Venture builder · Locally developed · Switzerland

Real needs,
built into
real ventures.

LabVentures builds its own ventures. Most begin as needs we've run into ourselves; we build the product, ship it to real users, and run it until it can stand alone — then decide whether it spins out, stays in the lab, or moves to an owner who'll take it further. Now and then an outside need earns its way in, and it goes through the same build. Research is our foundation, development is our focus: we turn research insights into products that create real value.

See the ventures → How the lab works
Ventures live
5
In development
3
From need to live product
< 6 mo
igoto/ launCHF/ Vitals/ Nudget/ Doctor Watson/ Drapr/ igoto/ launCHF/ Vitals/ Nudget/ Doctor Watson/ Drapr/

01 — Ventures

From the lab to the real world.

Every venture starts from a real problem — usually one we've run into ourselves — and earns its way forward. Here they're grouped by stage — the ones already live and in people's hands first, then the ones still taking shape in the lab.

Lab discovery — the default: needs we've run into ourselves and chose to solve. External impetus — every so often, an open submission earns a spot in the pipeline. Commissioned — occasionally, a problem owner funds a build and takes it on as their own.

Live

// shipped and running in the real world

5 ventures

igoto

Lab discovery · 2026

A link-forwarding tool that shows which source actually drove each click.

Give every billboard, channel, or creative its own short link — all pointing wherever you like — then see which one wins. Links group into side-by-side comparison charts, and every one doubles as a print-ready QR code.

Visit igoto.ch ↗
Problem

A campaign runs across many sources — print, social, partners — but the marketer can't tell which one actually drove the traffic, so spend keeps flowing to channels that may not perform.

Approach

Give each source its own short link to a shared destination, count clicks per link, and chart competing links side by side over time. Every link renders as a customisable, print-ready QR code.

Proof points

Live as a hosted service at igoto.ch with self-service accounts, comparison-group analytics, customisable QR export, and out-of-band link-health checks.

Current stage

Live — running at igoto.ch for self-registered accounts.

Web appMarTech

Vitals

Lab discovery · 2026

A health-analytics app that turns your Garmin data into early-warning signals about how your body is actually doing.

Wearables collect a flood of numbers but leave you to interpret them. Vitals connects to your Garmin account, learns your personal baseline, and watches resting heart rate, HRV, respiration, SpO₂, skin temperature, sleep and stress together — flagging the days when several drift at once. It reads deviations from your own norm rather than one-size-fits-all thresholds, and it's non-diagnostic and private by design.

Visit the Vitals website ↗
Problem

Fitness wearables record dozens of health signals but bury the meaning — a single off day looks the same as the early signs of illness, overtraining, or poor recovery, and absolute thresholds ignore how much bodies differ from person to person.

Approach

Connect to Garmin, learn each person's baseline with robust within-person statistics, and screen resting HR, HRV, respiration, SpO₂, skin temperature, sleep and stress together — surfacing days when several signals deviate at once, alongside HR-zone calibration and circadian / sleep-regularity views.

Proof points

Live as a hosted multi-user app at tracker.teaches.ch — self-service sign-up and an in-app Garmin connect that stores only an access token, never your password. Includes an anomaly engine, illness early-warning, and HR-zone and circadian analysis. Non-diagnostic screening, not a medical device.

Current stage

Live — running at tracker.teaches.ch with open sign-up; anyone can connect their own Garmin account.

Web appHealth analytics

Garden Inspection App

Commissioned · 2026

A mobile inspection tool that turns garden walk-throughs into instant owner reports.

Volunteer-run garden associations inspect dozens of parcels each season, then chase owners with paper notes. Garten-App captures the checklist and photos on a phone and sends each owner a clear report on the spot.

Visit garteninspektion.com ↗
Problem

A garden association inspected parcels on paper, making it slow and error-prone to turn seasonal walk-throughs into consistent feedback for owners.

Approach

Build a mobile-first web app for on-site checklists and photo capture, with one-tap pass/issue email reports and a per-season reset.

Proof points

Running for the Familiengärtner-Verein Rotmontenweg across its three seasonal inspection tours.

Current stage

Live — in use by the association for real inspection seasons.

Web appCommunity ops

Algorithm Workshop

Commissioned · 2026

An interactive workshop that teaches algorithmic thinking by letting students trade with strategies.

Algorithms feel abstract until they touch money. This workshop hands high-schoolers a market simulator where they build and pit trading strategies — static, trend-following, counter-trend, and combined — against each other, ending in a live class competition.

Visit workshop page ↗
Problem

Algorithmic thinking is hard to teach in the abstract, especially to high-school students without a coding background.

Approach

Build a browser-based workshop where students explore trading strategies hands-on and run their best ones in a shared market simulation.

Proof points

Built for and run in high-school classrooms through the SATW school collaboration.

Current stage

Live — used in school workshops with students.

EdTechWorkshop tool

launCHF

Lab discovery · 2026

Double-entry bookkeeping for freshly founded Swiss companies — plain language, fully local.

launCHF («launch» + «CHF») runs a company's books without accountant vocabulary: you book money «from» and «for», and correct Swiss double-entry accounting happens underneath — QR-bills with automatic bank reconciliation, payroll, year-end closing. Everything stays on your own PC: no cloud, no account, one double-click to start.

Visit launchf.ch ↗
Problem

Founders of new Swiss companies face bookkeeping tools that assume accounting knowledge or demand cloud subscriptions — or they fall back on spreadsheets that collapse at the first QR-bill or payroll question.

Approach

Build a fully local, portable bookkeeping tool that speaks plain language on top of a correct double-entry core: Swiss QR-bills with structured references, camt bank import with automatic matching, payroll incl. BVG and withholding tax, storno-based integrity, and one-click self-updates.

Proof points

In productive use for LabVentures' own books; QR-bills machine-verified against the SIX style guide; a portable download that sets itself up — database included — without any technical skills.

Current stage

Live — running LabVentures' own accounting, with the public download launching at launchf.ch.

FinTechWeb app

In development

// in active build toward launch

3 ventures

Nudget

Lab discovery · 2026

A zero-based budgeting app for young adults that nudges better money habits instead of just recording them.

Most budgeting apps tally the damage after you've spent. Nudget has you give every franc a job — across categories and savings goals — and sends gentle nudges that steer decisions in the moment. It's offline-first and private by design: no account, no cloud, your data never leaves the phone.

Visit nudget.ch ↗
Problem

Young adults rarely stick with budgeting — conventional apps track spending after the fact but rarely change the behaviour behind it.

Approach

Build an offline-first mobile app (Flutter, Android & iOS) around zero-based budgeting, savings goals, and behavioural nudges — private by design, with no account or cloud.

Proof points

Full app built covering zero-based budgets, transactions, categories, savings goals, and smart nudges; a public landing page and launch waitlist are live at nudget.ch.

Current stage

Pre-launch — app in final polish, with the waitlist open at nudget.ch ahead of an Android & iOS release.

Mobile appPersonal finance

Doctor Watson

Lab discovery · 2026

A calm life-admin assistant that helps ADHD brains actually finish what they start.

ADHD minds drown in open loops and half-started tasks. Doctor Watson captures what's on your plate, holds you to just three active things at a time, breaks the overwhelming ones into doable steps, and nudges you at the right moment — a calm assistant that keeps the chaos at bay.

Visit drwatson.app ↗
Problem

People with ADHD lose track of tasks, stall on anything that isn't broken into concrete steps, and get buried by long lists — and most productivity apps make it worse by piling on lists, badges, and guilt.

Approach

Build a calm assistant (Flutter, Android & iOS) that captures tasks in seconds, keeps only three things active at once, breaks overwhelming tasks into concrete steps with an automatic on-device/cloud model router, and re-surfaces them with gentle, well-timed nudges — no API keys, private by design.

Proof points

Full app built and verified on Android — quick capture, the three-active-tasks engine, AI task breakdown (validated by an eval suite scoring 100% on its core checks), recurring routines, a home-screen widget, and gentle notification nudges.

Current stage

Building — the core app is working and tested on Android ahead of a store release, with the landing page and store listings in progress.

Mobile appProductivity

Drapr

External impetus · 2024

A smart curtain motor that costs a fraction of what the big brands charge.

Automated curtains shouldn't cost more than the curtains. Drapr is a clip-on motor that retrofits any rail, opens to the sun, and pays for itself in convenience.

Problem

Smart home automation remains expensive and installation-heavy, leaving many everyday users excluded.

Approach

Design a low-cost retrofit motor that works with existing curtain rails and integrates simply into daily routines.

Proof points

Tested on standard rails with strong user feedback on ease of use, reliability, and affordability.

Current stage

Building — developing the production design ahead of a wider rollout.

Consumer hardwareSmart home

02 — The model

We start with the need, not the pitch deck.

Most builders start with an idea and then look for a problem that fits it. We go the other way: we notice a need — usually because we've hit it ourselves — make sure it's real, build the product, and measure it against the need and the business case. Ventures stay under LabVentures until they're strong enough to stand alone — as a spin-out, under our own brand, or with an owner who'll take them further.

1

Find a real need

Most ventures start with a need we've felt ourselves — in software, hardware, or any system where a better approach would make a real difference. Some needs reach us from outside; they make the cut only if we'd want to build them anyway.

2

Build the proof of concept

Light research, heavy development. We prototype fast, test with real users, and iterate until the evidence says the product works — and people actually use it.

3

Evaluate and decide

When a proof of concept proves viable, we evaluate the business case and choose the path that fits: keep building it under the LabVentures brand, spin it out — or, when someone else is the better owner, license or sell it.

03 — Our bias

Research informs us. Development defines us.

“Lab” doesn’t mean a science bench — it means the place where complex problems are analysed and translated into working proofs of concept. If it never ships, it never earns trust. So our bias sits firmly on development: turning real needs into robust, usable products that ship — and grow into ventures of their own.

  • We pursue real problems, not attractive technologies.
  • We measure success in evidence and progress, not stories and slides.
  • We optimize for product–need fit and the business case, not for cleverness.

04 — Process

From a need worth solving to a venture that stands on its own.

  1. Find the need

    Ventures begin in our own discovery pipeline — needs we've hit ourselves and patterns we keep running into. We dig until we understand the root cause and the size of the opportunity.

  2. Define the opportunity

    We pin down what the product must do for the need to actually be met — and what would make it a business, not just a build.

  3. Build & validate

    We build the product, put it in front of real users, and keep iterating until the evidence says it works.

  4. Launch and grow

    We ship it and run it under LabVentures until it proves itself. From there, a venture can stand on its own as a spin-out, keep growing in the lab — or move to an owner who'll take it further.

05 — Get in touch

Know a need worth solving?

Whether you’re curious about one of the ventures, a builder who wants to create with us, an investor looking for evidence over stories — or you’ve spotted a need that deserves solving and want us to run with it — we’d like to hear from you.

We typically reply within 3 business days.