Swisspreneur Show

Timestamps: 2:19 - Why doesn't Europe get employee participation plans right? 7:04 - How much equity should you give your employees? 16:26 - How to communicate stock option plans to your team 23:35 - The politics of stock option plans 27:53 - Rapid fire questions Episode in 60 seconds Getting employee participation plans right. Why participation plans are important - As a startup, you’ll often str...

Timestamps 1:21 - Motivation for starting your own business 4:24 - Rocking with your friends 7:46 - Struggling with team management 10:54 - What is the Swiss Romandy ecosystem doing well? 16:07 - More about Sébastien Biography Sébastien Jaffaux is the founder and CTO of the Swiss Solar Boat Association, a project created by engineering students from EPFL and HEIG-VD. Swiss Solar Boat aims to creat...

Timestamps: 2:37 - From studying physics to becoming an entrepreneur 9:55 - Splitting roles 18:01 - The initial idea for Ledgy 22:10 - Finding your first clients 30:12 - Dealing with American competitors Biography: Yoko Spirig is the co-founder and CEO of Ledgy , an equity management company for startups and high growth companies. Yoko studied Physics at ETH Zurich , the University of Oxford and C...

Timestamps: 1:34 - The reason behind Tech For Impact 7:20 - Who's the target student? 11:51 - Milestones so far 17:40 - Toughest challenge 25:56 - More about Alessandra About Alessandra and Tech4Impact Alessandra Rojas is the manager of the EPFL Changemakers program , an incubator program which is part of the EPFL’s Tech4Impac t initiative for accelerating ground-breaking and sustainable technolog...

Timestamps: 7:35 - Reasons for leaving the corporate world 16:19 - Finding the right problem to solve 23:11 - Do solo founders work? 38:09 - Dealing with rejection 46:07 - The scalability issue About Luiza Dobre: Luiza Dobre is the founder and CEO of Komed Health , a healthcare communications platform. She started Komed Health in 2016, after a long time toying with different ideas and struggling t...

Timestamps: 1:22 - Starting a student project 8:32 - The team behind sun'n'go 16:15 - Tips for making remote teams work 17:34 - Advice for future entrepreneurs 22:07 - The French-speaking Swiss startup scene About Anaïs and Sun'n'go: Anaïs Matthey-Junod obtained a BA in Environmental Science and Engineering and an MA in Energy Management and Sustainability from the EPFL . In the last year of her m...

Timestamps:  2:30 - Meeting future co-founders  9:19 - Deciding to go up against Nike and Adidas  21:35 - Finding a business partner  47:14 - Dealing with competition  49:47 - Investors  About Caspar Coppetti: Caspar Coppetti is co-founder of On, one of the world’s fastest growing sports brands. Caspar started On together with his two co-founders Olivier Bernhard and...

Timestamps: 10:22 - Understanding your clients (needle question) 14:55 - Getting your customers to use your product more often 17:00 - Achieving negative churns, incentivizing referrals 24:51 - The best lifetime value vs customer acquisition costs ratio 36:53 - When to pull the plug on a certain channel The Episode in 60 Seconds How to find, optimize and scale your sales funnel from early stage to...

Timestamps: 12:56 - Turning a company tool into a product 25:00 - Developing a brand with 25 other people 34:53 - Dealing with the complexity of a growing company 43:23 - Being laughed at by more traditional companies 56:38 - Finding work-life balance About Jeremias Meier: Jeremias Meier is the co-founder and managing director of Bexio , a company offering SaaS around payrolling, invoicing and acc...

Timestamps: 5:11 - Getting fired 18:42 - The business model behind vertical farming 22:19 - Having to change your founding team 32:40 - Having an employee steal data from you 37:17 - The ETH Entrepreneur Club About Mark Essam: Mark Essam is the co-founder of YASAI, a vertical farming startup and ETH spin-off. The idea to pursue vertical farming originated from the book  " The Vertical Farm: H...

Timestamps: 3:54 - Most relevant digital marketing channels 13:50 - How do you know you're on the right track? 19:33 - Talking budget 31:15 - When should you switch to an offline marketing channel? 38:41 - Best tool setup About Lukas Stuber: Lukas Stuber is the Managing Director of Dept, a digital agency. Previously, he had founded Yourposition, a digital marketing agency specialized in search eng...

Timestamps: 8:03 - When to expand to Asia 17:54 - Knowing how to change your mentality 19:21 - Will English take you far? 28:26 - What can Europe learn from Asia? 30:25 - What can Asia learn from Europe? The Episode in 60 seconds Why expand your business to Asia - Asian markets are growing rapidly, with a strong increase in purchasing power. - Asia’s entrepreneurial ecosystem has long caught up wi...

Timestamps: 2:25 - Turning a translation company into a profit center 15:21 - Finding your core values 19:48 - Dealing with employees who don't fit your culture 25:13 - Going international 46:34 - Working with investors About Doris Albisser: Doris Albisser is the founder and executive Chairwoman of Evaluglobe AG . Through Evaluglobe, she focuses on board mandates, growth investments and advising c...

Timestamps: 0:55 - Common mistakes with bootstrapping 2:40 - What's the right channel for you? 12:43 - Offline vs online ads 17:12 - Green Friday sale 24:13 - Scaling your social media presence The Episode in 60 Seconds: Bootstrapping your marketing from scratch The first commandment of bootstrapping: do it yourself. Don’t pay agencies or lawyers for things you can do yourself or copy paste from t...

Timestamps:  6:01  - Wie die Eisenbahnfrage die Schweiz für immer verändert hat  30:53 - Wer ist Alfred Escher als Mensch?  48:03 - Wie Escher mit Verlust klargekommen ist  59:42 - Umgang mit Krankheit  1:24:48 - Hat Alfred Escher ein tragisches Ende gefunden?  About Joseph Jung and Alfred Escher: Joseph Jung is a historian, consultant and the author of one...

Timestamps: 5:40 - Why go through college? 10:08 - Going from idea to execution 21:15 - Building a startup part-time 35:33 - Building a community behind a brand 48:54 - Turning investors down About Nicholas H änny: Nicholas Hänny is the co-founder and CEO of Nikin, a sustainable fashion startup. Nicholas started Nikin in 2016 together with his childhood friend Robin Gnehm . Within only 4 years, th...

Timestamps: 4:00 - Hiring the best people 23:28 - The management team 28:02 - Dealing with investors 41:04 - Being Chief Culture Officer 45:04 - Are great CEOs born or made? About Phil Lojacono: Phil Lojacono is the co-founder and CEO of Advanon, one of Switzerland’s formerly fastest growing fintech startups. Advanon offers a platform for SMEs to bidge long payment terms by providing them with liq...

Timestamps: 0:58 - Starting a company with your significant other 2:08 - How to evaluate the potential of a founding team 7:55 - Added pressure to your relationship 17:10 - Splitting roles 21:14 - Challenging situations The episode in 60 seconds: Starting a business with your significant other can be a rewarding experience. In this episode, Dorina shared her insights about how to make it work. Rul...

Timestamps: 1:27 - Becoming an entrepreneur after an impressive student CV 8:48 - Discovering the vet market 19:47 - Convincing investors about your hardware tech 25:45 - Winning American clients remotely 31:19 - The trickiness of raising Swiss funds About Dorina Thiess: Dr. Dorina Thiess is the CEO and co-founder of Piavita AG, a medtech startup that develops and distributes digital veterinary di...

Timestamps: 0:55 - Branding mistakes Swiss startups make repeatedly 5:56 - Building a brand as a group 10:02 - Steps to creating a strong brand 15:03 - Target client vs your personal startup story 20:14 - Rapid fire questions The Episode in 60 Seconds: Getting inspired for your brand - Building a recognizable brand is like building a character - it can come with its own edges and quirks. - Your br...

Timestamps: 2:57 - Splitting roles between 5 co-founders 10:05 - Testing the market 19:24 - Having net promoter score as your main KPI 25:40 - Disrupting the market and facing opponents 35:31 - Starting to hire people full-time About Peter K äser: Peter Käser is the Founder and COO of VIU Ventures AG , a Swiss eyewear brand. He started VIU in 2013, together with his co-founder Kilian Wagner, both...

Timestamps: 1:48 - What can I do on my own and where do I need professional finance advice? 2:55 - What are the best tools to manage your finances? 5:00 - What's the best business credit card out there? 7:20 - Can I use my Swiss bank account to accept international payments? 8:56 - Managing international payments 10:51 - How does the Swiss tax system work? 17:51 - Is Switzerland really tax heaven?...

Timestamps: 2:11 - What mistakes do Swiss companies make when it comes to Gen Z? 6:19 - Aligning company goals with Gen Z's activist streak 19:13 - Leading people older than you 22:44 - Which social media platforms are currently relevant? 31:00 - How to sell to Gen Z The Episode In 60 Seconds: What is Generation Z? Young people born between 1995 - 2010, NOT Millennials. How to win Generation Z as...

Timestamps: 1:13 - Becoming an actress at 14 11:40 - Not going to university 14:45 - Launching your own project 15:40 - Sneaking into fashion shows 27:57 - Starting a company with your romantic partner About Y ël Meier: Yaël Meier is an actress, journalist and the co-founder of Zeam, an agency helping companies leverage Generation Z. At the age of 14, Yaël held her first movie role in the Swiss Dr...

Timestamps: 1:07 - Bitcoin and entrepreneurship 8:57 - Biggest milestones so far 15:53 - Having a hard time with fundraising About Julian and Relai: Julian Liniger is the co-founder and CEO of Relai, a startup aiming to empower everyone to invest in Bitcoin. Julian was an early crypto currency aficionado and the go-to person for his friends for anything crypto-related. This made him realize that t...