Swisspreneur Show

Timestamps: 15:14 European AI Landscape and Mistral AI Acquisition 28:12 The Rise of European Startups in the U.S. 30:06 Building Bridges: Dual Ecosystems for Success 42:30 IPO Frenzy: The U.S. Market's Impact on Europe This episode was co-produced with  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Swiss Startup Days⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ , the leading Swiss deep-tech catalyst event for startups, investors, enablers, and corporates. Checkout Newcome...

Timestamps: 12:58 - The Challenge of Diagnosing Endometriosis 17:12 - Collaborating with Doctors for Effective Solutions 24:01 - Funding Strategies and Investor Relations 30:31 - Balancing Family Life and Entrepreneurship This episode was co-produced with  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Swiss Startup Days⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ , the leading Swiss deep-tech catalyst event for startups, investors, enablers, and corporates. Checkout Newcomers...

Timestamps: 03:31 - Building Grape: From Tech to Insurance 12:36 - Building Trust in Insurance 26:53 - Scaling Leadership and Team Dynamics 31:18 - Hiring for Long-Term Success This episode is part of the ⁠ Swisspreneur Scale-up Circle ⁠ content, our curated community of Swiss Series A + founders and operators where you can get operator grade insight. Episode description: Gregory Inauen is the fou...

Timestamps: 6:38 - What makes Switzerland a unique environment for startups 14:42 - Global best practices the Swiss startup world can adopt 20:11 - How to network and approach VCs 25:46 - The role of academic and research institutes in the Swiss startup ecosystem  28:41 - Top 3 tips for launching a startup in Switzerland This episode was produced in collaboration with Startup Days , which took pla...

Timestamps: 9:49 - Challenges for Founders in Hiring 20:26 - The Role of Boards in Startups 38:52 - Incentivizing Management Teams 49:00 - Celebrating Swiss Innovation and Competitiveness Episode Summary: Samuel Berguer is a Partner at Witena , an executive search firm with a dedicated focus on supervisory board and executive committee appointments. Before moving into executive search, he spent ye...

Timestamps: 6:00 - Big Signals in the Swiss Ecosystem 14:46 - US vs Europe - The IPO Landscape 30:49 - Concentration and Kingmaking in Investments 35:55 - The Role of Founder-Led Funds This episode was co-produced with  ⁠⁠⁠⁠Swiss Startup Days⁠⁠⁠⁠ , the leading Swiss deep-tech catalyst event for startups, investors, enablers, and corporates. Checkout Newcomers - the ultimate pitching format for pre...

Timestamps: 2:46 - Understanding Self-Driving Labs 6:07 - Defining BioTools and Their Market 14:49 - Building an Ecosystem for BioTools 18:11 - Future Directions for Ateneri and Innovaud This episode was co-produced with Innovaud , the innovation and investment promotion agency for the canton of Vaud. Check out https://www.innovaud.ch/en/ to learn more. Episode Summary: In this episode we’re joine...

Timestamps: 6:02 - Founding Feey: The Birth of a Plant Brand 18:11 - Building a Unique Brand Experience 33:34 - Leveraging Logistics as a Strategic Advantage 42:05 - Harnessing AI For Enhanced Operations  Episode Summary Sven Jakelj , Co-Founder and CEO of feey , went from cybersecurity to building Switzerland's category-defining plant brand — starting with zero knowledge about plants, a 5th floor...

Timestamps: 12:54 - The Y Combinator Journey 16:24 - The Need for Solutions Like Bloom 24:23 - Raising $3.4 million in three days  37:07 - The future of AI and software development Check-out Bloom: https://bloom.diy/android Episode Summary David Oort Alonso is the co-founder of Bloom , a mobile app builder that’s aiming to make your phone a creation device. Trained in aerospace engineering and rob...

Timestamps:  10:22 - Navigating the Shift from Academia to Startup 16:47 - Innovative Skin Tissue Therapy: The NovoSkin Product 33:53 - Navigating Growth Challenges 41:37 - Investment Journey and Strategies This episode is part of the Swisspreneur Scale-up Circle content, our curated community of Swiss Series A + founders and operators where you can get operator grade insight. Episode Summary: Dan...

Timestamps: 9:05 - Big March Funding Rounds 24:13 - ETH Zurich Record Pipeline and Startup Ecossystem 35: 22 - The Future of Robotics and Industrial Tech in Switzerland 43:53 - Investment Strategies (Spray and Pray vs Focused Approach) This episode was co-produced with  ⁠⁠⁠Swiss Startup Days⁠⁠⁠ , the leading Swiss deep-tech catalyst event for startups, investors, enablers, and corporates. Checkout...

Timestamps: 7:59 - ETHs Modernization in Supporting for Founders and Startups 21:03 - Growth of Spin-offs and Startups at ETH 29:52 Identifying Gaps in the Ecosystem 35:43 Metrics for a Healthy Ecossystem Episode Description: In this episode we’re joined by Vanessa Wood , Vice President for Knowledge Transfer and Corporate Relations at ETH Zurich , and Frank Floessel , Head of ETH Entrepreneurship...

Timestamps: 5:32 - Understanding Product-Market-Fit 19:24 - Scaling across geographies 25:45 - Cultural shifts in european entrepreneurship 30:04 - The equity compensation flywheel Episode description: In this episode we sit down with Armon Bättig , Co-Founder and CEO of Ledgy , a Swiss scale-up helping companies manage equity and build real ownership culture across more than 40 countries. Ledgy’s...

Timestamps: 16:11 - The Role of AI in Expense Management 22:20 - Fundraising and Partnering with Sequoia 39:09 - Maintaining Urgency in Growth 51:02 - The Decision to Sell: Timing and Strategy Episode description: Philippe Sahli is the Co-Founder and former CEO of Yokoy , the Swiss-built platform that automated spend management for mid-to-large enterprises using AI (acquired by Perk ). In this epi...

Timestamps: 2:58 - The Role of START Global in Shaping Entrepreneurs  21:58 - Transitioning from Learning to Starting a Company  30:29 - Building Trust in an Online Marketplace 33:52 - The Challenges of Entrepreneurship Checkout START Summit , Europe’s largest early-stage startup conference, happening on the 19th and 20th of March 2026. Every year, START Summit provides lifelong learning and a syn...

Timestamps:  03:06 - How the AI Boom is pushing energy back to the top of the agenda 10:34 - Impact of new Funds on Founders 35:22 - Startup Agenda Switzerland: Key Challenges 49:14 - Prioritizing Startup Needs in Switzerland This episode was co-produced with  ⁠⁠Swiss Startup Days⁠⁠ , the leading Swiss deep-tech catalyst event for startups, investors, enablers, and corporates. Checkout Newcomers -...

Timestamps: 15:11 - Keeping User Experience and feedback embedded in the product 27:09 - Sales strategy and product-driven growth 38:12 - AI Integration and the future of software 43:20 - Young Founder challenges in a traditional industry Episode Description: Stefan Wittwer is the founder and CEO of Infinity.swiss , an AI-first Swiss accounting product built to make bookkeeping radically simpler f...

Timestamps: 6:35 - Buying back their startup after an exit 32:42 - Building Octive  37:10 - Entering the US market 37:31 - Building in Switzerland vs US Episode Description Mershad Javan is the Head of Europe for GoDigital, formally known as Octiive, a global music distribution and promotion platform that empowers independent artists to publish and monetize their work worldwide. Originally from Ca...

Timestamps: 10:37 - Liquidity in the Swiss market without IPOs  23:12 - What areas are attracting funding in Switzerland 36:55 - Europe vs US 45:22 - The guests predictions for 2026 This episode was co-produced with ⁠Swiss Startup Days⁠ , the leading Swiss deep-tech catalyst event for startups, investors, enablers, and corporates. Checkout Newcomers - the ultimate pitching format for pre-seed and...

Timestamps: 9:03 - Challenges in AI and Robotics 17:55 - Mimics core customer segment 23:00 - The role of the ETH network 25:46 - The future vision for Mimic Episode description: Stefan Weirich is the Co-Founder and CEO of Mimic , a deep tech startup building foundation AI models for robotic manipulation that enables robots to react, self-correct, and handle real-world variability beyond hard-code...

Timestamps: 11:09 -  Use-cases for BTRYs technology  15:57 - Challenges in scaling production 20:43 - The Swiss startup ecossystem 23:11 - Advice for aspiring entrepreneurs This episode was co-produced with Swiss Startup Days , the leading Swiss deep-tech catalyst event for startups, investors, enablers, and corporates. Checkout Newcomers - the ultimate pitching format for pre-seed and seed startu...

Timestamps: 7:30 - The problem that led Christian to found derma2go 13:27 - Creating a “win-win” hybrid model 20:08 - Building a two-sided marketplace 30:07 - Raising money with discipline This episode is co-produced with Innosuisse , the Swiss Innovation Agency. Innosuisse supports SMEs, startups, research institutions and other Swiss organisations in their research and development activities. Th...

Timestamps: 7:06 - What Irmos does 16:13 - The information gap that Irmos is solving for 22:51  - Why Irmos delayed raising a large financing round 31:53 - What’s next for Irmos This episode was co-produced with KickFund , a VC fund investing in the most promising Swiss deeptech startups. Episode Summary: In this episode we sit down with Panagiotis Martakis , Founder and CEO of Irmos Technologies...

Timestamps: 10:01 - What RTDT does 21:03 - Creating a team and spinning-off from ETH 26:19 - Getting financing for Hardware 32:08 - The One-Customer rule Episode summary: In this episode, we sit down with Imad Abdallah , Co-Founder & CEO of RTDT , a spin-off from ETH Zurich developing one of the world’s first systems to measure real aerodynamic behavior directly on wind turbine blades. After s...

Timestamps: 11:36 - Learning from users and iterating the product 19:22 - Saying no to misaligned revenue and long-term thinking 25:05 - The hard moments (tough calls and running out of money) 40:10 - Life after the exit and letting go Episode Summary: Marco Cerqui is the co-founder and former CEO of Bring ! - Switzerland's most widely used shared grocery shopping app. With a background in sof...