Swisspreneur Show

Timestamps: 1:13 - Accidentally ending up in China 9:04 - Psychological safety at work 18:50 - Publicly disclosing your pricing 28:10 - Getting the first customers 36:00 - Doubting if you’ll make it About Loris Niederberger: Loris Niederberger is the co-founder of Moodtalk , a software for clarity and structure on how teams work together successfully. He holds an MA in International Management fro...

Timestamps: 7:40 - High energy, high loyalty and high intelligence 13:46 - When a co-founder leaves 19:57 - The point of an MVP 32:08 - Grants or equity? 39:05 - Plans for future expansion About Philippe Ganz & Paulina Grnarova: Paulina Grnarova is the co-founder and CEO of DeepJudge , an AI-powered Knowledge Search for legal professionals. She holds a PhD in Computer Science from ETH. Philipp...

Timestamps: 6:44 - eMobility back in 2008 7:39 - CO2 impact of electric vehicles  8:56 - Sourcing the minerals sustainably & ethically 15:58 - Life after death, for batteries 25:00 - Partnering with Volvo About Adrian Melliger: Adrian Melliger is the co-owner and CEO of Designwerk Technologies , an electromobility one-stop-shop. He previously worked for companies like Swissport and Ground Hand...

Timestamps: 13:03 - The birth of TOPADUR 18:07 - Leaving the cushy life for entrepreneurship  23:26 - TOPADUR’s drug development  30:36 - Financing pharma 38:08 - Sparks IPO Academy About Reto Naef: Reto Naef is the founder and former CEO of TOPADUR PHARMA AG , a biopharmaceutical company developing disruptive therapies for aging diseases. He holds a PhD in Chemistry from ETH and an MBA from UZH a...

Timestamps:   6:29 - Looking for investors for your fund 13:08 - Managing investor relationships 19:56 - Deeptech in Europe 22:55 - Investing in very early stage companies 30:23 - Increasing legislation About Vivek Dogra, Arijana Walcott, Lukas André & Dominique Gruhl: Vivek Dogra is a venture partner at the European Circular Bioeconomy Fund , the leading investment fund dedicated to growth-st...

Timestamps: 8:37 - From building skis to building a company 14:55 - Losing half your co-founders 28:42 - Pricing materials 39:44 - Handling sales after the CCO leaves 45:56 - Doing an IPO on the SIX Swiss Exchange About Christian Fischer: Christian Fischer is the co-founder and CEO at Bcomp , a global leader in advanced renewable material solutions. He holds a PhD in Materials Science from EPFL an...

Timestamps: 4:22 - Why do an IPO/direct listing? 9:15 - When should you pursue an IPO/direct listing? 15:39 - Where should you list your company?  20:37 - The Sparks IPO Academy 26:44 - Direct listing mistakes  About Fabian Gerber & Jan Luescher: Jan Luescher is the CEO at ASMALLWORLD , an exclusive travel & lifestyle community. He previously worked as a Principal at Bain & Company and...

Timestamps: 1:10 - Microplastics and food waste 5:25 - The kuori team  6:30 - Raising 2.3M  8:30 - The biobased & biodegradable USP 12:23 - Fundraising through the Swisspreneur syndicate  About Sarah Harbarth: Sarah Harbarth is the co-founder and CEO of kuori , a B2B enterprise providing eco-friendly alternative-plastic granules for fashion, outdoor equipment, tools, and toys. She holds a BA i...

Timestamps: 3:20 - Solo founding or co-founder team? 8:37 - “Why are we doing this?”  11:58 - Hiring in the early days 16:50 - Knowing when to pivot 26:47 - Early stage startups are falling apart About Markus Witte: Markus Witte is the chairman and co-founder of Babbel , the market leading app for language learning, as well as a partner at Wachstumsbegleitung, which offers coaching and consulting...

Timestamps: 2:40 - 90 M&A deals and the 2008 crash 6:41 - NOAH coming to Switzerland 12:43 - NOAH speakers’ valuation increased 24x 19:34 - Profitability of cleantech 29:04 - Rapid fire questions About Marco Rodzynek: Marco Rodzynek is the founder and CEO at NOAH Conference , an annual event with an unique line up of digital champions and sustainability market leaders. Marco previously worked...

Timestamps: 4:55 - Current global fundraising environment 8:23 - The bet on climatetech 17:48 - How funds raise funds 32:45 - Calculating ROI 42:10 - Getting in touch with DART Labs About Sophie Lamparter: Sophie Lamparter is the co-founder of DART Labs , an international fund investing in early stage Swiss climate and health tech startups to accelerate them on the US market. She holds a degree in...

Timestamps: 4:03 - Is my company VC-backable? 7:04 - How to find investors 22:48 - What makes a good pitch deck 28:26 - Picking a bad VC 36:45 - Raising funds is getting harder About Arijana Walcott: Arijana Walcott is a co-founder and managing partner at DART Labs , together with former Swisspreneur guest Sophie Lamparter. DART invests in early stage startups from Switzerland and Europe and helps...

Timestamps: 1:08 - Moving to Australia 7:30 - Shift from corporate to founder 16:50 - Reversing roles in job search 30:30 - How to keep contracts on FOUND 36:43 - Starting out bootstrapped About Georg Hirschi: ⁠Georg Hirschi⁠ is the co-founder and strategy lead at ⁠FOUND⁠ , a startup bringing the digital consumer revolution to hiring. He holds an MA in Applied Sciences, Commerce & Business Adm...

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 Bu...

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...

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...

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...

Timestamps: 1:52 - When should Swiss startups go to the US?  9:05 - Meeting the Google founders 12:47 - How to scale culture 23:27 - Current AI developments 28:04 - Leaving Silicon Valley About Urs Hölzle: Urs Hölzle is SVP of Engineering at Google , having started there in 1999 as their first Search Engine Mechanic and altogether 8th employee. Prior to Google, he started his own company Animorphi...

Timestamps: 1:03 - The problem of erectile dysfunction 5:38 - What Comphya can do for patients 9:26 - Doing pilot clinical trials 12:18 - Competition for true innovators 13:40 - Fundraising through the Swisspreneur Syndicate About Rodrigo Fraga-Silva: ⁠Rodrigo Fraga-Silva⁠ is the co-founder and CEO at ⁠Comphya⁠ , a Swiss medical device company and EPFL spin-off with the mission to help patients ov...

Timestamps: 2:20 - 4 lessons from 3 ventures 6:40 - The ideation stage 12:30 - An MVP cannot be simple enough 24:40 - User survey tools 27:50 - Do users know what they want? About Herbert Bay: ⁠Herbert Bay⁠ is a serial entrepreneur, angel investor and board member. He co-founded the image-recognition platform kooaba, the AR company Shortcut and the mental health tracker ⁠Earkick⁠ , where he is cur...

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...

Timestamps: 8.37 - Start des Onlineshops in 1997 16.37 - Übernahme von Alltron 31.08 - Neues Logistikzentrum von Brack 37.48 - Fehlt Schweizern Mut zum Risiko? 47.23 - Warum Sologründer? Über Roland Brack: Roland Brack ist Gründer des Onlinehändlers Brack.ch sowie Gründer und Inhaber der Firmengruppe Competec. 1994 gründete er studienbegleitend die Einzelfirma Brack Consulting. 1997 lancierte Brac...

Timestamps: 2:36 - Rapid growth in unstructured data 6:53 - Reaching CHF 100K ARR in 8 months 8:48 - The competitor landscape 12:53 - Facing the diversity of data structures 13:57 - Kadoa’s deal on the Swisspreneur Syndicate About Adrian Krebs: Adrian Krebs is the co-founder and CEO at Kadoa , a SaaS company providing AI-powered data extraction. He holds a MAS in Information Technology from Berner...

Timestamps: 06:34 - Why all staff get their own shares 09:59 - Explaining how their automation works 15:45 - BLP Digital’s Business model 19:56 - How they validate business ideas 29:19 - Their experience of bootstrapping About Tim Beck: Tim Beck is the co-founder at BLP Digital , an ETH and HSG spin-off that uses AI to automate ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) processes. He attended both RWTH Aa...

This episode was sponsored by ⁠⁠quitt.business⁠⁠ . Timestamps: 06:07 - How Swiss investment markets have changed 9:16 - Why Tim chose forests 15:59 - How startups can operate better in the climate space 20:46 - Explaining ‘Green’ terms 29:27 - Who are Xilva’s competitors? About Tim Duehrkoop: Tim Duehrkoop is the co-founder and CEO of Xilva , a cleantech startup building the digital infrastructure...