EP #112 - Yoko Spirig: Creating The Most Flexible Equity Management Solution

Timestamps:

2:37 - From studying physics to becoming an entrepreneur

9:55 - Splitting roles

18:01 - The initial idea for Ledgy

22:10 - Finding your first clients

30:12 - Dealing with American competitors

Biography:

Yoko Spirig is the co-founder and CEO of Ledgy, an equity management company for startups and high growth companies. Yoko studied Physics at ETH Zurich, the University of Oxford and CERN. She was also project lead of Swissloop, helping to build the first Hyperloop pod in Switzerland. Yoko met her two co-founders, Ben Brandt and Timo Horstschaefer, during her time at university. It was also during that time that they were first made aware of the problems related to equity management that many young companies (and their investors) face through a conversation with the Doodle founders, Michael Näf and Paul Sevinç, who were looking for a startup team on cofoundme. After graduating from ETH Zurich, the three friends went on a journey with the transsiberian railway from Vladivostok to Moscow where they read up on startup business strategy and sharpened the idea which would eventually become Ledgy. The company pivoted after 1.5 years from a free product to introducing business pricing and targeting larger companies rather than early stage startups. In the early days, the co-founding team also toyed with the idea of using Blockchain technology to enable their product. They however abandoned that plan after evaluating the regulatory framework and their customer needs. Today, Ledgy serves companies like Frontify, VIU and Sherpany and employs a team of over 10 people.

Resources Mentioned:

Zero to One, by Peter Thiel and Blake Masters

The Lean Startup, by Eric Ries

Memorable Quotes:

"A good board is a hands-off one — they don't try to micro-manage the company. But they are also always there to offer good advice."

"I became an entrepreneur because I wanted to have a direct, short-term impact on society."