Youngpreneurs

Youngpreneurs is a Swiss association that teaches entrepreneurship to young people aged about 17 to 22, mainly apprentices and upper-secondary school students. It was founded in 2017 and is based in Steffisburg near Thun.

At its core is an eight-month programme of 16 evening modules. Participants form teams, develop startup ideas with methods such as design thinking and the lean canvas, and present them to a jury at a public Award Night at the end. By March 2026, 827 young people had taken part and 137 startup projects had come out of the programme.

Youngpreneurs runs the programme in several regions: Bern, Solothurn, Thun, Valais, Central Switzerland and, since 2026, Zurich. The Zurich edition is held at the Home of Innovation in Winterthur. Its partners include the HWZ University of Applied Sciences in Business Administration Zurich, which hosts the final and sits on the jury, the Canton of Zurich, the City of Winterthur and the Hirschmann Foundation.