With the support of Gebert Rüf Stiftung, we have developed the first Business Incubator for the Hospitality industry at the Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne. The development was driven by the realisation that (1) the Hospitality is a key sector for Switzerland, not only in economic terms, but also in terms of international image and reputation, (2) support structures for innovation and entrepreneurship in this industry are lacking, and (3) our institution is ideally positioned to address these shortcomings. Consequently, our vision is to develop an integrated portfolio of services covering all stages of the new venture creation process to assist entrepreneurs and foster innovation.

Through the development of this incubator, we aim to achieve the following objectives:
- Increase the number and success rate of new ventures in the Hospitality industry through a «one-stop shop» portfolio of support services
- Foster innovation in the hospitality sector (an industry where no R&D departments exist) by providing a platform for entrepreneurs from different fields to develop their hospitality-related projects
- Develop synergies and collaborations between the various higher-learning institutions of the Lausanne region (EPFL, IMD, etc.) around the themes of entrepreneurship and innovation.

Our business incubator is novel not so much in the services it provides, but in the segment it provides them to. Indeed, the Hospitality industry, despite its economic and image-building importance for Switzerland, has not received the focus it deserves when it comes to innovation and entrepreneurship. Our project is also original in that it provides a business acceleration platform which simultaneously involves key stakeholders of the School (students, faculty, and coaches), as well as main actors of the Swiss economic fabric (academic institutions, companies, entrepreneurs and investors).

In essence, we strive to build a high-performance R&D platform for an industry that historically does not have an R&D function. By bringing together entrepreneurs, investors, faculty and students in the context of the Number 1 Hospitality Management School in the world, we feel we have the potential to create a first-rate innovation and entrepreneurial hub.

Finally, the EHL business incubator has the opportunity to unlock powerful synergies with economic actors in the Hospitality industry, starting naturally with an integration into the fabric of the Lausanne and wider Riviera region, a key tourism and travel pole in Switzerland and home of world-renowned establishments.


Stand/Resultate
Our midterm plan (i.e., 2-4 years) aims to develop a Business Incubator portfolio around 5 key services, each addressing specific needs during the entrepreneurial process.

At this stage in the project, we have achieved the following milestones:

1. Hiring of a Business Incubator Officer: Sofia Hide Secker

2. Prizes & Contests
2.1 Jury
Prix Genilem HES-Vaud
This prize aims to support innovation and creativity for Bachelor and Master’s students, as well as alumni from eight HES in canton de Vaud. The principal objective is to reward the best entrepreneurial project, organisation and/or association (non-profit or profit). The laureate will receive a cash prize of CHF 20’000 and coaching support for 3 years provided by Genilem.
On the 13th of June 2012, EHL hosted the first selection phase for this contest, and in November 2012, the prize was awarded to two alumnus from EHL for their Vinoabo project on wine profiling.
This collaboration between EHL and other organizations supporting entrepreneurship in Romandie, such as Genilem, helped integrate EHL’s business incubator activities in the local entrepreneurship network (one of the objectives of this project).

2.2 Project sourcing
Prix du Jeune Entrepreneur (PJE)
The aim of this contest is to propose to all the students from HSG, ETH Zürich, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale of Lausanne (EPFL) and Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne (EHL), to participate and reward the best entrepreneurial project with a cash prize of CHF 20’000. The winner of 2012 was a group of EHL students for their project “Mon baluchon” which was created during their entrepreneurship module.

3. Events
Gastronomia
For the 2012 edition of Gastronomia, EHL helped the organisers develop a brand new concept called “Innovation & Startup Space”. This area was run by EHL in collaboration with Nestlé Milano. This space also represented the opportunity for the young entrepreneurs of the EHL community to promote their business and services in a professional trade show setting.

Carrefour des Créateurs
By offering practical insights on entrepreneurial topics, this event aims to provide a "toolbox" to young entrepreneurs and project holders to guide them in the development of their business. For the first time, EHL’s business incubator was an official partner of this event, and was able to promote its activities to its main target market.

Club des Entrepreneurs
This Club was officially launched on September 28th 2011. Its objective is to foster networking between the various members of the EHL entrepreneurship community by hosting regular social events on the EHL campus. Through these events, all of EHL’s entrepreneurial community can share their passion, discuss their challenges, find mentors in an informal setting. 2015 saw the Club des Entrepreneurs become a student committee in order to allow for full integration of the club within the school and benefit from the students’ creativity and innovation to organise the most suitable events.

Entrepreneurial events in the region
We regularly attend regional entrepreneurial events in order to stay up to date on the latest trends and start-ups in the area.

4. Communication
EHLITE Magazine
EHLITE is the official EHL magazine sent, quarterly, to more than 7’000 Alumni worldwide. In each issue, our business incubator writes the Start-up Insight column to discuss trends and innovation, present new startups, and introduce EHL entrepreneurs. Through this communication channel, our Business Incubator can thus indirectly promote its activities and successes.

Website & Brochure
In collaboration with the school’s communication and marketing department, we have a brochure and redesigned the website for our business incubator (incubateur.ehl.edu).

Startup Newsletter
In 2014 we published the first edition of the Startup Newsletter – a monthly e-newsletter for EHL’s entrepreneurial community where we share news about EHL entrepreneurs, reviews of entrepreneurial events and up and coming entrepreneurial events to look out for. This newsletter has strengthened our community and ensured that everyone is up to date. Sections of the newsletter are extracted every month to be shared with EHL students, staff and alumni.

Press coverage
Over the last two years we have also received a significant amount of press coverage.

5. Education
5.1 Internal
Student Business Projects
These projects (SBPs) are the Bachelor students’ final diploma projects. Over the course of 10 weeks they work full-time in groups of five on a mandate entrusted to them by external companies and entrepreneurs. For the latter, students – assisted by entrepreneurship coaches from the faculty – typically work on the development of new concepts or the creation of a business plan for the new venture. Over the last two years we have conducted over 30 start-up consultancy mandates. All entrepreneurs currently hosted at the incubator have mandated at least one SBP and continue to have strong ties with the students.

Entrepreneurship Module
EHL’s Bachelor program offers a third-year concentration in Entrepreneurship which, over 10 weeks (120 hours), teaches the fundamentals of Innovation, Business Plan Development, and SME Management. This concentration has rapidly become one of the most popular which resulted in overbooking for the 2012-2013 school year (120 students enrolled). To date more than 320 students have already taken this module.
In 2013, students collaborated with the entrepreneurs in our Startup Hotel by working in groups to help those entrepreneurs address challenges, grow their business, etc.

Coaching
Coaching is a crucial part of assisting entrepreneurs in their journey. Over the last two years, EHL’s business incubator has provided more than 600 hours of coaching to fledgling start-ups.

Finance Committee
The Finance Club, an EHL student committee founded in 2014, assists entrepreneurs with financial matters. Run entirely by students during their extracurricular time, the committee focuses on corporate and market finance.
Their core activities include:
Financial feasibility studies on start-up projects (highlighting financial strengths and weaknesses of the projects). They aim to help entrepreneurs (humbly and for free) through the financial solidification of their projects in order to find investors
Organizing regular speaker sessions highlighting the discovery of market finance for students at the Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne
They have recently been mandated by one of EHL’s Incubator start-ups.

5.2 External
CTI Entrepreneurship
This training program financed by the Commission for Technology and Innovation (CTI) aims to provide the necessary training, coaching, and networking opportunities for entrepreneurs. The CTI issue a RFP for the Business Creation and Business Development modules of this programme. EHL along with PSE at EPFL and Genilem formed a consortium to submit a proposal which ultimately was chosen in the CTI bid process. This success will not only further the visibility of our business incubator, but will also cement the relationships with key actors in the region.

6. Hosting
Startup Hotel
In the summer of 2012 we renovated 4 office spaces (16 workspaces) in one of the on-campus buildings at EHL. These offices are dedicated to hosting early-stage hospitality start-ups and to provide them with a top-notch office environment with all the facilities and infrastructure of the school at an affordable rate. This space is called the Startup Hotel. In the span of just 90 days after opening, we managed to fill all 4 offices (12 of the 16 spaces). This early success had important implications on the future development of the business incubator as it proved that there is a real demand for co-locating start-up offices on the campus of the first hospitality management school in the world. In 2013, following the increased demand for places at the Startup Hotel which largely exceeds supply, we have concretised an application procedure and are looking forward and planning further development of the incubator as the school expands.

Our midterm plan (i.e., 2-4 years) aims to develop a Business Incubator portfolio around 5 key services, each addressing specific needs during the entrepreneurial process. At this stage in the project, we have achieved the following milestones:

1. Hiring of a Business Incubator Officer: Sofia Hide Secker

2. Prizes & Contests
2.1. Jury
Prix Genilem HES-Vaud
This prize aims to support innovation and creativity for Bachelor and Master’s students, as well as alumni from eight HES in canton de Vaud. The principal objective is to reward the best entrepreneurial project, organisation and/or association (non-profit or profit). The laureate will receive a cash prize of CHF 20’000 and coaching support for 3 years provided by Genilem.
On the 13th of June 2012, EHL hosted the first selection phase for this contest, and in November 2012, the prize was awarded to two alumnus from EHL for their Vinoabo project on wine profiling.
This collaboration between EHL and other organizations supporting entrepreneurship in Romandie, such as Genilem, helped integrate EHL’s business incubator activities in the local entrepreneurship network (one of the objectives of this project).

2.2. Project sourcing
Prix du Jeune Entrepreneur (PJE)
The aim of this contest is to propose to all the students from HSG, ETH Zürich, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale of Lausanne (EPFL) and Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne (EHL), to participate and reward the best entrepreneurial project with a cash prize of CHF 20’000. The winner of 2012 was a group of EHL students for their project “Mon baluchon” which was created during their entrepreneurship module.

3. Events
Gastronomia
For the 2012 edition of Gastronomia, EHL helped the organisers develop a brand new concept called “Innovation & Startup Space”. This area was run by EHL in collaboration with Nestlé Milano. This space also represented the opportunity for the young entrepreneurs of the EHL community to promote their business and services in a professional trade show setting.

Carrefour des Créateurs
By offering practical insights on entrepreneurial topics, this event aims to provide a "toolbox" to young entrepreneurs and project holders to guide them in the development of their business. For the first time, EHL’s business incubator was an official partner of this event, and was able to promote its activities to its main target market.

Club des Entrepreneurs
This Club was officially launched on September 28th 2011. Its objective is to foster networking between the various members of the EHL entrepreneurship community by hosting bi-annual social events on the EHL campus. Through these events, all of EHL’s entrepreneurial community can share their passion, discuss their challenges, find mentors in an informal setting.

4. Communication
EHLITE Magazine
EHLITE is the official EHL magazine sent, quarterly, to more than 7’000 Alumni worldwide. In each issue, our business incubator writes the Start-up Insight column to discuss trends and innovation, present new startups, and introduce EHL entrepreneurs. Through this communication channel, our Business Incubator can thus indirectly promote its activities and successes.

Website & Brochure
In collaboration with the school’s communication and marketing department, we created a new brochure and redesigned the website for our business incubator (incubateur.ehl.edu).

Startup Newsletter
In 2014 we published the first edition of the Startup Newsletter – a monthly e-newsletter for EHL’s entrepreneurial community where we share news about EHL entrepreneurs, reviews of entrepreneurial events and up and coming entrepreneurial events to look out for. This newsletter has strengthened our community and ensured that everyone is up to date.

Press coverage
Over the last two years we have also received a significant amount of press coverage.

5. Education
5.1. Internal
Student Business Projects
These projects (SBPs) are the final diploma projects of our bachelor students. Over the course of 10 weeks they work full-time in groups of five on a mandate entrusted to them by external companies and entrepreneurs. For the latter, students – assisted by entrepreneurship coaches from the faculty – typically work on the development of new concepts or the creation of a business plan for the new venture. Over the last two years we have conducted 28 start-up consultancy mandates.

Entrepreneurship Module
EHL’s Bachelor program offers a third-year concentration in Entrepreneurship which, over 10 weeks (120 hours), teaches the fundamentals of Innovation, Business Plan Development, and SME Management. This concentration has rapidly become one of the most popular which resulted in overbooking for the 2012-2013 school year (120 students enrolled). To date more than 320 students have already taken this module.
This year, for the first time, students will collaborate with the entrepreneurs in our Startup Hotel by working in groups to help those entrepreneurs address challenges, grow their business, etc.

Crowdfunding project
The project is a new addition to the original proposal made to Gebert Rüf Stiftung in 2011. Having realised the crucial importance of financing startups, as well as the growing trend in Crowdfunding, we have started developing an EHL crowdfunding platform which could serve as a model for other universities and HES.

In 2012, we investigated the potential of such a platform for the EHL environment by mandating two groups of 5 students to work on it in the context of their diploma project. The result of this work was very encouraging, and we propose now to redirect some funds for the development of this crowdfunding/project platform. We are working with partner from EPFL to help us with the technical development of the platform. A beta version of the platform has been developed.

Coaching
Coaching is a crucial part of assisting entrepreneurs in their journey. Over the last two years, EHL’s business incubator has provided more than 540 hours of coaching to fledgling startups.

5.2. External
CTI Entrepreneurship
This training program financed by the Commission for Technology and Innovation (CTI) aims to provide the necessary training, coaching, and networking opportunities for entrepreneurs. The CTI issue a RFP for the Business Creation and Business Development modules of this programme. EHL along with PSE at EPFL and Genilem formed a consortium to submit a proposal which ultimately was chosen in the CTI bid process. This success will not only further the visibility of our business incubator, but will also cement the relationships with key actors in the region.

6. Hosting
Startup Hotel
In the summer of 2012 we renovated 4 office spaces (16 workspaces) in one of the on-campus buildings at EHL. These offices are dedicated to hosting early-stage hospitality startups and to provide them with a top-notch office environment with all the facilities and infrastructure of the school at an affordable rate. This space is called the Startup Hotel. In the span of just 90 days after opening, we managed to fill all 4 offices (12 of the 16 spaces). This early success had important implications on the future development of the business incubator as it proved that there is a real demand for co-locating startup offices on the campus of the first hospitality management school in the world. In 2013, following the increased demand for places at the Startup Hotel, we concretised the application procedure and are looking forward and planning further development of the incubator as the school expands.

Numerous arcticles about EHL have been published during this project