Swisspreneur Show

Arijana Walcott, co-founder of DART Labs, discusses key topics on VC funding, investor metrics, and fundraising challenges. She highlights the importance of growth expectations, choosing between business angels and VCs, and strategies for successful fundraising. The conversation also touches on navigating investor commitment, startup decision-making, and contrasting Swiss and American business cultures.

Georg Hirschi, co-founder and strategy lead at FOUND, talks about flipping the hiring process, AI-based matching, and gamified assessments. They discuss their background, leaving corporate jobs to start their own startup, and the value of community in achieving positive outcomes. They also touch on financing, fundraising, and job search experiences.

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

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

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

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 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Linkedin⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly giveaways or founders' dinners!

Urs Hölzle, SVP of Engineering at Google, discusses when Swiss startups should go to the US, meeting the Google founders, scaling culture, current AI developments, and leaving Silicon Valley.

Rodrigo Fraga-Silva, CEO at Comphya, discusses their innovative solution for erectile dysfunction through a neurostimulating implant. They highlight the problem of erectile dysfunction, the limitations of current solutions, and the pilot clinical trials. They also talk about the competition for true innovators and fundraising through the Swisspreneur Syndicate.

Herbert Bay, serial entrepreneur, angel investor and board member, shares valuable lessons for product builders. Key topics include the importance of customer feedback, uniqueness, value generation, and trial and error. They discuss idea validation, user acquisition, and understanding the problem rather than the solution.

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: 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.   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’.  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 Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly giveaways or founders' dinners!