Feature: Start-ups in business heaven
In pictures: talking big
When start-ups and spin-offs advertise their products, they do it with fancy adjectives and big concepts – anything to impart the aura of a world full of creativity and dynamism that’s just out of reach. The photographer Lucas Ziegler has turned the fantastical terminology of start-ups into a still-life.
Business angels – people with a lot of money and the desire to invest it – can often give researchers the rocket fuel they need to get their company off the ground. Photo: Lucas Ziegler
Start-ups want to reach for the stars. Photo: Lucas Ziegler
In the seed stage, the inventors present their prototype full of pride to their potential investors. Once they’ve acquired the seed money, their spin-offs have to be sown in fertile ground, so to speak, so that they may grow. Photo: Lucas Ziegler
The new start-up is nurtured and cared for in an ‘incubator’ where it receives funding, advice, contacts with investors, the premises for its research, and space for its development. Photo: Lucas Ziegler
Disruption is the august aim of start-ups: take something old to make something completely new, and turn the market upside-down in the process! Photo: Lucas Ziegler
It’s a unicorn! Pop the champagne corks! The spin-off is now worth over one billion USD, meaning it can either go public or be sold off. Photo: Lucas Ziegler
