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Swisspreneur Show

Swisspreneur Show

By Swisspreneur

The Swisspreneur Show is a podcast series of in-depth, candid conversations with some of Switzerland’s most successful founders, business leaders and innovators. By getting to the heart of these leaders’ stories - their successes, their failures, their must-have advice and greatest regrets - we hope to both inspire and guide the next generation of Swiss entrepreneurs. Each episode deconstructs and showcases one person’s personal and professional background and provides advice and recommendations for existing and aspiring entrepreneurs in Switzerland.
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EP #102 - Doris Albisser: From Translator To Master Entrepreneur

Swisspreneur ShowOct 07, 2020

00:00
58:52
EP #386 - Ansuya Ahluwalia: From India, to Silicon Valley, to Swisspreneur

EP #386 - Ansuya Ahluwalia: From India, to Silicon Valley, to Swisspreneur

Timestamps:

3:08 - Studying in India and the US

20:54 - Starting Anamii

34:00 - The exit coming as a surprise

43:58 - How Ansuya joined Swisspreneur

55:50 - What thirty3 does


About Ansuya Ahluwalia:

Ansuya Ahluwalia is a co-founder of the wellness and inner transformation app Anamii and the CTO and Business Partner of thirty3, which helps companies with innovative product development by building AI-first applications. She holds a MSc in Computer Science from UCLA and previously worked for companies like Amazon Lab126 and Vicara Infotech Group AG before starting Anamii in 2020.

Her parents are both engineers who worked for a period of time in Silicon Valley, which is why Ansuya was born there, even though their family originally hails from India. They then moved back to India where she continued her studies and pursued a bachelor’s degree. Ansuya then decided to do her master’s in Computer Science at UCLA, in California, specializing in Machine Learning. She went on to work for Amazon as a software developer, where she was successful, and promoted quickly, but where career perspectives looked far too predictable and cookie-cutter for her taste. So in 2017 Ansuya moved to Switzerland, taking a job at Vicara Infotech Group AG, where she worked first as Technical Lead and then as CTO. 

3 years on, she decided to quit her job and build Anamii, a platform to help people looking for improved mental wellbeing and spiritual growth be matched with the adequate professionals. Ansuya herself has benefited greatly in the past from meditation and yoga, and still does today. Two years later, in 2022, the business had really started seeing some traction, and Ansuya found it really fulfilling to be helping people in such a tangible way, but unfortunately the Swiss government had other plans: thinking that Ansuya had quit her tech job to become a spiritual coach herself, they mailed her a letter informing her that she was no longer working in a field that aligned with her skillset, and that if she did not return to the tech field within 1 year, she would be asked to leave the country. So Ansuya had no choice but to look for a day job, and the right opportunity came from friends over at thirty3. That same year, she joined Swisspreneur as a co-host, after having connected previously with our main host, Silvan. In 2023, Ansuya sold Anamii to HereNow, and remains active there only as a technical advisor.

Nowadays she is the CTO at thirty3, which helps its customers validate their business ideas, build their products/services in a way that leverages all the available open source code online, and integrate AI into their business wherever beneficial.


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Mar 27, 202401:12:43
EP #385 - Alex Ilic: The AI Takeover, in Switzerland & Abroad

EP #385 - Alex Ilic: The AI Takeover, in Switzerland & Abroad

This episode was produced in collaboration with startup days, taking place this year on May 30th 2024. Click here to purchase your ticket.


Timestamps:

7:39 - Why the tech giants should watch out 

12:52 - Are the crazy AI valuations justified?

19:26 - Ethical challenges of AI

20:30 - The AI act & other regulation 

23:10 - The Swiss supercomputer 


About Alexander Ilic:

Alex Ilic is the co-founder and executive director of the ETH AI Center, one of the world's largest hubs for research in artificial intelligence, comprising a faculty of over 102 professors. He also co-founded Dacuda, S2S Ventures, and Talent Kick, and has invested in numerous Swiss startups. Alex holds a PhD in Management, Technology, and Economics from ETH.

During his chat with our host Silvan, Alex discussed the revolutionary impact of ChatGPT (which has allowed lay people to successfully use AI, instead of just coders), how AI companies don’t need to be very large to challenge tech giants like Google, how Swiss startups can best leverage AI and what it still can’t do for them, and how both government regulation and corporate responsibility play a role in eradicating the unethical biases present in AI models today.


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Mar 24, 202433:51
EP #384 - Seraina Soldner: Migrants in Switzerland & Social Impact Entrepreneurship

EP #384 - Seraina Soldner: Migrants in Switzerland & Social Impact Entrepreneurship

Timestamps:

1:31 - Being interested in social impact work 

11:06 - The background of SINGA applicants

16:27 - Who funds SINGA 

29:42 - Does the world share the Swiss fear of failure?

42:57 - Knowing when to move on 


About Seraina Soldner:

Seraina Soldner is the co-founder and former co-director of SINGA Switzerland, an incubator for projects built by people with a refugee or migrant experience, and currently a project manager at Hospital at Home Verein (hospitales). She holds an MA in International Affairs with a focus on International Law from the Geneva Graduate Institute and previously worked for Justice Rapid Response in Geneva, the UN Refugee Agency in Malta and the Munich Refugee Council before starting SINGA’s Swiss chapter in 2016.

SINGA is a unique incubator with the purpose to enhance entrepreneurial skills and provide a local network for people with a refugee or migrant experience. They also support them in achieving access to the Swiss labor market by running a variety of start up and mentoring programs. 25% of participants found a business/an association and 100% of participants feel more part of Swiss society after participating. The SINGA programs were made possible by the Migros Pioneer Fund, part of the social commitment of the Migros Group. The first SINGA organization was founded in 2012 in Paris.

The Migros Pioneer Fund is a voluntary development fund of the Migros Group companies. It was founded as the Migros Commitment Development Fund in 2012 and has since been actively scouting and promoting projects with a long-term benefit to society, and financially supporting them for between three and five years.


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Mar 20, 202401:04:29
EP #383 - David Christen: How to Eradicate Illegal Work in Switzerland

EP #383 - David Christen: How to Eradicate Illegal Work in Switzerland

Redeem your EUR 75 bonus at Splint Invest: https://splintinvest.onelink.me/ZGYb/swppod


Timestamps:

6:06 - Getting the funds to start your venture

11:09 - Illegal work in Switzerland

27:55 - Deeptech Switzerland

40:03 - Raising funds in 2012

42:38 - The downsides of VC money 


About David Christen:

David Christen is the co-founder and CMO at quitt, a company that takes the effort, paperwork and stress out of employing domestic helpers for private households, and quitt.business, a platform for the registering and billing of startup employees. He studied Physics and Law at UZH but eventually quit to start his entrepreneurial venture in 2010, against the wishes of his parents.

quitt tackles a very pertinent issue: illegal work in Switzerland. It is estimated that 75M people worldwide work as domestic helpers, 80% of which are undeclared. In Switzerland, the numbers don’t look much better: 30-60% of employers don’t register their domestic helper. These workers are paid in cash, receive no insurance, and are not allowed to tell anyone about the work that they do. Cleaning companies then take a cut of 25-35%, whereas quitt charges only 5-8%. As a result, cleaners earn on average a 50% higher salary by working with quitt.

To date, quitt has over 20,000 customers, with around 40,000 employment contracts and a settled payroll of almost CHF 300 million in Switzerland. Starting in 2023, quitt will also offer its services in Germany. 


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Mar 13, 202456:18
EP #382 - Stefan Kyora & Thomas Heimann: How Did The Swiss Startup Ecosystem Do in 2023?

EP #382 - Stefan Kyora & Thomas Heimann: How Did The Swiss Startup Ecosystem Do in 2023?

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:

  • It is still difficult for Swiss companies to raise large rounds from Swiss investors. This isn’t because we don’t have plenty of VC funds, or because those funds don’t invest in Swiss companies — there are many Swiss VC funds with at least 50% of their capital allocated to Swiss startups, but these are small funds investing small amounts.

  • The total amount of funds invested in Swiss startups (both foreign and Swiss) went down in 2023 for the first time in a while. After a 10 year boom, this is to be expected, and can easily be explained if we take the unfavorable international conjuncture into account. Comparatively, Switzerland is still doing well, and is quite stable.

  • Tradesales are also down in Switzerland, both when it comes to Swiss buyers and to foreign buyers. Thomas Heimann speculates they may increase, since larger, later stage fundraising rounds are becoming more rare.

  • Fintech, cleantech and biotech are the most popular and well-funded sectors in Switzerland.


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Mar 09, 202446:58
EP #381 - Cris Grossmann: A CEO’s Evolving Role

EP #381 - Cris Grossmann: A CEO’s Evolving Role

Timestamps:

1:20 - From 2 to 220 employees

3:50 - A founder’s motivation 

7:45 - A leader’s biggest lesson

10:20 - Your support network as a founder 

14:25 - A CEO’s evolving role 


About Cristian Grossmann:

⁠⁠Cristian Grossmann⁠⁠ is the co-founder and Head Bee at ⁠⁠beekeeper⁠⁠, the well-known Swiss frontline operating system. He holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering from ETH and worked for companies like ChromaCon and Accenture before starting beekeeper in 2011.

During his 12 years at beekeeper, Cris has learned many valuable lessons, the most important of which being to stay true to your company values not only when hiring people but also when taking on investors. In his chat with Ansuya he mentions one instance when beekeeper had only 3 weeks worth of runway left and was presented with a very big term sheet from an investor whose values were clearly not aligned with theirs. They almost gave in, which Cris thinks might have destroyed the company, but thankfully persistence and loyalty to the beekeeper values won out and the founders decided to pitch in some personal funds to keep things afloat. 

Cris’ motivation to remain at beekeeper after so many years continues to be his engineer’s affinity for solving complex problems and the mission of solving the tech issues of frontline workers, a demographic which has long been neglected despite making up 2B people worldwide. In the next stage of their company, the team plans to focus on achieving a steady, reliable profitability and attaining maximum efficiency. 


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Mar 06, 202416:32
EP #380 - Samuel Mueller: Scandit Lessons in Scaling

EP #380 - Samuel Mueller: Scandit Lessons in Scaling

Timestamps:

2:40 - Samuel’s biggest mistake

8:01 - Expanding to the US instead of DACH 

10:10 - Growing your headcount

13:37 - OKRs at Scandit 

18:38 - Staying healthy and sane as a founder


About Samuel Mueller:

Samuel Mueller is the co-founder and CEO at Scandit, the leading technology platform for mobile computer vision and augmented reality (AR) solutions for enterprises. He holds a PhD in Computer Science and Temporal Logics from ETH Zurich. Together with Christian Floerkermeier and Christof Roduner, he 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.

Scandit runs a subscription-based model which allows customers to “go as they grow”, meaning the bigger they get, the more Scandit services they can accrue. It's also a very high margin business, because a lot of the heavy lifting, the computer vision magic, is happening on the user devices, so there’s no distinct cloud need.


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Mar 03, 202421:29
EP #379 - Ana Montalban-Arques: Treating Cancer with Bacteria

EP #379 - Ana Montalban-Arques: Treating Cancer with Bacteria

Redeem your EUR 75 bonus at Splint Invest with code Dali24: https://splintinvest.onelink.me/ZGYb/swppod


Timestamps:

5:20 - Going from researcher to entrepreneur 

8:57 - How bacteria kills cancer

15:14 - Proof of concept in biotech

17:56 - Avenues after a tradesale 

24:13 - Entrepreneurship and motherhood


About Ana Montalban-Arques:

Ana Montalban-Arques is co-founder and CEO of Recolony, a biotech startup developing a bacteria-based oral therapy to treat cancer. She holds a PhD in Medicine from the Medizinische Universität Graz (Austria) and previously worked at hospitals in Spain and Switzerland before starting Recolony in 2022.

In the past few years, scientists have been made aware of the extent to which our gut microbiome influences our health. Considering we’ve been evolving alongside these bacterias for thousands upon thousands of years, it can be safely said that we’ve developed a symbiotic bond: the state of our microbiome influences our immune system and can even cause (or prevent) certain inflammatory diseases.

Recolony’s team took this research one step further when they found a deficiency in a certain type of bacteria in colorectal cancer patients, and hypothesized whether providing patients with the missing bacteria could help treat their disease. Animal tests showed that this specific bacteria can not only prevent tumors but also treat them once they are already in existence, and that it works not only with colorectal cancer but other sorts of cancers as well, regardless of the fact that the bacteria is in the gut and the tumor may be somewhere completely different in the body. This is because the bacteria produces molecules which travel through the bloodstream and activate an immune response to fight the tumors.

Recolony is a spin-off company from the University of Zurich that started as a research project in the Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the University Hospital Zurich. So far the team has received CHF160K in grant money.


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Feb 28, 202436:05
EP #378 - Philippe Greinacher & Alexander Häberlin: Why Your Next Hike Needs Coffee From A Tube

EP #378 - Philippe Greinacher & Alexander Häberlin: Why Your Next Hike Needs Coffee From A Tube

Timestamps:

8:13 - Why Nestlé isn’t doing what they’re doing

11:50 - Why the timing was right for new coffee

18:00 - Straying from the classical Swiss path 

23:18 -  Developing the nonormal MVP with partners 

27:00 - Fundraising through the Swisspreneur Syndicate


About Philippe Greinacher & Alexander Häberlin:

Philippe Greinacher is the co-founder and CEO of nonormal, a startup producing sustainable, high-quality coffee for outdoor consumption — that comes in a tube! He holds a BA in Business Administration from the Business School of Lausanne, and has more than 10 years of experience in business development, sales and partnerships working for Ringier, Ogilvy & Mather, Meltwater, PriceHubble in Africa and Europe.

Alexander Häberlin is the co-founder and CMO of nonormal. He holds an MA in Marketing Management/Business Development from the University of Applied Sciences of Northwestern Switzerland and worked for many years in the design field helping various international companies such as Sennheiser, Meta, Leica or BAT.

nonormal partnered with a food development contractor to create coffee that is sustainable, organic, has great taste, is vegan and Swiss-made, and comes from a tube, allowing all outdoor enthusiasts to get a cup of coffee whenever they feel like it. So far they’ve got 15K pre-orders coming from 10 countries, CHF 100K from angel investors in Switzerland and the US, and commitments from retail distributors based in Switzerland and abroad.

They’re now raising CHF 500K in a convertible note, part of which is being raised through the Swisspreneur Syndicate. Click here to learn more about the deal.


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Feb 25, 202436:03
EP #377 - Roger Dudler & Dennis Just: Growing Through Acquisition

EP #377 - Roger Dudler & Dennis Just: Growing Through Acquisition

Redeem your EUR 75 bonus at Splint Invest with code Dali24: https://splintinvest.onelink.me/ZGYb/swppod


Timestamps:

3:50 - Deciding to acquire TwicPics

16:30 - The smallpdf fuckup

20:37 - Integrating two cultures 

26:20 - When to start thinking about acquisitions

32:50 - Resorting to investment banks


About Roger Dudler & Dennis Just:

On August 29th the Swisspreneur community got together for the third edition of its annual Zurich Scaleup Cruise, sponsored by Swisscom Ventures, SIX, UBS, MLL and Emerald Ventures. With about 130 founders and investors, there were plenty of people to connect with on the Panta Rhei ship on that late August evening, while you enjoyed a flying dinner and the view of Lake Zurich. Many of the participants were veteran Swisspreneur cruisers: it was their 3rd time attending! 

The highlight of the evening was the panel discussion with Roger Dudler, co-founder and CEO at Frontify, and Dennis Just, partner at 3VC and former CEO at smallpdf, on buying or building to scale. 

Since there are as many founder journeys as there are founders, the audience wasn’t surprised to hear that different things led Roger and Dennis to go forward with their respective acquisitions: for Frontify, acquiring TwicPics came as a natural result of their company growth, whereas for smallpdf the acquisition of PDFtools was the result of a neck-to-neck bidding war that they decided to engage in so as to stop their partner from being acquired by an American buyer who would raise PDFtool’s pricing. 

Smallpdf acquired PDFtools in 2022 for 30M (which is 10M less than the seller would have gotten from the American bidder, and that certainly speaks in smallpdf’s favor), half of which was paid in cash and half financed by a loan from Swiss banks — such are the benefits of being a bootstrapped, profitable company! Frontify, on the other hand, acquired Twicpics in 2023 for an undisclosed amount. 

With the deal closed, came the harder part: integration. Dennis quickly realized that smallpdf and PDFtools were not 100% aligned values-wise, since the acquirer’s growth ambitions were much higher than the acquired’s, so it was necessary to bring PDFtools “up to speed”. Eventually, Dennis and the smallpdf team decided to integrate the two companies regarding culture (same salaries, growth plans, etc) but not when it came to corporate structure, because PDFtool’s customer base was rather enterprise-heavy, whereas smallpdf was more B2C-focused. Their branding and go-to-market strategy thus remained separate.  Frontify is going through a similar process, even setting up a specific team to manage the integration, which meets weekly with management and follows a very clear plan. 

When answering questions from the audience, Dennis noted that companies smaller than 50-100 employees should not think about acquiring other businesses, since you need 3-4 people fully dedicated to the matter anyway, as well as the proper processes and structures set up. And although acquisition becomes a bit of an expectation for companies at a series C round level and beyond, Roger warned founders against taking up offers from the sellers who come knocking around this stage: it is much better to build your M&A muscle proactively and wait for the right time to seek out companies yourself.

Even after the panel discussion finished and the attendants ate the last of their dessert, there were people who simply could not stop networking (can you blame them?), so the party continued on land at the Metropol. It was a fantastically successful evening overall and we can’t wait for next year’s edition!


Feb 21, 202445:31
EP #376 - Holger Seim: The Blinkist Story

EP #376 - Holger Seim: The Blinkist Story

Timestamps:

7:03 - Their passion for Blinkist

12:33 - Losing co-founders

25:30 - The value Blinkist provides

33:56 - Going B2C and B2B

43:30 - From early adopters to mainstream user base


About Holger Seim:

Holger Seim is the co-founder and former CEO at Blinkist, the mobile-first microlearning app. He holds a diploma from the Philipp University of Marburg and previously worked for companies like Volkswagen Group China and Deutsche Telekom before starting Blinkist in 2012.

Blinkist was created during the dawn of smartphones to solve a problem experienced not only by its co-founders but by many working professionals: wanting to learn new things, but not having the time to do so. They take long form content (mostly non-fiction books, but also podcast episodes and articles) and distill them into 15 minute reads or listens. Most features are behind a paywall, but there’s also 1 blink of the day that non-paying users can enjoy. Their user base includes both people who are readers and see Blinkist as a supplement, and people whose sole contact with books comes from Blinkist.

In 2023 Blinkist was acquired by the Australian content company Go1. This was a goal the Blinkist team had been pursuing ever since they took on VC money. Nowadays Holger is no longer the CEO of Blinkist but remains active as COO at Go1. 


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Feb 14, 202456:22
EP #375 - Nicolas Egger: Fixing the Mental Health Care Industry

EP #375 - Nicolas Egger: Fixing the Mental Health Care Industry

Timestamps:

2:02 - From footballer to banker to student 

10:35 - The emotional toll of a volatile startup journey

20:42 - Sorting out shares before you leave

41:00 - Getting good psychologists on Aepsy

54:00 - Going B2C first, then B2B


About Nicolas Egger:

Nicolas Egger is the co-founder of Poinz, a B2B2C platform for SMEs, and of Aepsy, a mental health platform for online or in-person sessions with psychologists. He holds a BASc in General Management from ZHAW. Prior to university, Nicolas played football and worked at Credit Suisse and PAN Asset Management AG.

During his undergraduate studies, Nicolas joined the startup jayboo as a late co-founder and stayed there for 2 years before starting his next venture, Poinz. At Poinz, Nicolas experienced all the ups and downs of entrepreneurship: he bootstrapped the company for 1.5 years, almost saw the company go bankrupt, lost an exit opportunity at the last minute, got funded by the Deindeal mafia founders, scaled his company up, and ended up meeting his future wife there.

After 6.5 years at Poinz, Nicolas felt that he and his co-founder were not sufficiently in agreement regarding the future of the company, and he also had the urge to start a project in the mental health industry, so he left Poinz in 2019 to start Aepsy a year later. His desire to delve deeper into the mental health industry came when a friend of his went through a mental health crisis, and he found that searching online for a psychologist was a nightmare. He knew his friend wasn’t an isolated case: statistics estimate that ⅓ of Swiss people suffer from mental health issues, and that out of those people, ⅔ do not reach out for help. So he created a platform where people can answer a few questions about their needs and be presented with a suitable selection of therapists, with whom they can do intro calls to assess the fit. Aepsy works with certified Swiss psychotherapists with years of practical experience and has a 95% client satisfaction rate.  


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Feb 07, 202401:03:23
EP #374 - Murielle Schreck: The ETH Spin-Off Making Futuristic Heating Pads

EP #374 - Murielle Schreck: The ETH Spin-Off Making Futuristic Heating Pads

Timestamps:

4:25 - Three technical co-founders

6:37 - Completing Venture Kick

8:34 - qCella’s heated mats 

10:25 - The challenge of finding the right people 

12:28 - Having two rather different products


About Murielle Schreck:

Murielle Schreck is the co-founder and CEO at qCella, an ETH spin-off impregnating natural fibers with copper and using them to develop heating pads with superior properties compared to commercially available heating wires. She holds a PhD in Materials Science from ETH and started qCella as soon as she obtained her degree in 2021.

qCella mats have the proper electrical resistance across the entire structure so that they heat homogeneously when connected to a power source (e.g.: a battery). The thinness and smoothness of the heating mats allow for more energy-efficient heating by eliminating the need for a heat-losing upholstery layer between mat and human body. The heating mats can also be cut into any shape and size and are easily integrated into the final heated product.

qCella is currently raising a pre-seed round of CHF 600K, part of which through the Swisspreneur Syndicate. They plan on using the funds to help launch their first product. Click here to learn more about the deal.


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Feb 04, 202419:13
EP #373 - Sven Erni: Circular, Upcycled Acoustic Solutions

EP #373 - Sven Erni: Circular, Upcycled Acoustic Solutions

Timestamps:

14:08 - Running out of money

18:50 - Choosing loans over equity 

19:55 - Ensuring sustainability across the supply chain

25:17 - Boycotting the 5 biggest plastic polluters

42:05 - Sharing margin with resellers


About Sven Erni:

Sven Erni is the co-founder and CEO at Impact Acoustic, a Swiss provider of high-performance, circular acoustic solutions made from upcycled material. He holds a BSc in International Hotel Management from EHL, Lausanne, and previously worked for companies like PDM International and Pfister Professional AG before starting Impact Acoustic in 2019.

Most acoustic panels nowadays are made out of glass or rock, and so while they are technically circular/recyclable, it requires a lot of energy (and therefore money) to recycle them. Impact Acoustics’ panels, on the other hand, are made 100% out of recycled PET bottles and are themselves recyclable. Their products are lightweight, robust, washable and available in several sizes.

Together with his team, Sven decided to say no to a request for a quotation from the American PepsiCo headquarters for + USD 500K, which would have been their biggest single standing offer to date. They did this out of a conviction that it does not make sense to work with one of the 5 biggest plastic polluters on Earth if their mission is to help fight plastic waste. Similarly, they decided not to work with any of the other 4 big polluters: Coca-Cola, Suntory, Danone, and Nestlé. Their board was not happy, but Sven and his team have stuck to their decision and continue saying no to offers from these companies, even though they estimate that this will lose them 1.2-1.5M in turnover in 2023 alone. They do, however, do business with companies like Amazon, and the rationale behind it is that if they don’t do business with any polluters, they won’t do business at all. Their goal is to one day become obsolete (as there will be no more plastic waste), but they don’t think this will happen anytime soon.


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Jan 31, 202448:27
EP #372 - Thomas Zurbuchen: Startups & NASA: Braving the Unknown

EP #372 - Thomas Zurbuchen: Startups & NASA: Braving the Unknown

Get tickets to Scaleup Slopes 2024 here.


Timestamps:

4:26 - Getting kicked out of home 

16:00 - Immigrants and entrepreneurs

20:56 - Getting a job offer from NASA

39:35 - Startups and space missions 

43:39 - Leaving NASA


About Thomas Zurbuchen:

Thomas Zurbuchen is a professor at ETH Space and the former Head of Science at NASA. He was born in 1968 in the canton of Bern, son of a Free Church preacher who did not want him to attend university to study Astrophysics. Thomas went against his father’s wishes and was consequently kicked out of the house, and the ensuing isolation was the hardest ordeal he ever experienced in his life. In retrospect, Thomas believes this experience inoculated him from fearing future isolation and hardship. 

After completing his PhD in Astrophysics at the University of Bern in 1996, Thomas moved to the US to take a job at the University of Michigan, where he founded the Center for Entrepreneurship. Thomas spent 2 decades as a tenured professor there before joining NASA. During his 6 years as an Associate Administrator at NASA, Thomas led the science program and oversaw 37 launches and 55 new missions. In 2022 he left NASA, because he felt like he’d already contributed all his best ideas and wasn’t really growing on a constant basis anymore. 

2023 saw Thomas move back to Switzerland and take up a teaching job at ETH, where he leads the space programs and works to grow science and commercial activities in Switzerland and beyond.


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Jan 24, 202456:36
EP #371 - Pascal Koenig & Sophie Lamparter: A Fundraising Masterclass in 40 Minutes

EP #371 - Pascal Koenig & Sophie Lamparter: A Fundraising Masterclass in 40 Minutes

Timestamps:

3:53 - How to know if you’re ‘investable’

6:49 - Getting in touch with investors

8:08 - How much equity to give away 

13:48 - Equity round or convertible loan?

37:16 - Celebrating a closed round


About Pascal Koenig & Sophie Lamparter:

Sophie Lamparter is the co-founder of DART Labs, an international fund investing in early stage Swiss climate and health tech startups to accelerate them on the US market. She holds a degree in Communication and Media Studies from ZHAW.

Pascal Koenig is the co-founder, former CEO and current board member at AVA women, a startup manufacturing wearable fertility trackers for women. He studied business in St Gallen and New York and worked at McKinsey for a few years before being invited by one of his university professors to join a startup project — Cardiosave.

Pascal and Sophie have created a fundraising masterclass which is available for free at https://swisspreneur.org/fundraising. During this live session, they summarized the masterclass into a few key takeaways, some of which are jotted down in these shownotes as well.

How do you know if VC money is right for you?

Sophie and Pascal think that if you can afford to go bootstrapped, you should do it. If you only need to raise a small sum of money, go for angel investors. If you want to raise larger amounts, it would make sense to reach out to VC investors, but you should take into consideration that a VC fund’s goal is to have one of their investments return the value of the entire fund. So if you pitch to a CHF 100M fund, know that their goal is to invest in a startup that will return them 100M. Is that the kind of startup that you are willing to build and capable of building?

How do I make my startup more “investable”?

First of all, you need to strengthen the team. If your startup has little to no traction but a great idea, then what funds evaluate is the team’s potential. Secondly, you should attempt to build some traction through things like marketing campaigns, and if you haven’t validated your product/service yet, you should at least validate the tech it’s based on.

How much equity should I give away in my first round?

No more than 25%. Remember, if things go well, you’ll be doing plenty of rounds.

How do I come up with my startup’s valuation?/ How much money should I ask for?

Know that if you ask for CHF 1M, that presupposes your company valuation is CHF 4M. So if you go in asking for CHF 5M and investors don’t think your company is worth CHF 20M, you’re not getting any money.

Should I go for an equity round or a convertible loan?

Convertible loans have the advantage of being fast: you can deploy the money the following day. Pascal and Sophie recommend that if your company is still early stage and/or if you’re raising a small sum, you should go for a convertible loan. For bigger rounds/late stage, go for equity.

What makes a great pitch deck?

Simplicity. It should be crystal clear even for people who don’t work with you/in your industry.

Why do I need to build a long list of 100 investors? Shouldn’t I be selective?

Selectivity happens further down the line. If you just talk to 5 investors, even if they respond enthusiastically, that doesn’t at all mean that they'll invest.

Pascal recommends that you reach out to 100 investors (given that they all invest in your industry/stage), because out of those 100, 50 will do a call. Out of the 50, 20 will go into due diligence. And then once you get your first term sheet from one of them, other term sheets start showing up — that’s the time to be selective!



Jan 17, 202448:34
EP #370 - Mallory Houston Nieman: Switzerland’s First Indoor Cycling Studio

EP #370 - Mallory Houston Nieman: Switzerland’s First Indoor Cycling Studio

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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Jan 10, 202440:59
EP #369 - Mario Michan: Targeting Tough-To-Decarbonize Industries

EP #369 - Mario Michan: Targeting Tough-To-Decarbonize Industries

Timestamps:

1:50 - Joining the Navy

9:53 - Being a solo founder with a mentor

25:30 - Creating sustainability incentives 

35:41 - Expanding to Norway and the USA

42:04 - Participating in the Sparks IPO Academy


About Mario Michan:

Mario Michan is the co-founder and CEO of Daphne Technology, a climate deep tech company reducing air pollution produced by the global shipping industry. He holds a PhD in Physics from the University of British Columbia and previously worked as a research scientist at CERN and EPFL before starting Daphne Technologies in 2017.

The company measures, reduces and monetises greenhouse gas emissions from industrial sources by developing and scaling innovative technology, enabling their customers to monetise voluntary carbon emission reductions. Shell Ventures, Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures, Trafigura, AET and Swisscom have invested in Daphne Technologies, and the company has subsidiaries in Norway and the US.


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Jan 07, 202449:28
EP #368 - Michael Waldner: Buying and Selling Renewable Energy

EP #368 - Michael Waldner: Buying and Selling Renewable Energy

Timestamps:

1:27 - Renewable energy in 2008 

10:02 - The volatility of the energy market

16:00 - Renewables subsidies on their way out

25:18 - Growing pains as a company

31:53 - Raising funds in an unideal context


About Michael Waldner:

Michael Waldner is the co-founder and CEO at Pexapark, a provider of energy risk and portfolio management capabilities for renewable energy. He holds a MSc in Industrial Management and Manufacturing Engineering from ETH and previously worked at companies like EGL AG and Axpo Trading AG before starting Pexapark in 2017.

With more than 30GW of renewable PPA transactions supported, Pexapark is the reference for buying, selling and managing renewable energy. What is PPA, you may ask? The acronym stands for Power Purchase Agreement, which is a contractual agreement between energy buyers and sellers. They come together and agree to buy and sell an amount of energy which is or will be generated by a renewable asset. PPAs are usually signed for a long-term period between 10-20 years. Thanks to the low cost of solar technology, solar is now one of the cheapest renewables available. That is what makes solar PPAs popular.


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Jan 03, 202443:57
Swisspreneur Show Trailer 2024

Swisspreneur Show Trailer 2024

We interview Switzerland’s most talented founders, business leaders and innovators. Listen to the trailer of Switzerland’s #1 podcast for entrepreneurs.

Jan 01, 202400:32
EP #367 - Loris Niederberger: Why Your Team Management Needs a Software

EP #367 - Loris Niederberger: Why Your Team Management Needs a Software

Timestamps:

1:13 - Accidentally ending up in China

9:04 - Psychological safety at work

18:50 - Publicly disclosing your pricing

28:10 - Getting the first customers

36:00 - Doubting if you’ll make it


About Loris Niederberger:

Loris Niederberger is the co-founder of Moodtalk, a software for clarity and structure on how teams work together successfully. He holds an MA in International Management from CEMS and previously worked for companies like swissnex China and Voliro Airborne Robotics before starting Moodtalk in 2021.

It is estimated that 97% of C-levels don't know how the company’s strategy, values, and principles are understood and lived in teams, and 3 out of 4 employees say it's unclear how to collaborate optimally as a team. This lack of clarity naturally leads to dissatisfaction, overload, and disorientation — that’s where Moodtalk comes in! Moodtalk lets you define rules for collaboration and update them frequently, and every defined initiative gets tracked.

Through Moodtalk, you can define some basic rules for working optimally together as a team by answering questions like:

  • What should our meeting culture be like? (Cadence, time of day, prep, meeting notes…)

  • How do we give each other feedback? (What does quality mean to us?)

  • How do we approach people who seem burned out?

By defining these things early on and sticking to them, you slowly build up ‘psychological safety’ in your team, which is a term for how willing your team members are to speak up whenever they disagree with something, or simply wish to propose an idea. Of course these things can theoretically be achieved without specialized software, but then again, so can sales and accounting, and we don’t tackle those without proper software nowadays. Moodtalk estimates that through their software teams save an average of 12h per month (mostly by cutting out unnecessary meetings!) and reduce fluctuation by more than 20%.
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Dec 27, 202350:07
EP #366 - Philippe Ganz & Paulina Grnarova: The Art of the Start

EP #366 - Philippe Ganz & Paulina Grnarova: The Art of the Start

Timestamps:

7:40 - High energy, high loyalty and high intelligence

13:46 - When a co-founder leaves

19:57 - The point of an MVP

32:08 - Grants or equity?

39:05 - Plans for future expansion


About Philippe Ganz & Paulina Grnarova:

Paulina Grnarova is the co-founder and CEO of DeepJudge, an AI-powered Knowledge Search for legal professionals. She holds a PhD in Computer Science from ETH. Philippe Ganz is the CEO and co-founder of aiEndoscopic, a medtech startup combining artificial intelligence with robotic endoscopy. He holds a MSc in Biomedical Engineering from ETH.

During their chat with Silvan, Philippe and Paulina discussed some of the commons topics of starting your first company, like which values to cultivate in your founder team and how to set up a shareholders agreement that foresees all future possibilities, whether to go for grants or equity rounds as a science-heavy startup, and the guiding principles of building an MVP.


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Dec 25, 202352:07
EP #365 - Adrian Melliger: The Electromobility One-Stop-Shop

EP #365 - Adrian Melliger: The Electromobility One-Stop-Shop


Timestamps:

6:44 - eMobility back in 2008

7:39 - CO2 impact of electric vehicles 

8:56 - Sourcing the minerals sustainably & ethically

15:58 - Life after death, for batteries

25:00 - Partnering with Volvo


About Adrian Melliger:

Adrian Melliger is the co-owner and CEO of Designwerk Technologies, an electromobility one-stop-shop. He previously worked for companies like Swissport and Ground Handling Team Holding before joining Designwerk in 2018.

Designwerk was founded back in 2008, after its founders went on a 80-day, all-electric world record circumnavigation with the specially developed Zerotracer cabin motorcycle. Ten years on, the founders invited Adrian to join them as external CEO because they felt a lack of business acumen in their engineer-only founder team.

Designwerk develops and constructs electric trucks, battery systems and chargers. Although their electric vehicles require more energy to produce (and therefore emit more CO2) than diesel vehicles, they make for it on the consumer side, since over their entire lifetime they produce up to 60-90% less CO2. They also often get used in other applications (like solar panels, for example) once their first life runs out (= 15 years), and can be shredded and have 92-96% of their raw materials be recycled.

Designwerk’s turnover increased 11x ever since Adrian joined as CEO, and like any other scaling company, they’ve had to deal with some growing pains: getting the right people on board, adapting the structure and processes, ensuring sufficient cash flow (especially in a capital-intensive business like theirs) and ensuring the availability of materials, especially during challenging times like the COVID pandemic. 

In 2021, Volvo Group acquired a stake in Designwerk Group to complement its existing offering in the area of niche products and solutions.


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Dec 20, 202335:27
EP #364 - Reto Naef: Disruptive Therapies for Aging Diseases

EP #364 - Reto Naef: Disruptive Therapies for Aging Diseases

Timestamps:

13:03 - The birth of TOPADUR

18:07 - Leaving the cushy life for entrepreneurship 

23:26 - TOPADUR’s drug development 

30:36 - Financing pharma

38:08 - Sparks IPO Academy


About Reto Naef:

Reto Naef is the founder and former CEO of TOPADUR PHARMA AG, a biopharmaceutical company developing disruptive therapies for aging diseases. He holds a PhD in Chemistry from ETH and an MBA from UZH and previously worked for pharma companies like Sandoz and Novartis before starting TOPADUR in 2015. 

TOPADUR develops dual-acting drugs that target the cGMP-Enzyme Regulation System to stimulate microcirculation, enable tissue regeneration, and avoid local oxygen deficiency. Based on this key invention, they’ve built a portfolio of drug candidates to treat aging-related diseases like chronic wounds, skin fibrosis, age-related macular degeneration, colorectal cancer, hair loss and skin aging.

TOPADUR recently participated in the Sparks IPO Academy as part of their journey towards going public. They estimate that an IPO will be possible around early 2025, provided that they successfully bring all the drugs in their portfolio to market. Reto decided to step down from his operative role in 2023.


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Dec 17, 202354:10
EP #363 - Vivek Dogra, Arijana Walcott, Lukas André & Dominique Gruhl: VCs on Stage

EP #363 - Vivek Dogra, Arijana Walcott, Lukas André & Dominique Gruhl: VCs on Stage

Timestamps:  

6:29 - Looking for investors for your fund

13:08 - Managing investor relationships

19:56 - Deeptech in Europe

22:55 - Investing in very early stage companies

30:23 - Increasing legislation


About Vivek Dogra, Arijana Walcott, Lukas André & Dominique Gruhl:

Vivek Dogra is a venture partner at the European Circular Bioeconomy Fund, the leading investment fund dedicated to growth-stage companies and projects within the European Bioeconomy. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Electronics from PEC University of Technology, Chandigarh (India) and an MBA from INSEAD. He previously worked for companies like Heineken, Red Bull and Nestlé before joining ECBF in 2020.

Arijana Walcott is a co-founder and managing partner at DART Labs, together with former Swisspreneur guest Sophie Lamparter. DART invests in early stage startups from Switzerland and Europe and helps them test and scale their ideas in San Francisco. Arijana holds a Bachelor of Applied Science in General Management from HSO and previously worked as VP Innovation & Technology at Swisscom.

Lukas André is a managing partner at Redstone Digital, a Berlin-based Venture Capital firm that manages multiple corporate and institutional venture funds. He holds a MSc in Finance, Entrepreneurship & Computer Science from the University of Bern and previously co-founded 3 startups before joining the VC world.

Dominique Gruhl is the CEO of Serpentine Ventures, the investment arm of the Swiss Ventures Group and leading Swiss advisor for venture assets. She holds an MA in Applied Economics from HEC Montréal and an MA in Art Gallery and Museum Studies from the University of Leeds. Dominique previously worked at A.T. Kearney and the Canadian Embassy in Bern before joining Serpentine Ventures in 2023.

During their chat with Silvan, the four spoke about the difficulties and intricacies of running a venture fund in Europe, exploring topics like how to manage investor relationships so as never to lose an investor’s trust, why deeptech is what sets Europe apart, and how the sustainability sector is shaping up in the current fundraising climate. 


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Dec 13, 202340:42
EP #362 - Christian Fischer: From Building Skis to Building a Company

EP #362 - Christian Fischer: From Building Skis to Building a Company

Timestamps:

8:37 - From building skis to building a company

14:55 - Losing half your co-founders

28:42 - Pricing materials

39:44 - Handling sales after the CCO leaves

45:56 - Doing an IPO on the SIX Swiss Exchange


About Christian Fischer:

Christian Fischer is the co-founder and CEO at Bcomp, a global leader in advanced renewable material solutions. He holds a PhD in Materials Science from EPFL and previously worked at the aluminum products manufacturer Constellium before founding Bcomp in 2011.

The company started as a garage project to create lightweight, high performance skis. The result was bCores™, which were launched and successfully adopted by some of the biggest names in freeride skiing. The founders, material science PhDs from EPFL, used flax fibers to reinforce the balsa cores and improve shear stiffness. Impressed by the excellent mechanical properties of flax fibers, they began thinking of other applications and a potential business case.

Nowadays they additionally produce ampliTex™ and power-Ribs™, whose proprietary natural fiber-based reinforcement technologies reduce environmental impact in a wide range of high-performance applications, from automotive interiors to the highest levels of motorsports, from luxury yachting to sports, infrastructure, aerospace and even space.

Bcomp recently participated in the Sparks IPO Academy.


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Dec 10, 202356:50
EP #361 - Fabian Gerber & Jan Luescher: From Startup to IPO

EP #361 - Fabian Gerber & Jan Luescher: From Startup to IPO

Timestamps:

4:22 - Why do an IPO/direct listing?

9:15 - When should you pursue an IPO/direct listing?

15:39 - Where should you list your company? 

20:37 - The Sparks IPO Academy

26:44 - Direct listing mistakes 


About Fabian Gerber & Jan Luescher:

Jan Luescher is the CEO at ASMALLWORLD, an exclusive travel & lifestyle community. He previously worked as a Principal at Bain & Company and holds a MA in Strategy and International Management from HSG. Fabian Gerber is a Senior Relationship Manager at SIX Swiss Exchange, with a focus on IPOs. He holds a masters in Corporate Finance from HSLU and previously worked for Zürcher Kantonalbank and Credit Suisse. 

ASMALLWORLD did a direct listing on the Swiss Stock Exchange in 2018, registering shares at a price of CHF 9.75 per share. During his conversation with Silvan, Jan shared his insights on the process of going public, and Fabian added his perspective as someone with inside knowledge.

So why do companies go public?

  • They need more capital, and have perhaps grown past the company size that is easiest for VCs to invest in;

  • They have stakeholders who want to sell their stakes in the company.

Where should you list your company?

  • Swiss listings are considerably cheaper than in the US, if for no other reason than because going public in the US also requires getting American legal and tax advisors, an American investment bank, etc…

  • Swiss listings take 4 weeks to get approved, which helps you take advantage of your IPO window and derisk your project. In the US, however, you have to file with the SCC, handle the IRS, etc…

What are the requirements for going public in Switzerland?

  • At least CHF 2.5M in net equity;

  • A free float of 20%, and it has to be at least CHF 25M in market cap.

But wait! Not all that shimmers is gold. What are the disadvantages of going public?

  • You have to report twice a year on the state of your company;

  • You spend something like CHF 700K on the going public process itself;

  • You spend around 200-300K per year just for being listed: legal expenses, paying banks…

Of course, going public did indeed help ASMALLWORLD in acquiring more capital and gaining trust with potential partners, and the effort required to report publicly twice a year is something which Jan says helps you run your business better overall.


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Dec 06, 202346:59
EP #360 - Sarah Harbarth: Building Biobased, Biodegradable Materials

EP #360 - Sarah Harbarth: Building Biobased, Biodegradable Materials

Timestamps:

1:10 - Microplastics and food waste

5:25 - The kuori team 

6:30 - Raising 2.3M 

8:30 - The biobased & biodegradable USP

12:23 - Fundraising through the Swisspreneur syndicate 


About Sarah Harbarth:

Sarah Harbarth is the co-founder and CEO of kuori, a B2B enterprise providing eco-friendly alternative-plastic granules for fashion, outdoor equipment, tools, and toys. She holds a BA in Industrial Design from the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland, and was working there as a research assistant when she started kuori in 2021.

The idea for kuori arose out of a need to combat the issue of microplastics, which are non-biodegradable materials that pollute our waterways and end up in our food, while also tackling the problem of food waste. And so Sarah had the idea to upcycle food byproducts, like banana peels and walnut shells, to build plastic alternatives that are 5x more ecological while also preserving elasticity.

Since the start of the project, kuori has closed €2.3M in financing, which allowed them to upscale their production and their team. They are currently raising their next round, looking for 1.5M in dilutive money. Part of this money is being raised through the Swisspreneur Syndicate.


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Dec 03, 202317:21
EP #359 - Markus Witte: Building a Successful Founding Team

EP #359 - Markus Witte: Building a Successful Founding Team

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:

  • Statistics tell us that solo founders tend to be more successful, but that might just because the sheer determination it takes to start something on your own is also very useful in seeing the project through to the finish line. Whenever possible, start ventures with 1-3 other people;

  • When looking for potential co-founders, watch closely for ego issues: does it bother this person if they’re not always number one? If so, that’s not someone you want to partner up with;

  • Co-founding companies with relatives or romantic partners certainly isn’t a setup Markus would recommend, but there are plenty of documented cases of people doing it successfully;

  • A founding team breaking apart with time is not a sign of failure. People develop other interests and move on — that’s perfectly normal;

  • As a startup founder, you’ll rarely if ever have clear indication to pivot your product. Nay-sayers will always be telling you no, and it’s hard to understand to what extent your traction is the result of pure luck. So you have to keep going and find out. One thing to consider here is: How long can you afford to do this, both financially and emotionally?

  • In the beginning of a startup venture, rules are your enemy. You have to break them to make your own path. But when you start scaling up, rules become necessary, otherwise your promising operation descends into chaos. Don’t be afraid to change things and set up proper frameworks.


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Nov 29, 202343:08
EP #358 - Marco Rodzynek: The Conference for Digital, Sustainable, Profitable Startups

EP #358 - Marco Rodzynek: The Conference for Digital, Sustainable, Profitable Startups

Timestamps:

2:40 - 90 M&A deals and the 2008 crash

6:41 - NOAH coming to Switzerland

12:43 - NOAH speakers’ valuation increased 24x

19:34 - Profitability of cleantech

29:04 - Rapid fire questions


About Marco Rodzynek:

Marco Rodzynek is the founder and CEO at NOAH Conference, an annual event with an unique line up of digital champions and sustainability market leaders. Marco previously worked at Lehman Brothers, where he was involved in 90+ M&A deals, before starting NOAH Conference and NOAH Advisors in 2009. NOAH Advisors is a European leading corporate finance boutique focused on digital growth and sustainability companies.

The next NOAH Conference is scheduled for the 13-14th of December 2023 in Zurich, hosting 350 digital growth and sustainable companies to meet with over 500 unique investment funds.


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Nov 26, 202330:32
EP #357 - Sophie Lamparter: Fundraising in 2023

EP #357 - Sophie Lamparter: Fundraising in 2023

Timestamps:

4:55 - Current global fundraising environment

8:23 - The bet on climatetech

17:48 - How funds raise funds

32:45 - Calculating ROI

42:10 - Getting in touch with DART Labs


About Sophie Lamparter:

Sophie Lamparter is the co-founder of DART Labs, an international fund investing in early stage Swiss climate and health tech startups to accelerate them on the US market. She holds a degree in Communication and Media Studies from ZHAW.

During this episode with us she discussed the current fundraising environment, which is looking very much like an uphill battle not only at the Swiss level but worldwide. There’s less capital available, investors are favoring caution, and companies are doing bridge rounds, because they’re not quite ready for the next round. But Sophie thinks we would do well to remember the time scale at hand: the average fund duration is 10 years, as is the average founder journey — by comparison, a rough 2023 is just a blip in the startup universe. In fact, Sophie argues that now is the smart time to invest, since valuations are down and we know from past startup history that the best companies are forged during crises.

In 2022, the industry which received the most investment in Switzerland was fintech, closely followed by climatetech. Sophie and DART Labs are placing their bets on climatetech in 2023 for several reasons:

  • In 2025 wind and solar energy will become cheaper to produce in the US than coal: climatetech ventures are starting to make financial sense, and not just environmental sense;

  • Climatetech companies are now maturing, like the famous Swiss example, Climeworks;

  • There are more and more impact/climatetech funds coming up;

  • Climatetech events are being hosted in New York and San Francisco;

  • Most of us have now experienced the negative consequences of climate change personally.

DART Labs is currently raising USD 20M, and is still considered an emerging fund. Their investment strategy is health and climatetech early stage Swiss companies looking to enter the US market. Whether you are an investor looking to finance DART, or a startup aiming to be financed by DART, click the link above to head to their website and find out more.


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Nov 22, 202347:47
EP #356 - Arijana Walcott: Q&A with a DART Labs Founder

EP #356 - Arijana Walcott: Q&A with a DART Labs Founder

Timestamps:

4:03 - Is my company VC-backable?

7:04 - How to find investors

22:48 - What makes a good pitch deck

28:26 - Picking a bad VC

36:45 - Raising funds is getting harder


About Arijana Walcott:

Arijana Walcott is a co-founder and managing partner at DART Labs, together with former Swisspreneur guest Sophie Lamparter. DART invests in early stage startups from Switzerland and Europe and helps them test and scale their ideas in San Francisco. Arijana holds a Bachelor of Applied Science in General Management from HSO and previously worked as VP Innovation & Technology at Swisscom.

At DART Labs, she interacts with dozens of startups on a weekly basis, and during her chat with us she summarized some of the lessons she’s learned so far. 


Is your startup VC-backable? 

That depends on how fast you’re willing to go. The question in any investor’s mind, when deliberating whether or not to invest, is “Can this investment provide a return for the entirety of the money this fund has invested thus far?” If you’re not willing/able to grow your valuation 3x every 12 to 18 months, VC money is probably not the right choice for you. Growing at this rate is not the right option for every startup necessarily, but it is very much the type of thing VCs want. For instance, at DART Labs, Arijana and Sophie ask startups whether within 5 years they will be able to reach 50M in revenue, or be acquired for 50M.


Should you go for VC money or business angels?

That depends on the stage of your company. If you’re at a pre-seed stage, you’ll probably only be able to convince business angels. At seed stage, your investor pool might look like a mixed bag. From Series A onwards, you’re much more likely to captivate VCs, and may perhaps start relying more on them than on angel money.


How should you best approach a venture capitalist?

  • Make sure you’re able to reference a specific thing that has motivated you to reach out to them. You can mention something they said at a conference, which really resonated with you, or a company in which they’ve recently invested, that does something similar to what you’re doing. 

  • Play with their FOMO (“fear of missing out”). VCs, Arijana included, very often fall prey to that dreadfully tempting emotion.

  • Don’t let the VC you’re talking to know that you’ve already talked to 30 other investors, if that's the case. Because if you have, and you don’t have any soft commitments yet, the VC may very well assume the fault lies with your product (and ask yourself: does it?).

Arijana recommends that you structure your fundraising timeline around upcoming milestones which impact your valuation. She also urges you to make sure you have enough runway. 6 months for fundraising and 7 months of runway… is a recipe for disaster.


What are VCs thinking about during the first intro call?

  • “Is this the right team for this challenge?”

  • “Is this challenge worth tackling?”


In future calls, you’ll discuss things like the business model, your sales pipeline, etc.


What makes a good pitch deck?

  • It’s never a bad idea to go with the typical, Silicon Valley-style, “10 slides, problem -> solution” pitch deck.

  • If your product is deep tech or healthtech, make sure to have your scientific research ready at hand.

  • If you have a strong sales funnel, include it in your pitch deck! Investors wanna know whom the great companies you’re talking to are.

  • When giving investors access to the data room, it’s a great idea to include a Q&A/FAQ file with all the questions other VCs have previously asked. 


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Nov 19, 202343:16
EP #355 - Georg Hirschi: Flipping the Roles in Job Search

EP #355 - Georg Hirschi: Flipping the Roles in Job Search

Timestamps:

1:08 - Moving to Australia

7:30 - Shift from corporate to founder

16:50 - Reversing roles in job search

30:30 - How to keep contracts on FOUND

36:43 - Starting out bootstrapped


About Georg Hirschi:

⁠Georg Hirschi⁠ is the co-founder and strategy lead at ⁠FOUND⁠, a startup bringing the digital consumer revolution to hiring. He holds an MA in Applied Sciences, Commerce & Business Administration from UZH, and previously worked at companies like PeopleScout and Lee Hecht Harrison before starting FOUND in 2022, together with his co-founder Ranjit de Sousa.

Despite the COVID pandemic having turbocharged digitization in companies across the globe, hiring has remained immune to innovation for the past few decades. Employers and job searchers alike are overwhelmingly unhappy with the hiring process, whether that be with or without the services of recruiters.  

FOUND turns the tables and has employers pitch opportunities to top talent. AI-based matching and gamified assessments make every interaction worthwhile and keep everyone happy. Of course, FOUND only works with fast growing companies committed to providing a great employee experience, and they only accept top talent onto their platform.

Here’s what sets the FOUND talent community apart:

  • They have demonstrable experience in one of these 3 areas: product, UX/UI design, and software sales;

  • Their onboarding involved a range of selective assessments, not only of their skills and experience, but also of their preferences and behavioral traits;

  • They’re employed but not quite happy with their current situation, though not so frustrated that they’re willing to go through the traditional job searching process. Basically, if you’re not on FOUND, you wouldn’t find them.

FOUND’s services are free for talent, and free for employers as well right up until an employment contract is exchanged — then they pay a fixed fee. This way, it’s a 0 risk proposition for both the employer and the employee.

Memorable Quotes:

"We want to simultaneously solve the skills gap for employers and get people jobs that they really love."


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Nov 15, 202345:59
EP #354 - Anna Grassler, Cristian Grossmann & Sven Jakelj: Culture Evolving Over Time

EP #354 - Anna Grassler, Cristian Grossmann & Sven Jakelj: Culture Evolving Over Time

Timestamps:

5:01 - What does culture mean?

12:00 - Making exceptions to culture

15:00 - Measuring culture

20:48 - Dealing with a poor value fit

36:05 - Hiring family and friends


About Anna Grassler, Cristian Grossmann & Sven Jakelj:

⁠Anna Grassler⁠ is co-CEO at ⁠FELFEL⁠, a company changing the way people eat at work. She holds a masters in Management & Social Entrepreneurship from ESCP Business School and previously worked for companies like L’Oréal and Gärtnerei before joining FELFEL in 2022.

⁠Cristian Grossmann⁠ is the co-founder and Head Bee at ⁠beekeeper⁠, the well-known Swiss frontline operating system. He holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering from ETH and worked for companies like ChromaCon and Accenture before starting beekeeper in 2011.

⁠Sven Jakelj⁠ is the co-founder and CEO at ⁠feey⁠, an online shop for house plants. He holds an MA in Economics from UZH and previously worked for Deutsche Bank and PROCIVIS before starting feey in 2019. 

As both external CEOs and founders, this trio had a lot to say about shaping and trimming your company culture. They agreed that “culture” can best be defined as the shared set of values that is reflected in every interaction each employee has with the company. This means that once you’ve defined your company values, it isn’t enough to create posters stating these and hang them around the office: you’ve got to live them out during hiring, during performance reviews, at lunch time — all the time!

Which is not to say that as your company scales, your values can’t evolve as well. At beekeeper, for instance, their values used to be described by their stakeholders as very “kumbaya”, but as this Swiss company grew, these values adapted to withstand bigger and tougher challenges, and a clear reflection of that change was that their performance reviews became stricter. 

Check out Silvan’s conversation with these 3 entrepreneurs to learn more about how to set the right values, how to make sure the culture reflects them, and how to tell the difference between letting your values evolve and letting culture get out of hand.  Memorable Quotes:

"All the jobs I’ve had I liked at the beginning, but eventually got bored with." (Sven)

"Don’t hire 'maybes' out of desperation. You will regret it, and you will have lost time." (Anna)

"Our values have stayed constant, but our culture has changed."(Cris)


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Nov 13, 202339:07
EP #353 - Nikos Kariotoglou: AI Cameras Are Here

EP #353 - Nikos Kariotoglou: AI Cameras Are Here

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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Nov 08, 202357:05
EP #352 - Sophie Lamparter, Daniel Gutenberg & Christina Vallgren: Fundraising from the Startup and Investor Perspective

EP #352 - Sophie Lamparter, Daniel Gutenberg & Christina Vallgren: Fundraising from the Startup and Investor Perspective

Timestamps:

6:30 - Combining STEM and business

8:50 - The fundraising environment

16:19 - Fundraising and keeping the boat afloat

19:27 - What makes a great pitch deck

35:13 - Should investors sit on a company’s board?


About Sophia Lamparter, Daniel Gutenberg & Christina Vallgren:

Sophie Lamparter is the co-founder of DART Labs, an international fund investing in early stage European climate and health tech startups to accelerate them on the US market. She holds a degree in Communication and Media Studies from ZHAW. Daniel Gutenberg is a business angel and entrepreneur, having founded Gutenberg Communication Systems AG at 25 and sold it 5 years later, in 2000. He holds a diploma in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Ecole Technique Supérieure. Christina Vallgren is the co-founder, CEO and President of Terapet SA, a medtech startup based in Geneva. She holds a PhD in Applied Physics.

Coming in with the American perspective, Sophie Lamparter shared that the biggest difference between the Swiss and Silicon Valley ecosystems is culture: in California, every conversation starts with a yes, and you then figure out whether it stays a yes or turns into a no; in Switzerland, conversations start with a no, and then maybe, after the arduous process of building trust, this no can turn into a yes. For startups to thrive, a yes-culture is obviously more beneficial. 

Other topics discussed during this episode include the preparation founder teams must make before they raise funds, how to raise money in uncertain times, what the ideal runway is to start fundraising, and what makes a great pitch deck. Listen to the episode to find out what our guests have to say on these topics and check out Swisspreneur’s free fundraising masterclass (which includes Sophie!) to learn more.


Memorable Quotes:

"Next year, we’re going to be looking back at 2023 and saying ‘Boy, 2023 was easy!’" (Daniel Gutenberg)

"As a CEO, you have to build momentum around your company all the time." (Sophie Lamparter)


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Nov 05, 202343:01
EP #351 - Tanja Koch: Your First Startup Team

EP #351 - Tanja Koch: Your First Startup Team

Timestamps:

6:44 - Why the founder team is the key ingredient

13:30 - Starting entrepreneurship part-time

15:50 - Splitting shares among founders

24:03 - Attracting senior people to your startup

31:30 - Closing a round amid a crisis


About Tanja Koch:

⁠Tanja Koch⁠ is a co-founder at ⁠Amplo⁠, a no code platform that makes AI easy and accessible to service and operation departments. She holds a MSc in Mechanical Engineering from ETH Zürich and previously worked for companies like LEVITRONIX and 9T Labs before starting Amplo in 2021.

When it comes to finding the right co-founders, Tanja has some advice to give:

  • Your founder team should hold similar values but have different skill sets.

  • Starting a business with a romantic partner can be a good idea or not depending on your personal preference — Tanja personally wouldn’t do it.

  • The optimal founder team size is between 3 and 5 people.

  • The founders should hold equal shares in the company, provided they’re putting in equal amounts of work.

  • The shares/salary split should be set up so that founders don’t have to worry about things like the cost of eating out, but also aren’t living a life of luxury. For Switzerland, try to aim between CHF 3-5K per month.

Amplo raised a CHF 1.6M pre-seed round back in September 2022, in the midst of a complicated fundraising environment. This is Tanja’s advice on pulling a round like that off:

  • Ask your existing investors whom else they know who could invest in your following rounds.

  • Do the regular fundraising tasks: create a long list, then a short list, get intros, go to events, etc.

  • Keep the investors you’re talking to on a tight schedule. Tell them by which date you want a term sheet.

  • Create FOMO, even if accidentally: during the fundraising process, Tanja went to Berlin to visit a friend, and inadvertently made her Swiss investors concerned that she was talking to Berlin VCs. 

Memorable Quotes:

"Ask your existing investors who they know who could invest in your following rounds."


Don’t forget to give us a follow on our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 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!

Nov 01, 202339:08
EP #350 - Urs Hölzle: Google’s Employee #8

EP #350 - Urs Hölzle: Google’s Employee #8

Timestamps:

1:52 - When should Swiss startups go to the US? 

9:05 - Meeting the Google founders

12:47 - How to scale culture

23:27 - Current AI developments

28:04 - Leaving Silicon Valley


About Urs Hölzle:

Urs Hölzle is SVP of Engineering at Google, having started there in 1999 as their first Search Engine Mechanic and altogether 8th employee. Prior to Google, he started his own company Animorphic LLC in 1994 following the completion of his PhD in Computer Science at Stanford, and later worked as an Associate Professor at UC Santa Barbara and a consultant at Sun Microsystems. 

Having watched Google grow from a tiny company to the megalithic enterprise it is today, Urs had a front row seat to the development of its culture, and played an active role in shaping it. Here’s his advice for other scaling ventures:

  • Culture eats strategy for breakfast: if you have the right culture, it doesn’t matter if you have the right strategy from day 1, because sooner or later you will find it. Being in a team full of smart people who know how to contribute and how to contradict you means the right strategy naturally shapes itself. However, if you have the wrong culture, then the best strategy in the world wouldn’t do much for you.

  • Psychological safety: do the people in your team feel free to speak up and contradict those in positions of authority? When you’re building a scaling venture, you’re making decisions quickly: it’s extremely unlikely that you’re not making any wrong moves. You need these outspoken people as a safety net, and no one’s outspoken if they think getting fired will be the sure consequence of speaking up. 

  • Ask yourself “What does this potential hire add to the team?”: if you have too uniform a team, that team is not going to go nearly as far as one with different skill sets and perspectives. Similarly, you need to be certain that this potential hire is open to being corrected by someone else. It doesn’t matter how smart they are — if they’re not willing to grow, they won’t be much of an addition.


Memorable Quotes:

"Right place, right time is not something you can force."

"I think the #1 reason companies fail is not being mindful enough about scaling well."

"Sometimes the most dangerous thing is to be the smartest person in the room, because it means you stop learning."


If you'd like to listen to more conversations about working at Google, check out our first episode with ⁠Thomas Dübendorfer⁠.

Don’t forget to give us a follow on our ⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠ 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!

Oct 25, 202331:55
EP #349 - Rodrigo Fraga-Silva: An Innovative Approach to Erectile Dysfunction

EP #349 - Rodrigo Fraga-Silva: An Innovative Approach to Erectile Dysfunction

Timestamps:

1:03 - The problem of erectile dysfunction

5:38 - What Comphya can do for patients

9:26 - Doing pilot clinical trials

12:18 - Competition for true innovators

13:40 - Fundraising through the Swisspreneur Syndicate


About Rodrigo Fraga-Silva:

⁠Rodrigo Fraga-Silva⁠ is the co-founder and CEO at ⁠Comphya⁠, a Swiss medical device company and EPFL spin-off with the mission to help patients overcome erectile dysfunction through an innovative neurostimulating implant. He holds a PhD in Pharmacology from the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais and was previously a Postdoctoral Researcher at EPFL and scientist at the Wyss Center for Bio and Neuroengineering before starting Comphya in 2017.

The problem Comphya solves is clear: whether because of spinal cord injuries, prostatectomy (the removal of the prostate) or other causes, there is a percentage of men who struggle with erectile dysfunction, and of these men, 30% do not respond to oral drugs like Viagra. Their traditional alternatives are injections or prosthetics, both of which are painful and decrease their quality of life. 

This is where Comphya comes in: the team has developed a neurostimulator which can be implanted in the patient’s pelvic floor through a minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery, and which responds to a wireless remote control to provide patients with self-controlled stimulation. Comphya is currently at the pilot clinical trial phase, and so far implantations have gone extremely well, with no side effects and with patients going home the next day.

Comphya is currently raising a bridge financing round through the Swisspreneur Syndicate, to fill a ticket of CHF 500K. Check out the Swisspreneur Syndicate’s ⁠deal flow page on notion⁠ to find out more. 

Memorable Quotes:

"30% of the men with erectile dysfunction don’t respond to oral stimulants."


If you would like to listen to more conversations with our syndicate portfolio company founders, check out episodes ⁠340⁠, ⁠342⁠ and ⁠345⁠.

Don’t forget to give us a follow on our ⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠ 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!

Oct 22, 202317:38
EP #348 - Herbert Bay: Product Building from Start to Finish

EP #348 - Herbert Bay: Product Building from Start to Finish

Timestamps:

2:20 - 4 lessons from 3 ventures

6:40 - The ideation stage

12:30 - An MVP cannot be simple enough

24:40 - User survey tools

27:50 - Do users know what they want?


About Herbert Bay:

⁠Herbert Bay⁠ is a serial entrepreneur, angel investor and board member. He co-founded the image-recognition platform kooaba, the AR company Shortcut and the mental health tracker ⁠Earkick⁠, where he is currently still active. He holds a PhD in Computer Vision from ETH Zurich and is the original author of the SURF algorithm, used for various Computer Vision and AR applications such as object recognition, image registration, classification, 3D reconstruction etc.

Throughout his decades of experience, Herbert has learned from his mistakes as a product builder, and shared some of his takeaways with us. The following points are advice that he finds universal for all entrepreneurs: 

  • Ignore the naysayers: disruptive ideas will always be fought against. Ignore those people, and focus on your customers. (But if your customers are the ones saying no, then maybe it’s time to listen.)

  • Try to build something unique — the market is oversaturated enough as it is.

  • Don’t scale too early! If your rocket ship is missing a crucial piece, taking off is a really bad idea.

  • Focus on value generation from the start. Don’t just pick a cool idea; pick the idea that would bring about the biggest amount of positive change in the world.

Speaking of startup ideas, the ideation stage is full of potential traps:

  • Not having a clear goal, i.e., not being able to pick which of your ideas is best, or which aspects of your 1 idea are the most useful. Brainstorming is fun, but it needs to result in something executable! 

  • Focusing on the solution, instead of the problem. Don’t be the founder who fell in love with their tech and then searched the globe for a problem that required it. Start with understanding your customers’ problem, and build your tech based on that.

  • Not being able to boil a complex idea down to a simple approach. Of course this is less applicable to truly complex, research-based, deep tech products, but it’s safe to say that more or less regardless of complexity, you need to be able to explain your product in a simple way. Customers and investors need to get it!

How can you choose between ideas? Reduce each of them to an MVP and test them. Then check which one has the highest conversion rate. 

How do you know if you’ve reached product-market fit? Herbert likes Sean Ellis’ “product-market fit score”: ask your users how they would feel if they could no longer use your product — “not disappointed,” “somewhat disappointed,” “very disappointed.” If 40% or more answer very disappointed, then you’ve reached product-market fit. 

When it comes to perfecting your product, Herbert is no fan of user testing (i.e., paying people to test your product), because the payment factor conditions people to be nicer to you than they otherwise would be, and because these people are most likely not regular users of your product. He recommends getting in touch with your actual users through surveys, cold outreach, etc. Set up a call, go into detail!


Memorable Quotes:

Any idea that is truly disruptive will have a lot of people against it. Ignore those people and listen to your customers."


If you would like to listen to our previous conversations with Herbert, check out episodes ⁠21⁠ and ⁠22⁠.

Don’t forget to give us a follow on our ⁠Twitter⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠Facebook⁠ 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!


Oct 18, 202349:28
EP #347 - Canay Deniz: Systematizing Luck to Push Sales

EP #347 - Canay Deniz: Systematizing Luck to Push Sales

Timestamps:

11:31 - How taking a break helps you have new ideas

21:20 - AI’s role in Ren

27:38 - From Switzerland to the US

34:18 - Iterative product-market fit 

41:31 - Acquiring Fortune 500 companies as customers


About Canay Deniz:

Canay Deniz is the co-founder and CEO at Ren, the intelligence tool that alerts you of actionable news about clients, prospects, and key contacts and helps you reach out in a timely and meaningful way. Canay holds a M.Sc. in Industrial Engineering & Business from ETH, and previously worked at the data intelligence company Teralytics before starting Ren in 2019.

His startup, Ren, which aims to systematize serendipity, was itself born out of a lucky coincidence: a friend of Canay introduced him to his now co-founder, Lionel Hertig, and this encounter led him to take the entrepreneurial plunge.

What is serendipity, you may ask? Generally, it’s defined as a happy coincidence, but for Ren’s purposes the concept (at least when applied to the business world) can be broken down into 3 main elements:

  1. Finding the right people: Usually instead of 1 database, we have several, stored in a bunch of different places. Ren helps you centralize your contacts and prioritizes different types of people based on your personal goals. If you regularly cold email C-level people, then Ren will know that a contact’s job position is an especially relevant piece of information to consider.  

  2. Reaching out to people at the right time: We have access to an unprecedented amount of information, but you can’t read everything all the time — it’s impossible to monitor the entire world. That’s why Ren has partnered with media organizations and built an AI that reads all the news for you. It selects news not based on your interests, but on your prospects’. 

  3. Reaching out in the right context: It’s always best to sound like you have a pertinent reason to reach out to people, and aren’t just trying to land a quick sale. But how do you, for instance, find the news that impacts the company you care about but doesn’t directly mention it? Ren’s AI does it for you, and it also summarizes what happened and how it impacts your prospect. 

Ren’s goal is to give sales a human face and make it pertinent and beneficial for all parties involved. And it’s not just useful for sales people: the fundamental act of selling is a skill required for many aspects of a company’s operations, like hiring and fundraising. Currently Ren is focused on the English-speaking market, which they feel is big enough (at least for now), and their target customer is a relationship-based senior professional handling big deals in their day to day.


Memorable Quotes:

“A random email from a buddy led me to becoming CEO of Ren.”

“Perfect is the enemy of done.”

“We need to be very careful not to confuse traction with being pulled in 5 different directions.”


If you would like to listen to more episodes on sales, check out our latest conversation with Lars Mangelsdorf.

Don’t forget to give us a follow on our TwitterInstagramFacebook 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!

Oct 11, 202352:36
EP #346 - Roland Brack: Der Weg zu Brack.ch

EP #346 - Roland Brack: Der Weg zu Brack.ch

Timestamps:

8.37 - Start des Onlineshops in 1997

16.37 - Übernahme von Alltron

31.08 - Neues Logistikzentrum von Brack

37.48 - Fehlt Schweizern Mut zum Risiko?

47.23 - Warum Sologründer?


Über Roland Brack:

Roland Brack ist Gründer des Onlinehändlers Brack.ch sowie Gründer und Inhaber der Firmengruppe Competec.

1994 gründete er studienbegleitend die Einzelfirma Brack Consulting. 1997 lancierte Brack unter brack.ch seinen Onlineshop, der sich in den folgenden Jahren zu einer der umsatzstärksten E-Commerce-Plattformen der Schweiz entwickelte. 2007 gründete Roland Brack die Competec-Gruppe, um bestehenden Tochtergesellschaften und künftigen Akquisitionen ein Dach zu geben. Zwischen 2007 und 2018 fungierte Brack als CEO der Competec-Gruppe. Aktuell ist er Präsident des Verwaltungsrats.

Die Förderung des Unternehmertums liegt Roland Brack stark am Herzen. Er betätigt sich seit längerem als Investor, Berater und Verwaltungsrat bei diversen Jungunternehmen. Seit 2019 wirkt er als Investor in der Schweizer Ausgabe von Die Höhle der Löwen mit. Sein Ziel ist es, Unternehmertum einer breiten Öffentlichkeit, insbesondere auch einem jungen Publikum als etwas Erstrebenswertes darzustellen.

Seit 2002 ist Roland Brack ein leidenschaftlicher Offroad-Rallyefahrer. Er erreichte mit seiner langjährigen Beifahrerin Carmen Hrup und seinem Team outofcontrol diverse Podestplätze bei Veranstaltungen in Europa und Nordafrika. 2013 hat das Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen in einer TV-Dokumentation Roland Brack an einer Rally in den Karpaten begleitet.


Memorable Quotes:

„Wenn der Kunde zufrieden ist, kommt Umsatz und Wachstum von alleine.“

„Wir waren die ersten in der Branche, welche die Lagerbestände öffentlich gemacht haben. Alle haben gesagt: „Spinnst du eigentlich?“

„Wenn das Glück vor der Türe steht, muss man bereit sein die Türe zu öffnen.“


Folge uns auf TwitterInstagramFacebook und Linkedin um auf dem Laufenden zu bleiben. Wir posten regelmässig über Live Shows, Give-Aways und unsere Founders Dinner Events.


Oct 04, 202301:02:59
EP #345 - Adrian Krebs: AI & the Boom of Unstructured Data

EP #345 - Adrian Krebs: AI & the Boom of Unstructured Data

Timestamps:

2:36 - Rapid growth in unstructured data

6:53 - Reaching CHF 100K ARR in 8 months

8:48 - The competitor landscape

12:53 - Facing the diversity of data structures

13:57 - Kadoa’s deal on the Swisspreneur Syndicate


About Adrian Krebs:

Adrian Krebs is the co-founder and CEO at Kadoa, a SaaS company providing AI-powered data extraction. He holds a MAS in Information Technology from Berner Fachhochschule BFH and previously built the shopping guide Looria.

Together with his co-founders, Johannes Engler and Tavis Lochhead, he created Kadoa in 2023 to address a pressing issue: the hours upon hours of tedious, manual data extraction work performed by freelancers across the globe. Kadoa’s AI technology lets you build data extraction workflows on autopilot, without fighting scrapers, mappers, or APIs. They launched it this year to take advantage of three converging factors:

  • Tech breakthrough: It wasn’t possible to automate such large extents of unstructured data until now, and it was very expensive and tedious to process it. 

  • The boom in (unstructured) data: 80% of all data is unstructured, and 80-90% of all data worldwide was produced within the last 2 years. 

  • During uncertain times, companies look for ways to cut costs. 

After building their product in 8 months and reaching CHF 100K ARR, the Kadoa team has a full sales pipeline. Their only bottleneck is human capital: there’s still only 3 people on the team. That’s why they’re raising CHF 1.5M, part of which through the Swisspreneur Syndicate, for a 24 month runway. With these funds the Kadoa founders intend to achieve product-market fit, acquire 30 new enterprise customers and reach break even. Check out the Swisspreneur Syndicate’s deal flow page on notion to find out more. 


Memorable Quotes:

"80% of all data is unstructured, and 80-90% of all data worldwide was produced within the last 2 years."


Don’t forget to give us a follow on our TwitterInstagramFacebook 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!






Oct 01, 202318:39
EP #344 - Tim Beck: Using AI to Automate ERP Processes

EP #344 - Tim Beck: Using AI to Automate ERP Processes

Timestamps:

06:34 - Why all staff get their own shares

09:59 - Explaining how their automation works

15:45 - BLP Digital’s Business model

19:56 - How they validate business ideas

29:19 - Their experience of bootstrapping


About Tim Beck:

Tim Beck is the co-founder at BLP Digital, an ETH and HSG spin-off that uses AI to automate ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) processes. He attended both RWTH Aachen University and Georgia Tech. Before starting BLP Digital, he worked as a strategy consultant and specialist in digital business models and automation in the manufacturing industry. He has also successfully founded and managed three other startups, including the augmented reality startup CLIPTHIS.

Tim's entrepreneurial journey was shaped by his family background; his parents were both entrepreneurs, leading to daily exposure to business discussions, and it was a path that felt natural for him to follow. Despite this, he was not pressured to take over the family business and chose engineering and strategy consulting as his path.

BLP Digital, co-founded by Tim and his brother Sven, started with a sound footing because of the deep industry connections and technical expertise that came fromtheir parents being a part of the same industry. They initially focused on product development and engineering, bringing in co-founders with complementary skills to expand their market presence. BPL Digital's core offering revolves around machine learning to automate ERP processes, particularly document sharing between companies. They emphasize customer satisfaction, offering clients proof of concepts with actual data before committing them to services.

BPL Digital maintains control over its growth trajectory as a bootstrapped company, incentivizing employees with shares to foster a sense of ownership. Their ambition is to move from ground zero to an eventual IPO, reflecting an exciting journey ahead for the company. This episode sheds light on Tim Beck's entrepreneurial path, BPL Digital's unique approach to solving industry challenges, and their vision for the future.


Memorable Quotes:

“Bringing in 2 more CEOs later made sense for us when we wanted to enter the market, and find people with more valuable skills in this area”
“We consider ourselves a kind of a Chat GPT for documents, as our system can read things it has never seen before.”


Don’t forget to give us a follow on our TwitterInstagramFacebook 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!


Sep 27, 202345:06
EP #343 - Tim Duehrkoop: The Green Impact of Finance

EP #343 - Tim Duehrkoop: The Green Impact of Finance

This episode was sponsored by ⁠⁠quitt.business⁠⁠.


Timestamps:

06:07 - How Swiss investment markets have changed

9:16 - Why Tim chose forests

15:59 - How startups can operate better in the climate space

20:46 - Explaining ‘Green’ terms

29:27 - Who are Xilva’s competitors?


About Tim Duehrkoop:

Tim Duehrkoop is the co-founder and CEO of Xilva, a cleantech startup building the digital infrastructure for forestry investments with a focus on enabling funding through holistic project assessments. He received a PhD from HSG in Business Administration and attended Stanford for an executive program for growing companies. Once he completed his studies, he joined a startup called Namics, where he worked for 24 years. During this time he witnessed the growth of  this small venture into a corporate powerhouse with 500 employees,  as well as its successful exit, which left him pondering his next move within the Swiss entrepreneur ecosystem. Driven by a profound passion for addressing climate issues rather than solely pursuing profits, he is set out to make a meaningful impact.

His path converged with a co-founder specializing in forestry, leading them to tackle climate change by addressing market inefficiencies within the Swiss startup network. Their action was motivated by increased feelings of climate grief, and by wanting to actively do something about it. They recognized reforestation as a highly scalable, proven solution for removing CO2 from the atmosphere. During his episode with us, Tim discussed the evolution of the Swiss investment market and the challenges faced by startups within the Swiss startup network seeking funding, particularly in Series A and Series B rounds. Despite the current funding climate presenting difficulties, he has remained optimistic, anticipating improved conditions in the near future for Swiss entrepreneurs.

Startups can play a pivotal role in the climate tech sector, and while acknowledging that startups alone cannot solve the climate crisis, Tim argues that they serve as crucial laboratories for discovering effective solutions within the Swiss entrepreneur landscape. Additionally, he discussed strategies for enhancing startup operations in this space, such as creating favorable tax environments, establishing grant programs, engaging with governmental support and how they target angel investors.



Memorable Quotes:

“Startups can do many things but they can’t solve climate change. However they are important elements to find out what works in order to make an impact, and they help to facilitate and further develop new solutions.”


“Green washing is committing to something but then it’s not really helping the environment. Green hushing means you don’t commit to anything and hope nobody notices, and Green waiting is waiting for an initiative to come along but then not spending anything in the meantime.”



Don’t forget to give us a follow on our TwitterInstagramFacebook 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!‍


Sep 20, 202343:29
 EP #342 - Simon Krähenbühl & Silvia Nadenbousch: Swiss-Made Eyewear for a Sustainable Future

EP #342 - Simon Krähenbühl & Silvia Nadenbousch: Swiss-Made Eyewear for a Sustainable Future

Timestamps:

3:20 - Competitor quality vs quantity

6:06 - The ILEVE founding team

11:07 - Standing for Swiss quality

16:58 - The growing pains of startups

20:04 - The ILEVE deal on the Swisspreneur syndicate


About Simon Krähenbühl and Silvia Nadenbousch:

Simon Krähenbühl and Silvia Nadenbousch are the co-founders of ILEVE OPTICS, an eyewear brand which consists of two separate lines: LARS Brillen, a prescription and sunglasses B2B brand sold to opticians across Switzerland, and ILEVE DISTRICT, a cycling eyewear brand sold directly to customers and through selected retail stores. Simon is responsible for Design and Product Development and holds a master's in Innovation, Industrial and Product Design, and Silvia is the Communications and Marketing head, with a master's in Business and Economics.

The idea for ILEVE came from Simon’s personal experience as a glasses wearer: his glasses kept sliding down his nose, so he decided to develop an innovative glass hinge which prevented this from happening. His hinge patent was the first technical development in terms of glasses hinges in decades, and that is why he and his co-founder Silvia don’t feel threatened by the amount of other eyewear brands out there. Most brands, say the co-founders of ILEVE, innovate only in terms of colors and shapes, whereas this Swiss-made brand brings true added value to the wearer. 

If eyewear is a market with plenty of competition, it also has a never ending stream of customers: as people age, most develop a need for glasses, and with the pervasive and constant use of mobile devices nowadays, short sightedness is equally on the rise.

ILEVE eyewear is designed, 3D-printed and assembled in Switzerland. Simon and Silvia have found this to be a valuable USP for their brand, since the association with the idea of Swiss-made quality really helps to build trust and convert people into buying customers.

ILEVE is currently raising a CHF 800K seed round, CHF 100K of which is being raised through the Swisspreneur Syndicate. The funds will be used to grow their team, fuel their expansion to Germany and a select number of European cities, and achieve the coveted B Corp certification. Check out the Swisspreneur Syndicate’s deal flow page on notion to find out more. 


Memorable Quotes:

"We know we can’t save the world with glasses. But we want to take responsibility for the sustainability of our products." - Simon Krähenbühl

"Building a sustainable B2C brand with a low budget is definitely a challenge, but at the same time it keeps us creative." - Silvia Nadenbousch

Don’t forget to give us a follow on our TwitterInstagramFacebook 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!

Sep 17, 202326:12
EP #341 - Daniel Meyer & Marie So: Stylish and Sustainable

EP #341 - Daniel Meyer & Marie So: Stylish and Sustainable

This episode was sponsored by quitt.business.


Timestamps:

02:18 - Their career backgrounds

06:25 - Starting a company with a romantic partner

12:57 - Convincing customers to buy their product

20:37 - Importance of customer experience

30:17 - How did acquisition change their view on growth?


About Daniel Meyer and Marie So:

Daniel Meyer and Marie So are the co-founders and CEO and CSO, respectively, of EGO Movement. EGO Movement was founded in 2015 and provides smart, connected mobility solutions that are stylish, sustainable, and affordable. Daniel has a master's degree from ETH in Electrical Engineering and Information Technology and founded his first startup during university. He later spent 8 years in Hong Kong, Vietnam and China in various senior management positions for Swiss multinational DKSH, and his last role was as Vice President of their second largest business in China. Daniel also was the Chairman of the Swiss Chinese Chamber of Commerce for 2 years and member of several board of directors in China and South East Asia. Marie graduated from the Harvard Kennedy School with a master's degree in Public Administration and International Development, and a bachelor's degree in Economics, Engineering and Management Science from Northwestern University. She also attended the United World College of the Pacific (UWC). She previously co-founded Shokay and Ventures in Development, a non-profit that catalyses the creation of social enterprises in the greater China region. She also previously worked for the United Nations Development Programme, Dubai Development and Investment Authority, Procter & Gamble and Merrill Lynch. Marie is a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader as well as an Echoing Green Fellow 2008 and Asia 21 Young Leader 2008.

Daniel and Marie are romantic partners and share their experience of running a business together since 2015, highlighting how their differing skills and personalities complement each other. They blur the line between personal and professional life, constantly brainstorming new ideas and improvements for their brand.

EGO Movement stands out in the market with its fusion of lifestyle and technology in e-bikes, featuring GPS and remote unlocking via an app. Sustainability is at the forefront, as they showcase how e-bike users save 275kg of CO2 equivalents per year, making it an eco-friendly choice. They give insight into their pricing strategy, emphasizing affordability compared to cars and their commitment to a sustainable supply chain. Marie and Daniel sold their majority shares in 2021 to TVS, one of the 5 largest 2-wheeler manufacturers globally, paving the way for rapid growth and international expansion, with a focus on making e-bikes not just a mode of transport but a lifestyle choice.


Memorable Quotes:

“We have very different personalities and skills, but they complement each other, as well as a strong trust - that is very special because not every couple can do it.’

“Customer experience is very important for us, so opening a flagship lifestyle store was a step we felt was beneficial for the brand, which not every business considers a risk worth taking.” 


Don’t forget to give us a follow on our TwitterInstagramFacebook 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!


Sep 13, 202340:51
EP #340 - Jon Eisler: Providing Telemedicine for Every Man

EP #340 - Jon Eisler: Providing Telemedicine for Every Man

Timestamps:

01:06 - The motivation to start the company

07:26 - The team’s experience

12:19 - How do they stand out in the market?

14:36 - Toughest challenge so far

17:47 - Raising capital


About Jon Eisler:

Jon Eisler is the co-founder & CEO of Everyman, who are improving access to men's health through digital innovation. Jon received a BA in Business Administration from St.Gallen. After that, he went to LSE (London School of Economics and Political Science), where he completed a master's in finance and private equity. He also did an MBA at Stanford.

Jon's entrepreneurial journey began with a deeply personal experience during his late teens. Struggling with sexual health issues and a distorted view of masculinity, he recognized the need for a stigma-free space to access medical information and treatment remotely and decided to start Everyman. Their purpose is to provide individuals with secure and comfortable access to healthcare, especially for more awkward medical conditions. 

Jon identifies two key factors contributing to their success. Firstly, the digital transformation accelerated by COVID-19 has made telemedicine more accessible than ever. Secondly, Everyman introduces a flexible telemedicine model that eliminates traditional healthcare constraints, aligning with shifting consumer preferences.

Within six months, they launched the platform and initiated sales, seamlessly connecting patients, doctors, and pharmacies. Their approach bridges the gap between telemedicine and online pharmacies, setting them apart in the Swiss market. While Everyman faces the challenges of navigating strict healthcare regulations, they remain confident in their technological prowess and adaptability as they expand into new markets. Having raised 900,000 CHF and seeking an additional 300,000 CHF, Everyman aims to strengthen their positioning in Switzerland and later branch into various other vertical markets like hair loss treatments, skin care, weight loss, and hormone therapies. 




“The purpose of our company is to change the distorted image men often have of sexuality and provide a safe and accessible environment to talk about these normal but awkward issues.”

“We wanted to create a fully integrated platform between doctors, pharmacies, and patients, and that is something that does not yet exist in Switzerland in a synchronous way.”


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Sep 10, 202322:39
EP #339: Loulia Kassem: Making an Impact from Syria to Switzerland

EP #339: Loulia Kassem: Making an Impact from Syria to Switzerland

Timestamps:

03:54 - Starting her first company in Syria 

11:13 - First contact with Switzerland

16:12 - Explaining what biomarkers are

19:10 - How Rea Diagnostics helps determine pre-term birth symptoms

21:55 -  Rea Diagnostic’s go-to-market process


About Loulia Kassem:

Loulia Kassem is the co-founder and CEO of Rea Diagnostics, a medtech company that created a device to help pregnant women and their doctors monitor the risk of pre-term birth. Originally from Syria, she received a bachelor's degree from Arab International University in Pharmacy. After that, she started her first company at 21 in Damascus called BMP Pharm, which distributed essential medicines and nose sprays in Syrian hospitals. Unfortunately, the Syrian war meant that she could not continue her business, so Loulia chose to leave the country and pursue a master's abroad. She received a master's degree in pharmaceutical biotechnology from the University of Bologna and did her thesis through EPFL, which inspired her to move to Switzerland.

Loulia's entrepreneurial drive finds its roots in her family's legacy of entrepreneurship. Her father, in particular, was pivotal in nurturing her entrepreneurial spirit. This early exposure gave her the confidence to become an entrepreneur at such a young age, and instilled in her the belief that she could always be active and productive in making a positive difference in the world.

After moving to Switzerland and meeting her co-founder while completing her thesis, she knew it was the place she would call home and where she could start REA Diagnostics. REA Diagnostics has developed a unique approach to address pre-term birth, detecting specific biomarkers in a woman's body during pregnancy. These biomarkers are proteins that can indicate the likelihood of pre-term birth. Traditionally, biomarker testing required invasive procedures, often administered in a hospital setting, limiting accessibility and convenience. REA Diagnostics is committed to making these diagnostic tests accessible from the comfort of a woman's home.

By giving women the means to monitor their pregnancy health quickly and precisely, REA Diagnostics' product acts as a crucial red flag, alerting patients and doctors to potential risks. This early detection can significantly increase the chances of a safe and healthy pregnancy, ultimately leading to a brighter future for mothers and their newborns. They are still in the process of being approved to perform clinical trials and testing the device. However, they hope to get it to market as soon as possible and into pharmacies and hospitals all over Switzerland and beyond. 


Memorable Quotes:

“It’s very rewarding to create something from scratch, especially something that has the potential to change people’s lives.”

“People don’t talk about how difficult it is to have a pre-term birth. If the child survives,  they have life-long complications, and even one extra day in the womb can cause a host of issues if the patient is unaware.”


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Sep 06, 202327:17
EP #338 - Carlo Badini, Jeremias Meier, Flavio Pfaffhauser & Aileen Zumstein: The Dark Side of Entrepreneurship

EP #338 - Carlo Badini, Jeremias Meier, Flavio Pfaffhauser & Aileen Zumstein: The Dark Side of Entrepreneurship

Timestamps:

08:43 - Bad experiences when first starting their companies

12:15 - Going from university into entrepreneurship

18:23 - The stress of running out of money

24:54 - Dealing with loneliness

34:24 - Importance of humbleness


About Carlo Badini, Jeremias Meier, Flavio Pfaffhauser and Aileen Zumstein:

Carlo Badini is the founder and CEO of Pabio, a company that gets your apartment fully furnished by a professional interior designer and rents high-quality furniture on a monthly subscription. He has a degree in Business Administration from the University of Bern and participated in the Y combinator startup accelerator program. Jeremias Meier is a partner at session.vc and co-founded bexio, which streamlines administration services. He has a degree in Business Administration from St.Gallen. Flavio Pfaffhauser is co-founder and CIO at Beekeeper, an all-in-one frontline success system. Flavio received both his qualifications from ETH, a bachelor's and a master's in Computer Science.  Lastly, Aileen Zumstein is a co-founder and board member at v-oice, a company for new and innovative business ideas. She studied economics at the University of Basel and has a master’s from the University of Zurich in communications.

The group delved deep into the often lonely entrepreneurial journey, filled with both triumphs and tribulations. Our guests shared their vulnerabilities, highlighting the challenges they faced when they embarked on their respective ventures. While building his business in Zurich, Jeremias felt isolated as his friends pursued prestigious consulting and banking careers, questioning his choices. Aileen spoke of the struggle to establish the value of her communication company, dealing with doubts, and the intensity of partnerships. Flavio discussed his initial hesitation about his dating business and the impact of his father's failed business venture on his decision. Carlo emphasized the constant need to address problems as a CEO and the associated loneliness.

The other main point during the discussion was how successful entrepreneurs cope with the persistent fear of running out of money. Carlo experienced many sleepless nights worrying about this issue, describing the ceaseless problem-solving that comes with being a CEO. Flavio added impatience to his sense of isolation, especially during the search for product-market fit. Despite her support network, Aileen admitted feeling lonely, particularly during tough decisions, like parting ways with a business partner. She emphasized the need for alone time to balance her energy. Jeremias felt isolated from his non-entrepreneurial friends, who couldn't fully grasp the startup journey's ups and downs.


Memorable Quotes:

“Being humble is a virtue — you aren’t as important as you believe, and most things are out of your control anyway.” - Carlo Badini

“It can feel really lonely to never be asked how you are, because people assume professional success means personal well-being.” - Aileen Zumstein


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Sep 03, 202348:07