Crossing the Valley of Death

Do you have what it takes to succeed as a food startup? Most startups and companies struggle to successfully overcome the Valley of Death. The aim of this study was to assess the existence and effect of the Valley of Death on startups within the Swiss food sector. Personality characteristics in terms of emotional intelligence are largely responsible for successfully or non-successfully passing the Valley of Death. Within emotional intelligence, motivation and self-regulation of the entrepreneurs involved in a startup are key drivers. Besides timing, finances remain to be a crucial factor. Based on the results, a new term - the Mountain of Death - for Swiss food startups was introduced. Additionally, recommendations about how food startups best deal with several bottlenecks within this phase are extracted and summarized within a guideline. Although this phenomenon remains to be a complex issue and is subject to further investigations, the application of the created guideline should minimize the impact on food startups so that promising ideas are turned into profitable, commercial applications.