Innovation needs freedom
ETH alumni Moritz Lechner and Felix Mayer have founded Sensirion, an internationally successful company. Now the two physicists look back. What has remained of their education at one of the best universities in the world?
Over 500 of the ETH spin-offs established since 1973 are still going strong today – but the story behind Sensirion is hard to beat. Moritz Lechner and Felix Mayer met in the first semester of their physics degree programme in 1990. Almost immediately, they knew they would end up founding a company together and running it for the rest of their lives. That dream has long since become a reality, and these two enterprising ETH alumni now head up an established company with over a thousand employees and subsid?iaries around the globe. Headquartered in the town of St?fa on Lake Zurich, Sensirion has been developing and marketing sensors and sensor solutions for 27 years.
Globe A winning formula for education
This text appeared in the 25/02 issue of the ETH magazine Globe.
Yet what their future company would actually sell was still an unknown factor back in their university days. They knew they wanted to be in business together, but they didn’t hit upon a product until they embarked on their doctoral projects, both at ETH but under different professorships. Mayer’s thesis was on novel sensors, a field in which they saw huge potential. “Founding a company is not exactly a walk in the park,” says Mayer, looking back. “We went through some really tough times, working day and night and sometimes feeling completely stuck.” Lechner nods in agreement, adding: “But the key was that we never stopped believing.”
Self-confidence and friendship are recurring themes in their success story – but its origins lie in their outstanding education at ETH. Both say they feel fortunate to still be using physics in their everyday work, but their study programme taught them far more than just technical expertise and a good head for numbers. They also learned to process information quickly, think in abstract terms and cut through complexity. There’s a further skill that Lechner ascribes to his time at ETH: the ability to tackle problems even without a blueprint for a solution. “I learned to break tasks down into smaller units, to try and find a foothold, and then to gradually work from there towards a solution,” he says. This knack for conceptual thinking – and the confidence to teach yourself – is just as important in business as it is in academia.
They picked up additional skills during their doctoral projects, especially on the practical side. “I learned to scrutinise things, to take a moment to check whether something is correct, and whether I can trust it,” says Lechner. Mayer praises the freedom of research cultivated at ETH, though he never considered a career in academia himself. “Fostering that sense of freedom is equally crucial for entrepreneurs, because if you already know from the outset that a product’s going to work, then it’s not innovation!” he argues.
Most of Sensirion’s employees have a background in physics, materials science or electrical engineering. New recruits come from an array of universities, though Lechner and Mayer have identified particular strengths among graduates of their own alma mater. “Truly outstanding universities are few and far between but our experience suggests ETH is definitely one of them,” says Mayer. This excellence inspired him to become a donor to the ETH Foundation. “I think everyone in the canton of Zurich – and indeed all across Switzerland – can be grateful to have ETH,” he says. Lechner echoes this sentiment: “I think a solid education in critical, evidence-based thinking is vital for our country and worth supporting, especially in this era of fake news and misinformation.”
About
Moritz Lechner and Felix Mayer both studied physics and completed their doctoral theses at ETH Zurich. They founded a spin-off company in 1998 while still working on their doctoral projects. That same year, they won the first edition of the Venture start-up competition. Today, Sensirion is an international company with over a thousand employees – and a global leader in sensors and sensor solutions.