Meet our Premium Member François Cochard – Founder & CEO of Markenregistrierung.ch

Please tell us more about Markenregistrierung.ch

Markenregistrierung.ch is the leading company for trademark registration for Swiss SMEs. Due to my work as coach for business development, I realized that a lot of companies do not protect their names and logos as trademarks. That’s why I founded Markenregistrierung.ch.

Tell us more about your plans for 2023. What is your long-term vision?

Our long-term vision is “Protect uniqueness simply and effectively”. Every day we support founders in creating and protecting powerful and unique trademarks because having a unique trademark is one of the most important factors for business success. We will therefore expand our services in 2023 to include new partnerships.

What has been the biggest success that you have achieved in your startup?

Our biggest success is that we are No 1 in the Swiss market for SME trade mark protections.

If you could do it all over again, what would you do differently? What are your biggest learnings?

I have launched several startups independently and without funding. It has been a very challenging experience and thus I would try to do things differently from now on.

What motivates you to continue your business every day?

My biggest motivation is to help founders and entrepreneurs realize their dreams.

One piece of advice for someone who is just starting out with their startup?

Create and protect your own powerful and unique trademark. I would highly recommend looking into protecting your trademark in parallel with setting up your business for success. I could tell you a lot of stories of founders who struggled with their trademarks or even had to change their trademarks at a later stage. This might be very expensive or even destroy your business.

What does it mean to you to be a member of the Swiss Startup Association?

I am a serial-founder and I like to be in touch with other startup founders. When connections between founders are established early, we can support them better with our services.

Would you recommend joining the Swiss Startup Association? If yes, why?

Yes! In my opinion, support for the startup scene in Switzerland was, for a long time, not strong enough. However, it is definitely getting better, at least for healthcare and tech startups. The SSA is therefore doing a really important job in advocating for a conducive startup environment where businesses across industries can thrive together.

Have you ever visited the events of the Swiss Startup Association? If yes, which ones? Would you recommend them?

Yes, I visited a founder’s dinner and met a lot of interesting people. I will join again and will recommend it to everyone.

Is there anything that we haven’t asked you that you would like to share with us/the community?

An important notice: if you have a good business idea (others than design or technical innovation), competitors will come and might copy it. But if your idea is connected to a registered trademark, your competitors can not copy the trademark. That’s one good way you can indirectly protect your business idea.