepreneurial decisions.
• Bio: Klea is an Investment Director at Swisscom Ventures, where she has been investing since 2018. Swisscom Ventures is a leading Swiss digital & deeptech VC fund with over 500M CHF under management. Klea focuses on early to growth stage technology-driven companies and has invested in 11 startups across multiple sectors . She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Materials Science from EPFL and a Master’s degree from ETH Zurich. With a background rooted in engineering and a strong interest in robotics and space technologies, she enjoys working closely with founders transitioning cutting-edge research into scalable companies.

• Talk's title: Under the Microscope: Surviving the Tech Due Diligence
• Bio: Dr. Julien Weissenberg is CEO of Deep Tech Experts and AI Expert, an Expert for Innosuisse and for the World Economic Forum. Deep Tech Experts is a boutique advisory which gathers experts in AI, Cybersecurity, Quantum Computing and Aerospace. With over 16 years of expertise in Computer Vision and Machine Learning, Julien has been building AIs and helping investors make decisions for AI and deep tech startups. He completed his PhD and Postdoc at the ETH Zurich and holds an MSc in Advanced Computing from Imperial College London.