Swisspreneur Show

Serial entrepreneur S. Manoj Harasgama shares his journey from working at Shell to building a ClimateTech startup. He discusses the urgent need for climate solutions, the development of technology to run gas turbines on hydrogen, and the impact of reducing CO2 emissions. The conversation highlights the challenges and opportunities in the ClimateTech industry, emphasizing the importance of strategic partnerships and funding hurdles.

Nicole Pulido, Co-founder of Circleg, discusses the neglected field of disability care, making money as an impact startup, managing startup growth, and fundraising strategies in the podcast. Circleg aims to provide affordable prosthetics to low and middle income countries, focusing on Africa initially.

Jonas Urwyler & Nico Hauschke discuss launching Capt’n Greenfin, a sustainable fishing goods company. They highlight market timing, product innovation, fundraising, and the environmental impact of traditional fishing products. With a focus on sustainability and biodegradable bait, they aim to revolutionize the fishing industry.

Ansuya Ahluwalia, co-founder of Anamii and CTO of thirty3, shares her journey from India to Silicon Valley, starting Anamii, and joining Swisspreneur. She discusses building a wellness app, her role as a CTO, and the surprises of entrepreneurship. Ansuya reflects on her background, studying in the US, and the transition to building AI-first applications. She emphasizes the importance of mental wellbeing, spiritual growth, and the challenges of entrepreneurship during the pandemic.

Exploring the revolutionary impact of AI with ChatGPT, AI companies challenging tech giants like Google, ethical challenges in AI, Swiss supercomputer innovations, and the role of government regulation in eradicating biases in AI models.

Exploring social impact entrepreneurship for migrants in Switzerland, funding for SINGA, Swiss fear of failure, and knowing when to move on. Seraina Soldner shares insights on empowering refugees through entrepreneurship, eligibility criteria, challenges faced by migrants, risk-taking in Switzerland, and personal growth in career transitions. Discover innovative healthcare startups, facing fear, team dynamics, and personal reflections on motivation and career.

The podcast discusses illegal work in Switzerland, with 30-60% of domestic helpers not registered. Cleaners benefit from working with quitt, earning higher salaries. quitt has over 20,000 customers and plans to expand to Germany in 2023. The episode also explores challenges faced by startups in Switzerland's deep tech ecosystem and the ethical employment practices advocated by quitt.

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. Don’t forget to give us a follow on⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠and⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Linkedin⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly giveaways or founders' dinners.

From growing a company from 2 to 220 employees to a founder's motivation and a CEO's evolving role, Cris Grossmann shares valuable lessons learned during his time at beekeeper. He emphasizes the importance of staying true to company values, even in challenging times, and discusses the mission of solving tech issues for frontline workers. The podcast also explores the evolution of business strategy and the CEO's strengths and challenges in leadership roles.

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. Don’t forget to give us a follow on⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠and⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Linkedin⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly giveaways or founders' dinners.