Swisspreneur Show (Swisspreneur)
Explore every episode of Swisspreneur Show
| Pub. Date | Title | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19 Jul 2023 | Ep #331 - Omar Bawa: When LinkedIn Met TikTok | 00:31:32 | |
Timestamps: 04:28 - Humanitarian Background 10:58 - Gen Z’s need their own LinkedIn 17:46 - What is their Business Model? 19:06 - The Chicken and Egg Problem 21:15 - Goals for a Greener Economy About Omar Bawa: Omar Bawa is the co-founder and COO of Goodwall, whose mission is to level the professional playing field for youth globally, helping 2m+ young talent in 150+ countries develop skills, showcase skills, and connect to opportunity. He received a law degree from the University of Geneva and also completed a qualification in product design and innovative thinking from Stanford University. Growing up, Omar had diverse career aspirations, initially in particle physics, but a teacher later inspired him to pursue law instead. With a vision to make a difference in the world, he co-founded Goodwall with his brother Taha Bawa, driven by their upbringing in a humanitarian family. They would often spend summer vacations visiting refugee camps with their parents, which exposed them to a very different way of life compared to their experience of growing up in Switzerland. Goodwill aims to level the playing field for youth globally by providing a platform that educates and mobilizes students to address global issues. The unique blend of LinkedIn and TikTok resonates with Gen Z and empowers them to showcase their skills and connect with job opportunities at established companies. Most importantly, Goodwall equips young people with transferable skills through skill development programs to navigate an evolving job market. The company's push for international expansion reflects its global vision, while the team remains grateful for its support from the Swiss ecosystem. Despite the option to establish a non-profit, Omar chose a for-profit model, leveraging the power of technology and social networking to scale their impact. Sharing this same perspective and values with his co-founder and brother Taha, they have created a strong business partnership that keeps them driven and excited to continue expanding globally and making a meaningful impact. Memorable quotes: “Trust is key to running a business, and working with my brother gives me confidence and the peace of mind of knowing that he always has my back.” “Building a social enterprise to help people is what drives us, but ultimately ROI is the way to create a sustainable business model, and the reason we chose the for-profit model.” Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 10 Jan 2024 | EP #370 - Mallory Houston Nieman: Switzerland’s First Indoor Cycling Studio | 00:40:58 | |
Get tickets to Scaleup Slopes 2024 here. Timestamps: 3:40 - Culture shock from moving to Switzerland 12:26 - Being a solo founder 20:43 - Expanding yourself vs franchising 28:05 - Acquiring silent partners 36:00 - Benefits of expanding slowly About Mallory Houston Nieman: Mallory Houston Nieman is the owner and operator of Velocity, Switzerland’s first indoor cycling studio. She holds a BA in English & Psychology from Cornell University and an MBA from Swiss Business School, Kloten, and previously worked for American advertising agencies like Hill Holliday and Digitas before moving to Switzerland in 2011 and starting Velocity in 2015. At Velocity, every ride is measured via power meters, and the rider’s distance covered, calories burned, and power output (watts) are recorded on their online profile so that they can track their progress towards their personal goals. In Velocity’s Veloburn classes, riders have the option to join the Veloboard leaderboard. The first challenge Mallory faced when building Velocity was landing the first location (in Zurich): they needed a lot of air, water, and sound proofing, and Mallory’s German was limited at the time, so it was tough to find the right space and convince the landlord to take them in. The second big challenge the team faced was the COVID pandemic, during which they had to close down. To stay afloat, Mallory put the Velocity team on Kurzarbeit, negotiated with landlords, and also benefited from a percentage of revenue loss from the Swiss government. She also made sure to maintain Velocity’s online presence so as to preserve unity and motivation among their community. Velocity currently has 3 locations: Zurich, Zug and Enge. They’ve chosen to expand on their own instead of franchising because they care deeply about maintaining the soul of Velocity, and also because they’re very careful when choosing locations — all 3 of their studios are within a 4 minute walk of train stations.
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| 19 Apr 2023 | EP #317 - Pascal Bieri: The 4 Ingredient Meat Alternative | 00:42:22 | |
Timestamps: 6:05 - Coming up with planted recipes 7:18 - What’s wrong with livestock farming 10:56 - How vegetable protein compares 16:20 - Why Planted is better than meat 28:00 - Production costs in Switzerland About Pascal Bieri: Pascal Bieri is the co-founder of Planted, a startup creating healthy plant-based meat alternatives. He holds an MA in Informations-, Media- and Technology Management from the University of St Gallen, and previously worked in companies like SweetWorks Confections and DeepTech Capital AG before starting Planted in 2019. He also co-founded the Green Liberal Party in Lucerne when he was 21, but the slowness of politics soon dissuaded him from getting further involved. So what’s wrong with livestock farming? From a cold, technocratic point of view, not taking into account the environment, animal well-being or workers’ rights was great for the meat industry, since it allowed it to achieve a fantastic production ration, super efficient supply chains, pay almost no taxes and deliver very low margins to everyone involved. Meat became cheap and accessible to almost everyone. However, this came at the cost of…
Planted makes meat alternatives mainly out of pea protein, which can be grown locally and gives great taste. In 100 g of planted.chicken Nature, for example, there is 23.7 g of protein, which is about the same amount as found in conventional chicken meat. planted.chicken Nature consists of no more than four natural ingredients and a healthy portion of vitamin B12. What scares Pascal in the meat alternative market is not companies trying to produce equally healthy and tasty alternatives, but the companies making unhealthy products that taste terribly, which deter people from ever trying out a vegan product again. planted products are available in supermarkets but also in certain restaurants, and the menus in these restaurants clearly state that they use planted products. This was intentional on planted’s part, in order to build trust with their future customers. Their goal, eventually, is to become cheaper than animal meat. Memorable quote: "We’re hiding from climate catastrophe behind our own plates, because we’re so attached to eating meat." Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 19 Jul 2020 | EP #90 - Startup Of The Week: Relai | 00:26:49 | |
Timestamps: 1:07 - Bitcoin and entrepreneurship 8:57 - Biggest milestones so far 15:53 - Having a hard time with fundraising About Julian and Relai: Julian Liniger is the co-founder and CEO of Relai, a startup aiming to empower everyone to invest in Bitcoin. Julian was an early crypto currency aficionado and the go-to person for his friends for anything crypto-related. This made him realize that there was no easy way for the “average Joe” to purchase Bitcoin - and that’s how Relai was born. He and his co-founder, Adem Bilican, went from 0 lines of code in April to launching the first version of their app on July 1st of this year. Relai is looking to raise CHF 200k in order to scale their product and make it more user friendly. Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 07 May 2019 | EP #25 - Alan Frei: How To Build A Successful Multimillion E-Commerce Startup | 00:41:36 | |
Timestamps 1:32 - What can the Swiss startup ecosystem learn from the Chinese one? 12:10 - The importance of having the right focus 16:20 - How Alan's father being an entrepreneur influenced him 20:57 - Does minimalism bring happiness? 26:34 - The role of the social circle when it comes to personal growth and support About Alan Frei: Alan Frei is the co-founder of amorana.ch, an e-commerce platform for sex toys and lingerie. Before starting Amorana, he experimented with a variety of other projects such as nachhilfeportal.de and LooksOfLove, from which he learned what it takes to make a company successful. Alan is a University of Zurich alumni and headed the University’s startup center. He lives a minimalist lifestyle, counting less than 120 items in his personal possession. Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 18 Jun 2019 | EP #28 - Iman Nahvi: B2B Marketing Framework For Startups | 00:51:50 | |
Timestamps: 2:10 - Mistakes Swiss founders make repeatedly when it comes to B2B Sales 12:37 - How to determine your target clients 22:22 - Where to look for leads 36:20 - How to close a deal faster 42:43 - What KPIs to focus on About Iman Nahvi: Iman Nahvi is the co-founder and CEO of Advertima, a company which uses AI for consumer engagement on physical channels. At Advertima, Iman implemented a holocratic organisational structure, meaning (among other things) equal pay for all employees and a broad distribution of decision-making power. In 2017, Advertima won the “Coolest Startup Award” at the WorldWeb Forum. Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 11 Sep 2024 | EP #436 - Samantha Anderson: Creating a Circular Economy for Plastics | 00:36:08 | |
Timestamps: 7:13 - The problem with plastic recycling 10:19 - Making plastic recycling cheaper 14:15 - Typical customers for DePoly 18:45 - Going from research to startup 22:12 - Patent strategy and picking your partners About Samantha Anderson: Samantha Anderson is the co-founder and CEO at DePoly, a cleantech startup recycling hard-to-recycle plastic. She’s originally from Canada and holds a PhD in Carbon Capture and Storage from EPFL (her studies being the reason she moved to Switzerland). Sam worked as a researcher for some years before starting DePoly in 2019. DePoly tackles a very pressing issue: out of all plastics produced, 90% are not recycled, but instead get incinerated (resulting in atmospheric pollution), or end up in the ocean (which is how we get microplastics in our food), or simply become litter (and take 500 years to decompose). Only “easy to recycle” plastic items such as bottles or clean packaging are actually recycled. DePoly’s cutting-edge recycling process converts plastics into high-quality raw materials without compromising their quality. Not only is it energy-efficient, but it also has the remarkable ability to handle even the most challenging streams of PET plastic and textiles, including mixed, dirty post-consumer and post-industrial waste that are traditionally considered unrecyclable. This cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io Don’t forget to give us a follow on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly giveaways or founders' dinners. | |||
| 04 May 2022 | EP #238 - Oliver Ganz: Market Research Masters | 00:55:39 | |
Timestamps: 6:00 - What makes a co-founder “the one” 9:47 - Solving your own problem 15:51 - Pricing strategy 27:29 - Technical challenges 34:41 - Getting acquired by Norstat group About Oliver Ganz: Oliver Ganz is the co-founder and CTO at Testing Time, a UX test and market research recruiter founded in 2015. Oliver has a Masters in Computer Science and previously worked at Amazee Labs and Doodle, at the latter of which he met Reto Lämmler. Testing Time was acquired by the Norstat Group in 2021. Reto and Oliver’s goal was to create the “uber” of UX testing. Market research is a rather old business which has, in many ways, missed the digitization wave: many companies still keep an excel sheet of test users whom they have to manually call and screen — Reto found this to be a huge pain at Doodle. Testing Time, on the other hand, allows UX departments to get a direct contact with their target audience and test their products and services in an early stage, saving them not only time but also money. Testing Time’s target customers are UX teams and project managers across several industries, from banks to B2Cs. They have several ways of finding test users: - Organically: test users google how to create an additional income stream and find Testing time. - Through campaigns: LinkedIn ads, Facebook ads, and sometimes even paper flyers. - Through referrals: good test users can refer their friends and have them join the platform. Testing Time pays users in real cash (through Paypal or eBank transactions) and the pricing for companies is based on the target group (how difficult the profiles are to find). For more info on their pricing, check out our episode with Reto Lämmler. In order to prevent future technical challenges, Oliver recommends: - To pick well-known programming languages and frameworks. The tech you pick should outlive your startup, otherwise you risk having to migrate stuff and incur huge costs. - Not to fall into the trap of trying to do everything yourself. Don’t build your own CRM software or your own call center — use cloud services for all they’re worth. They may be pricey at times, but it’ll pay off in the end. Memorable Quotes: "Building a startup means proving your idea at every level. First you solve your own problem, then you find the first paying customers, and then you start scaling." Resources Mentioned: Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 02 Jul 2023 | EP #328 - Cédric Waldburger: Extreme Traveling, Calculated Investing | 00:47:15 | |
Timestamps: 8:17 - The great 24 hour adventure 15:15 - Dealing with the crypto dip 18:52 - How to handle market collapse 25:55 - The impact of inflation when holding cash 39:05 - Advice for investing in uncertain times
Cédric Waldburger describes himself as a startup investor, an essentialist, and an explorer, and from a young age he knew he wanted to start his own ventures: his first was at 14. He went on to get a degree in Electrical Engineering from ETH Zurich. He has built and sold companies in various creative, consumer, and blockchain spaces, giving him a wealth of experience. In 2020 he co-founded Tomahawk, which provides early-stage venture investments to Web3-focused entrepreneurs. A true digital nomad and adventurer at heart, Cédric decided to fulfill his childhood dream: after spending a lot of time reading the Guinness world book of records, he set his sights on one of the challenges, which was to travel to as many countries as possible in 24 hours. He succeeded by going to 32 countries. This adventurous but calculated spirit comes across in his investment style, which follows a system that values consistency and structure, and always investing with intuition versus emotion.
He is continually assessing the markets and predicting where he can. Still, he doesn’t let it worry him anymore – he focuses on building long-term and trusts that keeping an eye on things, building relationships, and trusting his gut is enough to manage his investments well and hopefully get into real estate in the future. Real estate excites him because the investment opportunities are always increasing and rarely decrease, and thus it’s an industry that’s fundamentally longer term. Memorable quotes: “It can be dangerous to get FOMO when you’re an investor” “Avoid buying when prices are high and selling when they’re low. Don’t let emotions distract you” Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 07 Jul 2021 | EP #171 - Remo Uherek: From The Heights Of Success To The Lows Of Depression | 01:13:10 | |
Timestamps: 5:24 - Starting an influencer marketing agency in 2006 28:39 - Merging cultures 50:03 - Receiving an acquisition notice 54:07 - Burnout, anxiety, depression 1:07:01 - Can you build a startup without burning out? About Remo Uherek Remo Uherek is a founder, investor and content creator who has been active since the early 2000s. He co-founded the marketing agency Trigami, a pioneer in Swiss influencer marketing, which in 2011 merged with ebuzzing and in 2014 with Teads to create a global network. In 2012 he left this group and became the CEO at the sharing economy marketplace Exsila, one of Trigami's former customers. He has since co-founded the crypto ATM network Vardex Suisse and been active as a blogger and content creator. The biggest lesson he learnt during his time at Trigami was that any publicity is good publicity. Trigami's first campaigns, with brands hiring bloggers to review their products, quickly went viral and generated a lot of buzz, though a good deal of it was criticism: they were being accused of bribing bloggers. Remo stood out from the crowd by answering the criticism calmly and truthfully, and all of this publicity ended up working in their favor. From this he surmized that as a startup, the worst possible situation is people not talking about your company at all, and that in crisis situations, waiting things out is not a good idea. Another big lesson came when in the middle of his entrepreneurial career Remo hit his breaking point. Depression had always been a recurring thing for him, but it was only in 2018 that he completely burned out and had to take time off. He was so miserable that he didn't even want to be an entrepreneur anymore, but admitting this conflicted with what was his fundamental identity. He experienced insomnia, heart palpitations, panic attacks, and a constant feeling of being trapped. During his 9 months off, he did a lot of traveling and experimented with therapy, but found it didn't click with him, just as meditation never had either. What actually helped him was discovering stoic philosophy, and developing the determination to constantly compare what his life is to what he would like it to be. Nowadays he's doing much better. Memorable Quotes: "It felt wrong to study entrepreneurship instead of putting it into practice. A shopify store is a better learning experience than a masters." "Building something in public is the best kind of marketing." Resources Mentioned: Steve Jobs' Commencement Speech Psycho-Cybernetics, by Maxwell Maltz If you'd like to listen to more episodes about taking a break for your health, check out our conversation with Markus Okumus. | |||
| 08 Feb 2023 | EP #297 - Stefany Barker: Diversifying the Tech Space | 00:59:18 | |
Timestamps: 6:38 - GirlsinTech Venture 20:55 - Being a woman in tech 25:19 - The journey from an operational to an advisory role 29:32 - Starting WaaS Websites 44:10 - The future of tech About Stefany Barker: In addition to being a tech lead at Palantir, one of the world's leading data science companies, Stefany Barker is also an entrepreneur and investor. She pursued an MSc in management, information systems and innovation at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Stefany grew up in Switzerland, lived in different countries, and studied abroad to learn about other cultures, businesses and entrepreneurial mindsets, specifically about the different attitudes towards entrepreneurship. For example, Stefany learnt that Americans accept entrepreneurial failure more readily than their continental European counterparts. When Stefany returned to Switzerland in 2015, she became aware of the talent and gender gap in the Swiss tech sector. She was inspired to launch GirlsinTechSwitzerland in 2016 to establish an inclusive atmosphere for young women to learn and succeed in the Swiss tech industry. Stefany then founded TechFace in 2018 with the primary objective of changing the employment practices in the Swiss tech industry from transactional to relationship-based. This approach ensured that a candidate's team-fit potential was not only based on their CV. While being diverse and discussing diversity are important, they should not be the only subjects of conversation. The skills that an individual brings to the table are also essential. Stefany believes that if we continue in this direction, everyone's prospects in the tech space will improve. Furthermore, the out-of-date nature of CVs and the current job search process that sometimes asks you to include your marital status, personal photo, or address can unintentionally harm a candidate’s job search, divert focus from a candidate's real skills, and decrease equity in the hiring process. With the organizations she is involved with, she intends to implement better principles so that her ventures can continue to inspire and be pioneers in the tech space. In this episode you can find out more about Stefany's other businesses at WaaS Websites and her angel investing endeavors at Moonshot Network. Resources Mentioned: Pivot, a tech podcast The Ministry of the Future, by Kim Stanley Robinson | |||
| 23 Sep 2020 | EP #100 - Alfred Escher: Wie Ein Unternehmer Die Schweiz Für Immer Veränderte (Ein Gespräch Mit Joseph Jung) | 01:37:32 | |
Timestamps: 6:01 - Wie die Eisenbahnfrage die Schweiz für immer verändert hat 30:53 - Wer ist Alfred Escher als Mensch? 48:03 - Wie Escher mit Verlust klargekommen ist 59:42 - Umgang mit Krankheit 1:24:48 - Hat Alfred Escher ein tragisches Ende gefunden? About Joseph Jung and Alfred Escher: Joseph Jung is a historian, consultant and the author of one of the most influential biographies of Swiss entrepreneur Alfred Escher as well as “Laboratorium des Fortschritts - die Schweiz im 19. Jahrhundert”. Joseph studied Swiss history, modern general history, history of law and German language and literature at the University of Fribourg, where he received his doctorate in 1987. In 1998 he habilitated at the ETH Zurich and was a private lecturer there until 2006. In addition to his scientific activities, Jung was Managing Director and Head of Research at the Alfred Escher Foundation (2006 to 2016). Alfred Escher (1819-1882) is considered one of Switzerland’s most influential early entrepreneurs. Among his “ventures” are the ETH Zurich, Credit Suisse, the Gotthard railways and Swiss Life. He was also a prominent political figure of his time. He served as National Councilor (Bundesrat) for 34 years and was elected National Council President (Bundesratspräsident) four times during this period. Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 31 Jan 2021 | EP #128 - Roxana Porada: Enabling Trust In A Digital World | 00:25:46 | |
Timestamps: 1:41 - Wanting to build something meaningful 5:16 - $6m Investment round 11:22 - The Upscaler experience 17:37 - Entering the growth stage 20:37 - More about Roxana About Roxana Porada and PXL Vision Roxana Porada is the co-founder and CPO of PXL Vision, a software provider for digital identity solutions. Roxana obtained a degree in Cybernetics and Statistics and subsequently worked as a software developer. In 2012, she joined Dacuda, the company founded by Swisspreneur guest Michael Born. When Dacuda was acquired by Magic Leap in 2017, she started PXL Vision together with three colleagues. To date, PXL Vision is most renowned as the technology provider for the SwissID solution and for their customer verification and onboarding solutions for enterprises. In May 2020, PXL Vision secured CHF 4.6 m in seed financing. The investment round was led by SIX Fintech Ventures. The company has also been awarded the Swiss Economic Award and was admitted to the SEF Upscaler Program. Going forward, PXL Vision aims to expand into the DACH region beyond Switzerland and branch out into additional use cases beyond customer onboarding. Memorable Quotes I wouldn't like to be a leader without also being a team-player. If you would like to listen to more episodes on the Upscaler program, check out our conversation with Michele Matt. Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 14 Nov 2021 | EP #201 - Urs Aebischer: Turn Your Data Into Income | 00:52:22 | |
Timestamps: 8:47 - Getting people to join a revolutionary platform 17:10 - Diseo's revenue sharing model 36:25 - Financing a social platform 38:00 - Regulation ruins scaling 42:05 - Doing a security token offering About Urs Aebischer: Urs Aebischer is the CEO at Diseo, a decentralized ecosystem of interconnected social platforms of brands and organizations where users exclusively control their data and earn from it. Urs is also the co-founder and CEO at Swiss Impulse Group, which focuses on disruptive digital media. He has a background in Physics. Urs has always been one to search out new ideas. Back in 1995, when he was getting his PhD in Atmospheric Physics at the ETH, he was one of the first people to have an email address. In today's world of ubiquitous social media networks, Urs (as well as many others) has identified a problem: people's data is being harvested, used and monetized by third parties, without people ever receiving any sort of compensation for the value they provide. Urs does not believe we can legislate our way out of this; the social dilemma requires a solution built from the ground up. That's why he created Diseo. On Diseo, sharing data and giving something your attention creates revenue which can be shared between up to 16 different people. Every time a user clicks on an advertisement, they earn income for doing it and for giving permission to be targeted by this advertiser. When a user clicks an ad, they also see which of their friends have already bought the product/used the service — this is what Urs calls "social selling". Users can also recommend ads to their friends, who, if they see it, will also receive money. Every single action in favor of the product creates a revenue share. Additionally, both users and companies on Diseo have a trust rating and get to rate each other. If a company uses child labor, they get downvoted. Urs hopes that through this process dialogue and reform will follow. Memorable Quotes: "Facebook and Google could easily copy what we're doing. But that would ruin their entire business model." Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 04 Mar 2020 | EP #61 - Dorian Selz: Getting to 50 million In Revenue Within 2 Years | 01:05:42 | |
Timestamps: 7:26 - How Dorian found the right team 23:48 - Going from 0 to 50 million in revenue within 2 years 29:58 - Why leave a hugely successful company? 40:14 - When's the right time to launch a certain product in the market? 47:05 - Starting an A.I. business About Dorian Selz: Dorian is the founder of local.ch, Switzerland’s leading local search platform which he grew to >$50M revenues in 4 years. Today he is co-founder and CEO Squirro.com, a personal digital research assistant. The company also offers memonic.com, a web based digital notebook. Prior to launching local.ch, from 1999 to 2005 he was Partner and COO at Namics, an internet professional services firm. Dorian holds a PhD in information systems from the University of St.Gallen and a degree in econometrics from the University of Geneva. Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 11 Aug 2021 | EP #179 - Malik El Bay: The Do Tank | 01:34:28 | |
Timestamps: 6:02 - Saying goodbye to Big Pharma 18:26 - Fulfilling your parents' expectations 47:53 - Stepping down from the CEO role 58:56 - Joining Dezentrum 1:05:18 - A do tank, not a think tank About Malik El Bay Malik El Bay is the co-founder of the household management app Flatastic and a partner at Dezentrum, a think-tank concocting positive scenarios of the future. His background is in interdisciplinary natural sciences and he has previously worked for Fit Analytics and Modum. He also co-founded Yeppt, an app which aimed to be a mix of Facebook events, Whatsapp and Doodle, and which participated in the Axel Springer Plug and Play Accelerator. After graduating from ETH, Malik discovered lab work and the world of Big Pharma weren't what he was most suited for. This identity crisis led him to send out a great deal of job applications, namely to Fit Analytics, where he eventually had his first startup experience. Here he was able to run experiments dealing with data about people and products. By then, he was sharing an apartment with a group of entrepreneurs who encouraged him to become one himself, so he did — but after a failed project, he felt he needed to go back to ETH to study some more. At this time Malik also participated in the ETH Entrepreneur Club. Fresh out of university once again, he co-founded the social network Yeppt, and even managed to get in the Axel Springer Accelerator. Looking back, Malik can pinpoint a few mistakes: - They received great feedback because they asked the wrong questions. - Accelerators serve as social proof and as a stage, which they thought would easily permit them to achieve viral growth. For this reason, they didn't prioritize fundraising. - They lost sight of what their ultimate company vision was. After dedicating his time to Flatastic (2014/present) and Modum (2016/2020), Malik joined the think-tank Dezentrum, after having originally received a one-pager from them for feedback and remained in contact. Dezentrum calls themselves a "do-tank" because, more than write papers (which they don't enjoy doing all that much), they are able to build in-house prototypes based on their ideas. They're financed by private companies, academic institutions and foundations. They mainly discuss Universal Basic Income, remote work and decentralized companies. Malik is of the opinion that UBI should be a top societal priority, since poverty sincerely hinders decision-making and prevents human flourishing. However, he also thinks that citizens need to take into account that a UBI will have to be payed for by everyone, though it may not necessarily be enjoyed by everyone. Regarding this topic, as with all other discussions of the future, Malik is of the belief that it's up to us to avoid dystopian scenarios. Memorable Quotes: "You get great feedback if you ask the wrong questions." | |||
| 05 May 2021 | EP #153 - Ross Mason: Ringing The Bell At The NY Stock Exchange | 02:00:10 | |
Timestamps: 1:06 - Being obsessed with running businesses 6:28 - Creating the mulesoft open source project 12:15 - Should you solve your own problem? 21:00 - Open sourcing software 1:01:30 - Getting prospective clients to follow through 1:04:08 - Letting go of your CTO position 1:07:51 - Falling into a depression 1:11:14 - Ringing the bell at the NY stock exchange 1:35:10 - Adapting to a slower paced life About Ross Mason Ross Mason is the founder of MuleSoft Inc. and Dig Ventures. He is also a Board Member at Stackin' and Syncari. Ross has always had an entrepreneurial spirit, and jokes that at the ripe age of seven, he was already running his own bootleg Lego club! His parents were business owners, and taught Ross two important lessons for his future projects: you should never lower your bar, and working hard isn't necessarily a bad thing if you enjoy what you do. In 1997, Ross graduated in Computer Science from the University of the West of England and started his career in corporate work. However, he knew he wanted to build his own path, and open source software was his prime choice, since it gives you widespread distribution and insight about potential product/market fit. That’s exactly how The Mule Project was born. The platform started out as a SourceForge project in April 2003, and its aim was to make programmers’ lives simpler by allowing them to easily enable the sending of data between their SaaS (software as a service), on-premise software and legacy systems platforms which was previously hard and tedious to do. This philosophy of avoiding “donkey work” became a guiding star for his endeavors. Born in 2006, MuleSource, later MuleSoft, got the timing just right: many open source companies were becoming commercial, and investors were starting to realize it’s actually a viable distribution model. Ross had a strong drive for building the next game changer in a fragmented market. Though integration had taken a big hit after the rise of web services, MuleSoft kept the ball rolling by uniting many different approaches in one platform, with all the proper testing, monitoring, debugging and graphical environment. Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 12 May 2021 | EP #155 - Serguei Beloussov: Being Valued At $2.5bn | 00:25:59 | |
Timestamps: 1:00 - Growing up in the Soviet Union 10:41 - Recommendations for going international 13:53 - How and when to acquire companies 16:18 - Helping your company as a scientist 21:05 - Valuation About Serguei Beloussov Serguei Beloussov is Founder and CEO of Acronis, a global company focused on cyber protection, recovery solutions and storage management services. A scientist by training raised in the former Soviet Union, Serguei started his first business in graduate school. Then, in 2000, he founded SWsoft (later Parallels), a leading software in automation and cross-platform connections for businesses, public entities and individual customers. Parallels would later on launch Acronis, its own spin-off targeting storage and backup assistance. Serguei's early endeavors were based in Singapore, a friendly and safe growth environment. However, the founder soon weighed his operations, and came to the conclusion that up to 40% of all transactions took place in Europe. Switzerland was a happy choice for the new corporate headquarters: according to Serguei, Switzerland is a politically stable and wealthy environment for company growth, despite the difficulties of the Swiss ecosystem in hiring foreign talent. For companies itching to go international, here are Serguei’s tips:
As we write, Acronis is thriving! The company currently employs more than 1600 experienced collaborators across 33 countries, and its recent fundraising campaign raised 250M$ from CBC capital at a 2.5B$ valuation. This self-made entrepreneur has also co-authored more than 280 US technology patents while juggling many board membership positions, and he’s looking forward to seeing how machine intelligence and digital literacy progress in the upcoming years. Listen to the episode to learn more about Acronis’s story and Serguei’s personal outlook on data safety! Memorable Quotes "It’s more difficult to hire foreign talent in Switzerland. As a global leader, it’s difficult to rely solely on the talent you can find locally while being selective.” "What I've learned from the past is that integrating remote work could be very productive for companies." For more content on how to make your company rock the global stage, check out our episode with Flyability’s CEO Patrick Thevoz! If you’re more in the mood for reading on data privacy concerns, have a look at our blog contribution with Monique Morrow. | |||
| 18 Mar 2020 | EP #63 - Andreas Iten: When Startups and Corporates Team Up | 00:40:55 | |
Timestamps: 2:15 - Why does a large corporation decide to get involved with startups? 11:26 - What F10 brings to startups 23:15 - How can startups and corporates succeed together? 25:35 - How to convince opponents 33:40 - How else does Andreas help startups? About Andreas Iten: Andreas Iten is the co-founder of F10 FinTech Incubator & Accelerator and also the head at SIX FinTech Ventures. He has worked for over 15 years within leading institutions in the IT service, airline & transportation and the financial industry. Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 06 Apr 2022 | EP #231 - Sophie Lamparter: Picking The Brain Of A VC | 00:56:12 | |
Timestamps: 1:50 - Bridging the gap between different ecosystems 11:40 - How the pandemic changed the VC world 24:35 - Building an eye-catching pitch deck 31:06 - Dealing with investors who don’t follow through 40:40 - Hitting inflection points About Sophie Lamparter: As founder and managing partner at DART labs, Sophie is a Silicon Valley VC with Swiss roots. She and her team focus on finding the best European technology startups and turning them into global players. Prior to becoming a venture capitalist, she worked in media relations. In a livestream with Swisspreneur host Silvan, she answered some of the most common fundraising questions, like: Is your company VC-backable?
Should you choose a VC fund or a business angel?
How many investors should you talk to?
What’s an inflection point?
Memorable Quotes: "The goal of every VC is to have an investment be an entire fund returner. That’s how they look at startups." "Getting into Y Combinator can mean the difference between being valued at 6 million or 15 million." Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 08 Nov 2023 | EP #353 - Nikos Kariotoglou: AI Cameras Are Here | 00:57:05 | |
Timestamps: 12:30 - Taking your baby out of the lab 24:20 - Getting the timing right 29:55 - Acquiring inbound leads 36:27 - How the team changes over the years 41:56 - Selling Seervision About Nikos Kariotoglou: Nikos Kariotoglou is the co-founder and CEO at Seervision, an industry pioneer in AI-driven camera automation software to enable effective hybrid collaboration in corporate boardrooms or lecture halls. He holds a PhD in Control Engineering from ETH and a M.Eng in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Imperial College London, and worked as a post-doc researcher at ETH’s Automatic Control Laboratory before starting Seervision in 2016. Seervision is a provider of AI-powered camera automation software to streamline video production workflows. Seervision improved on the existing surveillance-type automated cameras, which were only able to detect objects, by adding the ability to predict the object’s behavior and move based on this prediction. Their initial project was recording lectures at ETH, but nowadays offer their services for a wide range of applications, such as videoconferencing and live presentations. Their software requires robotic cameras to run, so Seervision sells customers the cameras and then a software subscription as well. In June 2023 Seervision announced they had been acquired by California-based Q-Sys. Nikos remains active in the company. Memorable Quotes: "The gap between research and practice is 10+. So research can never come too early out of the lab. If you have a hypothesis, go for it." "You’ve built a product. But you’re not just selling that: you’re selling the service, and tailoring it to the customer."
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| 20 Nov 2022 | EP #276 - Aurelio Perucca: Investing in Alternative Asset Classes | 00:44:10 | |
Timestamps: 1:43 - PwC and entrepreneurship 9:49 - Investing in an alternative asset class 24:36 - What happens when the asset is sold 32:59 - How Splint Invest makes money 38:15 - Crowdfunding campaign closed after 5 days About Aurelio Perucca: Aurelio Perucca is the co-founder and CEO at Splint Invest, an alternative investment platform. He holds a MS in Business Administration from the University of Bern and previously worked at Stryker and PwC. Aurelio’s entrepreneurial journey all began in 2020, when he and some of his PwC co-workers started investing in rare whiskey. Prior to that, Aurelio had only invested in ETFs and stocks, but he soon realized that the high correlation between traditional assets and economic downturns meant that he had to diversify his investment portfolio. Further research led him to discovering that alternative asset classes such as cars, watches and whiskey had a much lower correlation with economic fluctuation. Specifically assets like whiskey or wine have the added advantage of their price being driven by their intrinsic value, which only increases with time (the older the whiskey, the better, the more expensive) – they’re not dependent on some hype. They are also, so to speak, “recession-resistant”. So in 2021 Aurelio and his co-founders created Splint Invest, an app with the mission to enable all private investors to invest in alternative assets, starting at just CHF 50. You can trade your “splints” with other investors or hold them until the asset is sold and you get to collect your profits. When an asset is sold, you’re charged a flat fee of 2% of the sales price on a pro-rata basis, which covers Splint Invest’s sales process expenses. There are no running costs when you invest in Splints: the variable costs for storage and insurance are already included in the splint price of CHF 50. However, it is true that stocks have a higher yield on average (despite also being a riskier investment) – but Aurelio makes it clear that alternative assets should only make up 5-15% of your investment portfolio (the rest consisting of stocks, real estate, etc…), and that they’re not something for beginners to dabble with. If you’re just starting out on your investment journey, you’re better off with low-effort investments, like ETFs. But if you want to take your investment game to the next level, sign up today at Splint Invest. Memorable Quotes: "At some point, you can’t just add more milestones, more proofs of concept, more validation… You actually need to trust the idea and go for it." Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 13 Apr 2022 | EP #232 - Heiner Grüter: M&A And Exit Readiness | 01:01:10 | |
Timestamps: 1:24 - The UNIC mafia 3:08 - Right and wrong reasons to sell your company 10:16 - M&A KPI threshold 26:15 - Sending out one-pagers 48:42 - What to share with a potential buyer About Heiner Grüter: Heiner Grüter is the CEO at Meridium Partners, a strategy and M&A consultancy company. He was previously the CEO at UNIC, one of Switzerland’s first digital agencies and one of the Swiss Startup Mafia’s “mother” companies, having given rise to major players like Rentouch, Students.ch, Fashion Days and Qmram. But why was UNIC so special?
Why should you sell your company? - You should sell your company if you believe somebody else would be a better owner for it than its current shareholders. - You should not sell your company simply because you’re tired and want somebody to take your job. This results in a fire sale, usually with very mediocre results. What’s the right time to sell your company?
Memorable Quotes: "Selling your company means you believe someone out there is a better owner for it than your current shareholders." "Being successful in Switzerland doesn’t say a lot about your expansion potential." Listen to the full episode for more info on M&A outreach, due diligence and conclusion. And if you’d like to hear more conversations on this topic, check out our episodes with experts Thomas Hofer & Vito Gigante and Jürg Tauss, and real life case Ross Mason. Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 26 Dec 2022 | EP #286 - Philipp Stauffer: How to Handle Competition as a Founder | 00:17:34 | |
Timestamps: 01:46 - The Animal Kingdom and the Competitive Ecosystem 05:52 - Differentiation in the Marketplace 08:12 - Reacting to Your Competitors in New Markets 12:47 - Communicating with Your Competitors 14:17 - Coping with the Acquisition of a Competitor About Philipp Stauffer: Philipp Stauffer is the co-founder and managing director of FYRFLY Venture Partners, a venture capital firm that invests in companies using data and intelligence to build their competitive advantage. His investments have included AngelList, Philz Coffee, and Beekeeper, among many others. As well as being a founding board member of the Swiss Blockchain Federation, he is also on the Advisory Board of the Swiss Entrepreneurs Foundation. Additionally, he serves on the boards of PubMatic, the Swiss American Chamber of Commerce, and the Digital Citizen Fund. In this episode, Philipp talks about how to handle competition in the workplace. He compares the competition ecosystem to the animal kingdom: highlighting the importance of knowing and understanding your place in the marketplace in order to respond more effectively to your competitor’s actions. In this episode, he gives insight into:
With regards to differentiation in the marketplace, Philipp explains that differentiation is not just about how exceptional your product is, but it also expands to other aspects of your company:
Above all, Philipp believes that understanding your “why” is important. This greatly affects how you handle competition, especially when it comes to taking competitive action and understanding why your competitors take action as well. Memorable Quotes: “Don’t think you’re the lion if you’re the sheep.” “You don’t have to be paranoid about competition all the time.” Take a listen to our conversation in our previous episode with Philipp Stauffer to learn How to Nail Your Board Meetings. Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly giveaways or founders' dinners! | |||
| 31 Oct 2021 | EP #198 - Oliver Baumann: Das Corporate Startup | 00:34:34 | |
Timestamps03:17 – Schritt in die Digitalisierung 10:54 – Der typische Atlanto-Kunde 15:22 – Atlanto’s Geschäftsmodell 18:11 – Kundengewinnung 23:28 – Lessons learned About Oliver Baumann:Oliver ist der CEO des Helvetia Spinoffs Atlanto AG, einer digitalen Administrationsplattform für KMU. Ursprünglich war Atlanto als Projekt innerhalb von Helvetia geplant und wurde schliesslich als Tochterunternehmen ausgegründet. Oliver, welcher in einer Unternehmerfamilie gross wurde, war immer interessiert daran, in die Selbstständigkeit überzugehen. Nach seinem Studium an der HSG in St. Gallen, wo er sein Bachelor- und Masterstudium absolvierte, arbeitete er fast sechs Jahre bei Helvetia. Seit Januar 2021 ist er nun CEO der Atlanto AG. Memorable Quotes:"Der Prozess, Dinge manuell abzutippen, liegt in Zukunft einfach nicht mehr drin. Dafür werden wir keine Zeit mehr haben." "Wir wollen das Leben von kleinen Unternehmen vereinfachen." Folge uns auf Twitter, Instagram, Facebook und Linkedin um auf dem Laufenden zu bleiben. Wir posten regelmässig über Live Shows, Give-Aways und unsere Founders Dinner Events. | |||
| 09 Mar 2024 | EP #382 - Stefan Kyora & Thomas Heimann: How Did The Swiss Startup Ecosystem Do in 2023? | 00:46:58 | |
Timestamps: 2:20 - The Swiss ecosystem in the last 10 years 11:05 - Why are tradesales down? 19:19 - The rise of the Romandie 21:35 - How Switzerland compares to other startup hubs 28:17 - Going public in the US vs CH About Stefan Kyora & Thomas Heimann: Stefan Kyora is editor-in-chief at startupticker.ch, the leading Swiss news portal for startups, supporters, innovators and investors, and holds a PhD in Philosophy and Business Ethics from the University of Konstanz. Thomas Heimann is a deputy general secretary at SECA, the Swiss Private Equity & Corporate Finance Association, and the Head Risk Management & Equity Analyst at HBM Partners AG, a Swiss healthcare investor. The two of them co-authored the 2023 Swiss Venture Capital Report, which you can download for free here. During their chat with Silvan, they summarized the report’s findings, as well as the conclusions we can draw from them:
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| 21 Feb 2021 | EP #134 - Simon Enderli: Taxes, Talent And Funding | 00:32:06 | |
Timestamps 1:58 - Founding SWESA 3:45 - Being a "working president" 5:00 - Taxes, talent and funding 13:33 - Misconceptions regarding Swiss politics 23:20 - What's the difference between the SSA and SWESA? About Simon Enderli and SWESA Simon Enderli is the CEO of the Swiss Entrepreneurs Foundation (SEF) and President of the Swiss Entrepreneurs & Startup Association (SWESA). Before joining the Swiss Entrepreneurs Foundation as Deputy CEO in 2019, Simon spent 8 years at PostFinance, the financial services unit of the Swiss postal service. In 2020, he took over the CEO position at the Swiss Entrepreneurs Foundation from his predecessor, Peter Stähli. Shortly after, SWESA was established to work more closely with national parliamentarians and represent Swiss startups in the political decision-making process. Simon was nominated as the association's first president and within only one year, the organization was well on track to launch its first political initiative: a startup visa to facilitate the access to talent from countries outside the Schengen Area for Swiss startups. Simon holds a degree in Business Administration from the Berner Fachhochschule. Memorable Quotes "Don't romanticize the word "president" — what it actually entails is a whole lot of work." "I actually do think there are plenty of ideas in Switzerland. Our true weakness is knowing how to commercialize those ideas." If you would like to listen to more Swiss Entrepreneurs Foundation co-productions, check out our conversations with Michele Matt, Roxana Porada, Hanspeter Fässler and Karim Maizar. Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 17 Aug 2022 | EP #258 - Kevin Smith: An App To Unlock The Knowledge In Podcasts | 01:04:11 | |
Timestamps: 1:44 - Falling in love with machine learning 15:03 - Developing a prototype at HackZurich 23:05 - Podcasts as the world’s largest knowledge base 40:43 - Doing B2C in Switzerland 49:15 - Benefiting from the Swiss startup mafia About Kevin Smith: Kevin Smith is the co-founder and CEO at Snipd, an AI-powered podcast player built to unlock the knowledge in the podcasts you listen to. Originally from England and Germany, Kevin came to Zurich to get his MA from ETH in Quantitative Finance. After a time working for banks like Julius Baier and UBS, Kevin decided to join the startup Contovista, where he worked up to becoming head of analytics and AI. In 2020, he decided to put his love for machine learning to good use and participated in Hackzurich together with his ETH friend Ferdinand Langnickel, at a time when a breakthrough in self-supervised learning had just happened. Having originally planned to create a prototype around the topic of meeting notes, they eventually pivoted to podcasts, and ended up winning that year’s Hackzurich. In 2021, Kevin, Ferdinand and third co-founder Mikel Corcuera Lejarreta created Snipd. The problem Snipd solves is pretty intuitive: the audio medium is great for both consuming and producing content, but not so much for interacting with it, i.e., for storing it and consulting it. It’s pretty hard to skim through a 2h podcast episode to find what you’re looking for. Through its AI algorithm, Snipd allows you to do just that: when you’re using their podcast player, whenever you listen to something which particularly interests you, you press a button in the app or you triple click your headphones, and then AI will analyze the content you just selected to determine the appropriate start and end point, provide a transcript, a summary and a title. Snipd also provides you with automatic chapters (with titles and summaries) for each podcast episode. By providing this service, Snipd is able to collect data about which podcast moments are interesting to each user, and this data will soon allow them to make predictions on what each specific user may be interested in listening to. Memorable Quotes: "I’ve come to the realization that creating things is something which fundamentally makes humans happy." "Something you should ask yourself before you start a startup is: Can you see yourself working on this for 10 years?" Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 30 Oct 2019 | EP #43 - Nicolas Bürer: Q&A on Accelerators & Incubators In Switzerland | 00:35:59 | |
Timestamps 2:07 - What's the difference between an accelerator and an incubator? 3:14 - Are accelerators and incubators worth it? 4:10 - When should you reach out to accelerators and incubators? 5:55 - Do certain business types have more of a chance with investors? 7:48 - What do accelerators and incubators deliver to you as a startup? 11:11 - Do accelerators and incubators even do anything? 13:04 - Which famous Swiss companies have been part of an accelerator or an incubator? 14:19 - Where to find incubators for young Swiss entrepreneurs? 17:00 - Why choose a Swiss incubator or accelerator? 18:43 - Is their a Y combinator equivalent in Switzerland? 25:21 - Do accelerator/incubator programs demand a full-time commitment? 28:00 - How do you know if the program has been successful? 29:23 - How many customers can you except to gain with a program like this? 31:01 - Should you aim for zero equity? About Nicolas Bürer Nicolas Bürer is the Managing Director of DigitalSwitzerland, an initiative of over 150 Swiss corporate companies to strengthen Switzerland’s position as a leading innovation hub. Nicolas started his entrepreneurial career as Chief Marketing Officer at DeinDeal.ch, which rose to be one of Switzerland’s most successful e-commerce sites within only 5 years. After DeinDeal, he transitioned to become Managing Director at the TV company Joiz, which had to close its doors in 2016. Nicolas is also one of the co-founders of Movu, a platform of moving and cleaning companies, which was acquired by Baloise in 2017. He holds a Masters in physics from the Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and was awarded “Business Angel of the Year” in 2018. Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 15 Sep 2024 | EP #437 - Karolis Arbaciauskas: Why Cybersecurity Should Be a Startup’s 1st Priority | 00:35:46 | |
Timestamps: 2:10 - Volunteering and traveling 5:46 - Cybersecurity is for everyone 8:58 - Startups and cybersecurity 10:42 - Why do data breaches happen? 21:02 - Is Europe a good place to build a scaleup? This episode was co-produced/sponsored by NordPass. Use code “swisspreneur” at checkout to get 30% off Business and Teams plans. About Karolis Arbaciauskas: Karolis Arbaciauskas is the Head of Product & Business Development at NordPass, a password management solution and part of Nord Security, the world’s leading cybersecurity company. He holds an MA in Economics from The Berlin School of Economics and Law and previously worked for companies like L'Oréal, Nordea and Danske Bank before joining NordPass in 2020. During his chat with Silvan, Karolis tried to dispel the myth that cybersecurity concerns are a milestone which ought only be available to developed scaleups — he thinks being safe online should be something which startups tackle from day one. He also provided insight into the main causes of data breaches, spoke about how cybersecurity and the dark web are connected and introduced the concept of Ransomware as a Service, which basically consists of more skilled hackers building and selling software that less skilled hackers can use to hack their victims. The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io.
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| 21 Apr 2021 | EP #150 - Tobias Zehnder: Building A Company During The Financial Crisis | 01:07:54 | |
Timestamps: 6:18 - How Tobias got into online advertising 9:11 - Working at Google in 2007 20:31 - Launching Webrepublic in 2009 29:30 - How to assess talent 51:02 - A marketing family About Tobias Zehnder Tobias Zehnder is Co-Founder and Partner at Webrepublic AG, a Swiss digital marketing agency boosting your company’s online performance through meaningful business value strategies. Zehnder caught the entrepreneurial bug early on: during his student days in the 2000s, Tobias was a freelancing DJ and blogger posting reviews on his favourite records, having taught himself to monetize those endeavors. Then, in 2010, Tobias finished his MA in Socioeconomic History and Linguistics at the University of Zürich with a thesis entitled Online Advertising: the Stepchild of Media Agencies, which would later serve as a blueprint for his agency. It was during his graduate studies that Tobias got a fantastic internship at Google Zürich as a Sales Planner and met Tom Hanan, the team's Head of Sales and his future co-founder at Webrepublic. The timing couldn’t have been better: cloud working was just starting to take off, and the office felt both small and international. Unfortunately, the markets took a deep dive in the 2009 financial crisis, but not all was bad. In hindsight, Tobias sees many advantages in starting a business during those rough times: performance marketing was fairly new, so they could build from the ground up and still see results, and though companies were saving funds, the small demand gave customers the most cost-efficient solutions. Twelve years down the road, Tobias admits that positioning a company in the market landscape is much more complex nowadays, but that there should always be space for integrated services and for small players to shine through. Today, Tobias also holds a position as a lecturer of Digital Leadership at HWZ Zürich, a job that helps him stay focused, inspired and on the freshest page with innovation. His main concerns include responsible leadership, conscious integrating partnerships and market evaluation with a global focus. Keep listening to learn more on building an incredible path during a major crisis! Resources Todoist, a task managing app currently freeing up the mental space of more than 25 million users. Memorable Quotes “Performance marketing is not something that you do in waves. It’s something that’s always on. You don’t switch it on and off. As long as there’s customer demand, you wanna be there.” “Don’t just focus on Switzerland. Go out, really! It’s much more motivating to benchmark yourself against absolute industry leaders than to stick to local players.” If you would like to listen to more conversations on marketing, check out our episode with DEPT's Lukas Stuber. Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 26 Jul 2023 | EP #332 - Tigran Petrosyan: Farewell PhD, Hello AI | 00:37:50 | |
Timestamps: 06:06 - Having no entrepreneurial background 13:31 - Why Tigran dropped out of his PhD program 17:15 - The industries targeted by SuperAnnotate 18:25 - The business model behind it 24:28 - The importance of mentorship support About Tigran Petrosyan: Tigran Petrosyan is the co-founder and president of SuperAnnotate, an end-to-end platform to annotate, version, and manage data for your AI. He spent much of his life in academia, starting with a Bachelor's in Physics from Yerevan State University in his home country, Armenia, followed by a Master's in Physics from ETH and then a PhD in Biomedical Imaging from the University of Bern, but dropped out shortly before finishing it to start SuperAnnotate with his brother, Vahan. He was drawn to Switzerland for its exceptional study opportunities and found his passion for AI during his time at ETH Zurich. While he was doing his PhD, Tigran and his brother entered an expo with an early prototype of the SuperAnnotate management system, where they not only won but gained investment traction, which clearly signaled to Tigran that they needed to start a company as soon as possible, even if it meant not completing his PhD. Being brothers and co-founders, Tigran and Vahan emphasize the advantages of their strong bond and collaborative decision-making. Today, their company caters to key industries such as healthcare, big tech, and robotics. They want to continue driving innovation in AI data management, and their goals for expansion are ambitious. Memorable quote: “When you get so excited about the tech that you don't even finish your PhD in order to start the company, investors can see how committed you are to it” “Just because your business starts off with hype, doesn’t mean you are guaranteed success. That was a really humbling experience for us.” Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 07 Oct 2020 | EP #102 - Doris Albisser: From Translator To Master Entrepreneur | 00:58:52 | |
Timestamps: 2:25 - Turning a translation company into a profit center 15:21 - Finding your core values 19:48 - Dealing with employees who don't fit your culture 25:13 - Going international 46:34 - Working with investors About Doris Albisser: Doris Albisser is the founder and executive Chairwoman of Evaluglobe AG. Through Evaluglobe, she focuses on board mandates, growth investments and advising companies’ in their international expansion. Before starting Evaluglobe, Doris served as the Group CEO for CLS Communication AG for 16 years, developing CLS from a startup through a management buyout and internationalization, to a company with 600 employees and 5.000 freelancers in 10 countries across Europe, Asia and North America. Amongst others, Doris also served on the boards of Switzerland Global Enterprise, SOS Children’s Villages and the Psychiatric University Clinic of Zurich. Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 12 Feb 2020 | EP #58 - Manuel Grenacher: A Swiss Serial Entrepreneur | 00:58:48 | |
Timestamps: 2:24 - Going from founder to employee About Manuel Grenacher: Manuel Grenacher is the founder and fmr. CEO of Coresystems, a cloud solution that helps companies to source and coordinate technicians for customer service. In 2017, Siemens decided to use Coresystems to digitize their global customer service technicians network. Subsequently, in 2018, Coresystems was bought by SAP, where Manuel is now General Manager for Cloud Service Solutions. Previously, Manuel had already successfully sold Mila, a spin-off of Coresystems to Swisscom in 2015. Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 01 Sep 2024 | EP #433 - Christian Hirt: Virtual Reality Training in Switzerland | 00:14:39 | |
Timestamps: 2:33 - Why virtual reality is in a perfect sweet spot 6:10 - The challenge of product-market fit 8:45 - Having a boring competitive landscape 10:29 - Fundraising through the Swisspreneur Syndicate About Christian Hirt: Christian Hirt is the co-founder and CEO of AtlasVR, a startup harnessing the power of virtual reality for vocational training. He holds a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from ETH and previously worked for Rheinmetal Air Defence and the Swiss Armed Forces before starting Atlas VR in 2022. AtlasVR provides a solution to complement and substitute industrial vocational training, while eliminating many challenges faced by traditional training. They achieve this by harnessing the potential of virtual reality technology, which allows trainees to learn and practice industrial tasks such as operating complex production machines in an interactive virtual environment. AtlasVR has planned to raise a total of CHF 900K in 2024, of which CHF 200K have already been closed. They hope to close the remaining CHF 700K until the end of October, and will be doing so partially through the Swisspreneur Syndicate. Click here to learn more about the deal.
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| 17 Jan 2021 | EP #124 - Sreenath Bolisetty: Purifying Water With Milk Proteins | 00:21:40 | |
Timestamps: 1:49 - From ETH Researcher to startup founder 9:00 - Winning Investor's Choice 10:35 - Clean tech competitors 12:43 - Having a hard time with sales 17:55 - Moving from India to Europe at 19 About Sreenath Bolisetty and Blue Act Technologies Sreenath Bolisetty is the co-founder and CEO of BluAct Technologies, an ETH spin-off which provides a technology for water purification from heavy metals through milk proteins. In 2020, the company won the Expert’s Choice Award at the Energy Startup Days. Originally from a small village in India, Sreenath obtained his PhD from the University of Bayreuth. He went on to work as a Senior Researcher at ETH Zurich and in 2016, started BluAct Technologies as his first company. BluAct’s purifying system differentiates itself through its high level of effectiveness at a low cost point. Being able to run without electricity, it is the perfect choice for water purification in remote areas - something which BluAct Technologies has proven through their various pilots in remote communities around the world. Their milk protein membranes are suitable both for water purification in individual households and at large scales of thousands of cubic meters of water. With 2 products already on the market, BluAct Technologies wants to expand its offering to cover purification for radioactively polluted water. The company is planning to raise USD 3m in their next investment round to help with the commercialization and certifications of its products. Memorable Quotes "A very strong motivation to start BluAct was the fact that I come from India, where water problems are a very real day-to-day issue." If you would like to listen to more episodes on ETH spin-offs, check out our conversations with Mark Essam and Mina Kamel. Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 13 May 2024 | EP #401 - Eric Laudet: Holistic Healthcare On The Rise | 00:18:10 | |
Timestamps: 1:45 - Leaving Batmaid for Holistiq 8:52 - Holistiq’s incredible traction 10:05 - The healthcare market 12:10 - Hiring the right people as a startup 13:58 - Raising funds through the Swisspreneur Syndicate Click here to apply to join our 2024 Lausanne Scaleup Cruise. About Eric Laudet: Eric Laudet is the founder and CEO of Holistiq, a startup offering an organic and personalized approach to healthcare which aims to solve health issues at their root, instead of just treating symptoms. Eric holds a master’s degree in Business Management from HEC Paris, and previously co-founded Batmaid and was active for 6 years as its CFO before starting Holistiq in 2022. Holistiq’s approach combines different healing systems to create natural therapies that are tailored to the needs of patients and backed by research, lab tests and data science. They operate a digital platform and urban health centers with a team of complementary medicine therapists, life & health coaches, nutritionists, and functional medicine doctors, to support the healing of chronically-ill patients and help others find optimal health. During his chat with us, Eric placed Holistiq’s offering between that of regular doctors, which are in his opinion currently better suited to treat acute disorders than chronic disorders, and the offering of longevity startups, which often only help people with the prevention of disease, not with treating existing diseases. He also criticized longevity startups for sometimes tracking biomarkers which do not move the (health) needle, merely for publicity’s sake. Eric added that Holistiq’s offering is partly covered by health insurance, and is meant for the masses, not just for the wealthy few. Despite being in operation for only 2 years, Holistiq already has impressive traction: CHF 400K in revenue (with a 50% gross margin), 1000 paying patients, and both offline and online offerings. They are currently raising a seed round of CHF 3M, CHF 250K of which they’ve already raised from business angels, and CHF 250K which they expect to raise through the Swisspreneur Syndicate. The remaining CHF 2.5M will be raised from healthtech VCs. Click here to learn more about the deal. | |||
| 27 Apr 2022 | EP #236 - Peter Schnürer: Connecting Companies With Shareholders | 00:42:57 | |
Timestamps: 1:41 - The internet in the 90s 9:53 - Companies should digitize their shares 19:44 - Why you should use the blockchain 23:24 - Educating the market on the blockchain 35:25 - Deploying 1 feature per week About Peter Schnürer: Peter Schnürer is the CEO at daura, a digital equity platform which helps companies keep a digital share registry. Peter has a background in Business Administration and has worked for several banks and IT companies. 60% of Swiss companies aren’t sure their share register is correct — with daura, not only can you avoid this issue, but you can in fact manage the whole company lifecycle, from founding, to fundraising (which necessitates printing shares to sell them to people), to shareholder assemblies (which are significantly facilitated by having shares printed as tokens) to an exit scenario (where shares will of course be sold). Listeners should note, however, that daura is not like a stock exchange: a stock exchange is a secondary market, where shares that have already been printed may be traded; daura, on the other hand, focuses on printing the shares and distributing them to shareholders, who may then decide to sell these in a secondary market or transfer them to another person. daura’s business model consists of charging issuing companies a yearly fee for their share register, an additional fee for running a capital increase, and an additional fee for doing a general assembly. Memorable Quotes: "The blockchain empowers people to be responsible for their own assets and not rely on 3rd parties." Resources Mentioned: Sapiens: A Brief History Of Humankind, by Yuval Noah Harari Principles For Dealing With A Changing World Order, by Ray Dalio From The Earth To The Moon, Jules Verne If you would like to listen to more blockchain-related episodes, check out our conversation with Julian Liniger. Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 08 Apr 2020 | EP #66 - Philipp Stauffer: Is Silicon Valley the Promised Land for Startups? | 00:57:56 | |
Timestamps: 1:52 - What mistakes do Swiss startups make when it comes to moving to Silicon Valley? 16:02 - When should you not go to the Valley? 29:56 - Hiring the right sales person 32:28 - Tackling the PR and marketing game 43:23 - What shocks Swiss companies when they come to the US? The Episode In 60 Seconds Competing with Silicon Valley Startups – what to expect
Is Silicon Valley the promised land for all startups?
Building up your presence in the US
Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 03 Jul 2024 | EP #416 - Liliane Ableitner: Exnaton 2 Years On | 00:31:14 | |
Timestamps: 2:20 - Exnaton 2 years on 12:01 - To bootstrap or not to bootstrap 17:42 - Getting funded as a climate tech startup 22:00 - Seasonal impact on client acquisition 23:32 - The benefits of market liberalization About Liliane Ableitner: Liliane Ableitner is the co-founder and CEO of Exnaton, a software provider for energy communities, allowing neighbors to trade renewable energy amongst each other. Before starting Exnaton, Liliane was a Doctoral Researcher at the Bits of Energy Lab at ETH Zurich. She met her two co-founders, Arne Meeuw and Anselma Würner, during her work on the research project “Quartierstrom“, funded by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy. The project resonated well with all stakeholders involved and the three PhD students decided to spin it out into an independent company in 2019. In December 2020, they won the Investor’s Choice award at Energy Startup Days, which helped the company to gain exposure amongst relevant stakeholders. Contrary to some of their competitors, Exnaton doesn’t sell their software to end consumers. Rather, they cooperate with local utility companies and allow them to white label their solution and distribute it to their customers. Exnaton is greatly benefiting from the liberalization of European energy markets because it has been driving competition for innovative products between utility companies. They are hoping to further benefit from an opening of the Swiss market, which has traditionally been very protected.
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| 15 Jan 2025 | EP #469 - Hans-Peter Strebel: Das MS Medikament aus Muri AG | 01:02:15 | |
Timestamps: 4:19 - Die Forschung nach einem Psoriasis Medikament 9:45 - Biogen beteiligt sich an der Forschung nach MS Medikament 32:22 - Das OYM - Ein wissenschaftlicher Approach zum Spitzensport 44:05 - Das Businessmodell hinter dem OYM 48:50 - Erfolg trotz Gegenwind - gestärkt durch die Kritiker Über Hans-Peter Strebel: Hans-Peter Strebel ist der Gründer von Fumapharm, einem Unternehmen, das ein bahnbrechendes Medikament zur Behandlung von Psoriasis und Multipler Sklerose (MS) entwickelt hat. Sein Weg führte von einer kleinen Apotheke im aargauischen Muri bis zum erfolgreichen Verkauf von Fumapharm an Biogen. Strebel gründete auch das OYM, ein hochmodernes Sportzentrum in der Schweiz, das seine Leidenschaft für Innovation und einen wissenschaftlich fundierten Ansatz für sportliche Leistungen widerspiegelt. Das Titelbild wurde von www.smartportrait.io bearbeitet. Folge uns auf Twitter, Instagram, Facebook und Linkedin um auf dem Laufenden zu bleiben. Wir posten regelmässig über Live Shows, Give-Aways und unsere Founders Dinner Events. | |||
| 09 Nov 2022 | EP #273 - Luca Michas: Yamo’s Successful Growth Story | 01:20:59 | |
Timestamps: 8:00 - Sustainability and branding 23:01 - The yamo ingredients 32:10 - From baby food to snack bars 43:30 - The battle against regulation 1:03:34 - Raising a series B About Luca Michas: Luca Michas is the co-founder and CMO at Yamo, a B2C company revolutionizing the kid's food market with nutritious and organic options for kids of all ages. Luca holds an MA in Media & Communication / Marketing from the UZH and previously worked for companies like SodaStream International and the Campari Group. In 2015, while working at the Campari Group with his future co-founder, Tobias Gunzenhauser, Luca watched a documentary about veganism and decided to go vegan for a month, and Tobias joined him in this adventure. They soon discovered that healthy, plant-based products were very hard to come by in a Swiss supermarket, and – as a joke – decided to check out the baby food aisle, only to find out the baby food available on the market was tasteless and of dubious nutritional value. This was because the traditional process for creating shelf-stable baby food was heat-based sterilization, which, considering many vitamins are heat-sensitive, necessitated later re-adding the vitamins which the process destroyed. But friend and food scientist José Amado-Blanco soon clued them into a better way of making baby food: High-pressure pasteurization, which combines homemade flavor with proper nutrition, and lasts several weeks in a refrigerated environment. This was how Yamo was able to combine nutritional quality with convenience, and win the trust of Swiss parents all around. So as not to have their customers age out of Yamo products, the team has now also begun making kids’ food, like joghurts and snack bars. With their office in Zug, they currently sell in the DACH region, Belgium, Spain and Portugal. A Series B round is also underway. Memorable Quotes: "Branding makes a huge difference in whether your product succeeds or not. It’s not just pricing, it’s not just availability. You need to tell a story." "Nowadays sustainability is no longer something that sets your brand apart, but on the other hand, if you’re not sustainable, your brand is gonna have a problem." "Contrary to popular belief, we were not drunk when we came up with the Yamo product names." Resources Mentioned: If you wanna listen to our conversations with yamo co-founder Tobias Gunzenhauser, check out episodes 159 and 174. Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 03 Apr 2022 | EP #230 - Zeki Bulgurcu: Meme-König, Influencer, Unternehmer | 00:44:54 | |
Timestamps: 4:54 - Das erste Meme in einer schlaflosen Nacht 12:23 - Erster Umsatz als Personal Brand 19:44 - Umgang mit Bekanntheit 30:11 - Typischer Tagesablauf von Zeki 40:07 - Was motiviert dich am morgen aufzustehen? Zeki Bulgurcu ist der Gründer von Swissmeme und Zekisworld. Aufgewachsen in Basel, startet Zeki seine berufliche Laufbahn mit einer Berufslehre als Detailhandelsfachmann. Seine ersten Memes veröffentlicht er 2013 - schnell entwickelt sich sein Instagram Kanal "Swissmeme" zu einer festen Grösse in der Schweizer Social Media Szene. Neben Instagram ist der Meme-König persönlich, aber auch mit weiteren Comedy Profilen auf Facebook, Youtube und TikTok unterwegs. Nicht selten zählen diese Accounts mehrere 100'000 Follower und so ist der Baselbieter einer, wenn nicht der erfolgreichste "Social Media Typ" der Schweiz. Dank des starken Personal Brands, welchen er sich in den letzten Jahren aufgebaut hat, ist er immer wieder als Werbegesicht in Online aber auch Offline Medien zu sehen. Neben über zehn erfolgreichen Social Media Accounts hat Zeki Bulgurcu eine eigene Sucuk Wurst, welche in vielen Migros Filialen zu finden ist. Zudem plant er aktuell einen eignen Kino-Film. Memorable Quotes: "Hör auf dein Bauchgefühl. Wenn du eine Leidenschaft hast, welcher du in deiner Freizeit gerne nachgehst - bleib dran! Vielleicht explodiert es und du kannst ein Business daraus aufbauen." "Als ich kündete und auf Social Media setzte, sagten alle 'Du spinnst doch'. Doch das machen einige heute immer noch." Folge uns auf Twitter, Instagram, Facebook und Linkedin um auf dem Laufenden zu bleiben. Wir posten regelmässig über Live Shows, Give-Aways und unsere Founders Dinner Events. | |||
| 12 Apr 2023 | EP #315 - Ulrike Pfreundt: Bringing Coral Reefs Back To Life | 00:47:10 | |
Timestamps: 9:30 - The effect of climate change on coral rrreefs 14:54 - 3D printed terracotta clay 17:46 - Testing the product, having a breakdown 28:18 - How rrreefs makes money 38:12 - Tackling reef destruction at the source
Ulrike Pfreundt is the co-founder and Head of Science and Development at rrreefs, a startup rebuilding coral reefs to restore marine biodiversity and protect coast lines. She holds a PhD in Molecular Genetics/Experimental Bioinformatics and was previously a Postdoctoral Fellow of Biological Oceanography at ETH, before creating rrreefs in 2020. What causes damage to coral reefs?
It’s estimated that we’ve already lost 50% of all coral reefs on planet Earth. This is truly tragic, because they harbor ⅓ of all species that exist in the ocean, and are essential for industries like pharma, beauty, etc. In the pharma industry, for example, byproducts of the coral reef ecosystem are used for drugs against bacteria, viruses, pain, and even cancer. rrreefs tackles this issue by building modular systems of 3D-printed terracotta bricks which, when “implanted”, create a new habitat for about 20000 reef animals smaller than 0.5mm for each m3. Every reef is built in collaboration with local stakeholders and all reef material is 100% plastic free and free of additives. Their reefs are proven to increase fish abundance and diversity by providing shelter for adult and juvenile fish, and the rrreefs team continuously integrates results from scientific experiments to improve their reef system. rrreefs began their operations by crowdfunding, and after that accepted donations from companies and grants from foundations. In 2023, the rrreefs foundation is becoming an AG and starting to raise capital, targeting companies that want to foster a reef as part of their sustainability portfolio. Why just plant trees, when you can also foster coral reefs? Companies can sponsor their very own reef or sponsor part of a communal reef, and they can also add on a data & storytelling subscription to know how their reef is evolving. rrreefs’ medium to long term goal is to eventually create reef credits which will be tokenized and work as financial assets.
Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 05 Oct 2022 | EP#265 - Sandra Tobler: Cybersecurity In Switzerland | 00:39:05 | |
Timestamps: 1:40 - Having too many interests 11:11 - Testing an idea for a year 17:45 - Focusing on which problem to solve and how 19:30 - Building trust in the cybersecurity space 27:55 - What it takes to be an entrepreneur About Sandra Tobler: Sandra Tobler is the co-founder and CEO at Futurae Technologies, a startup providing future-proof, end user-centric authentication. She previously worked at IBM and the Switzerland Global Enterprise and holds an MA in International Affairs from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva. Futurae solutions enable seamless 2FA with fallbacks, compliant transaction confirmations, secure helpdesk authentication, and anything in between. They also help companies meet risk and compliance requirements, fraud monitoring, security analytics, and much more. The company was created in 2016, back in the early days of cloud options, when the cloud was still regarded as “evil”. Their product was actually the first that the majority of their customers deployed in the cloud. This meant Futurae had to become an expert in building trust, and they did so not only by having an extremely talented team overall, but specifically a really strong support team (and not just a killer sales team). Memorable Quotes: "Over 93% of all information technology startups are still around after 5 years. That’s a super high number." Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 04 Nov 2020 | EP #106 - Jeremias Meier: Spinning A Product Out Of A Service Business | 01:05:34 | |
Timestamps: 12:56 - Turning a company tool into a product 25:00 - Developing a brand with 25 other people 34:53 - Dealing with the complexity of a growing company 43:23 - Being laughed at by more traditional companies 56:38 - Finding work-life balance About Jeremias Meier: Jeremias Meier is the co-founder and managing director of Bexio, a company offering SaaS around payrolling, invoicing and accounting. Bexio was born out of Jeremias’ first business iBrowse, that he started while still at university. The team had built Bexio (called Easysys at the time) for their internal invoicing needs but found that a lot of agencies like themselves were interested in using the product. In 2014, they separated the product and agency business and spun out Bexio into an independent company. iBrowse was acquired by PwC in 2015 and transformed into a digital experience center. Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 25 Aug 2021 | EP #181 - Roger Müller: Impacting The World Through Microfinance | 01:00:04 | |
Timestamps: 1:05 - The Goldman Sachs epiphany 9:28 - Getting into impact investment 18:53 - Women in developing countries & traditional banks 32:44 - From a 20$ loan to an SME 51:23 - Investing in European startups Roger Müller is a board member and managing partner at Enabling Qapital, an microfinance advisory company. His background is in traditional asset management. During the 2008 financial crisis, he was working at Julius Bär's Asset Management — at that time, a conversation with a colleague about the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy made it clear to him that he needed to pursue a more independent path, because he did not want to suffer the risk of losing everything from one day to another. He began to pursue entrepreneurial projects. But it was only in 2014 that he became involved in the impact investment world by joining Blue Orchard. Years later, in 2020, he built his own impact investment fund: Enabling Qapital. What is impact investing? It's a small loan you dispense to someone in an emerging market, helping them raise their living standard and become financially independent. The minimum amount is around $20, and the maximum is $30'000. Any higher than that is considered an SME loan. Which precautions should you take? You cannot take anything for granted. Make sure the person knows what a loan is, how they will repay it, and what to do if business goes south. Before dispensing loans to people, Enabling Qapital execute a due diligence process with more than 100 checks. Why is microfinance necessary? People who live in remote areas and only wish to borrow a small amount of money have trouble getting loans from traditional banks because the operational costs offset the profits for banks. Whether you give out a $50 loan or a $20'000, the due diligence process is the same. Enabling Qapital is active in all emerging markets except for North Korea, South Sudan, Cuba and the Central African Republic. Once per year they produce a Social Impact Report, showcasing the achievements of the previous 12 months. Memorable Quotes: "My finances were stable, and I felt like I'd stopped growing as a person. It was time to start taking risks." Resources Mentioned: If you would like to listen to more episodes about impact startups, check out our conversation with Anaïs Matthey-Junod. Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 10 Jul 2024 | EP #418 - Fajer Mushtaq: Deep Climate Tech in Switzerland | 00:33:56 | |
Timestamps: 4:00 - Water cleaning in Switzerland 6:42 - Water and the agricultural sector 9:14 - Deep tech requires upfront capital 16:20 - Defending high deep tech valuations 22:14 - Convincing top talent to work for a startup About Fajer Mushtaq: Fajer Mushtaq is the co-founder and CEO at Oxyle, a cleantech startup with a game-changing water remediation technology. She holds a PhD in Micro- and Nanotechnology for Environmental Remediation from ETH and previously worked there as a BRIDGE Proof-of-Concept Fellow, before starting Oxyle in 2020. When we usually think of water pollution, we think of things like cigarette butts, plastic bags, or perhaps even bacteria or viruses. But what most of us fail to consider are micropollutants (like hormones, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, industrial waste, etc…), so called not because they’re found in small amounts, but because a small amount is enough to have a carcinogenic effect, or cause infertility or birth defects. 1 nanogram per liter (which is the equivalent of 1 drop in 20 Olympic-sized pools) is concentration enough to cause humans and their ecosystems harm. What’s more, these micro-pollutants are bioaccumulative (meaning if you keep drinking them, they keep increasing in concentration in your blood), and stay in bodies of water for decades on end unless treated appropriately. That’s where the ETH spin-off Oxyle comes in. Oxyle works at the last stage of water treatment to remove these micro-pollutants through their innovative nanotechnology. They do so in a sustainable, scalable manner by getting in touch with big companies looking to remediate the harm they’ve caused and prevent any more harm from being done. This is equally as important in Switzerland as it is in other places: the water Swiss people drink has 17x the amount of carcinogenic pesticides that is safe to consume. Fajer strongly believes that fighting climate change is done not only through innovative startups like Oxyle, but also through regulation. We need to hold polluters responsible, and nowadays, due to the growing sophistication of water analysis techniques, we definitely can. This way we can both remediate the harm that’s already been done, and stop future pollution at its source.
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| 05 Jun 2022 | EP #246 - Deborah Learoyd: Roof Tiles With Greater ROI | 00:23:08 | |
Timestamps: 4:17 - The prettiest solar panels you’ll ever see 7:09 - A team of two engineers 11:27 - Not competing with solar panels 13:04 - Tiles with greater ROI 15:53 - Scaling up to a sustainable size About Deborah Learoyd: Deborah Learoyd is the co-founder and managing director of Freesuns, a company designing beautifully integrated solar roof tiles for residential, commercial and heritage buildings. She worked at the technology company Honeywell for 20 years before going all-in on her startup in 2022. Originally from Sidney, Australia, she and her husband have resided in Switzerland for several years. Freesuns came to be when Deborah and her husband decided to purchase a house in Switzerland which needed a new roof. Since they were environmentally committed and even already owned an electric car, they decided they’d like to generate their own electrical power, but solar panels were not a viable option for them, because they did not match the look nor the shape of the house. The couple put their engineering background to good use and designed a solar tile which combined functionality with flexibility and aesthetic appeal. They soon contacted a manufacturer and had prototypes made. After due testing they applied the solar tiles to their house and nowadays produce more than enough power for the entire habitation and their electrical car as well. Freesuns does not seek to compete with solar panels. They address the market of people who would like to make an environmental contribution but cannot/will not use solar panels, either because they don’t like the look, their commune doesn’t allow it, or their roof is unusually shaped. When getting started, Freesuns sold directly to end users, but nowadays they work closely with partners (roofers and other solar installers) so as to scale up their business. Memorable Quotes: "Switzerland is a great market to test out buyer interest. It’s quite diverse. If we succeed in Switzerland, we’ll have already understood many of the challenges we’d face globally." If would like to listen to last year's Energy Startup Day bonus series, check out our conversations with Liliane Ableitner, Laurent Coulot and Sreenath Bolisetty. Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 19 Dec 2021 | EP #210 - Jürg Tauss: Nailing Company Valuation | 00:40:10 | |
Timestamps: 0:52 - How NOT to do valuation 3:56 - Why do a company valuation 27:26 - Discounted cash flow 34:30 - How to influence your company value 37:49 - How often to do valuation About Jürg Tauss: Jürg Tauss is an executive director at UBS and the head of the M&A valuation desk at the corporate finance Switzerland team. The first thing Jürg thinks founders should know is that value is in itself subjective, and guided by the individual who looks at the asset. What the UBS M&A valuation desk tries to do is identify a market consensus regarding the value of this asset. Why should you do a company valuation? To prepare for the acquisition of your company, or for the buying of equity by other parties. What should you take into consideration? - Do not look to big company valuations as a reference, since your knowledge about their journey and inner workings is woefully incomplete. - Mind the difference between the value potential of your company and its time value: you cannot just calculate the supposed value of your company taking into consideration the best case scenario of your company's future progress; you have to consider all sorts of possible scenarios, good and bad, and then base your valuation on that. To prepare for a company valuation, you should first gather all knowledge about the future of your company in a transparent and easy-to-understand way. Memorable Quotes: "Large company valuations are often taken as a reference point by startups. This can go very wrong." Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 29 Jun 2023 | EP #327 - Jan Lichtenberg: Replacing Animal Testing with 3D Printed Models | 00:46:22 | |
Timestamps: 08:06 - Starting a company during the financial crisis 15:30 - Ethical debates surrounding animal testing 16:25 - The InSphero business model 25:18 - Getting funding with a science-based product 29:58 - Working between Switzerland and the US About Jan Lichtenberg: Jan Lichtenberg is the CEO and board member of InSphero, a medtech company specializing in 3D printed models used for in vitro testing with easy-to-use solutions for producing, culturing, and assessing more organotypic 3D cell culture models. He has a solid scientific background of 10 total years of study, beginning with an MS in Microtechnology from the University of Bremen, followed by a Masters in Microelectronics from EPFL, and then completing his Ph.D. at Université de Neuchâtel in Microtechnology and Microfluidics. It took 10 years to develop the InSphero 3D model, from conception to iterative research, to finally creating the in vitro tissue. The company came to fruition shortly after the 2008 financial crash, but this was nonetheless the right time for the InSphero team, as pharmaceutical companies desperately needed new and innovative ideas to rejuvenate their brands in those challenging times.
One of the company's main goals is to play a part in eradicating animal testing, for both ethical and reliability reasons. This will take many years, but offering alternative solutions like their 3D in vitro models is a start in allowing for more accurate testing and preventing unnecessary harm to animals. This is all the more important considering that animals often do not biologically react in the same way as humans, and so that animal testing is actually not that reliable. Their business model is twofold: on one hand, they provide their 3D models to clients who do their own in-house testing, and on the other hand, they also provide them to clients who prefer to conduct testing at the InSphero labs. Correctly transporting tissue is tricky, so conducting research in-house has the added benefit of eliminating the possibility of compromised tissues. Currently InSphero is leaning strongly towards the US market, and Jan travels there every 6 - 8 weeks to keep his ear to the ground. For now, their main priority is the company's growth and expansion, but they hope to one day do an IPO. “When starting a company, you have to either do it on a shoestring or go all in, but you need to decide that beforehand.” “It’s not about the money in the bank, but about the interest customers have in your product.” Memorable quotes: “When starting a company, you have to either do it on a shoestring or go all in, but you need to decide that beforehand.” “It’s not about the money in the bank, but about the interest customers have in your product.” Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 04 Jan 2023 | EP #288 - Tomoko Yokoi: Deciding To Become Your Own Boss | 00:46:15 | |
Timestamps: 07:35 - Curiosity Breeds Entrepreneurship 15:09 - The Fall of Dermintel 23:24 - Digital Transformation Best Practices for Companies 33:03 - Inclusivity in the Tech Space 39:14 - Cognitive Flexibility and the Future of Work About Tomoko Yokoi: Tomoko Yokoi is a researcher and advisor in digital transformation at the IMD Business School and a lecturer at ETH Zürich. She also co-founded a market research startup, Dermintel. Before working in business, she studied International Development and Human Rights at the Georgetown University Walsh School of Foreign Service. Although she had a huge passion for development and human rights, she wanted to venture into something different and decided to enter the corporate world. The more she learned about entrepreneurship, the more she realised the advantages of the entrepreneurial lifestyle, including time flexibility, which she felt was lacking in corporate life. In 2020, the covid pandemic forced Tomoko to pause Dermintel's development, allowing her to focus more on her passion for digital transformation. Digital transformation can be complicated, but Tomoko loves unpacking the complexity to help organisations succeed. For her, it's not just about technology: it's also about governance, innovation, culture change, leadership, and competency development. As part of her book, Hacking Digital: Best Practices for Implementing and Accelerating Your Business Transformation, Tomoko Yokoi shares more about how to implement digital transformation in the workplace by giving insight into:
Resources: Book: Hacking Digital: Best Practices to Implement and Accelerate Your Business Transformation Article: Emojis In The World Of Work Memorable Quotes: “So many opportunities exist, it really depends on how you can target what you need when you need it.” “It is important to think of inclusivity when you think about innovation.” If you want to tune into another conversation with a founder who left corporate to start a business, check out our episode with Robert Piconi, co-founder and CEO at Energy Vault. Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly giveaways or founders' dinners! | |||
| 09 Feb 2022 | EP #222 - Lena Jüngst & Simon Nuesch: Hacking Your Sweet Tooth With Air Up | 01:06:05 | |
Timestamps: 1:17 - From creative work to the business world 11:37 - The graveyard of brand names 20:21 - Responsible consumption and emotional attractiveness 30:32 - Storytelling and investors 52:17 - Focused internationalization About Lena Jüngst & Simon Nuesch: Lena Jüngst and Simon Nuesch are the co-founders of Air Up, a revolutionary scent-based drinking system. Lena has a background in product design and Simon studied technology, management and business administration. They both come from Germany. During her bachelor's, Lena and fellow student Tim Jäger stumbled upon the topic of retronasal smell (tasting with your nose) when they were looking for a topic for their bachelor's thesis. Their interest led them to connecting this topic with our modern diet, which is currently both a huge threat to our health and to the environment. Our early evolutionary history taught us that food which tastes nice is good for us, but today that is certainly no longer the case. So if you want the sensory benefits of drinking a fizzy drink without the health and environmental costs, what do you do? You trick your brain into thinking water tastes like a fizzy drink, of course. Air Up's first prototype was simply putting one straw inside a cup full of water and another straw inside a scent diffuser and slurping both simultaneously. This was the rudimentary beginning of the "pods'' for sale today, which can be conveniently attached to water bottles. Memorable Quotes: "Sustainability is THE product design question right now." "Entrepreneurship means feeling constantly overwhelmed and constantly fascinated by your work." Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 08 Jul 2020 | EP #87 - Dennis Just: Bootstrapping Your Company To Scale | 00:48:44 | |
Timestamps: 0:45 - What mistakes do Swiss startups make repeatedly when it comes to bootstrapping? 14:20 - Boostrapping and growing fast 17:43 - Constant AB testing 25:48 - Building a solid user base 32:45 - Organic traffic & relying on Google The Episode in 60 seconds: Considerations when deciding whether to bootstrap:
Bootstrapping a user base:
Running experiments:
Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 12 Jul 2023 | EP #330 - Deana Mohr-Haralampieva: Tissue Engineering to Solve Incontinence | 00:30:08 | |
Timestamps: 03:22 - Swiss women in STEM 08:10 - The high demand for incontinence testing 10:07 - Positive feedback from trials 15:29 - The challenges when conducting trials 20:17 - Funding difficulties About Deana Mohr-Haralampieva: Deana Mohr-Haralampieva is the CEO & co-founder at MUVON Therapeutics, a groundbreaking startup developing a therapeutic platform for the regeneration of skeletal muscle tissue. With a background in radiopharmaceutical sciences, tissue engineering, and STEM cell therapies, Deana has extensive research experience, including a Master of Science in Cellular and Molecular Biology from the University of Konstanz, and she continued to focus on tissue repair therapy with a Ph.D. from ETH. She boldly transitioned into the startup world, driven by her passion for bringing innovative solutions to life. MUVON Therapeutics was originally a life science spin-off from the University of Zurich developing a therapeutic platform for regenerating skeletal muscle tissue based on autologous cells, repairing damaged tissue, and increasing the regenerative potential of weakened muscles. Their initial area of focus was the treatment of stress urinary incontinence in women, supporting them respectfully throughout their journey to a healthier and better quality of life. The societal challenges surrounding women in STEM fields are a constant obstacle for female founders in these fields. The need for increased female representation and dispelling stereotypes is as relevant as ever, as Deana herself has encountered misconceptions about her work, but she has also experienced firsthand the progress made in this regard, witnessing a positive shift in the number of women joining STEM courses. The goal for MUVON Therapeutics is to continue making strides in regenerative medicine and open up trials for more varied groups of women to have access to this therapy, and to also make it accessible for men. The long-term goal would be international reach by expanding to the US and the rest of Europe. Memorable quotes: "Pharma can be a scarier world than the startup world, but our project was already on the go, so we decided to stay onboard and see it through: and here we are!" "Seeing the muscle fibers twitching in the lab, I knew this would work, and we decided to make it happen." Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 15 Jun 2022 | EP #249 - Christof Roduner: Swiss Unicorn On The Rise | 00:49:48 | |
Timestamps: 3:35 - Not having a clear goal for your PhD 7:54 - Starting your own company 22:04 - From old acquaintance to co-founder 27:32 - Selling to retail and logistics 43:53 - Life after unicorn status About Christof Roduner: Christof Roduner is the co-founder and CIO at Scandit, the leading technology platform for mobile computer vision and augmented reality (AR) solutions for enterprises. He holds a MSc in Business Administration and Computer Science from the University of Zurich. It was during his time as a researcher at ETH that he met one of his future co-founders, Christian; together with Samuel, whom Christof knew from UZH, they created Scandit in 2009. Their goal with Scandit was to create a bridge between real world objects and the digital information available about them. Barcodes were then the natural entry points, especially at a time when phone cameras were just starting to become ubiquitous. It was when they began getting some coverage from the press that they realized the true commercial potential of their product. Their scanning app was rather shaky at first though: it only worked on a certain type of phone, the barcode had to be in perfect condition, there had to be perfect lighting, and it was tricky to deploy the app itself regardless of how perfect the rest of the setup was. Another challenge that they faced at an early stage was finding real world applications and knowing which one to focus on, from price comparison, to ethical shopping, to vegan/vegetarian shopping, etc. Nowadays their main two verticals are retail and logistics. Scandit helps its customers at several points, from self checkout, to inventory counts, etc. They currently have over 1M users worldwide and have offices in 6 countries. Scandit has also recently achieved Unicorn status. Memorable Quotes: "As an entrepreneur you need to accept that you can’t control everything, and sometimes that means that you can’t deliver perfect results." Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 23 Feb 2022 | EP #224 - Hermann Arnold: How Btov Became Umantis | 01:05:31 | |
Click here to answer the 2022 Swisspreneur Survey. Timestamps: 1:45 - Co-founding START Global 09:17 - Turning btov into umantis 19:13 - Starting a company during the dot com bubble 23:14 - Switzerland is the most open of the DACH countries 41:02 - When a fuck-up turns out okay About Hermann Arnold: Herman Arnold is the co-founder and ex-CEO of the talent management software company umantis. He was also a co-founder of btov and START global. START global, the (nowadays) international organization promoting entrepreneurship among young people, was co-founded by Hermann during his Zwischenjahr at HSG. The inspiration for it was actually another project of his: during this time Hermann also created a computing school for kids in his home country, Austria; he then felt it was necessary to create role models for these kids, so that they would feel they had more career options than going into banking or consulting. He himself comes from a family of entrepreneurs and feels this area is a much better use of great talent than areas like finance, seeing as they nowadays don’t provide much value to people, according to Hermann. In 2000, after finishing his studies, he co-founded btov — brainstoventures, a matchmaking platform to connect great companies with great venture capital. The founding team, Hermann reflects, underestimated how difficult it would be to make money with their business model — they wanted to take a cut from the equity the way Y Combinator does, but after one year they realized this model wasn’t going to work for them and they had to pivot. Coincidentally, companies had previously approached the btov team saying it would be great to have their matchmaking software to use with their own employees, as they had little clue about the skills their people had. And that’s how btov was pivoted into the HR software Umantis, one of the first Swiss Software as a Service companies. In 2014 Umantis merged with the Haufe group: after realizing that one of their competitors was going public in 2011 with 30M revenue, 45M losses and an evaluation of 1B (which were crazy numbers back then), the Umantis team knew it was their time to start actively pursuing an exit scenario. Memorable Quotes: "When doing business, you should always be very clear with your terms and write them down — especially if you’re doing business with friends." "It’s hard to see your company go in a direction you don’t agree with." If you would like to listen to a conversation with another co-founder of START Global, check out our episode with Bettina Hein. Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 16 May 2021 | EP #156 - Jörg Sandrock: Die Schweizer Neobank | Mit Swiss Economic Forum | 00:32:09 | |
Timestamps: Bio Jörg Sandrock ist co-founder und CEO von neon, der ersten Schweizer Smartphone Bank ohne Kartengebühren. Vor seiner Karriere als Unternehmer, war der studierte Wirtschaftsingenieur (Karlsruher Institut für Technologie) über 11 Jahre im Beratungsunternehmen Strategy& tätig, wo er auch zwei seiner drei Mitgründer kennenlernte. Während eines Beratungsmandates für einen Kunden, der sein digitales Retail Banking Angebot erweitern wollte, erarbeiteten sie ein Konzept, welches zwar für Begeisterung sorgte, jedoch aus internen Gründen nicht umgesetzt werden konnte. Daraus entstand die Motivation die Beratung zu verlassen und das Fintech Startup neon zu gründen. Neon hat bis heute Investitionen von über CHF 10 Mio. aufgenommen. Zu den Investoren gehören unter anderem die TX Group, Roland Brack und Bettina Hein. Die Smartphone Bank ist seit ihrem Markteintritt im Jahr 2019 bereits auf über 60’000 Kundinnen und Kunden gewachsen. Memorable Quotes "Das teilweise in den alten Köpfen vorherrschende Bild, dass eine Bank für Vertrauen steht, geht beim Durchschnitt der Bevölkerung eher verloren." Wenn du mehr über SEF startups erfahren möchtest, hör dir unsere Episode mit Sergio Studer und Andreas Lenzhofer an. Folge uns auf Twitter, Instagram, Facebook und Linkedin um auf dem Laufenden zu bleiben. Wir posten regelmässig über Live Shows, Give-Aways und unsere Founders Dinner Events. | |||
| 07 Aug 2024 | EP #426 - Tillmann Lang: Can Capitalism Save The Planet? | 00:57:35 | |
Timestamps: 3:50 - Banks investing in nuclear weapons 9:15 - Capitalism and climate change 13:00 - Inyova measuring impact 15:14 - How Inyova works 27:33 - Global inequality & climate change Click here to apply to join our Founders Slack. About Tillmann Lang: Tillmann Lang is the co-founder and CEO of Inyova Impact Investing, an investment platform that enables you to achieve your financial goals by investing your savings in a way that is 100% consistent with your values and lifestyle. He holds a degree in Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of Heidelberg and founded the Sustainability in Business Lab at ETH Zurich and Clean Peak Solutions before starting Inyova in 2017. Although not a perfect system, capitalism is, in Tillmann’s opinion, the best economic system there is, in terms of correctly and efficiently allocating resources. But the free market is, of course, not enough — social progress has been achieved through regulations. At Inyova, he helps people make sure their money is going into causes they believe in, not helping to fuel unethical businesses. Customers can completely personalize their investment portfolio up to the single stock level, or they can simply choose to blacklist a number of companies, or they can leave it up to Inyova. Inyova is fully regulated in Switzerland and Germany.
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| 20 Jun 2021 | EP #166 - Simon Ittig: Mit Bakterien Gegen Den Krebs | Mit Swiss Economic Forum | 00:44:36 | |
Timestamps: 5:03 - Der Weg zur Krebsforschung Über Simon Ittig Simon Ittig ist Mitgründer und CEO von T3 Pharma, einem Spin-Off der Uni Basel, welches eine Krebstherapie mit genetisch veränderten Bakterien entwickelt. Bevor er eher zufällig zur Krebsforschung kam, studierte er Biochemie an der Universität Bern und Biotechnologie in Strasbourg und Wien. Von 2008-2012 absolvierte er sein PhD im Gebiet der Bakteriologie am Biozentrum der Universität Basel. In seiner Zeit als Postdoc wurde sein Doktorvater pensioniert, womit sich Simon Ittig seiner hinterlassenen Forschung widmete und erfolgreich mit dieser herumexperimentierte. 2015 gründete er mit seinen beiden Forschungskollegen Marlise Amstutz und Christoph Kasper das Spin-Off T3 Pharma, mit der Vision das Leben von Krebspatienten zu verbessern. Simon Ittigs’ erstes unternehmerisches Vorbild war sein Grossvater, welcher verschiedene Unternehmen führte. Des Weiteren hat Simon bereits in seiner Jugend erste unternehmerische Erfahrungen gesammelt: Er hat gemeinsam mit Kollegen Events für bis zu 2000 Menschen organisiert. Privat ist Simon Ittig ein Familienmensch, welcher viel Wert auf gemeinsame Zeit mit seinen drei Kindern legt und ihnen seine unternehmerischen und menschlichen Werte mitgeben möchte. Memorable Quotes: "Das Wichtigste ist nicht aufzugeben und nicht zu schnell zufrieden zu sein. Auch bei Investoren, Consultants und Mitgründern." Wenn du mehr über SEF startups erfahren möchtest, hör dir unsere Episode mit Sergio Studer, Andreas Lenzhofer, Jörg Sandrock, Martin Stadler, Jeannette Morath, Carlo Loderer und David Gugelmann an. Folge uns auf Twitter, Instagram, Facebook und Linkedin um auf dem Laufenden zu bleiben. Wir posten regelmässig über Live Shows, Give-Aways und unsere Founders Dinner Events. | |||
| 22 Apr 2020 | EP #68 - Ariel Lüdi: How To Sell a Company For 1.5bn $ | 01:16:01 | |
Timestamps: 11:31 - Scaling from 0 to 150 million in revenue within 6 years 23:23 - Why not just enjoy a billionaire fortune? 35:08 - Closing an intercontinental gap 43:50 - Ariel's most surreally successful moment 52:34 - Being the "anti-venture capitalist" About Ariel Lüdi: Ariel Lüdi is a parachute stuntman turned millionaire. After dropping out of his physics degree at ETH Zurich, Ariel joined IBM as a developer. From there he joined Oracle, where he discovered his passion and talent for sales. After 8 very successful years as SVP of Sales at Broad Vision and Salesforce, he joined Hybris as CEO. He invested all his previous earnings into the company and even went into debt. In 2013, he sold Hybris to SAP for $ 1.5bn. Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 27 Jun 2024 | EP #414 - Mark Streit & Ben Küffer: Der neue Stern am Schweizer Uhrenhimmel | 00:38:23 | |
Timestamps: 1:36 - Der steinige Weg von Mark Streit in die NHL 4:32 - Von Breitling zur eigenen Schweizer Uhrenmarke 18:28 - Von wo kennen sich Mark Streit und Ben Küeffer 22:20 - Braucht es wirklich eine neue Schweizer Uhrenmarke? 27:43 - Die Parallelen von Sport und Business This episode was originally a live conversation recorded at a Sport and Business Network event in October 2023 and presented by Properti, your partner for all real estate transactions. About Mark Streit & Ben Küffer: Ben Küffer ist der Mitgründer der Schweizer Uhrenmarke NORQAIN. Zuvor arbeitete er fast 12 Jahre lang als Brand Manager bei Breitling. Der junge Visionär hatte die Idee, eine neue Uhrenmarke zu gründen, als er feststellte, dass es in der Branche an erschwinglichen und qualitativ hochwertigen Zeitmessern mangelte. Im Jahr 2018 gründete er NORQAIN und stellte ein bemerkenswertes Team zusammen. Ted Schneider, ein Mitglied der Familie, die fast 40 Jahre lang Breitling besass, und die Schweizer Eishockey-Legende und Stanley-Cup-Sieger Mark Streit stiessen als Mitgründer und Mitglieder des Verwaltungsrats dazu. Mark Streit ist ein ehemaliger Schweizer Eishockeyspieler und Mitbegründer von NORQAIN. Der Verteidiger spielte insgesamt 820 Spiele für die Montréal Canadiens, die New York Islanders, die Philadelphia Flyers und die Pittsburgh Penguins in der National Hockey League und gewann 2017 mit den Penguins den Stanley Cup. Don’t forget to give us a follow on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly giveaways or founders' dinners. | |||
| 24 Mar 2021 | EP #143 - Tanja Dowe: Investing In Digital Health | 00:55:27 | |
Timestamps: 2:29 - Having a surgeon and a business woman for parents 6:13 - Are entrepreneurs born or made? 25:04 - Tanja's investment focus area 29:44 - Red flags for an investor 44:52 - The Finnish and Swiss ecosystems About Tanja Dowe Tanja Dowe is CEO for the Debiopharm International Innovation Fund and Board Member for Novadiscovery and Oncomfort. Using her expertise in strategic business and market demands, Tanja’s work encourages commercialization of innovative healthcare technologies and patient care solutions for a brighter, healthier future. Memorable Quotes "Of course everyone can turn themselves into an entrepreneur. But some people are just born that way: curious, risk-taking, and eager to create something which will outlive them." "The health industry is very focused on treating diseases. We need to start thinking about how to prevent them. And we need to start catering to the digi-native generations." If you would like to listen to more episodes about medtech, check out our conversations with Luiza Dobre, Lea Von Bidder, Michael Friedrich, Katja Berlinger, Sophia Borowka and Dorina Thiess. Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 30 Jun 2021 | EP #169 - Julian Massler: Train Like An Astronaut | 01:26:16 | |
Timestamps: 1:16 - Discovering HIIT training 12:06 - How an injury leads to a company 22:30 - How a 6 min workout delivers results 35:18 - When COVID hit 51:41 - How Aurum stands out in the fitness market About Julian Massler: Julian Massler is the co-founder and CEO at Aurum Fit, the data-driven high intensity strength training startup that promises results with just 6 min per week. Before starting his own company, Julian was a junior investment banker at GCA Altium, and he holds a bachelor's in Economics from the University of Konstanz. Back in his gymnasium days, Julian belonged to Germany's national sailing squad, where he was told he needed to bulk up in order to really be competitive. This was when Julian was first introduced the team to the highly-effective High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). HIIT teaches you that the most important thing is not the workouts themselves, but the resting periods in between, since our bodies were built to experience brief and intense bursts of exercise, followed by a lot of time laying around. After university, Julian started working at GCA Altium as an investment banker, with the ultimate goal of reaching FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early). One day, his cubicle buddy Philipp asked him for fitness advice, and was surprised to hear Julian trained only once a week. Julian introduced Philipp to HIIT and thus a business idea was born. Julian and Philipp felt gyms were not an adequate answer to people's needs: all they basically do is rent out equipment — which 1. most people don't know how to properly use, 2. has to be set up again and again, and 3. is sometimes quite the safety hazard. The results you obtain are also a pain to properly quantify and keep track of. Julian and Philipp wanted to build facilities where coaches would always be available and where strength training was done with something better than weights — and so they built automated and highly sophisticated machines which measure the strength you're putting in and offer the same resistance, and which allow you to keep track of your achievements and break them down analytically. Unlike regular gyms or fitness apps, Aurum Fit targets people who don't particularly enjoy exercising, and don't really know much about it. Their main customer personas are busy professionals, well-off retirees, and people recovering from injuries. Currently they're trying to scale the company through franchising, and would like to venture further out into elderly care. Memorable Quotes: "I have a lot of empathy for people, and that makes me a really good marketer." "Strength is the most underrated health marker out there." Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 17 Apr 2019 | EP #24 - Daniel Gutenberg: How To Fundraise As An Early Stage Startup | 00:34:48 | |
Timestamps: 1:15 - Mistakes Swiss founders make repeatedly. 4:20 - How to find the right evaluation. 09:58 - How much money should an early-stage company raise? 21:47 - How should a startup team deal with an investor? 29:12 - How often does Daniel check-in with his investments? About Daniel Gutenberg: Finding unicorns before they have 10 employees is his ambition. Daniel Gutenberg is one of Switzerland’s most active Venture Capitalists and Angel Investors. During his career he’s collected a total of 12 unicorns in his portfolio, so far. Daniel started his first company – Gutenberg Communication Systems – in 1991 and sold it in 2000 as part of a deal to become the CEO of the acquiring company. During this time, Daniel was a member of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO), through which he met people like Jeff Bezos and Marc Andreessen. Since 2003 he has been active as an investor and advisor to startups through the Swiss venture capital firm Venture Incubator Partners. Daniel was awarded business angel of the year in 2011 (SECA). Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 26 Oct 2022 | EP #271 - Hanna and Johan Åkerström: The Boostrapped Clean Personal Care Brand | 01:04:00 | |
Timestamps: 2:48 - Being part of the FREITAG journey 12:27 - Meeting your romantic partner and co-founder 17:42 - Clean and ethical beauty 40:02 - Choosing to be bootstrapped 45:29 - Internationalizing the soap emporium About Hanna and Johan Åkerström: Hanna and Johan Åkerström are the co-founders of Soeder, a natural and ethical personal care product manufacturer based in Zurich, Switzerland. Hanna is a trained architect, and Johan studied International Working Science at the University of Gothenburg. They both originally hail from Sweden. They created Soeder back in 2013, when the clean beauty trend hadn’t really happened yet. The “soap” available on the market was 99% synthetic detergents, and there was a big lack of transparency regarding raw materials. So Hanna and Johan decided to start making “real soap” in a small garage, and sold their first batch of liquid Soeder soap at a Zurich Christmas market. People reacted positively, and so the pair began scaling the business bit by bit. In hindsight, Johan and Hanna think that if they’d had a huge demand right at the beginning, this would've killed them, because with no outside investment they would not have been able to keep up. They don’t regret being bootstrapped, however, as it allowed them to make all the mistakes they needed to make at the beginning. Besides, slow, organic growth has proven just as effective. Nowadays they sell soap bars as well, alongside shampoo, conditioner, sanitizers, etc. They use glass packaging which they encourage customers to refill – this practice might seem standard in 2022, but back when Soeder began, Hanna and Johan had to take the time to educate the market on why both these things were important and safe. This transparency has paid off: Soeder currently has a very large share of recurring customers who trust the brand and do word of mouth marketing for them. Hanna and Johan continue to feel confident that the only way for a bootstrapped company to compete with the big fish is to take the time to do things differently, and focus on quality and the customer relationship. Memorable Quotes: "Building a company with your romantic partner brings you much closer together." "If you make a good product, the person who buys it will sell the next one for you." Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 09 Oct 2024 | EP #444 - Priyanka Dutta Passecker: What If You Healed Chronic Wounds With a Spray? | 00:36:38 | |
Check out our FREE go-to-market masterclass with Ankita Mehta and Soumya Dash. Timestamps: 4:19 - Being an immigrant and being an entrepreneur 7:23 - Convincing your boss to help you start a startup 10:30 - What are chronic wounds? 16:10 - Making personalized therapies affordable 24:00 - The long development cycles in biotech About Priyanka Dutta Passecker: Priyanka Dutta Passecker is the co-founder and CEO of Healiva, a biotech startup using advanced cell therapy to treat acute and chronic wounds. She holds a PhD in Neuroscience from Trinity College Dublin and worked for companies like UCB Pharma, Axol Bioscience Ltd and Bioseutica before starting Healiva in 2020. 2-3% of the elderly suffer from painful venous/arterial leg ulcers and nearly 25% of diabetics may develop diabetic foot ulcers in their lifetimes. This burden is borne by healthcare systems, which spend 2% of their budgets on wound management. Worst of all, about 60% of chronic wounds remain unhealed. That’s why Healiva is such a game changer: they use 3 non-virus-based enzymes from codfish pancreas, which, due to their provenance, are quite stable at room temperature, and therefore can be stored in a liquid form and used as a spray. They’re currently getting ready for pre-clinical studies to prove the safety and efficacy of their product.
Don’t forget to give us a follow on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly giveaways or founders' dinners. | |||
| 10 Feb 2021 | EP #131 - Leif Langenskiöld: The Swiss-Certified Vitamin Water | 01:10:14 | |
Timestamps: 4:32 - Red Bull being illegal did wonders for its sales 18:01 - Recovering from failure 32:24 - Building on top of an existing brand 44:39 - How important is timing? 54:40 - Turning down most investors About Leif Langenskiöld and FocusWater Leif Langenskiöld is the founder of FocusWater, a Swiss vitamin water. After obtaining his degree in International Relations from the University of St. Gallen, Leif originally planned to join the United Nations. His plans changed significantly when a summer job at Red Bull turned into an 11-year tenure with the company, eventually advancing him to Director of Business development and Motorsports marketing based in Los Angeles, CA. Having started at Red Bull as employee #16, Leif got to know what it takes to get a beverage startup off the ground — and in 2005, he decided to leave Red Bull’s increasingly corporate structures to make it on his own. His first two attempts at beverage-related ventures failed. Unfazed, he continued his hunt for the right idea and eventually found FocusWater. The brand was struggling because it had a very low repurchase rate (meaning customers bought it only once and never again). Leif, together with his co-founder, took over the brand from its original owners and completely revamped the contents of the product. The new Focus Water was a hit, growing from CHF 3 m in sales in 2018 to 10 m in 2020. In 2019, he sold the company to Rivella’s innovation team for an undisclosed amount. Memorable Quotes "When I joined Red Bull in 1995, it was a startup. With time, as it grew bigger and became more corporate-like, it became less interesting for me." "I think you learn much faster by making mistakes than through a series of successes." If you would like to listen to more conversations about the food and beverages industry, check out our episode with Andri SIlberschmidt. Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 01 Jan 2023 | EP #287 - Julie Maples: A Founder's Guide to Fundraising | 00:18:33 | |
For a free masterclass on angel investing with DART Labs founder Sophie Lamparter and SICTIC president Thomas Dübendorfer, click here. Timestamps: 03:52 - Building Trust with Potential Investors 07:54 - How to Split Your Time Fundraising and Managing Your Business 08:57 - Who Should be Involved in the Fundraising process 10:48 - The Advisory Board's Role in the Fundraising Process 15:29 - How Long the Fundraising Process Takes About Julie Maples: Julie Maples is a co-founder and managing director at FYRFLY Ventures, where she has made investments in companies such as Boundless, Rosalyn.ai, and Mobi Systems, among others. She also serves on the board of the V Foundation, a non-profit organization that supports cancer research. At The Wharton School, she earned a BS in entrepreneurial management and an MA in Finance. In this episode, Julie talks about raising funds and managing the demands fundraising takes on your time as a founder. As a founder, you should build trust with potential investors, determine who should be in charge of raising money, and divide your time well between fundraising and managing your business. It has always been difficult for entrepreneurs to separate their personal life and their professional lives. No single issue should consume all of your time as a founder, especially not fundraising. It's equally important to protect your mental health as it is to achieve your next milestone. It will always be an easier and more successful journey if you tend to yourself. Memorable Quotes: “As a founder, it is important that you have an advisory board that opens doors for you.” “It is important to keep a pulse on the status of the business to know when you are underperforming.” Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly giveaways or founders' dinners! | |||
| 23 Jun 2024 | EP #413 - Elena Maran & Angela di Rosa: Simplifying AI Compliance & Expanding to New Markets | 00:50:39 | |
Timestamps: 7:13 - Democratizing AI 9:37 - You’re right to be worried about AI 11:38 - The EU AI Regulation Act 20:13 - Expanding to the US 32:30 - How to enter a new market This episode was co-produced with Switzerland Global Enterprise. Click here to learn more about the SWISS Pavilion at Singapore Fintech Festival 2024, mentioned at the start of the episode. About Elena Maran & Angela di Rosa: Elena Maran is the Global Head Financial Services at Modulos AG, an ETH spin-off developing and operating AI products and services in a new regulated environment. She holds a MSc in Finance from Università Bocconi and previously worked at banks like Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley and Citi Group before joining Modulos in 2022. Angela di Rosa is the Senior Consultant Southeast Asia and Fintech Internationalization Expert at Switzerland Global Enterprise, the official Swiss organization for export and investment promotion, which supports Swiss SMEs in their international business, and helps innovative foreign companies to establish in Switzerland. Modulos offers a Responsible AI Platform that seamlessly integrates AI governance, risk management, and data science, ensuring that your organization remains compliant while innovating. Platforms like these have become increasingly relevant ever since the passing of the EU AI Regulation Act back in March 2024. This AI Act is the most comprehensive effort at regulating AI so far, and punishes failure to comply with its requirements with a fine of up to 7% of a company’s annual turnover. Although Switzerland is not part of the EU, any Swiss company that deals with EU customers will be forced to comply with this new piece of legislation.
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| 05 Jul 2020 | EP #86 - Startup Of The Week: Logmind | 00:17:05 | |
Timestamps: 7:16 - Competition 8:51 - Should you get a patent? 11:24 - What should you fundraise for? About Ketevani and Logmind: Ketevani Zaridze is the CEO and Founder of Logmind, an AI-accelerated log data analytics platform. Originally from Georgia, she got her Masters in Computer Science from EPFL in Switzerland. After gaining work experience at Xerox, Open Systems and Cern, she started Logmind in 2018. Recently the company signed their first enterprise customer. They are now looking to raise CHF 1.3m in their seed round in order to grow to CHF 1.5m in recurring annual revenue within the next 2 years. Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 23 Nov 2022 | EP #277 - Levent Künzi: Simplifying Swiss Real Estate | 00:37:02 | |
Timestamps: 2:42 - 25yo and COO at a big company 11:00 - Building a company with your brother 17:35 - The Swiss real estate market 22:55 - Taking on investors to support crazy growth 27:58 - Avoiding a second hit of burnout About Levent Künzi: Levent Künzi is the co-founder and CEO at Properti, His journey of self-discovery resulted in him starting a business with his brother, Adrian Künzi, in 2019: Properti, which combines cutting-edge technologies such as robotics, virtual reality and artificial intelligence with years of experience, expert knowledge and digital marketing. They’re simultaneously a real estate company and also a software company, offering a 360º view of all real estate related transactions (buying, renting, moving, cleaning..), in which 80% of all processes are automatized. Properti real estate agents are thus able to handle several more listings than regular agents. Levent and Adrian bootstrapped Properti for the first 2 years, and just recently raised a $6.5M seed round. Memorable Quotes: "When I quit my job, it was very hard for me to find out who I am. Burnout turned into a real crisis." Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 15 Jan 2023 | EP #291 - Philipp Stauffer: Office, Hybrid or Remote? | 00:21:29 | |
Timestamps: 02:42 - Pros of the Physical Office 05:28 - Cons of the Physical Office 09:09 - Advantages of a Fully Remote Setup 11:43 - The Hybrid Model Approach 13:11 - A Purposeful Meeting Place About Philipp Stauffer: Philipp Stauffer is the co-founder and managing director of FYRFLY Venture Partners, a venture capital firm that invests in companies using data and intelligence to build their competitive advantage. His investments have included AngelList, Philz Coffee, and Beekeeper, among many others. As well as being a founding board member of the Swiss Blockchain Federation, he is also on the Advisory Board of the Swiss Entrepreneurs Foundation. Additionally, he serves on the boards of PubMatic, the Swiss American Chamber of Commerce, and the Digital Citizen Fund. Human beings are social animals and it's easier to build better trust by meeting in person than remotely — this is the value physical spaces may have over a remote working model. Philipp got a taste of the office environment when he started working at a Swiss private bank. When he got into consulting, he started working remotely. It became apparent to him how different office life is versus remote working: in terms of culture, habits and lifestyle. The serendipity of running into someone at the office who ends up being instrumental to your success is something that is hard to replicate in a remote space. Even though working in an office has its social advantages, some of the drawbacks of the physical space are the additional expenses in time and money that come with commuting. Despite this, going to the office versus working remotely was not something many companies thought about until the onset of COVID, which changed the work culture completely. It forced us to become more intentional about travel and taught us how to be more efficient with time. The appeal to a remote working environment grew as physical spaces, especially for startups, became an unnecessary additional expense. Furthermore, the distance became less of a factor when putting together a team, and more companies were able to hire talents from all over the world. Remote working became the ideal fix post-covid. However, as it became the norm, its challenges became more apparent. With these challenges came innovations that made the remote working experience less complicated and more profitable. Memorable Quotes: "Involve your team in your hybrid model approach." “The pandemic taught us how critical it is to make in-person meetings purposeful.” If you would like to learn how to handle competition as a founder, listen to our previous episode with Philipp Stauffer. Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly giveaways or founders' dinners! | |||
| 17 Mar 2021 | EP #141 - Valérie Vuillerat: Diversity In The Startup World | 01:05:58 | |
Timestamps: 2:11 - A solution-oriented family 17:21 - Investing in diversity from day one 22:43 - Becoming a mother and founding WeShapeTech 30:14 - Gendered language 48:25 - How to recruit
Valérie Vuillerat is CEO of Nine Internet Solutions, the leading provider of platform management solutions in Switzerland. With ample experience in board membership, business administration and entrepreneurial expertise, Valérie was also CEO for Ginetta and co-founder of Witty Works, helping tech companies boot out unconscious bias through inclusive language choices suited for all walks of life. Memorable Quotes "I grew up in a very solution-oriented family. Complaining was not an option." "In the future, diversity will be a differentiator for attractive job opportunities." "Diversity leads nowhere if not everybody has a voice." If you would like to listen to more episodes on female entrepreneurship, check out our conversation with Estefanía Tapias. Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 29 Nov 2023 | EP #359 - Markus Witte: Building a Successful Founding Team | 00:43:07 | |
Timestamps: 3:20 - Solo founding or co-founder team? 8:37 - “Why are we doing this?” 11:58 - Hiring in the early days 16:50 - Knowing when to pivot 26:47 - Early stage startups are falling apart About Markus Witte: Markus Witte is the chairman and co-founder of Babbel, the market leading app for language learning, as well as a partner at Wachstumsbegleitung, which offers coaching and consulting for scaling startups. He holds an MA in Cultural Studies from Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and previously worked as a university professor in Germany and the US before founding Babbel in 2007. In his second conversation with our host, Silvan, Markus shared his thoughts on co-founder relationships and managing an early stage startup. Here is a summary of his takeaways:
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| 08 Jan 2020 | EP #53 - Carole Ackermann: Q&A on How To Win Business Angels Over As Investors | 01:01:25 | |
Timestamps 2:00 - Why aren't business angels just called "investors"? 5:17 - What's the best time to approach a business angel? 13:50 - How to convince a business angel to invest in an early-stage idea 16:36 - The relevance of a team 21:19 - What KPI does Carole use to assess a product's market? 26:21 - Education or experience? 31:32 - How much of business decisions is gut feeling and how much comes from thorough analysis? 35:59 - How to read a business angel's intentions 39:07 - How much money do business angels invest? 40:24 - What does the investment process look like? 42:51 - How to split legal costs 48:08 - How an angel evaluates a startup 50:17 - Convertible loans: yay or nay? 55:07 - What separates good from great founders? 56:18 - How does Carole keep herself up to date? About Carole Ackermann: Carole Ackermann was the president of Business Angels Switzerland (BAS) Association from 2010 to 2018. In 2007, she founded Diamondscull AG, an investment and coaching firm based in Switzerland. Through BAS and Diamondscull as well as her mandates on multiple Boards of Directors, she has acted as a startup and executive coach for many years. Carole holds a PhD in Marketing from University of St. Gallen (HSG). Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 24 Apr 2022 | EP #235 - Olivier Laplace: From Founder To Venture Capitalist | 00:27:54 | |
Timestamps: 1:22 - Wanting to be a VC 5:08 - Investing in B2B SaaS 8:32 - Getting more Swiss VC money 15:42 - Making Switzerland more startup-friendly 20:28 - Where the Swiss ecosystem is going About Olivier Laplace: Olivier Laplace has been a partner at the VC fund VI Partners since early 2022. He previously worked as head of corporate VC at Swiss Post and founded a company called Balumpa, which provided users a geo-localized social network. Throughout the years, his investor portfolio has included companies like TestingTime, Beekeeper and guuruu. At VI partners Olivier mostly invests in B2B SaaS. His typical day as a VC includes: - 2-3 phone calls with new potential companies - 2-3 calls with potential co-investors - A few random calls, like helping portfolio companies with day-to-day issues A common complaint within the Swiss ecosystem is that there isn’t enough gross capital. Olivier thinks this should be solved in two ways: - Swiss pension funds need to start investing in VC. There’s 1 trillion CHF in the Swiss pension fund system. Nowadays 1% of that (10B) goes into private equity, but very international private equity, and mostly into the buyouts. - Building innovation in-house might not be the best way to do it anymore, so Swiss corporations need to buy out more startups. Despite popular perception, IPOs are very rare ends to the startup journey — it’s mostly tradesales. Memorable Quotes: "In 15 years of work experience, I changed careers about 5 times — these changes were always based on opportunities." Resources Mentioned: Deep Tech Nation, Dominique Mégret The Power Law, Sebastian Mallaby If you would like to listen to the first episode in our Startup Days co-production, check out our conversation with Laura Matter. Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 06 Oct 2021 | EP #191 - Anne Richter: The Climate-Friendly Snack | 00:37:03 | |
Timestamps: 4:27 - The early days of Knecker 13:00 - The Knecker recipe 20:09 - The Knecker buyer persona 22:24 - Packaging 31:58 - Going for bigger retailers About Anne Richter Anne Richter is the founder and CEO of Knecker, a startup which produces vegan protein-rich snacks. She got her MA in Economical Engineering from the Technische Universität Berlin and afterwards worked for a series of energy companies, before starting her own venture in 2020. Anne met her co-founder Susanne while volunteering at the local Ludothek. Since Anne had just had her third child, she was especially impressed by Susanne's success as both a mother and entrepreneur. Together they developed the idea of a vegan Kneckerbröt, for an age which requires climate-friendly snacks. The base ingredient of Knecker is organic soy, sourced from a local family farm. The recipe then also contains sesame, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and lin seeds. It's gluten-free, and comes in three different flavours: mountain salt (geared towards sporty-people), rosemary (usually eaten as an appero), and curry and thyme (for chip lovers). Knecker's proof of concept phase began right after lockdown, making buyers twice as enthusiastic about having the product in their stores. Knecker's buyer persona is an outdoorsy, sporty, environmentally-conscious person between the age of 20-55. Keeping in line with the climate-friendly theme, Knecker packages are refillable and available at "unpacked shops" — meaning zero waste, package-free shops. While Anne would love to start expanding Knecker as soon as possible, it's getting harder and harder to enter the EU market these days, so she feels she still needs more volume in Switzerland before she can finally take that challenge on. Memorable Quotes: "I'm alive in order to change things. I think it's part of my DNA." "Everyone who has a company should be on Instagram." Resources Mentioned: If you would like to listen to more episodes on climate-friendly food, check out our conversation with Mark Essam. Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 19 May 2021 | EP #157 - Cynthia Jurytko: Let The Students Run The Fund | 00:42:19 | |
Timestamps: 1:16 - An international background 5:00 - 3 crucial factors for a good investment 10:23 - Losing an investment 16:30 - Launching a student fund 23:42 - How they pick the students About Cynthia Jurytko Cynthia Jurytko is a professional Business Angel and President of the Board of S2S Ventures, Switzerland's first student-run Venture Capital firm. In 2012, Cynthia left the path of management consulting to become Head of Investment Strategy and Portfolio Management at Neue Zürcher Zeitung. This was when she also started her journey as a business angel — as of now, her points of focus are healthcare and sustainability, two traditional fields that could really benefit from extra impact and entrepreneurial innovation according to Cynthia. However, Cynthia's endeavors didn't end there! She realized how universities were often contacted by outside professional funds, but were lacking in cross-campus initiatives. Following the footsteps of American role models such as the Dorm Room Fund, S2S knows how the upcoming generations can lead the way to innovation, because they have an unbiased view on tech trends and are close to their peers and vital infrastructures, such as research centers and university clubs. The project receives its funding exclusively from board members and private investors interested in academic funds. At S2S, students are not only the focus of investment practices, but they run the fund themselves! Two students from each major university are chosen for membership. Their learning process is completely autonomous: they are the ones contacting early-stage startups with no limited industry focus and deciding the ticket sizes, which can range from 20-150k CHF. Change is never a problem: the constant renewing of students benefits the initiative with fresh ideas each academic year. As new campus funds spring across Europe, Cynthia is keen on keeping her ideals of transparency while hoping her project soon expands internationally. Resources Mentioned Village Global's Venture Stories Brené Brown's leadership advice Memorable Quotes "No investment has zero risks or weaknesses. You always find something." “With Series A startups, you evaluate it a bit differently, because you can make more fact-checking, you have more numbers to look at. You get to have a more structured and analytical approach. In pre-seed stage, you invest in the future of the company, and mostly in the team’s ability to realize that future.” If you would like to listen to more conversations on student funds, check out our episode with Edouard Treccani. Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 12 Aug 2020 | EP #94 - Peter Käser: Disrupting Swiss E-commerce | 00:43:05 | |
Timestamps: 2:57 - Splitting roles between 5 co-founders 10:05 - Testing the market 19:24 - Having net promoter score as your main KPI 25:40 - Disrupting the market and facing opponents 35:31 - Starting to hire people full-time About Peter Käser: Peter Käser is the Founder and COO of VIU Ventures AG, a Swiss eyewear brand. He started VIU in 2013, together with his co-founder Kilian Wagner, both of them bespectacled. VIU was originally conceived as an online-only store, integrating the entire eyewear supply chain and therefore offering higher quality at a lower price. But the founders soon realized that their customers like to physically try on their glasses before buying them. Today VIU has over 50 physical stores in 6 countries and several hundred employees. Peter holds a Masters in Banking and Finance from the University of St. Gallen (HSG). Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 17 Jul 2024 | EP #420 - Yves Béhar: Venture Designing, Entrepreneurship & the Human Spirit | 00:57:45 | |
Timestamps: 2:35 - How Switzerland fell short in the 90s 15:00 - Suffering and the creative process 23:21 - The challenge of designing an office chair 31:28 - Design or die 33:30 - What is a venture designer? This episode was sponsored by NordPass. Use code “swisspreneur” at checkout to get 30% off Business and Teams plans. About Yves Béhar: Yves Béhar is a venture designer, the founder of the fuseproject, co-founder of TELO, August, and Canopy, and Chief Creative Officer at Jawbone, August Home, and TELO. He holds a BSc in Industrial Design from the ArtCenter College of Design (in Pasadena, California) and worked in consulting for many years before starting fuseproject in 1999. fuseproject was born out of a wish to create an integral version of design: not just designing something within the boundaries of the industrial design discipline, but actually thinking about branding and about creating an experience as well. Yves is a big believer in working tirelessly at your dream even if you don’t show impressive amounts of native talent. He recalls that from his friends at ArtCenter, he was the worst draftsman, but his idea for what he wanted to do with design and his tireless work carried him far regardless. Yves thinks suffering is part of the creative process, and that it is worth pushing through, because pain is temporary, but “suck” is forever. Out of his wish to work long-term with resource-strained startups came the concept of “venture designing”: instead of charging startups like a consultant, he co-founds their ventures. Throughout the years he’s worked with 90+ startups. He believes this is the most mutually beneficial form of collaboration, since excellent design is usually the product of long term work and coexistence.
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| 08 Jan 2023 | EP #289 - Julie Maples: Putting on the Sales Hat as a Founder | 00:14:47 | |
Timestamps: 01:33 - Building vs Selling the Product 06:01 - Outsourcing Sales 09:00 - How to Win Your First Customer 11:02 - Tips on Improving Your Sales Pitch 12:19 - A Founder's Unique Role About Julie Maples: Julie Maples is a co-founder and managing director at FYRFLY Ventures, where she has made investments in companies such as Boundless, Rosalyn.ai, and Mobi Systems, among others. She also serves on the board of the V Foundation, a non-profit organization that supports cancer research. At The Wharton School, she earned a BS in entrepreneurial management and an MA in Finance. It may appear strange to consider a founder being involved in the sales process. However, a founder's responsibilities extend beyond just running the business; a founder must make the first sales of their product or service to reap valuable lessons from these sales sessions. Some founders may enjoy building the product, but they may dislike selling it. It is important to change that mindset and replace the word "sales" with "partnership". It is critical to view your potential customers as evangelists who will be your biggest champions if they like your product or service, especially in early customer meetings. When you satisfy your early customers and learn from them, you learn what works and what doesn't. Even if you don't think you have a passion for sales, you can change the way you approach it by letting go of the idea that it must be done a certain way. You can simply speak honestly about your vision while listening to the person across from you. If you pass up the chance, you can miss out on important information from early customers that could help you develop a better product or service. It is also critical to recognize the value of the sales process, because outsourcing sales in the early stages of a business may not be the best move. It deprives you of the opportunity to learn and incurs additional costs. When your company has grown, it is a better time to outsource. As a founder, you'll always be doing sales. When you approach sales as a partnership, you will fall in love with sharing your passion with others as often as the opportunity presents itself. Memorable Quotes: “You don’t have to love sales; just share your vision authentically and learn from the person across from you.” “Your early customers are your biggest champions.” If you would like to listen to our previous episode with Julie Maples on fundraising, check out episode #287. Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly giveaways or founders' dinners! | |||
| 14 Dec 2022 | EP #283 - Tobias Rein: Going Back to the Drawing Board | 00:54:47 | |
Timestamps: 05:00- The Change in the Travel Market 16:10 - GetYourGuide’s Business Model 30:38 - The Dawn of the Pandemic 39:13 - Growth Strategies 49:22 - Navigating the Future About Tobias Rein: Tobias Rein is the co-founder and Principal Engineer at GetYourGuide, a leading online booking platform for travel experiences. He studied Information Technology and Electrical Engineering at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zürich). During his studies, he also worked for the design agency, Palindrome. In 2009, he and his four co-founders had an idea to create a marketplace for tours and activities, and from there GetYourGuide was born. What started out as a concept targeted at students morphed into a platform with a B2B business model aimed at professional suppliers and businesses, since students weren’t as interested in the initial concept of GetYourGuide as the team initially assumed. After they launched the prototype, companies started reaching out to them to get on the platform, which they took as a sign to go back to the drawing board and launch GetYourGuide 2.0, a platform for professional suppliers. Tobias thinks timing is one of the keys to any successful business model, especially businesses in the travel market. At the time GetYourGuide started, travel was just beginning to move slowly online. They decided to adapt to the market and created GetYourGuide as a forerunner of the online travel era in terms of online booking experiences. As they grew, new products started to launch in the market, and Google became one of their biggest competitors by integrating booking features in its software. Tobias believes that the key to standing out from big competitors such as Google is to provide unmatched customer service and to have a solid knowledge of the brand. In 2020, the pandemic disturbed travel as we knew it, and GetYourGuide, along with many other travel platforms, was deeply affected. With the rise in their competitor’s leverage and the onset of covid-19, Tobias and his team incorporated three main principles to help them outlive the crisis:
By doing this, they cancelled tours that were no longer possible and set up a hassle-free process to refund customers. They avoided mass layoffs, though inevitably letting go of a few people. Finally, they were more frugal with their expenses, getting rid of non-essential items they were no longer using. Despite the changes they had to go through, Tobias believes that this experience made them more resilient and better prepared for any upcoming challenges. Post-pandemic, GetYourGuide has been redeemed, seeing their revenue skyrocket since borders have opened up. Memorable Quotes: “I would rather go on the safe path of adapting to the market, rather than trying to change the market” “Motivation and passion are only half of it” If you want to listen to more episodes talking about other platforms made for travellers, check out our conversation with Oliver Huber founder of Nomady. Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly giveaways or founders' dinners! | |||
| 01 Apr 2024 | EP #388 - Nicole Colmenares Pulido: How to Make Prosthetics Accessible Worldwide | 00:23:38 | |
Timestamps: 2:41 - The neglected field of disability care 5:09 - Making money as an impact startup 9:30 - Circleg’s magic team 15:33 - Managing startup growth 18:20 - Fundraising through the Swisspreneur Syndicate About Nicole Pulido: Nicole Colmenares Pulido is the co-founder and Head of Business Development & Finance at Circleg, a Swiss startup providing affordable and high-quality prosthetics to low and middle income countries across the world. Nicole holds a master’s degree in Business and Development Studies from Copenhagen Business School and previously worked for companies like Climate-KIC and PRORSUM AG before starting Circleg in 2021.
Although initially they depended on grant money, the team is now ready for VC funding, and is raising CHF 1.5M to power their African expansion. Part of these funds are being raised through the Swisspreneur Syndicate: check out our deal flow page to learn more. Don’t forget to give us a follow on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly giveaways or founders' dinners. | |||
| 24 Jul 2024 | EP #422 - Viktor Calabro: How Coople Became Europe's Largest Digital Staffing Platform | 00:44:58 | |
Timestamps: 7:18 - Selling your MVP 12:19 - Finding co-founders 16:24 - Not focusing enough on specific markets 27:05 - Scaling too early & stepping down as CEO 37:02 - Employee share programs About Viktor Calabro: Viktor Calabro is the founder and former CEO of Coople, Europe's largest digital staffing platform. He previously worked for companies like Trivadis AG and Erlebniskultur GmbH before starting Coople in 2009. Coople matches flexible workers to short- and long-term assignments in various roles in office, retail, logistics, hospitality, events and hotel. They increase their clients’ revenue by adjusting their team in real-time to match fluctuating demand, and reduce their client’s costs by outsourcing admin and payroll. One challenge that Viktor had to face during his time at Coople was finding out that they had scaled too early, before actually achieving true product-market fit, and seeing themselves being spread too thin. This, paired with the fact that Victor had been going all-in for Coople for almost a decade and no longer had the energy to meet the needs of his role, made him step down as CEO role in 2018. Nowadays, his focus is on coaching, training, and investing, as well as on spending quality time with his family and friends.
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| 15 Mar 2023 | EP #307 - Lara Riparip: The Swiss Coding Academy For Girls | 00:52:50 | |
Timestamps: 1:47 - From the US to Switzerland 10:37 - Teaching girls to code 25:43 - Non-profit & a day job 32:45 - How to spot burnout 50:51 - Rapid fire questions About Lara Riparip: Lara Riparip is the co-founder of and an instructor at GirlsCodeToo, a coding academy for girls striving to breach the gender gap in STEM. She holds an MSc in Neural Systems and Computation from ETH and previously worked as a Staff Research Associate at the University of California. She currently works as a Frontend Software Engineer at Avaloq, a global leader in digital banking solutions. Back in 2020, she co-founded an association called Girls Can Code, but unfortunately due to a lack of strict guidelines the founding team ran into disagreements which led to a separation, and out of this breach the GirlsCodeToo project was born in 2021. They’re a non-profit with the goal of motivating young girls across Switzerland to use coding as a way of expressing their creativity, and to inspire more girls to study computer science at a university level. They target 8-18yo and their workshops are held in English, German and/or French and/or Italian. They provide both introductory coding workshops as well as in-depth workshops in specific coding languages or technologies. They also provide workshops to boost confidence and interpersonal skills. The prices they charge, together with donations, crowdfunding and corporate sponsorships allow them to cover their costs. Lara is no stranger to the hardships of running a project on top of your day job, and she has learned how this can lead to burnout. She warns listeners to watch out for telltale signs, like no longer drawing any enjoyment from the activities which used to make you happy. She encourages listeners to schedule time for themselves and time for boredom, as well as quality time with friends and family. Memorable Quotes: "If I could talk to an 8 year old me, I’d tell her to try as many things as possible, even if you suck at first." Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 12 Jun 2022 | EP #248 - Alexandre Laybros: Energy Transition Champions | 00:30:08 | |
Timestamps: 3:33 - Range anxiety with electric vehicles 10:40 - Incubating in both Switzerland and France 14:41 - Why award recognition is key 20:42 - Identifying the right launch customers 23:26 - Organizing a demo day About Alexandre Laybros: Alexandre Laybros is the co-founder and deputy CEO and CMO at WattAnyWhere, a startup offering off-grid renewable electricity for BEV fast-charging. He holds a masters in Electrical Engineering from ENSEA and previously worked for companies like Thales and Honeywell. EV owners now require ultra-fast chargers of renewable energy, anywhere, but the deployment is currently slow and costly, mainly due to lengthy studies (up to 2 years), and high cost to connect to the grid. Together with EPFL, Helbio and Elcogen, WattAnyWhere provides a long-term solution with Solid Oxide Fuel Cell-based mobile generators that consume ethanol, are ultra-silent, and deployable anywhere within 1 month. WattAnyWhere recently successfully closed a pre-seed round and are currently enjoying market traction provided by trusted partners, such as charge point operators and utility companies in Switzerland and France. Memorable Quotes: "There is no single solution to the electrification of all our equipment and industries." If you would like to listen to the previous Energy Startup Day episode, check out our conversation with Deborah Learoyd. Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 21 Oct 2020 | EP #104 - Lukas Stuber: Q&A - Data Driven Marketing In 2020 | 00:45:51 | |
Timestamps: 3:54 - Most relevant digital marketing channels 13:50 - How do you know you're on the right track? 19:33 - Talking budget 31:15 - When should you switch to an offline marketing channel? 38:41 - Best tool setup
Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 08 May 2024 | EP #400 - Pascal Bieri: Catching Up with Planted’s Incredible Growth Journey | 00:46:30 | |
Timestamps: 1:42 - The food industry 11:20 - Ensuring quality across suppliers 16:41 - Maintaining a high shelf life 26:10 - Markets Planted is tackling next 33:20 - Small pivots over time About Pascal Bieri: Pascal Bieri is the co-founder of Planted, a startup creating healthy plant-based meat alternatives. He holds an MA in Informations-, Media- and Technology Management from the University of St Gallen, and previously worked in companies like SweetWorks Confections and DeepTech Capital AG before starting Planted in 2019. He also co-founded the Green Liberal Party in Lucerne when he was 21, but the slowness of politics soon dissuaded him from getting further involved. So what’s wrong with livestock farming? From a cold, technocratic point of view, not taking into account the environment, animal well-being or workers’ rights, current livestock farming practices were great for the meat industry, since they allowed it to achieve a fantastic production ration, super efficient supply chains, pay almost no taxes and deliver very low margins to everyone involved. Meat became cheap and accessible to almost everyone. However, this came at the cost of…
Planted makes meat alternatives mainly out of pea protein, which can be grown locally and gives great taste. In 100 g of planted.chicken Nature, for example, there is 23.7 g of protein, which is about the same amount as found in conventional chicken meat. planted.chicken Nature consists of no more than four natural ingredients and a healthy portion of vitamin B12. What scares Pascal in the meat alternative market is not companies trying to produce equally healthy and tasty alternatives, but the companies making unhealthy products that taste terribly, which deter people from ever trying out a vegan product again. Don’t forget to give us a follow on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly giveaways or founders' dinners. | |||
| 15 Jul 2020 | EP #89 - Verena Kaiser: Q&A On Fundraising Essentials | 00:38:39 | |
Timestamps: 2:05 - What's the difference between fundraising for growth vs seed financing? 10:01 - How to find the right investors 17:31 - Negotiating with investors 21:28 - What kills a fundraising process? 27:54 - How much money should you raise? About Verena Kaiser: Verena Kaiser served as the Head of Direct Investment at UBS before becoming Chief of Staff, Corporate & Institutional Clients International in May 2020. As Head of Direct Investment, she was responsible for due diligence and matching of growth stage startups with UBS private investors. The UBS Direct Investment arm has already provided over CHF 120m in capital, among them VIU Ventures AG, Coatmaster AG and Cutiss AG. Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 02 Apr 2019 | EP #23 - Daniel Gutenberg: One Man, Twelve Unicorns – And Still Counting | 00:42:36 | |
Timestamps 2:55 - How he started his first company About Daniel Gutenberg: Finding unicorns before they have 10 employees is his ambition. Daniel Gutenberg is one of Switzerland’s most active Venture Capitalists and Angel Investors. During his career he’s collected a total of 12 unicorns in his portfolio, so far. Daniel started his first company – Gutenberg Communication Systems – in 1991 and sold it in 2000 as part of a deal to become the CEO of the acquiring company. During this time, Daniel was a member of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO), through which he met people like Jeff Bezos and Marc Andreessen. Since 2003 he has been active as an investor and advisor to startups through the Swiss venture capital firm Venture Incubator Partners. Daniel was awarded business angel of the year in 2011 (SECA). Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 10 Nov 2021 | EP #200 - Alain Chuard: The Founder's Playbook | 01:11:56 | |
Timestamps: 1:51 - The ideal founder team 7:09 - When to quit your day job 19:51 - Life after MVP 41:40 - Hiring for skills and culture 49:40 - The exit to Google About Alain Chuard Alain Chuard is a Swiss serial entrepreneur best known as the founder and Chief product officer of Wildfire Interactive, the social media marketing technology company acquired by Google in July 2012. At Google, Alain was responsible for overseeing Wildfire’s strategy, integration into Google’s Display Ads Division, and external representation of the product. He also co-created Swisspreneur with Christian Hirsig in 2016. Here are some of his answers to every founder's burning questions: - What's the ideal founder team? Alain prefers 2 founder teams with complementary skills: 1 product rockstar with an eye for design and strategy, and 1 marketing and sales machine. The founders should of course also share similar values. - Where should I search for my co-founder? Look for high talent-density places, like Ivy League universities, On Deck Fellowship and Y Combinator. - When should I quit my day job? Keep your day job during the idea validation phase, but go all in once that phase is through. You want to give your startup the best chance possible, and that requires you to give it your all. - How do I know if I've got a good business idea? Start with your own problems and look for inflection points, or shifts in tech and user behavior. Ask yourself: why was this idea not possible 5 years ago? How do I currently have an unfair advantage? - What makes a good MVP? MVPs should be barebones in terms of features and design but still provide a solution that captures a pivotal need the customer has. Basically: it should have achieved product market fit. - How do I know whether or not to pivot? You should pivot if you're consistently failing to see demand or if you have a high churn rate. - Should I bootstrap my company or raise funds? If you have a product that can scale through tech, raise funds. If you're running a business which grows in a more linear fashion, it's worth it to bootstrap. Either way, if you should choose to fundraise, approach it as a partnership rather than a transaction. Currently Alain is the president of Prisma, a digital first school that adapts to every child's unique needs and abilities and to every family's lifestyle. Memorable Quotes: "I see a lot of founders that look at the fundraising process like a transaction, rather than as a partnership." Resources Mentioned: The Hard Thing About Hard Things, by Ben Horowitz High Growth Handbook, by Elad Gil How Superhuman Built An Engine To Find Product Market Fit, by Rahul Vohra If you would like to listen to our very first episode with Alain, click here. | |||
| 30 May 2021 | EP #160 - Jeannette Morath: Das Geschäft Ohne Abfall | Mit Swiss Economic Forum | 00:48:55 | |
Timestamps 4:50 - Warum ReCIRCLE günstiger ist als Einwegverpackungen Über Jeannette Morath und reCIRCLE Jeannette Morath ist die Gründerin von reCIRCLE, der Schweizer Branchenlösung für Mehrwegverpackung in der Unterwegsverpflegung. Vor der Gründung ihres eigenen Unternehmens war sie als Projektmanagerin im Veranstaltungs- und Marketingbereich tätig. Unter anderem als Projektmanagerin für bike to work, und in der Kommunikation und Öffentlichkeitsarbeit bei Entsorgung und Recycling Stadt Bern. Das Ausmass der Müllproblematik von Wegwerf-Verpackungen wurde Jeannette Morath bereits mit 20 Jahren bewusst, als sie auf Korsika Beachparties für Gäste organisierte und der Strand am nächsten Tag verwüstet aussah. Deshalb entschied sie sich im Bereich Nachhaltigkeit tätig zu werden. 2014 startete sie als Co-Initiantin das Pilotprojekt «Grüne Tatze» in der Stadt Bern, welchem dasselbe Konzept wie reCIRCLE zugrunde liegt. Der Pilot sollte aufzeigen, ob überhaupt ein Bedürfnis nach diesem Produkt besteht. Nach einer erfolgreichen Pilotphase entschied sich Jeannette Morath das Konzept auszubauen. Das Produkt und das Geschäftsmodell wurden weiter verfeinert und 2015 reCIRCLE gegründet. Das reCIRCLE Netzwerk umfasste zum Startzeitpunkt 24 Restaurants, heute sind es über 1'500 und reCIRCLE expandiert erfolgreich international. Damit kommt Jeannette ihrer Vision, dass Essen in einer Mehrweg-Box zur Normalität wird, immer näher. Privat fährt Jeannette Morath mit dem Fahrrad zur Arbeit, betreibt Carsharing mit ihren Nachbarn und verreist mit ihrer Familie entweder mit dem Fahrrad, ÖV oder dem Auto innerhalb Europas, um so Flugreisen möglichst zu vermeiden. Für sie ist es jedoch wichtig, nicht zu missionieren oder sich selbst und ihrer Familie strikte Nachhaltigkeitsregeln aufzuerlegen, so isst sie zum Beispiel beim Grillieren im Sommer auch ab und zu gerne mal ein Stück Fleisch. Memorable Quotes "Wir wollen eine Lösung die für 80% der Mahlzeiten und Restaurants passt." Wenn du mehr über SEF startups erfahren möchtest, hör dir unsere Episode mit Sergio Studer, Andreas Lenzhofer, Jörg Sandrock und Martin Stadler an. | |||
| 05 Feb 2019 | EP #19 - Cédric Waldburger: Minimalism and Multitasking in the Business World | 00:42:21 | |
Timestamps: 1:37 - Delivering value to 11 different projects at the same time 14:19 - How the Swiss military service supported/hindered Cédric's entrepreneurial career 20:15 - Owning only 64 things 22:52 - What is DFINITY? 34:42 - 90-day goals About Cédric Waldburger: Cédric is a Venture Capitalist and founder of Tenderloin Ventures and Sendtask. He started his first venture – Mediasign, a digital branding agency – in high school. He went on to study electrical engineering at the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) and spent the following years in different jobs in Hongkong, New York and Berlin. Since 2013, he is active as a venture capitalist through his company Tenderloin Ventures. He also became involved in his first blockchain project with the company Dfinity. Cédric is an avowed minimalist, owning only 64 things. He’s known for his strongly optimized lifestyle, following what he calls the “90 review and preview”. Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 16 Jan 2019 | EP #18 - Christian Hirsig: How To Find The Right Startup Idea | 00:37:50 | |
Timestamps 1:30 - What mistakes do you see Swiss startup founders repeatedly make? 7:30 - How to obtain accurate feedback for your idea. 14:50 - Where to spend your time: documentation vs implementation. How to implement. The minimum viable product. 25:40 - Data gathering to evaluate the possible success of your idea. 28:12 - When to kill your idea or move on from it About Christian Hirsig: Christian is one of the co-founders of Swisspreneur.org and a passionate serial entrepreneur. He founded his first venture — Atizo, a crowdsourcing platform for ideas — in 2007. He eventually sold the company and went on to start the consulting business and startup incubator Pacific Catch Ltd. together with his wife, Bettina Hirsig. Under the umbrella of Pacific Catch, he has initiated and supported a wide variety of projects such as „Geile Eier“ — a breakfast franchise, Blacknose — a Swiss mountain pale ale brand and Powercoders — a coding academy for refugees. Additionally, Christian is the founder of TEDxBern and serves as a startup coach for be-advanced, Startfeld and Kickstart Accelerator. Christian was named one of the „Digital Shapers 2018“ by Bilanz Magazin and was invited to speak at TEDxZurich 2017. Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 11 Jul 2021 | EP #172 - Melanie Gabriel: Ausgaben Management Leicht Gemacht | Mit Swiss Economic Forum | 00:32:37 | |
Timestamps: 2:09 - Der Weg ins Unternehmertum Über Melanie Gabriel: Melanie Gabriel ist Mitgründerin des Schweizer Fintechs Yokoy, welches mit künstlicher Intelligenz den Spesen- und Lieferantenrechnungsprozess von Unternehmen automatisiert. Bevor sie 2019 die Rolle als Mitgründerin und Chief Marketing Officer bei Yokoy einnahm, studierte sie BWL, VWL und Soziologie an der Universität Basel und absolvierte das Masterstudium in Business Management an der Universität St. Gallen. Während dem Studium gründete sie bereits eine Kleidertausch-App und war mit Leidenschaft in der Musik- und Kulturbranche tätig. Anschliessend arbeitete sie während vier Jahren als Marketing Managerin, später als Head of Marketing bei der B2B Software Firma dizmo. Nebst ihrer Leidenschaft für Musik und Nachhaltigkeit setzt sich Melanie passioniert für Diversität in Teams ein und fördert dies unter anderem mit ihrem Engagement als Board Member bei We Shape Tech. 2021 wurde Melanie vom Female Innovation Forum als Innovator of the year ausgezeichnet. Memorable Quotes: "Auch wenn uns Österreich und Deutschland sehr nahe sind, gibt es doch Unterschiede, welche man durch digitale Kommunikation nicht immer direkt feststellt." Folge uns auf Twitter, Instagram, Facebook und Linkedin um auf dem Laufenden zu bleiben. Wir posten regelmässig über Live Shows, Give-Aways und unsere Founders Dinner Events. | |||
| 02 Mar 2022 | EP #225 - Soumya Dash: A Good Night’s Sleepiz | 00:50:09 | |
Timestamps: 1:33 - From India to Germany and Switzerland 10:57 - Why build a startup 22:00 - Solving sleep disorders 36:36 - Marketing to B2B and B2C simultaneously 40:33 - Vertical and horizontal expansion About Soumya Dash: Soumya Dash is the co-founder and CEO of Sleepiz, a startup which produces remote sleep monitoring devices. Originally from India, he grew up constantly relocating to different regions of this country due to his father’s job, and this allowed him to develop an incredible degree of adaptability. This adaptability was then put to good use when he chose to do his masters at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology as a fully funded scholar. During his masters he visited Switzerland as an Erasmus student. Soumya’s time there made such an impression on him that when the time came to choose were he would do his PhD, he turned down an offer from Stanford to study at ETH. It was during the last years of his PhD that he started Sleepiz, which leverages the power of sleep insights with a device that is simply placed next to the bed. The device operates in a non-contact fashion and measures movements originating from heart contractions and breathing patterns, as well as body motions with medical grade accuracy. This is quite simply the first time we’re able to measure cardiopulmonar activity without actually touching the body. Sleepiz is catered towards respiratory illnesses, namely sleep apnea. Most people who suffer from sleep apnea do not get diagnosed, which is concerning considering that this condition makes it likely that at some point in their lives these people will suffer a fatal stroke. However, even if people do make an effort to be diagnosed, it is a cumbersome process involving a night at a sleep clinic with a bunch of wires strapped onto you. Sleepiz has come to change all of that. Memorable Quotes: "I lived in many different places throughout my whole life. This has made me capable of seamlessly fitting into any environment." "I don’t think I’m the type of person that takes no for an answer, at face value." "We’re risk takers but not stupid ones. We needed to ask ourselves: is the impact worth all the pain?" Resources mentioned: Thinking Fast And Slow, Daniel Kahneman If you would like to listen to more ETH co-productions, check out our episode with Martin Eichenhofer. Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 21 Jun 2023 | EP #326 - Frank Floessel: Prioritizing Company Values | 00:57:07 | |
Timestamps: 4:46 - The evolution of the Swiss ecosystem 11:08 - Building a resilient company 31:41 - Work/life balance 32:40 - Frank’s 3 biggest entrepreneurial lessons 41:30 - Becoming an investor and the logical next steps As a serial entrepreneur, investor, and coach, Frank Floessel has had a rich and wide-ranging career, starting from his university days at ETH Zurich, where he received a Master's in electrical engineering and co-founded and was the first president of ETH Juniors, which has been helping university graduates and students with part-time project work. He extended this idea and founded a second venture, Tempobrain AG, an HR company for InhouseOutsourcing and Salesforces in retail. He is an alum of MIT's Birthing of Giants leadership course. Now he has taken a step back from being an associate Partner at the Austrian VC company Venionaire Capital to return to his Alma Mater as the Head of ETH Entrepreneurship. His focus on the importance of company values is a huge part of his ethos. It is how he has coached other CEOs to run their companies in similar ways, especially by giving insight into mistakes he made during his career that were huge lessons, as well as sharing other things he is proud to have implemented, like hierarchical dynamics. Values are core to having employees who enjoy working at your company, feel you are transparent, and think you live up to your word. These are essential lessons he wants to share with other CEOs, and he also encourages them to maintain a healthy work/life balance, which he admits can be challenging to do in the early stages of your career. Now that his focus has shifted to his new role at ETH as Head of Entrepreneurship, he can contribute to helping foster the next generation of entrepreneurs. “I think entrepreneurship is kind of magic: you have an idea, you make a business plan, and in the end somebody is willing to give you money for that.” “Two of the key lessons of entrepreneurship are that failure is not an option, and that timing is really important.” Resource: The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway interviewing Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky
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| 12 Oct 2022 | EP #267 - Adela Wiener: The Dawn Of Low Code | 00:43:43 | |
Timestamps: 5:04 - Adela’s role model mom 14:18 - Creating a spin-off business 18:55 - Spin-off trade-offs 24:35 - Setting up your headquarters in Switzerland 35:40 - Growing and innovating About Adela Wiener: Adela Wiener is the co-founder & CEO at Aurachain, a simple and intuitive low-code platform that allows rapid creation of digital applications. She previously worked as a business development manager at the Romanian software company AGYS AG, and holds a PhD in Theory of Systems from Universitatea Politehnica din București. Aurachain was created back in 2009 and has since switched from a customer solutions provider to a B2B SaaS company, which naturally means that nowadays most of the team’s time and knowledge goes into the product, and not client projects. Currently, Aurachain is an horizontal low-code platform suitable for all sorts of industries, but which focuses on financial services companies as a go-to-market strategy. Low code gives companies quick time to value by allowing them to rapidly deploy apps without the need for code, which reduces technical depth and therefore also the company’s dependency on the developer talent pool. Shorter implementation cycles also mean increased agility. Usually low code platforms are either extremely user-friendly, but not very customizable, so that they are only suitable for simple apps, or not user-friendly but very customizable, so that they can be used to build complex apps but only by people with previous low code knowledge or people willing to invest the time needed to learn. Aurachain prides itself on being “the best of both worlds”: both user-friendly and capable of building highly complex apps. Memorable Quotes: "Low-code development means a team can create something like 11 apps in less than 3 months." Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||
| 19 Feb 2019 | EP #20 - Cédric Waldburger: What Makes a Good Startup Team | 00:50:20 | |
Timestamps 1:23 - Team-related mistakes 4:50 - Giving guidance vs offering freedom to employees 7:11 - The company lifecycle 12:55 - The ideal co-founding relationship 34:25 - Sendtask and remote teams About Cédric Waldburger: Cédric is a Venture Capitalist and founder of Dfinity, Tenderloin Ventures and Sendtask. He started his first venture – Mediasign, a digital branding agency – in high school. He went on to study electrical engineering at the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) and spent the following years in different jobs in Hongkong, New York and Berlin. Since 2013, he is active as a venture capitalist through his company Tenderloin Ventures. With Dfinity, he became involved in his first blockchain project. Cedric is an avowed minimalist, owning only 64 things. He’s known for his strongly optimized lifestyle, following what he calls the “90 review and preview”. Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners! | |||