The First-Year Playbook

Building an AI-Powered Startup from Scratch - with Silvia Annunziata

Great founders don't wait for perfect conditions — they jump in, build fast, and let every early lesson sharpen what comes next. That energy is exactly what turns a bold idea into a real company.

We're proud to welcome Silvia Annunziata, Founder & CEO of POWSH, to this Startup Grind Zurich & Hong Kong joint event. POWSH is an AI-powered pet health platform that turns everyday conversations into structured care — helping pet parents make smarter, evidence-informed decisions through a single intuitive chat.

In this session, Silvia will share her journey from a decade in corporate AI and digital transformation to building her own startup from scratch — what she's learned, what surprised her, and why AI made it possible to build something today that simply wasn't feasible five years ago.

📅 Date: Tuesday, 16 June
⏰ Time: 1:00 PM CET / 7:00 PM HKT
📍 Location: Online (Virtual Event)

🎤 Meet the Speaker

Silvia Annunziata is the Founder & CEO of POWSH, an AI-powered pet health platform bringing structure and clarity to pet care. With a degree in Physics from universities in Milan and Paris, and over ten years leading global AI and digital transformation programs, Silvia combines scientific rigor with scalable product thinking.

In 2025, she channeled that experience into building POWSH — a platform where pet parents can talk or snap a photo, and get personalised tracking, smart reminders, and evidence-based guidance. The team is small: two co-founders and a tight group of contractors, all of them pet parents themselves. Based in Switzerland, POWSH is built for pet parents everywhere.

Her mission: build a new intelligence layer in pet health — transforming everyday experiences into structured data and empowering owners with better decisions.

💡 What You'll Learn

✅ How to go from a corporate career in AI to building your own startup 
✅ Why AI made it possible to build a product today that wasn't feasible five years ago
✅ What building a team really looks like when you're two co-founders with no funding
✅ The early surprises and pivots that shaped POWSH  
✅ How to stay motivated and keep moving when you're building everything from scratch

🎯 Who Should Attend?

🚀 Early-stage founders who are building right now and want to hear what day one actually looks like
📈 Aspiring entrepreneurs weighing whether to leave a corporate career to start something of their own
🧠 Builders and product people curious about using AI to create consumer health products
📢 Anyone who believes the best time to start is now!

🚀 Don't miss this opportunity to learn the First-Year Playbook for building a startup

📌 RSVP now to secure your spot