Swisspreneur Show

Timestamps: 1:39 - Adapting to the post-exit life 9:07 - Becoming an investor 27:37- Overcoming post-exit depression 37:01 - How do you spend the money? 44:37 - Peace of mind from financial freedom The Episode in 60 seconds Life before and after the exit. Balancing family and business - If you happen to already have a family when you start your own venture, you’ll face trade offs between your family and your work life. Don’t try to sugarcoat this. Be honest with yourself and your loved ones about the choices you make in this trade off. - Having a partner by your side who is willing to “watch your back” while you are focusing on your venture is invaluable. Consider making an explicit contract / commitment about what you each expect from each other. - Find a model that works for everyone (e.g. your partner stays at home full time with the kids but always gets Sundays off for Golf) and define a time period for which you’ll stick with this model before you reevaluate. This helps to reduce stress from constant negotiations and uncertainty. Earn out periods - When your company gets bought, it’s customary to agree on a so-called “earnout period”. This means that crucial members of your (management) team commit to continue working at the new mother company for X amount of time in order to receive additional compensation. - Earnout compensations are usually tied to a performance metric (such as earnings or gross sales) but sometimes just depend on the founders staying with the mother company for the agreed period of time. - Typical earnout periods last between 2-4 years. Life after the exit - Some founders describe feelings of “post exit depressions”, a feeling of emptiness and sadness. This is probably a result of unrealistic expectations about how great the exit will feel coupled with a sense of loss and / or burnout. Whatever it may be, talk to others about the way you are experiencing the situation and don’t hesitate to get help. - Make a plan for how you are going to make your money work for you. Getting professional help with investing is usually advisable. Rely on your network for recommendations about investment professionals. Memorable Quotes "I'm just not a corporate guy. I like new things and I don't like being told what to do." "Wealth for me is just an instrument that allows me to be independent and happy." If you would like to listen to more conversations on exits, check out our conversations with Marc P. Bernegger and Ariel Lüdi. 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 out latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners!

Timestamps: 1:41 - Wanting to build something meaningful 5:16 - $6m Investment round 11:22 - The Upscaler experience 17:37 - Entering the growth stage 20:37 - More about Roxana About Roxana Porada and PXL Vision Roxana Porada is the co-founder and CPO of PXL Vision, a software provider for digital identity solutions. Roxana obtained a degree in Cybernetics and Statistics and subsequently worked as a software developer. In 2012, she joined Dacuda, the company founded by Swisspreneur guest Michael Born. When Dacuda was acquired by Magic Leap in 2017, she started PXL Vision together with three colleagues. To date, PXL Vision is most renowned as the technology provider for the SwissID solution and for their customer verification and onboarding solutions for enterprises. In May 2020, PXL Vision secured CHF 4.6 m in seed financing. The investment round was led by SIX Fintech Ventures. The company has also been awarded the Swiss Economic Award and was admitted to the SEF Upscaler Program. Going forward, PXL Vision aims to expand into the DACH region beyond Switzerland and branch out into additional use cases beyond customer onboarding. Memorable Quotes I wouldn't like to be a leader without also being a team-player. If you would like to listen to more episodes on the Upscaler program, check out our conversation with Michele Matt. 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: 1:53 - Majoring in Mathematics, Physics and Sociology 16:36 - Persisting through difficulties 25:55 - From co-workers to co-founders 36:57 - Managing competition 46:15 - Deciding whether you should sell About Simon Scheurer and Qumram Simon Scheurer is the co-founder and former CTO of Qumram, a provider of session replay technology for digital compliance. Simon holds a Masters in Physics, Mathematics and Sociology from the University of Berne. He started his career as CTO at the digital agency Unic - the same company as Swisspreneur guest and Fashion Days Founder Markus Okumus. After 7 years in consulting, Simon left the company with the desire to start a product business. He started Milgram Media which at the time was a direct competitor to Doodle. The company struggled to stay ahead of Doodle with its offering and after losing several important deals, the founders decided to exit for a modest sum. Not at all discouraged by the failure, Simon started Qumram. The idea for the product had emerged years prior and he decided to turn it into a business when large corporates started asking for digital compliance solutions. With Qumram, Simon was able to get several renowned investors on board, among them Swisspreneur guest Ariel Lüdi and Investiere. In 2017, Qumram was acquired by Dynatrace for an undisclosed amount. Memorable Quotes "When the employee number goes above 100 or so, maintaining the entrepreneurial spirit starts getting really tricky." "People are very reluctant to change. So you have to be massively better than the tool that they already know, use and like." Resources Mentioned The Calorie Myth, by Jonathan Bailor Why We Sleep, by Matthew Walker Aurum Fit If you would like to listen to more episodes on leaving the corporate world, check out our conversations with Alisée de Tonnac and Luiza Dobre. 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 out latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly give-aways or founders dinners!

Timestamps: 1:55 - Motivation for taking the leap as a founder 6:27 - Expanding to Sweden 9:20 - Losing investors over Covid 13:18 - The Upscaler experience 18:14 - Shady accelerator programmes About MyCamper and Michele Matt Michele Matt is the co-founder and CEO of MyCamper, a peer-to-peer camper rental platform. Michele started MyCamper in 2015 when he realized that his own camper, Charly, sat idle for a large part of the year. What started as a project to rent out his own vehicle soon turned into a two-sided marketplace idea. In spring of 2020, the company was closing their fist fundraising round with the Covid 19 pandemic in full swing. During the course of 2020, MyCamper hit the CHF 1 m threshold in revenue and now boasts 1000 campers on their platform. The MyCamper founding team also participated in the SEF UpScaler Program, which supports companies in accelerating international growth. For the next 3 years, MyCamper wants to drive an aggressive growth strategy, before focusing on profitability. In 2021, MyCamper wants to focus on doubling their numbers from 2020 and becoming the number #1 player in Sweden while keeping their position in Switzerland. From there they plan to expand across the entire Nordic region of Europe, beating their competitors in local markets. Memorable Quotes "I grew up in an entrepreneurial family, and it really inspired me. I wanted to have the freedom to explore my ideas." If you would like to listen to more conversations on accelerator programs, check out our episode with Nicolas Bürer. 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: 2:24 - Gianluca's international background 4:42 - Gregory's academic background 8:08 - Having 8 co-founders 11:47 - The robotics market 27:15 - Getting support as a startup About Gianluca Cesari, Gregory Hitz and Sevensense Robotics Gregory Hitz and Gianluca Cesari are two of the 8 co-founders of Sevensense Robotics, as well as CEO and Business Development Lead, respectively. Gregory obtained his PhD from ETH Zurich later continued as Postdoc. Gianluca also received his Masters in Robotics, System and Control from ETH Zurich and afterwards continued as Robotics Engineer at the University's Autonomous Systems Lab. The two worked together with their 6 co-founders on an autonomous robotics project together with two industry partners while still at university. Out of this initial research group, Sevensense Robotics was born. Running a business with 8 co-founders would be a challenge for many. Sevensense decided to mitigate the problem by clearly distributing roles. While some members of the founding team took on managerial duties, others stayed with their passion for engineering and have contributed to developing the product. Autonomous robots have applications in various industries: Sevensense currently focuses on logistics. By applying Sevensense’s technology, logistics providers can enable their machines to safely and autonomously navigate in dynamic spaces shared with humans, in- and outdoors. To date, Sevensense has been able to work together with several important customers, such as Jelmoli and Wetork. Memorable Quotes "Many people are actually really willing to help you — you just have to ask." Resources Mentioned Thinking, fast and slow, by Daniel Kahneman The Harvard Business Review Venture Kick Wyss Zurich If you would like to listen to more episodes on robotics, check out our conversations with Alex Tyropolis and Mina Kamel. 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: 1:49 - From ETH Researcher to startup founder 9:00 - Winning Investor's Choice 10:35 - Clean tech competitors 12:43 - Having a hard time with sales 17:55 - Moving from India to Europe at 19 About Sreenath Bolisetty and Blue Act Technologies Sreenath Bolisetty is the co-founder and CEO of BluAct Technologies, an ETH spin-off which provides a technology for water purification from heavy metals through milk proteins. In 2020, the company won the Expert’s Choice Award at the Energy Startup Days. Originally from a small village in India, Sreenath obtained his PhD from the University of Bayreuth. He went on to work as a Senior Researcher at ETH Zurich and in 2016, started BluAct Technologies as his first company. BluAct’s purifying system differentiates itself through its high level of effectiveness at a low cost point. Being able to run without electricity, it is the perfect choice for water purification in remote areas - something which BluAct Technologies has proven through their various pilots in remote communities around the world. Their milk protein membranes are suitable both for water purification in individual households and at large scales of thousands of cubic meters of water. With 2 products already on the market, BluAct Technologies wants to expand its offering to cover purification for radioactively polluted water. The company is planning to raise USD 3m in their next investment round to help with the commercialization and certifications of its products. Memorable Quotes "A very strong motivation to start BluAct was the fact that I come from India, where water problems are a very real day-to-day issue." If you would like to listen to more episodes on ETH spin-offs, check out our conversations with Mark Essam and Mina Kamel. 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: 4:18 - Why is culture so important? 16:17 - How to establish a culture 21:39 - Hiring the right people for your culture 37:45 - When employees leave 41:53 - Rapid fire questions The Episode in 60 seconds Getting company culture right. Common mistakes around company culture - Underestimating its importance: Your company vision makes sure everyone pulls on the same rope. The culture ensures everyone pulls in the same direction. Having a strong culture helps employees take good decisions without always referring to their managers for guidance, therefore making the company more efficient and agile. - Getting started too late: while a team of 5 might not need an explicit culture statement, it’s easy to miss the right moment to “get started with culture”. This is especially detrimental if you’ve already hired employees who are not a great cultural fit. Finding and growing your culture - Company culture is the result of shared values. Most often, these will be the values of the founding team. - If you aren’t sure what your values are, a good place to start is by observing your feelings in your day to day business interactions. Do you get frustrated when someone doesn’t appreciate the work you do? Maybe appreciation is a value you hold dearly. Do you love to receive candid feedback from others? Maybe openness is important to you. - Once the founding team is aligned on their values, make them explicit and talk about them often. Base your decisions (particularly around hiring and firing) on these shared values. Scaling culture - While you grow, it’s extremely important to stay true to your values and not to accept a culture misfit just because someone is good at their job and/or you struggle to find someone to replace them. - Everyone is responsible for nurturing company culture and calling out cultural incompatibility. Don’t outsource this important task to a “Chief Culture Officer” or similar. - Nobody is perfect and employees (and you as well) will sometimes fail to live up to your values. That’s okay, as long as you and the person in question clearly see the problem and a path towards improvement. Measuring culture - While there is no “right” or “wrong” culture, there is culture that works and culture that doesn’t. A way to measure the “health” of your culture is via employee happiness and employee Net Promoter Score (NPS). - To add more color to the employee NPS, consider also measuring the number of employee referral hires you get. Referring a friend is a strong indicator of happiness and a well working culture. Memorable Quotes "Establishing a great company culture reduces the amount of time you need to spend handling internal affairs, and leaves that time free for actually helping your customers." "If your core team does not share your company values, then you're never gonna establish a culture. Culture is established through behavior." If you would like to listen to more conversations on startup culture, check out our episodes with Cédric Waldburger and Markus Orkumus. 

Timestamps: 1:46 - Developing the next generation of solar modules 7:29 - Does winning awards help a startup? 8:56 - Fierce competition from China 12:03 - The non-liberalized energy market in Switzerland 14:32 - What will 2021 bring? About Laurent Coulot and Insolight: Laurent Coulot is the co-founder and CEO of Insolight, a photovoltaic startup. Laurent started Insolight in 2015, together with his two co-founders, Mathieu Ackermann and Florian Gerlich. Within 5 years, the company has grown to over 15 employees. With Insolight, the co-founders focus on a very specific area of the photovoltaic market which is not yet well served by mass produced photovoltaic panels - agrivoltaics. Insolight’s solar panels are both translucent and highly efficient. These properties make the panels uniquely suited to be  deployed on top of areas which are used for growing crops - therefore reducing the land use competition between agriculture and photovoltaic by allowing them to coexist in the same space. In 2020, Insolight closed a $ 5m series A and received its first orders from industrial customers. The company was also awarded the public choice award at the Swiss Energy Startup Days. In 2021, Insolight plans to build and ship more than 1000 panels. Before starting Insolight, Laurent worked as an Applications Engineer at Melexis. He holds a Masters in Micro and Nanosystems from the EPFL. Memorable Quotes: "We think market regulations should reflect the fact that solar energy has a pretty much non-existent carbon footprint." If you would like to listen to more episodes on solar power, check out our conversations with André Borschberg, Anaïs Matthey-Junod, Sébastien Jaffaux and Liliane Ableitner. 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: 2:34 - Why study law and not business? 18:06 - Can you work on a startup part-time? 34:46 - Being motivated by challenges. 48:31 - Having a big client not renew the contract 59:58 - Companies asking for discounts About Tobias Häckermann and Sherpany: Tobias Häckermann is the co-founder and CEO of Sherpany, a provider of meeting management software for leadership meetings. Tobias started his first company right out of high school. As a long time practitioner of martial arts, he was the go-to person if one of his friends needed a bouncer for a party or other event. Seeing an opportunity, Tobias started PNC security. Through his first venture, he met Nathanael Wettstein, who would later become one of his co-founders at Sherpany. Tobias sold PNC security to a competitor for CHF 70k. He went on to start easyComm, a platform for digital events which he sold to Alphablue Eventmanagement. During this entire time, Tobias was still obtaining his law degree from the University of Zurich. During his semester abroad at University of Siena, the idea for Sherpany was born. Originally, Sherpany was conceived as a communication tool between companies and their shareholders. For nearly two years, Sherpany was trying to bring the product to the market, until the founders realized they were not solving the right problem for their customers. The company pivoted to providing software for agile meeting management in leadership teams and has since grown to a multinational company with offices in Paris, Lisbon, Milano, Wroclaw, Berlin and Zurich. Memorable Quotes "It's okay to work part-time on a startup at the beginning. But at some point you've got to start giving it your all, otherwise you're gonna iterate too slow and you're gonna get frustrated, because you're going nowhere." "I always thought the bigger your company gets, the more things it should be able to do. But it's the opposite — the bigger you get, the more focus you need." Tobias Häckermann's Favorite Resources Blinkist If you would like to listen to other episodes on organizational matters, check out our conversation with Christian Burger. 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: 2:00 - Why start your own company? 7:29 - Winning Investor's Choice at Energy Startup Day 12:15 - How to stand out from competition 28:24 - Closing a funding round 33:23 - Choosing between Germany, Switzerland and Austria About Liliane Ableitner and Exnaton: Liliane Ableitner is the co-founder and CEO of Exnaton, a software provider for energy communities, allowing neighbors to trade renewable energy amongst each other. Before starting Exnaton, Liliane was a Doctoral Researcher at the Bits of Energy Lab at ETH Zurich. She met her two co-founders, Arne Meeuw and Anselma Würner, during her work on the research project "Quartierstrom", funded by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy. The project resonated well with all stakeholders involved and the three PhD students decided to spin it out into an independent company in 2019. Since then, Exnaton has signed 2 pilot customers and is currently fundraising. In December 2020, they won the Investor’s Choice award at Energy Startup Days, which helped the company to gain exposure amongst relevant stakeholders. Contrary to some of their competitors, Exnaton doesn’t sell their software to end consumers. Rather, they cooperate with local utility companies and allow them to white label their solution and distribute it to their customers. Exnaton is greatly benefiting from the liberalization of European energy markets because it has been driving competition for innovative products between utility companies. They are hoping to further benefit from an opening of the Swiss market, which has traditionally been very protected. Memorable Quotes "If you're in a market with 0 competition, then you're in the wrong market, because either you're on a completely wrong track or you're way too early." If you would like to listen to more conversations on green tech, check out our episodes with Mark Essam, Anaïs Matthey-Junod, Alessandra Rojas and Sébastien Jaffaux. 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!