News & Trends

Entrepreneur and AI pioneer

29.04.2025 2 min

Adrian Locher is a General Partner at Merantix Capital, an early-stage investor for AI start-ups. He founded his first company while still a student at the University of St. Gallen (HSG), declining at the last minute to pursue a career in investment banking. His mindset: if you want to establish something, you have to fail and learn from it.

CAREER

Adrian Locher, was there a moment in your career which changed everything?

There were actually two. The first was when I called off my placement with an investment bank three days before it was due to start. I had realized: this isn’t me. Instead of taking the usual career path, I founded my first company – something rather atypical for an HSG student 20 years ago.

The second moment came after I sold my company DeinDeal. I took a year off and asked myself: What are the big topics of the next 100 years going to be? What truly inspires me? Where do I have an unfair advantage? The answer led me to AI – and I founded Merantix.

PERSONAL

What drives you?

Building something new, failing, learning, carrying on. When I’m no longer learning anything new, I know it’s time for the next challenge. Entrepreneurship was never a risk for me. What’s the worst that can happen? That it doesn’t work? Then I’ll just make something else. In Europe, failure is often stigmatized, but it’s what we learn the most from. That’s also what I say to my children: Fail forward! When my daughter gets frustrated with skiing because it doesn’t go smoothly right away, I say to her: “That’s learning! You fall down, get back up again, and get better.”

«If you don’t make any mistakes, you won’t develop.»

INVESTMENTS

What was your best investment?

No doubt: my investment in myself. I am my most important resource. In order to maintain a balance, I divide my time between three pots: business, family and friends, myself. Keeping an eye on all the pots helps me not to lose myself. There’s no such thing as the perfect balance – but when I notice that one area is being neglected, I can do something about it quickly.