1. Who are you?

My name is Ron Guggenheim and I am the Co-Founder of OneVisage. I am Swiss born startupist, live in Ebamtingen near Zurich, have 2 decades of startup and hi-tech experience, am a proud father of 2 daughters and one son.

2. Which services do you sell and who are your competitors?

We have developed a secure cloud based authentication platform, providing authentication services based on 3D facial authentication on standard smartphones. As such, we are the only ones providing 3D facial modelling on regular phones with no special equipment. Our potential competitors are actually potential customers as we took facial authentication to the next level.

3. How did you get your startup idea and how did you finance your startup?

OneVisage is in early stage and we are currently self-funded and starting to look into series A funding. The idea came up when my partner had to reset one of is passwords and had to go through a tiring cumbersome procedure.

4. What were the biggest challenges in starting?

The biggest challenge is clearly to gain first traction. You start with very limited resources and it is a race against time to engage with first paying customers. Once you have the first commercial customers, everything else will follow.

5. What areas within FinTech do you personally find most interesting and why?

Banking is re-inventing itself, driven by the financial crisis and more importantly driven by changing behaviour of consumers and the tools they utilize (such as smartphones, biometrics, etc.). It is fascinating to see how banks engage in this convergence with different strategies, and some of them are completely missing the train.

6. What opportunities do you see for FinTech startups in the DACH region, and how can we help to accelerate it?

The DACH region, and in particular Switzerland has a huge opportunity to lead the FinTech market adoption globally. There are plenty startups, new ideas and technologies in the DACH countries which are posed to significantly disrupt. For this purpose, it would be beneficial if the financial institutions put their forces together, establishing accelerator programs and funding frameworks as a central vehicle to promote fintech to their own benefit.

7. What tip would you like to give FinTech entrepreneurs?

Small ideas can make big change. Stay focused on the core competence and find the right launching partner. Don’t look far in overseas markets, start locally – there is plenty of potential hunger for innovation in our region.