Swisspreneur Show

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!

Timestamps: 5:54 - Being a trend scout in Silicon Valley 11:27 - The Swiss pension system concern 21:33 - What makes or breaks a pilot project 31:41 - The success book and the failure book 40:05 - Next trends coming up About Lorena & Alice: Alice dal Fuoco is the head of innovation at VNTR, an innovation and venturing project by Postfinance. Lorena Tschirky is the lead of one of VNTR's successful ventures, miira. Before joining VNTR, Alice's work at Postfinance consisted of trend scouting the data economy in San Francisco. Alice and her colleagues were interested in discovering which US startups and research projects would end up having an impact on Europe, and especially on Switzerland. Lorena's main project is miira, a solution to optimize your pension with just a few clicks. Lorena's research told her that financial security and the ability to keep up living standards is a rising concern, even in Switzerland, and that due to a lack of transparency on the part of official entities, and the lack of an incentive to start saving, Swiss people do so too little too late. Out of this research, the "DESIRE" (Design Your Retirement) was born, but as it had an over-abundance of features, Lorena and her team simplified it into an MVP which tells user what their income is going to be upon retirement, and whether there is a gap between their ideal standard of living and that income. This MVP would later become miira. Another one of VENTR's initiatives was the "Failure" and "Success" books — the former originated from a huge excel file a co-worker of Alice once had to compile, listing every innovation project VENTR ever did and at what stage it failed. The 500 copies originally printed turned into 2000 once HR got wind of it: they wanted every employee at Postfinance to own one, to foster a more failure-positive culture. This bred a wish for a book celebrating VNTR's successes, and so the Success book was born. Memorable Quotes: "Never fall in love with your first prototype. I've never heard of anyone whose first prototype was their golden ticket." 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: 2:14 - When to go international 9:00 - Franchising 13:02 - Associations that help you go abroad 17:26 - Receiving payments in other countries 20:29 - Trade finance About Markus Meyer: Markus Meyer is responsible at UBS Switzerland for payments, trade finance and leasing business. He has been working for UBS since 1996, and holds a PhD in Information & Technology Management and Banking from HSG. According to Markus, there is no universal right timing for going international, but it is something Swiss companies should start working on as early as possible, considering the size limitation this country necessarily imposes. Before going international, companies should take care to: - Clearly define their USP/differentiating factor; - Find out where their clients are, world-over; - Ascertain what the competition is like in the countries they're looking into, and what the pricing level currently is. Common challenges when going international: - Sometimes you are simply not allowed to sell your product in a certain country, especially countries which already rely heavily on imports and therefore wish to protect their economy; - Even if you are allowed to sell in a certain country, you will have to face different rules, regulations and taxes; - Regarding distribution, companies would do well to remember that mindset changes greatly from country to country. Are you really catering to local needs? Are you falling into the (typically Swiss) trap of over-engineering? Memorable Quotes: "If you're a Swiss entrepreneur with a good idea, you have no choice but to go international." If you would like to listen to our other episodes from this UBS co-production, check out our conversations with Jürg Tauss, Fabian Humbel,  Thomas Hofer and Vito Gigante, and Martin Eng and Patrick Forte. 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 - Spending many years at university 7:15 - Meeting your co-founder at university 9:52 - A very technical founder team 31:40 - Finding promising partners 41:05 - Communicating your vision About Martin Eichenhofer: Martin Eichenhofer is the co-founder and CEO at 9T Labs, a startup making 3D printed carbon composites for high volume production. He has an impressive academic background, with one BA, one MA, one MBA and one PhD under his belt. His university path is actually deeply tied to his entrepreneurial career, since the idea for 9T labs occurred to him during his masters, his MBA was motivated by his desire to build 9T labs, and he got his PhD after realizing he didn't have enough of a scientific foundation for it yet. Martin also met one of his co-founders, Chester, during his PhD. When commercializing an idea which originated in academic research, the 9T labs team relied heavily on market insights and treated the transition as a very gradual process. They also opted to sell to different industries/application fields, instead of hunkering down on a single one. In their book, it's better to partner up with the champion companies of each industry than to pursue every single company in a given industry. Memorable Quotes: "US companies get a lot more funding than us, but the fineprint of those deals often shapes the exit negatively." 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: 1:31 - Meeting the ON co-founders for the first time 7:30 - Loans are preferable to equity rounds 26:05 - An investor's sleepless nights 34:18 - Swiss IPOs in the future 39:49 - Get help with industry leaders About Martin Eng & Patrick Forte Martin Eng is a senior client advisor at UBS, and Patrick Forte works there as the head of corporate finance. Martin has been a part of the UBS team for a total of 15 years, Patrick for 18. The ON team won the SEF (Swiss Economic Forum) award for Innovation in Production of Sporting Goods, which earned them the SEF.growth (at the time called SEF for KMU) label. SEF growth companies get easy access to loans from UBS, and this was how Martin and Patrick met the ON founders. They were very impressed from the very beginning with the ON team's commitment and with their expertise: despite being a young company, they had systems and automation in place which allowed them to know their global sales with a 30 min delay — and this in the early 2010s. ON needed the loan money in order to pre pay all their orders, since their choice to invest all revenue into growth meant that it took them a long time to start generating cash. The loan amount was adjusted periodically based on the influx of ON orders. UBS also provided expertise for the decision making process. Memorable Quotes: "If you can get get funds through loans instead of equity rounds, then that's always preferable as a startup, because it means you get to keep your baby." If you would like to listen to our other episodes from this UBS co-production, check out our conversations with Jürg Tauss, Fabian Humbel, and Thomas Hofer and Vito Gigante. 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: 1:04 - Dropping out of college 6:53 - Selling a company for $26M at 30 13:00 - Evernote in 2007 38:18 - The out-of-office world 40:40 - Choosing where to live About Phil Libin: Phil Libin is the co-founder and former CEO at Evernote, the world’s best known note-taking app. Prior to Evernote, he built Engine5 and CoreStreet. He holds a BA in Computer Science from Boston University, which he began in 1989 and only finished in 2019. He originally dropped out shortly before graduating. Phil did not originally plan to become an entrepreneur, but despite his ambitions of working a steady job for a large company, he just couldn’t commit to that sort of life and instead prefered to build companies with his friends. It was only 20 years into this career that it occurred to him entrepreneurship was a valid option. He sold his company Engine5 for $26M in January 2000, right before the dot com bubble burst. Phil was 30 years old at the time. 25% of the money earned by the founders was held in escrow for 2 years — which turned out to be a very good thing, because the remaining 75% they invested into companies which then very quickly went bust. Around 2007, Phil and his team got to thinking about building something like a cognitive prosthesis, a second brain — the note-taking app to conquer all. Their research led them to a California team of scientists working on a very similar product, and they decided to combine the teams. Originally, Evernote was a product intended for journalists and investors. In 2015 Phil Libin stepped down from his CEO role at Evernote (remaining as Chairman until 2016) and moved on to new projects, such as the product studio All Turtles and the video communication company mmhmm. Memorable Quotes: "As young entrepreneurs, we always felt like we were failing. Like the reason we were starting these companies was because we couldn’t get real jobs." Resources Mentioned: Continuous Glucose Monitor 1491, by Charles C. Mann Kindle 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: 1:32 - How not to sell your company 6:46 - KPIs to reach before selling 20:40 - Finding the right price 26:32 - Whoever wants to deal less wins 32:04 - Your role after the sale About Thomas Hofer and Vito Gigante Thomas Hofer is the head of the transaction advisory at UBS' corporate finance department, and has been working for UBS for over 20 years. Vito Gigante has been the head of SME M&As at UBS ever since 2016. Here are a few common mistakes when it comes to selling/buying companies: - Sellers often underestimate the difficulty of the selling process; - Sellers often neglect to undertake the necessary preparation (i.e., mostly the documentation process); - Buyers often focus on the aspects they have expertise on, and neflect to ask for advice on other topics. Thomas and Vito recommend that you sell your company while it still has a bright future ahead, and not when it's about to tank. You should also pay close attention to the political and technological zeitgeist when assessing the right time for the deal. UBS provides transaction financing services, where they act as a sparring partner for the buyer the whole way through. Their internal experts provide a 2nd opinion on various aspects of the deal, and they also coordinate the closing process to ensure utmost transaction security. Memorable Quotes: "The best time to sell your company is as soon as a promising future comes on the horizon. Don't make the mistake of waiting too long." If you would like to listen to our other episodes from this UBS co-production, check out our conversations with Jürg Tauss and Fabian Humbel. 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: 1:01 - A family full of role models 8:23 - The doubts of an entrepreneur 18:56 - Moving back to the US 29:41 - A partnership in equality 40:41 - Working with your spouse About Bettina Hein: Bettina Hein is the co-founder and CEO at juli Health, an app for managing chronic health conditions, and an investor at the Swiss Shark Tank Höhle der Löwen. She also co-founded START Global when studying at HSG, as well as Svox and Pixability. She’s married to Andreas Glödi, who is an investor at btov partners. Bettina grew up in a family full of entrepreneurs and so was never short for role models; despite this, she did not feel confident to jump straight into entrepreneurship after her university studies and ended up interning and working for a series of corporates instead. She particularly remembers her unpleasant experience at McKinsey, which she says had a cutthroat environment. During her time at HSG, she co-founded the largest student-led entrepreneurship conference in the world, START. The people she co-founded it with would go on to start btov ventures, and also put her in touch with an engineer developing text-to-speech technology - and so Svox was born. Due to the telecom bust in 2001, Svox went through a number of difficulties, having had to fire more than half of their staff and place the rest on short time work. Despite the hardships, Svox turned the tide and was eventually sold to Nuance for $25M. By this point, Bettina and her husband Andreas decided to get a mid-career masters at MIT, and it was out of MIT that Bettina built Pixability, the video advertising software company. She left Pixability after 12 years to support her husband in moving back to Switzerland. Shortly after moving back, she was invited to star on Höhle der Löwen. In 2020 Bettina co-founded juli Health, an app for managing chronic health conditions. Juli Health is geared towards US customers, since it aims to help compensate for the US healthcare system’s many inefficiencies. Memorable Quotes: "No one in my family ever had a 9 to 5 job, so it was rather easy for me to envision myself becoming an entrepreneur." "Before starting my first venture, I told myself 'If this doesn't work, I can always get a job at McDonalds.'" 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: 2:10 - What liquidation is 6:30 - When liquidation is enforced by a creditor 19:50 - Liquidation agreement 23:31 - The emotional toll 28:20- If liquidation happens to a supplier/partner About Fabian Humbel: Fabian is an executive director and the head of special segments, credit and recovery solutions at UBS, of which he has been an employee since 2006. He has an MBA from the Chicago Booth School of Business and a BASc in Business Administration from HSG. 3 misconceptions about liquidation that he believes founders must deconstruct is the idea that liquidation is not a valuable option, the idea that liquidation is in fact a failure, and the notion that liquidation is necessarily connected to an insolvency procedure. There are 2 types of liquidation: - Privately initiated liquidation: your business model didn't work out, and you've chosen to shut down in style. This may even involve a sale at the end. - Forced liquidation, under the insolvency procedure: you have not been able to pay your creditors. In this situation, you may find an agreement with the creditor and manage to have some of your debt forgiven. If you do not reach an agreement, insolvency it is. Fabian stresses the necessity of reaching out for external psychological support should you find yourself dealing with an insolvency procedure. You do not have to bear the brunt of it by yourself — and having an external, neutral perspective on your situation may end up benefiting you more than you know. Memorable Quotes: "Liquidation does not mean insolvency, and it is not necessarily a bad thing." If you would like to listen to the previous conversation in this series, check out the episode with Jürg Tauss. 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: 5:43 - Traveling for 4 months to think 9:34 - Building a highly-scalable business 21:20 - Sustainability and pricing 35:37 - A new way of experiencing online shopping 42:56 - Selling tokenized shares About Roy Bernheim Roy Bernheim is the co-founder of the men's underwear brand T-Bô, the first clothing brand to be community driven. His background is in European Social and Political studies, and after university he went on to work in private equity and brand management. Roy and his co-founder Allan Perrottet built T-Bô in 2017. They were interested in creating a highly scalable business with a large target audience, and soon discovered that men's underwear was an interesting category from this point of view, because: - Online businesses with a physical component need a basket size that is not too big (because then people wouldn't convert, or would take too long to) nor too small (because then it's difficult to compensate for the acquisition cost). Men's underwear had a happy medium; - It had an interesting customer acquisition cost; - Even if you don't establish a subscription model, men's underwear is a product people will buy more of if they like it; - You can ship it inside an envelope up to three pieces of underwear, which is highly cost effective from a logistics standpoint. T-Bô menswear is Direct By Consumer, meaning that the products are co-created together with the T-Bô community — they're not personalized, but they are highly subject to democratic changes based on feedback. This demand-driven production means the returns are very few and they don't have to factor in wastage into their margin structure, which allows them to have competitive prices while still maintaining a very nice margin. Memorable Quotes: "The clothing brands of the future will be built in a collaborative and open way." Resources Mentioned: Exponential Organizations, by Salim Ismail, Michael Malone & Yuri van Geest Give and Take, by Adam Grant Science News If you would like to listen to more conversations on sustainable clothing brands, check out our episode with Nicholas Hänny. 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! ‍