Tue, Nov 17 · 6:00 PMFree – $49
Startup Pitch: 5 Founders on Stage
MINI Café Bar · 🇨🇭 Zurich
Five founders, five minutes each, then questions from the room. Tables on topics Zurich voted for, and an open hour after the stage.
OpenRegister
Oct 29, 2026 · 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM CETDemo DayIn-person
Startup Pitch Events Zurich: 5 Founders on Stage
Five founders, five minutes each, then questions from the room. Tables on topics Zurich voted for, and an open hour after the stage.
Location
Date
Oct 29, 20266:00 PM – 9:00 PM CET
Tickets
Free – $29
Format
In-person
Language
Held in English
Tickets on Eventbrite
Every guest is checked in at the door. Investor attendance is not guaranteed. Pitching is by application, not by ticket.
Who’s going
Private list18 guests have a seat for this evening. Five of them, by first name:
13 more on the list · kept private
The same evening on Luma
- Standard · $19.90
- Last Week · $23
- Early Bird · $10
- Free · free
- Investor · free, by approval
- Pitch to the audience · $49
Investor seats are free and by approval; a pitch slot is a separate ticket. Both exist only on Luma.
Open on LumaAfter you register
Your ticket and confirmation arrive from Eventbrite to the email you used. Right after, two emails from us: an invitation to our Luma calendar and an invitation to the Zurich community, which opens in Slack, in the browser or in Telegram.
Nothing arrived? Contact the team.
The evening
You've been running the idea past AI. AI has never once told you it wouldn't work. Tonight you get a room that will.
Five founders, five minutes each, in Zurich. Three reasons people come back:
01
A table, not a lap of the room
You pick a topic the room voted on and stay there for the hour, instead of wandering with a drink looking for a gap in somebody else's conversation.
02
A stage short enough to be honest
Five minutes each, no slides read out loud, then the room asks questions. The questions are the good part.
03
The hour after
The stage ends, nobody is performing any more, and the floor stays open. That is the hour people actually remember.
After the night
Your ticket is also a login
Most events end when you walk out. This one hands you a link: your profile, who else is coming before you get there, a chat for this specific evening, and a recap afterwards of who you actually met. Then you land in your city's space and stay there. That is where the second conversation happens, the one you meant to have before the room got loud.
Free with your ticket: ascentvalley.com/communityWho it is for
Is this your room?
Yes, if you are building something, anywhere from the first line of code to Series A. Or you run a function at a company that is scaling, write the code, do the hiring, or you are still deciding whether to start.
Probably not, if what you are picturing is a room full of investors. How that actually works is below, and it is better than the picture.
The stage
Want the stage?
Five founders an evening, and we answer everybody, including the people we don't pick. Applying is free; you need a ticket for the evening you pitch at.
Never pitched before? Five minutes is short enough that it's over before the nerves have finished arriving.
Before you apply: How the five seats are filled
Straight answers
What we don't promise, and what we do instead
We don't
- We don't promise an investor will be in the room on any given evening. Angels and people who work at funds come, some evenings several of them, and we won't tell you in advance who is coming, because we don't know.
- We don't run a judging panel, hand out a prize or keep a leaderboard.
Instead
- Your application to the stage becomes your profile in our startup directory, and a person reads it, not a scoring script.
- That profile sits in front of the funds and angels in our network, and they ask for the introduction themselves when your company matches what they are looking for.
- You choose whether you are in the weekly digest and can leave it any time. We never sell your details, take equity, take a cut of your round or give investment advice.
Why it's worth an evening
01Watching somebody explain their company in five minutes teaches you more about explaining yours than another evening alone with the deck.
02You'll hear the question you've been quietly avoiding asked out loud to somebody else, and watch how they handle it.
03That skill travels: to a first meeting, a performance review, and the dinner where somebody asks what you do and you have twenty seconds before their eyes move on.
So bring the friend who keeps saying they have an idea. Five minutes on that stage is the shortest distance between having an idea and finding out what a room full of strangers thinks of it.
Schedule4 items
Event agenda
Times in Europe/Zurich
- 18:00Doors and topic tables
Name sticker on, then the table closest to what you are building. You stay for the hour.
- 19:00Five founders on stage
Five minutes each, no slides read out loud, then questions from the room.
- 19:45The hour after
The stage is done and the floor stays open.
- 21:00Close
What brings you here?
At the door you write your role and your ask on a sticker.
Most asks sound like one of these. Any of them is a good reason to come.
- I want to grow
- I came with a problem
- I've hit a ceiling
- I have an idea, I want your honest take
Frequently asked
Before you book
Do I need a startup to attend?
No. Around half the room works at a company rather than running one. Operators, engineers, hiring leads and people who are still deciding all come. You need curiosity, not a cap table.
Will there be investors in the room?
Some Thursdays yes, some Thursdays no. Angels and people who work at funds come regularly, but we never guarantee that a particular person will attend. What does not depend on the night: your application to present also becomes your profile in our startup directory.
How do I get on stage?
Apply at ascentvalley.com/pitch. We choose five founders per evening and reply to everyone. Applying is free, but you need a ticket, because the form asks for your order number.
How do you actually work with investors?
Informationally. Funds and angels in our network see a verified startup directory and a weekly digest, and they request the introductions themselves when a company matches their thesis. Founders opt in and can opt out. We take no equity and no fee on your round.
What time should I actually arrive?
Doors open at 5:45pm. If you want the themed tables, be there by 6:20pm, because seats are taken by then. The stage starts at 7:50pm.
Is this a pitch competition?
No. There is no judging panel, no prize and no ranking. Five founders present, the room asks questions, and that is the whole mechanic.
I do not know anyone. Is that fine?
That is the normal case. The themed tables exist so that nobody has to walk up to a stranger cold. You are assigned a topic, not a group of people you are supposed to already know.
What do I actually get with the ticket?
The evening, and a link to our app: your profile, who else is coming, a group chat for that Thursday, a recap of who you met, and your city's space afterwards. Free with any ticket, on the web or in Telegram. ascentvalley.com/community
More in Zurich
Thu, Aug 20 · 6:00 PMFree – $66
Startup Pitch: 5 Founders on Stage
MINI Café Bar · 🇨🇭 Zurich
Meet startups, investors, and access ongoing deal flow with weekly intros and early opportunities. Free for approved investors.
Past
Tue, Jul 21 · 7:00 PMFree – $60
Startup Pitch: 5 Founders on Stage
The Spot Bar · 🇨🇭 Zurich
Zurich Startup Networking Event: Meet Founders, Investors, and Talent - Build or Scale Your Startup
Past