Swisspreneur Show

Timestamps: 2:55 - Choosing between research and entrepreneurship 7:08 - Meeting a co-founder and future husband 13:09 - Global supply chain 14:34 - The challenge of certification 20:06 - Running a startup with your husband About Olga Dubey: Olga Dubey is the co-founder and CEO of AgroSustain, a one-stop-shop solution for biological plant protection that she created following her PhD in Plant Pathology, during which she met her husband and future AgroSustain co-founder. AgroSustain produces natural, biological crop protection solutions. These solutions serve to reduce food waste by preventing the formation of molds both in the field and on the shelf. The product, which is invisible and does not smell, creates a very thin barrier around the food which leads it to reduce its respiration — according to Olga, this is the plant equivalent of “falling asleep”. Memorable Quotes: "A researcher isn’t just someone who sits in a lab all day. It’s someone who’s constantly developing their analytical abilities." "When you run a startup, you learn something new every day. You never get bored." If you would like to listen to more foodtech episodes, check out our conversation with Mark Essam. Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners!

Timestamps: 1:42 - Studying what you truly love 6:13 - From solo founder to co-founder 15:13 - Skin Match use cases 20:14 - The product database 25:54 - Business model sustainability About Estella Benz: Estella Benz is the co-founder and CEO at Skin Match, a retail technology which uses AI to take the beauty industry to the next level. In her university studies she combined marketing with the beauty industry, after failing to get into her desired fashion design school. Her interest in the beauty industry stems from the fact that it just takes a miniscule difference in a brand’s angle for this brand to find a completely new market, even if the industry as a whole seems saturated. The predecessor to Skin Match was RUE CINQ, a luxury eCommerce store which targeted customers’ specific needs through its powerful algorithm. However, soon enough Estella started being asked by other brands for the use of this algorithm, and this was what in the end truly became a business, under the name Skin Match. Skin Match offers beauty quizzes for brands’ websites, an “INCI-Explainer” for every single ingredient on the website (which is of course based on their growing product and ingredient database), and “beauty insight” — the google analytics of beauty products. Whatever new feature or tool they push out first gets tested by 100 customers with their likes. Estella recommends that you never assume you’ve reached product-market fit definitively, and that you be willing to ask the questions you don’t want the answers to. She says oftentimes founders know what’s wrong with their products, but aren’t willing to go through all the work required to fix them. Memorable Quotes: "We could earn a lot of money in corporate. But we still believe that entrepreneurship is the right path, and that keeps us going." "Be open to ask the questions you don’t want the answers to." Resources Mentioned: The eMyth Enterprise, Michael E. Gerber  Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners!

Timestamps: 1:33 - Studying abroad 11:28 - Why the Swiss Tech Fund doesn’t give out loans themselves 17:55 - The cost structure 28:18 - What the fund offers besides loan guarantees 36:53 - What happens after defaulting on your loan About Simone Riedel: Simone Riedel Riley is the general manager at the Swiss Technology Fund, which grants loan guarantees to Swiss cleantech startups. She got her MBA from UZH and also studied at Harvard and Indiana University. She then came back to Switzerland to work as a CFO for a number of companies, before joining Emerald Technology Ventures in 2010. In 2014 Emerald Technology Ventures won a mandate by the Swiss government: as part of the passing of a CO2 law, the government wished to set up a fund which would help cleantech startups receive loans from banks, and ETV won the mandate together with South Pole. So the Swiss Technology Fund was born. The companies the Swiss Technology Fund works with are 90% startups and 10% SMEs. Most of these startups would simply not get a bank loan without the fund’s help, and while the SMEs could eventually secure themselves a loan, they would certainly have to pay higher interest rates without the Swiss Technology Fund’s stamp of approval. Why does the Swiss Technology Fund facilitate loans instead of equity rounds? Because the Swiss government did not wish to get too involved: with loan guarantees, the government only has to pay in the case of a default. In the case of a default, the government formally becomes that company’s new lender, and the bankruptcy administrators take a couple of years to fully dissolve the company, selling all the assets. The Swiss Technology Fund receives nothing, but that is a risk they are willing to take: out of 135 companies, only 7 have thus far defaulted on their loans. The fund can also help companies by providing contacts from their wide cleantech network, in case of a funding round. To receive the guarantee, companies pay the fund an annual fee of 0.9% of the loan guarantee. Then of course they also pay an interest rate for the loan, which usually lands somewhere between 1 and 2% — quite cheap, compared to equity. Companies are also required to submit quarterly and annual reporting to the fund, as they would to any investor. Memorable Quotes: "If we only support high-flyers, then we’re not doing our job as a startup fund. We should support the startups that actually need us." "The climate crisis won’t be solved by technological innovation alone." Resources Mentioned: signNow Canva If you would like to listen to our episode with Emerald Technology Ventures managing partner Gina Domanig, click here. Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest  initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows,  weekly give-aways or founders dinners!

Timestamps: 4:33 - Meeting your co-founders at a corporate job 14:31 - Taking advantage of inbound leads 16:31 - The Covid effect 22:54 - Standing out in the job market 30:51 - Preparing early for a round About Ivan Cossu: Ivan Cossu is the co-founder and CEO at Deskbird, a people-centric solution for a hybrid workspace. He has a background in economics and worked for a number of banks and consulting companies before venturing out onto entrepreneurship. Deskbird came about during the start of the pandemic: Ivan and his co-founder Jonas Hess quickly came to the conclusion that Covid would cause a huge disruption in the workplace, and initially planned to tackle this with a B2B co-working marketplace. However, upon gathering customer feedback, they decided to pivot it to its current model, where each office is exclusive to each company but employees can book desks as they please for their in-office days. Ivan is a strong believer that a strong culture can be built remotely just as well as in-office, as long as the team actively works to build it. Remote-first teams also benefit from much bigger talent pools, which may grant an advantage culture wise in the long run. Memorable Quotes: "I believe you can have a stronger company culture in a remote setting than in an in-person setting." "As a remote-first company, you have a much wider talent pool." Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest  initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows,  weekly give-aways or founders dinners!

Timestamps: 1:33 - From India to Germany and Switzerland 10:57 - Why build a startup 22:00 - Solving sleep disorders 36:36 - Marketing to B2B and B2C simultaneously 40:33 - Vertical and horizontal expansion About Soumya Dash: Soumya Dash is the co-founder and CEO of Sleepiz, a startup which produces remote sleep monitoring devices. Originally from India, he grew up constantly relocating to different regions of this country due to his father’s job, and this allowed him to develop an incredible degree of adaptability. This adaptability was then put to good use when he chose to do his masters at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology as a fully funded scholar. During his masters he visited Switzerland as an Erasmus student. Soumya’s time there made such an impression on him that when the time came to choose were he would do his PhD, he turned down an offer from Stanford to study at ETH. It was during the last years of his PhD that he started Sleepiz, which leverages the power of sleep insights with a device that is simply placed next to the bed. The device operates in a non-contact fashion and measures movements originating from heart contractions and breathing patterns, as well as body motions with medical grade accuracy. This is quite simply the first time we’re able to measure cardiopulmonar activity without actually touching the body. Sleepiz is catered towards respiratory illnesses, namely sleep apnea. Most people who suffer from sleep apnea do not get diagnosed, which is concerning considering that this condition makes it likely that at some point in their lives these people will suffer a fatal stroke. However, even if people do make an effort to be diagnosed, it is a cumbersome process involving a night at a sleep clinic with a bunch of wires strapped onto you. Sleepiz has come to change all of that. Memorable Quotes: "I lived in many different places throughout my whole life. This has made me capable of seamlessly fitting into any environment." "I don’t think I’m the type of person that takes no for an answer, at face value." "We’re risk takers but not stupid ones. We needed to ask ourselves: is the impact worth all the pain?" Resources mentioned: Thinking Fast And Slow, Daniel Kahneman If you would like to listen to more ETH co-productions, check out our episode with Martin Eichenhofer. Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest  initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows,  weekly give-aways or founders dinners!

Click here to answer the 2022 Swisspreneur Survey. Timestamps: 1:45 - Co-founding START Global 09:17 - Turning btov into umantis 19:13 - Starting a company during the dot com bubble 23:14 - Switzerland is the most open of the DACH countries 41:02 - When a fuck-up turns out okay About Hermann Arnold: Herman Arnold is the co-founder and ex-CEO of the talent management software company umantis. He was also a co-founder of btov and START global. START global, the (nowadays) international organization promoting entrepreneurship among young people, was co-founded by Hermann during his Zwischenjahr at HSG. The inspiration for it was actually another project of his: during this time Hermann also created a computing school for kids in his home country, Austria; he then felt it was necessary to create role models for these kids, so that they would feel they had more career options than going into banking or consulting. He himself comes from a family of entrepreneurs and feels this area is a much better use of great talent than areas like finance, seeing as they nowadays don’t provide much value to people, according to Hermann. In 2000, after finishing his studies, he co-founded btov — brainstoventures, a matchmaking platform to connect great companies with great venture capital. The founding team, Hermann reflects, underestimated how difficult it would be to make money with their business model — they wanted to take a cut from the equity the way Y Combinator does, but after one year they realized this model wasn’t going to work for them and they had to pivot. Coincidentally, companies had previously approached the btov team saying it would be great to have their matchmaking software to use with their own employees, as they had little clue about the skills their people had. And that’s how btov was pivoted into the HR software Umantis, one of the first Swiss Software as a Service companies. In 2014 Umantis merged with the Haufe group: after realizing that one of their competitors was going public in 2011 with 30M revenue, 45M losses and an evaluation of 1B (which were crazy numbers back then), the Umantis team knew it was their time to start actively pursuing an exit scenario. Memorable Quotes: "When doing business, you should always be very clear with your terms and write them down — especially if you’re doing business with friends." "It’s hard to see your company go in a direction you don’t agree with." If you would like to listen to a conversation with another co-founder of START Global, check out our episode with Bettina Hein. Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest  initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows,  weekly give-aways or founders dinners!

Click here to answer the 2022 Swisspreneur Survey: https://swisspreneur.typeform.com/to/LDhwEC5x Timestamps: 4:45 - Film directors and entrepreneurs 9:03 - Studying and bootstrapping a company 20:45 - Pabio, or renting your furniture 32:10 - Giving up recurring revenue opportunities 51:17 - Y Combinator About Carlo Badini: Carlo Badini is a co-founder and CEO at Pabio, the startup which allows you to decorate your apartment with high-quality furniture through a monthly subscription. He studied Business Administration and Psychology at the Universität Bern. Back in high school, he wanted to be a movie director, and so borrowed money from his parents to buy an expensive DSLR camera. To pay back his loan, he began producing short explainer videos for companies around Bern — and so Cleverclip was born. After graduating, Carlo took a gap year to focus on Cleverclip and travel, and it was by traveling that Carlo realized his privilege as a middle class Swiss person, and decided to put his “luck” to good use. While at university, he bootstrapped Cleverclip as a solo founder, which he nowadays does not recommend. In 2020 he decided to step down from his role as CEO at Cleverclip to start a new venture: Pabio. The idea for Pabio is based on the premise that it’s cheaper to rent high-quality furniture than to periodically replace “fast” (= low-quality) furniture. In case a customer really likes a piece, they can eventually buy it out. Carlo says that this is obviously the best option for the customer, and that Pabio can afford to lose out on that recurring revenue. In 2021 Pabio got accepted into Y Combinator’s Summer Batch. Carlo relates that though very expensive (Y Combinator takes 7% for a post-valuation of 2.1M), it was a really great experience: in 3 months Pabio tripled its sales and learned how to grow fast while still focusing on market fit; afterwards they raised a great seed round from both European and US investors. Memorable Quotes: "Entrepreneurship is one of the most efficient ways to change the world." "Usually the problems you don't anticipate are the ones that actually end up making your life more difficult." Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest  initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows,  weekly give-aways or founders dinners!

Timestamps: 1:17 - From creative work to the business world 11:37 - The graveyard of brand names 20:21 - Responsible consumption and emotional attractiveness 30:32 - Storytelling and investors 52:17 - Focused internationalization About Lena Jüngst & Simon Nuesch: Lena Jüngst and Simon Nuesch are the co-founders of Air Up, a revolutionary scent-based drinking system. Lena has a background in product design and Simon studied technology, management and business administration. They both come from Germany. During her bachelor's, Lena and fellow student Tim Jäger stumbled upon the topic of retronasal smell (tasting with your nose) when they were looking for a topic for their bachelor's thesis. Their interest led them to connecting this topic with our modern diet, which is currently both a huge threat to our health and to the environment. Our early evolutionary history taught us that food which tastes nice is good for us, but today that is certainly no longer the case. So if you want the sensory benefits of drinking a fizzy drink without the health and environmental costs, what do you do? You trick your brain into thinking water tastes like a fizzy drink, of course. Air Up's first prototype was simply putting one straw inside a cup full of water and another straw inside a scent diffuser and slurping both simultaneously. This was the rudimentary beginning of the "pods'' for sale today, which can be conveniently attached to water bottles. Memorable Quotes: "Sustainability is THE product design question right now." "Entrepreneurship means feeling constantly overwhelmed and constantly fascinated by your work." Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest  initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows,  weekly give-aways or founders dinners!

Timestamps: 3:09 - Finding co-founders 11:24 - Giving up the McKinsey partner salary 15:10 - Arrogance and stress 21:06 - Setting your own agenda 23:35 - Why entrepreneurship pays off About Pascal Koenig: 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. After having started 4 companies, here’s some of the advice Pascal has for young entrepreneurs: Pick your co-founders very carefully. Most people do so randomly or without much thought. Having studied alongside them and being confident in how knowledgeable they are is not a good enough reason; When building your product, don’t strive for perfection right away and know that ideas aren’t worth much. The real magic happens when you buckle down, get it done, and then iterate, iterate, iterate; Switzerland is more or less the same country whether you live on 100’000 or 1’000’000 CHF. So if you’re hesitant whether or not to take the entrepreneurial leap, take it; The best place to start when building a product is with a real problem that you know quite well. Memorable Quotes: "If you’re not embarrassed when you launch your first product, it’s too late to launch it." "Switzerland is more or less the same country, whether you live with 100’000 or with 1’000’000." If you would like to listen to our conversation with AVA women co-founder, Lea Von Bidder, click here. Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest  initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows,  weekly give-aways or founders dinners!

Timestamps: 1:07 - Is university overrated? 8:55 - Why be an external CEO? 21:16 - Conflict with the founding team 23:10 - Co-CEOs and holacracy 45:41 - There is always a better you About Boris Manhart: Boris Manhart is a serial entrepreneur and the founder of Growth Unltd, a company that helps scale your business. He was previously involved with CodeCheck and Numbrs, and studied for a couple of years at the Universität Zürich. Boris is actually a university dropout: he quit after 2 years of studying to co-found the communication and promotion agency Compresso AG, which he ended up leading for 10 years. When looking back, he thinks a university education may give you a good background, but it's not all that's necessary to turn you into a successful entrepreneur. Despite having co-founded Numbrs and Compresso AG, Boris has also been the external CEO at several companies, namely CodeCheck and TRIQ. This can sometimes be a challenge, because founders typically look at their startup as their baby and have a very hard time establishing emotional distance and creating space for someone else to come in and take things in a new direction. Here are 5 things Boris wished he'd known before starting his first company: - You shouldn't start without a solid foundation: what kind of values do you want to share with your team? What is the purpose of this company? What skills do you need to build a company that is successful? - Choose your core team wisely: it is more important that people add strength to the company through their personality than through any specific skill. - Leadership is not a competition: learn to delegate responsibility and to worry more about the team's collective talent than your own personal abilities. - Stick to best practices: data based approaches always win. Find proof for your hypotheses! - Listen to your gut feeling: though this contradicts the fourth point, there are certain situations in which you simple have no data. In those cases, trust your deepest instincts. Memorable Quotes: "If you do something out of passion, it usually turns out well." "There is always a better you. Be willing to learn." "As a founder, you should never pay too much attention to compliments." If you would like to listen to more conversations with serial entrepreneurs, check out our episodes with Marc P. Bernegger. Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest  initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows,  weekly give-aways or founders dinners!