Philippe Willi is a co-founder and CFO/COO at TrekkSoft, a booking solution for the tour and activities market. He studied business administration at HSG and soon after started his first business, the web agency zimtkorn, together with DeinDeal co-founder Adrian Locher and Valentin Binnedijk. There they built websites for SMEs.
In 2007 he met Jon Fauver, a former raft guide and American living in Switzerland, who invited Philippe to join him at the water sports company Outdoor Interlaken. Then in 2010, Philippe and his old co-founder Valentin started TrekkSoft, as a booking solution for Outdoor Interlaken. They even put in their own money, to ensure they really had skin in the game.
TrekkSoft's main innovative feature was its "book now" button — though nowadays it seems absolutely obvious, this button was at the time quite revolutionary.
Philippe describes finding product-market fit as a moment when things suddenly just click, and you can stop relying solely on assumptions. However, Trekksoft's whole addressable market was rather large, so this product-market fit was only truly valid for certain market segments. Since trying to address the whole market with just one service seemed too risky to them, they opted instead for acquiring a number of competitors which addressed other market segments, and used investor money to do so.
Being in the travel industry, the TrekkSoft Group was hit hard by Corona. Though one company in their group made 1M in net profit in 2020, the group overall lost 30% of its revenue (which put them close to breakeven) and had to let go of a number of employees. Several other employees left of their own accord due to the lack of immediate careers prospects.
"Solving your own problem means product-market fit comes easier. But it also might result in conflicts of interest."
Weg zum erfolgreichen Unternehmer, by Stefan Merath
The Entrepreneurial Operating System
Urs Aebischer is the CEO at Diseo, a decentralized ecosystem of interconnected social platforms of brands and organizations where users exclusively control their data and earn from it. Urs is also the co-founder and CEO at Swiss Impulse Group, which focuses on disruptive digital media. He has a background in Physics.
Urs has always been one to search out new ideas. Back in 1995, when he was getting his PhD in Atmospheric Physics at the ETH, he was one of the first people to have an email address. In today's world of ubiquitous social media networks, Urs (as well as many others) has identified a problem: people's data is being harvested, used and monetized by third parties, without people ever receiving any sort of compensation for the value they provide. Urs does not believe we can legislate our way out of this; the social dilemma requires a solution built from the ground up.
That's why he created Diseo. On Diseo, sharing data and giving something your attention creates revenue which can be shared between up to 16 different people. Every time a user clicks on an advertisement, they earn income for doing it and for giving permission to be targeted by this advertiser. When a user clicks an ad, they also see which of their friends have already bought the product/used the service — this is what Urs calls "social selling". Users can also recommend ads to their friends, who, if they see it, will also receive money. Every single action in favor of the product creates a revenue share.
Additionally, both users and companies on Diseo have a trust rating and get to rate each other. If a company uses child labor, they get downvoted. Urs hopes that through this process dialogue and reform will follow.
"Facebook and Google could easily copy what we're doing. But that would ruin their entire business model."
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Alain Chuard is a Swiss serial entrepreneur best known as the founder and Chief product officer of Wildfire Interactive, the social media marketing technology company acquired by Google in July 2012. At Google, Alain was responsible for overseeing Wildfire’s strategy, integration into Google’s Display Ads Division, and external representation of the product. He also co-created Swisspreneur with Christian Hirsig in 2016.
Here are some of his answers to every founder's burning questions:
- What's the ideal founder team? Alain prefers 2 founder teams with complementary skills: 1 product rockstar with an eye for design and strategy, and 1 marketing and sales machine. The founders should of course also share similar values.
- Where should I search for my co-founder? Look for high talent-density places, like Ivy League universities, On Deck Fellowship and Y Combinator.
- When should I quit my day job? Keep your day job during the idea validation phase, but go all in once that phase is through. You want to give your startup the best chance possible, and that requires you to give it your all.
- How do I know if I've got a good business idea? Start with your own problems and look for inflection points, or shifts in tech and user behavior. Ask yourself: why was this idea not possible 5 years ago? How do I currently have an unfair advantage?
- What makes a good MVP? MVPs should be barebones in terms of features and design but still provide a solution that captures a pivotal need the customer has. Basically: it should have achieved product market fit.
- How do I know whether or not to pivot? You should pivot if you're consistently failing to see demand or if you have a high churn rate.
- Should I bootstrap my company or raise funds? If you have a product that can scale through tech, raise funds. If you're running a business which grows in a more linear fashion, it's worth it to bootstrap. Either way, if you should choose to fundraise, approach it as a partnership rather than a transaction.
Currently Alain is the president of Prisma, a digital first school that adapts to every child's unique needs and abilities and to every family's lifestyle.
"I see a lot of founders that look at the fundraising process like a transaction, rather than as a partnership."
The Hard Thing About Hard Things, by Ben Horowitz
High Growth Handbook, by Elad Gil
How Superhuman Built An Engine To Find Product Market Fit, by Rahul Vohra
Valentina is a co-founder and partnership curator at Capacity Zurich, an incubator for startups built by refugees or migrants. She is originally from Colombia, but moved to the US after finishing high school to study Communications at California State University. She then went on to work for the UN in Singapore while getting her master's in Diplomacy and Gender Policy.
Despite coming from a family of matriarchs, Valentina initially had some misgivings about feminism: she thought feminism and femininity were mutually exclusive. However, this and many other opinions of hers changed when she took a class at University with a really amazing teacher.
When Valentina moved to Switzerland, she worked in Geneva for a time, after which she relocated to Zurich. Despite having worked in Geneva, being highly qualified and speaking several languages (namely German), it took her more than a year to find a job. Naturally, this took a toll on her self-esteem — she blamed herself.
One of her co-founders to be, psychiatrist Alexa Kuenburg, also came to this conclusion while working with war victims and refugees: the higher someone's education level, the more difficult the integration process becomes, because there is often difficulty in finding a job which matches the person's abilities, and this mismatch can put into question a fundamental part of people's identity.
Initially, Valentina and her co-founders wanted Capacity Zurich to be a labor market integration program for refugees and migrants, which would also educate Swiss companies on how to navigate the bureaucratic hoops of hiring people with a migrant or refugee status. It ended up becoming a startup incubator.
"Diversity-wise companies are beginning to realize that if they don't jump on the bandwagon soon, the wagon is gonna run them over."
Afghan Laziz, the foodtruck project
Don't ask me where I'm from, ask where I'm a local TED Talk
White Fragility, by Robin DiAngelo
Quiet: The Power Of Introverts In A World That Can't Stop Talking, by Susan Cain
Oliver ist der CEO des Helvetia Spinoffs Atlanto AG, einer digitalen Administrationsplattform für KMU. Ursprünglich war Atlanto als Projekt innerhalb von Helvetia geplant und wurde schliesslich als Tochterunternehmen ausgegründet. Oliver, welcher in einer Unternehmerfamilie gross wurde, war immer interessiert daran, in die Selbstständigkeit überzugehen. Nach seinem Studium an der HSG in St. Gallen, wo er sein Bachelor- und Masterstudium absolvierte, arbeitete er fast sechs Jahre bei Helvetia. Seit Januar 2021 ist er nun CEO der Atlanto AG.
"Der Prozess, Dinge manuell abzutippen, liegt in Zukunft einfach nicht mehr drin. Dafür werden wir keine Zeit mehr haben."
"Wir wollen das Leben von kleinen Unternehmen vereinfachen."
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Daniel Borel is the co-founder and chairman emeritus of Logitech, the world's largest manufacturer of computer peripherals — with headquarters in Switzerland! After studying Physics at EPFL, Daniel went on to do his masters at Stanford.
In the 70's, Stanford was on fire. The Apple computer had just been created, as had Bill Gates' Microsoft, and the first microprocessors, operating systems and programming languages were just coming up. It felt like a technological revolution was imminent, and Daniel wanted to be a part of it. Together with fellow Stanford student Pierluigi, Daniel developed a word processing system, and their company address was "165 university avenue" — famously shared by Google and Paypal. Unfortunately, this project didn't take off, and Daniel ended up moving back to Switzerland to accommodate his wife's wish of setting up her own veterinary practice (which was not possible in the US since they did not recognize her diploma as valid).
Then in 1981, at his father-in-law's farm in the canton of Vaud, Daniel founded Logitech together with co-founders Pierluigi and Giacomo. Their product was a mix of hardware and software, which is a notoriously difficult thing to pull off, but Daniel believes that that's where you can really make a difference, and that this is what ensured their survival in an extremely competitive world.
How competitive, you may ask? Well, after meeting Bill Gates at a beach party in 1982, Daniel began talks with Microsoft — but they soon realized that the tips they were giving Microsoft on why not to buy from Logitech's japanese competitor, Alps, were actually being passed on to Alps. This made Daniel give up on Microsoft altogether.
With the rise of competition between computer manufacturers in the early 90s, prices went down dramatically, and Logitech had to move its manufacturing to China in order to produce cheaper and be able to compete.
In 1998 he decided to step down as CEO: after a crazy, decades-long ride, it was time for a rest. Nowadays, he keeps himself busy with his many grandchildren, his boat, and his philanthropic endeavors: Swiss-up, a foundation dedicated to fostering excellence in Swiss education, and Defitech, which manufactures computer technology for people with disabilities.
"Try and fail, and never fail to try, but don't put all your eggs in the same basket."
"Success is never final."
"By having a passion, you avoid having a job."
Andreas und Gianluca sind beide bei Helvetia tätig. Andreas ist Marktverantwortlicher für Unternehmen in der Generalagentur in Aarau. Dabei hat er mit Firmen-, wie auch mit Privatkunden engen Kontakt. Gianluca ist als Versicherungs- und Vorsorgeberater in der Generalagentur in Baden aktiv. Er durfte bereits seine Lehre bei Helvetia absolvieren und konnte sich danach seinen Weg in den Aussendienst schrittweise erarbeiten.
"Bleibt auf eurem Weg, bleibt fokussiert."
"Redet aktiv über Fehler, weil das Veränderungspotenziel bei Fehlern sehr gross ist."
"Mut ist sehr wichtig. Seid mutig, neue Dinge auszuprobieren."
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Bettina Hirsig is the co-founder and lead at Powercoders, a coding academy for refugees. She has a background in marketing and business administration. Mannar Hielal is a junior software engineer at Liip, a Bernese digital agency. Originally from Aleppo, Syria, Mannar fled her war-torn country for Turkey, and then eventually Switzerland, where she would join Powercoders.
Just after the birth of their second child, Bettina's husband Chris was invited to the Global Entrepreneur Summit in San Francisco. There he met two female entrepreneurs: one who had founded a coding academy for women, and one who'd founded a catering company which hired exclusively refugees. It was then that the Powercoders idea was first born.
In the beginning, Powercoders was funded partially by the Switzerland's state department for migration, and partially by a number of foundations. Nowadays, it is funded by the canton and by the companies to which Powercoders provides employees — the Powercoders graduates.
One such graduate is Mannar, who back in Aleppo studied Computer Engineering and constantly went against her mother's expectations of her by working two jobs and even practising martial arts. When the Syrian war came to Aleppo, public transportation stopped working and water and electricity were cut. There was no internet, Mannar couldn't get to work and neither did she feel it was safe to call her co-workers — there was no way of knowing whose hands would pick up the phone. Aleppo was being bombarded, which forced Mannar to move to a safer neighborhood within the city (one which experienced bombardments less frequently). Though she was not afraid of death, Mannar did not want to end up a nameless corpse on the streets of Aleppo, and so she left for Turkey, which is just 45 min away.
However, she soon realized that Turkey used Syrian refugees as political pawns, and that the threat of repatriation hung above her at all times. She also was deprived of several rights in Turkey (since she did not actually receive asylum, but was only there on some sort of humanitarian stay), and could only access a bare minimum of healthcare services. She decided to leave Turkey for Switzerland. In Switzerland, Powercoders seemed like a natural first step, considering what she had studied back in Aleppo. It was during the Powercoders career day that she was introduced to Liip, her current employer.
Nowadays, Mannar dreams of perfecting her skills as a developer, bringing her mom over to Switzerland, and buying a house by the lake.
"Being a leader means being open to constructive criticism. You need to have a beginner's mindset every single day."
This episode was produced in collaboration with Startup Days.
Stefano Saeger ist Investment Manager beim Helvetia Venture Fund, ein Investment Fund von Helvetia Versicherungen, welcher in Startups investiert. Der Fund wird extern durch btov betrieben. Nach seinem Betriebswirtschaftsstudium an der HSG absolvierte Stefano den Master of Arts in Business Innovation, wobei er davon ein Semester in Johannesburg ablegte.
Nach verschiedenen Tätigkeiten im Bereich von Business Development (Fanpictor AG) und als Projektmitarbeiter im Lehrstuhl für Controlling und Performance Management absolvierte Stefano ein 19-monatiges Trainee Programm bei der ABB in Zürich und San José USA. Als ABB Trainee kam Stefano sehr schnell mit allen Themen der Startup Welt in Berührung und fand seine Begeisterung dafür. Seit Oktober 2019 ist er als Investment Manager im Venture Fund von Helvetia tätig und mag den grossen Perspektivenwechsel, welcher durch den Mix von Makro- und Mikroebene entsteht.
"Was ich einfach unfassbar toll finde, ist, mit viel Enthusiasmus die Leute da dran sind."
"Jeder, der daran arbeitet macht es gerne und macht es, weil er überzeugt davon ist, was er macht."
"Ein bisschen Skepsis ist sinnvoll, weil sie uns auch weiterbringen kann, in allem was wir tun."
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Anne Richter is the founder and CEO of Knecker, a startup which produces vegan protein-rich snacks. She got her MA in Economical Engineering from the Technische Universität Berlin and afterwards worked for a series of energy companies, before starting her own venture in 2020. Tobias Richter is the founder, former CEO and current Chairman of TRI Dental Implants, a Swiss emerging leader in innovative modern implant dentistry. He got is BA in International Business Studies from the International School of Management (Germany).
In 2011, after a decade of working in a corporate environment, Tobias took the leap and founded his own business. Tobias chose medtech entrepreneurship to have the best of both worlds: though he grew up in a family of doctors, he felt studying medicine would be too limiting, so he studied business instead and later focused on the medtech industry, specifically dental work — which, being very digital, benefits a lot from integrating AI components.
Together Tobias and Anne have 3 children. Life with 2 startups and 3 kids can often get very hectic, so the couple has developed a system:
- They have an Au Pair who lives with them, which really helps;
- They keep a joint timetable, to always know what the other will be doing. This is especially important for events happening before 9am or after 6:30pm, when the kids are at home;
- They organize two weekly "family meetings": one with the kids, the other one without them. The meeting with the kids, called Basilikum, is a half-an-hour get-together where the family discusses the previous week ("What was good?" "What was bad?") and plans for the week ahead ("What are your expectations regarding next week?"). Often the deal is sweetened with some sweets or chips for the kids, facilitating their cooperation.
Tobias and Anne also utilize a tool called The Wheel Of Life, which allows you to reflect on the previous year and plan for the year ahead by having you evaluate your life according to 8 different aspects: health, finance, career, family, personal development, spirituality, your romantic relationship, and social life. The results are shown on a "spiderweb" type of graph, which easily allows you to spot weaknesses. For instance, when their kids were younger, Anne and Tobias tended to neglect their romantic relationship, so they decided to institute a weekly lunch just for the two of them: the "Love Lunch." By constantly reflecting and thinking ahead, the couple is able to remain focused on what matters most to them.
"I wanted to be in control of my own destiny, so I became an entrepreneur."
Adrian Tüscher ist der Leiter des Bereichs HR Legal Services. Er berät nationale und internationale Kunden im Arbeitsrecht und ist spezialisiert auf Immigrations-, Sozialversicherungs- und Steuerfragen im Zusammenhang mit internationalen Entsendungen, Personalleasing und Mitarbeiterbeteiligungsprogrammen. Adrian verfügt über umfassende Erfahrung im grenzüberschreitenden Arbeitsrecht, in der Gestaltung und Umsetzung von Mobilitäts-Compliance-Prozessen sowie von Vergütungs- und Beteiligungsplänen.
Sarah Gassmann ist diplomierte Steuerexpertin und Manager bei KPMG in Zug. Sie verfügt über umfassende Erfahrung bei der Umsetzung von aktienbasierten Vergütungsplänen für börsenkotierte und nicht börsenkotierte Unternehmen. Darüber hinaus berät sie zu nationalen und internationalen Aspekten der Sozialversicherungen. Sarah verfügt über ein langjähriges und ausgezeichnetes Netzwerk zu den Steuerbehörden in der Zentralschweiz.
Wann sollte ich über ein Mitarbeiterbeteiligungsprogramm nachdenken? Welche rechtlichen Aspekte gilt es bei der Umsetzung zu beachten? Und wie viele Anteile sollte ich für meine Mitarbeitenden reservieren? Diesen und weiteren Fragen gehen wir mit den Experten Sarah Gassmann und Adrian Tüscher von KPMG nach.
Nach dieser Episode weisst du, welche Aspekte du bei der Umsetzung eines Mitarbeiterbeteiligungsprogramms unbedingt beachten solltest, wo du Gestaltungsspielraum hast und, was du machen kannst, wenn die Dinge nicht nach Plan laufen.
"Schweizer sind zwar lieb miteinander, aber auch ein wenig missgünstig. Daher haben sie oft das Gefühl sie bekommen weniger als die Anderen."
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Anne Richter is the founder and CEO of Knecker, a startup which produces vegan protein-rich snacks. She got her MA in Economical Engineering from the Technische Universität Berlin and afterwards worked for a series of energy companies, before starting her own venture in 2020.
Anne met her co-founder Susanne while volunteering at the local Ludothek. Since Anne had just had her third child, she was especially impressed by Susanne's success as both a mother and entrepreneur. Together they developed the idea of a vegan Kneckerbröt, for an age which requires climate-friendly snacks.
The base ingredient of Knecker is organic soy, sourced from an Austrian farm. The recipe then also contains sesame, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and lin seeds. It's gluten-free, and comes in three different flavours: mountain salt (geared towards sporty-people), rosemary (usually eaten as an appero), and curry and thyme (for chip lovers).
Knecker's proof of concept phase began right after lockdown, making buyers twice as enthusiastic about having the product in their stores. Knecker's buyer persona is an outdoorsy, sporty, environmentally-conscious person between the age of 20-55.
Keeping in line with the climate-friendly theme, Knecker packages are refillable and available at "unpacked shops" — meaning zero waste, package-free shops.
While Anne would love to start expanding Knecker as soon as possible, it's getting harder and harder to enter the EU market these days, so she feels she still needs more volume in Switzerland before she can finally take that challenge on.
"I'm alive in order to change things. I think it's part of my DNA."
"Everyone who has a company should be on Instagram."
Adrian Locher is the co-founder and former COO at the Swiss shopping platform DeinDeal, which was bought by Ringier in 2011. Adrian stayed at DeinDeal until 2015, after which he took a 1 year sabbatical to explore internet hotspots acorss the world. In 2016 he settled in Berlin, where he co-founded the Merantix venture studio.
Adrian chose Berlin as his new home due to the presence of great schools for his kids and also because he enjoys Berlin's cosmopolitanism and diversity, not only from a lifestyle point of view, but also in times of finding talent. While he finds Zurich one of the most beautiful places to live, he thinks people there are noticeably less ambitious, as is the trend in Europe overall. In order to compete with America and China, Adrian thinks Europe should start putting aside nationalistic fervor and thinking at a continent-wide scale.
Adrian chose to build a venture studio because this allows him to both be an investor and remain involved on the operating side as well. He thoroughly enjoys the "0 to 1" phase, where ideas are iterated and validated in the market, and step by step something gets built.
Merantix is an AI-focused venture studio because Adrian and his co-founder Rasmus think AI will transform our industries as radically as the internet did decades ago. AI essentially automates and optimizes complex decision making based on a lot of experience — any process which involves this will sooner or later be revolutionized by AI. When asked if AI would ever see its own bubble burst like the internet did in the early 2000s, Adrian replied that that has already happened at a more discrete level, with industries such as autonomous driving: the initial hype turned into disillusionment when our expectations for rapid progress came crashing down.
Business ideas at Merantix go through 3 stages:
- Ideation:
Here the team considers how the industry may be transformed and what role AI would play in that. If it looks like there's a strong shift ahead, the team starts evaluating different business models. Their ultimate goal is not to become an AI SaaS company, but a value chain integrator.
- Incubation:
If clients show interest, the product starts getting built. Here it should be noted that Merantix only starts hiring team members once they know exactly in which direction they want to go.
- Scaling:
Here Merantix takes a step back and starts looking for outside investors, remaining more as an active board member. However if more help is needed for things like financing rounds, team building efforts or pivoting, Merantix gets its hands dirty again.
"Think about how the internet has changed a great number of industries. That's how much AI is gonna change them, as well."
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Julian Teicke is the founder and CEO at wefox, Europe's largest digital insurer. Having studied Business Administration at the University of St Gallen, Julian joined Groupon in 2009 as an intern, only to be handed much more responsibility than originally predicted, due to his boss having had a burnout.
In 2010 he co-founded DeinDeal, and became its COO. After having left the company in 2015, he started wefox.
When he was originally approached by his would-be co-founder with the idea for wefox, Julian rejected it outright, because his own father was in the insurance business and he did not wish to follow in his father's footsteps. Eventually, though, he was won over by the idea's potential and decided to give it a fair shot.
The biggest insurance companies, despite their size, are nowhere near as big as the tech giants — their growth is too slow. Wefox wanted to become the exception to the rule and grow 100% per year. Here are some of the challenges they've faced:
- Margins in the insurance business are typically extremely low. This wasn't a problem in the past, because insurance companies had a second income stream: capital returns. Meaning, they invested the money they got from customers into capital markets and made capital returns. But in the 0 interest environment we're currently in, there are no more capital returns, so the focus needs to be on risk returns. This demands 3 things: using tech and data to reduce the loss ratio (= claims payout), decreasing administrative costs, and boosting sales.
- Capital efficiency: Julian's time at wefox has made him aware of the need for capital light models, where all the money they have is put to use in innovation and growth.
- Innovation: Big insurance companies have always been in a catch 22 situation. Over decades they attracted the most risk averse investors that request yearly dividends, meaning the money spent on these dividends did not get invested into innovation. But if they stop paying dividends, investors drop out. This is a complicated problem to puzzle out.
In just over 4 years, wefox's success won them $650m in a series C and a $3bn valuation. According to Julian, they'll be using the money to fuel further international expansion, and to transform their insurance products from reactive to proactive, in order to make a real impact in harm-prevention.
"The ultimate success for any startup is motivating people to do it themselves."
Laurent Decrue is the co-founder of the moving company MOVU and the software company Holycode, and is currently also the CEO at Bexio. At Holycode, Laurent turns people's product dreams into reality, so there's no process he knows more intimately than product development. The company headquarters are in Serbia — this is called nearshoring: outsourcing your operations to another country, but one that is nearby and usually even in the same time-zone.
Is there a set framework for product development?
No: it depends on the stage. But if there's something Laurent can recommend, it's that before you start developing, you should create a business canvas. Think about what a prototype could look like, especially a UX prototype that is clickable. Next you should figure out the smallest possible version of it — something that can be cooked up in 3 weeks. Even if it works, you'll inevitably end up throwing it away because you need to build a bigger version, but having built it in the first place allows you to decide whether a bigger version is worth it.
Similarly, it's best not to invest in a crazily complex back-end architecture right away. Build something that works and have your customers test it and give you feedback — even if they do so in a simple spreadsheet.
Taking inspiration from The Lean Startup, Laurent talked about the 2 hypothesis you need to prove:
- Value hypothesis: are people willing to spend money/time interacting with your tool?
- Growth hypothesis: is it scalable? It's possible that a very good product is not actually scalable. At this stage, marketing, sales and process optimization become cruzial.
The age-old debate: Scrum or Kanban?
Laurent recommends Kanban for really creative solutions. This tool is all about making sure you don't have more than one or two tasks in each phase of the process, and it also really helps you keep focus.
On the other hand, Laurent sees the utility of Scrum for good quality, fast results.
"Don't invest in a crazily complex backend architecture before you've actually verified that this is the right architecture to build."
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Laurent Decrue is the co-founder of the moving company MOVU and the software company Holycode, and is currently also the CEO at Bexio.
He grew up with a headstrong grandfather who pressured him to take a corporate job at UBS. Despite getting along well with the people there, his problem with authority made UBS too stifling an environment for his entrepreneurial spirit. When he got layed off due to the financial crisis, he decided to join DeinDeal.
Laurent thinks there were two main reasons for DeinDeal's "mafia status":
- It was an unprecedentedly fast growing company, which attracted a certain type of personality;
- It was a very big company overall, which, statistically, means spin-offs are bound to happen.
Unfortunately he suffered a small burnout during his time at DeinDeal, which motivated him to take a break from working before starting his own ventures. During this break he got his masters' degree. He never received any professional help to overcome the effects of his burnout, which in hindsight seems to him like poor decision making. He also feels a certain resentment towards the people he'd been working for, for not having helped him spot the warning signs. Laurent feels guilty himself about not having been able to do this either with two of his own employees later on.
The idea for MOVU came from his own frustration at the slowness of the existing moving services. Despite the company's success, they also underwent a series of challenges:
- From the beginning they knew they wanted to develop a subscription model around a cleaning service, but it took them so long to get to it that by the time that they did, another company had already jumped on the bandwagon and was having great success;
- Their original CTO left, and it was difficult to make sure he got fair compensation: they ended up assigning some of his shares to the new CTO and buying out some of his shares as well;
- More than once they neared bankruptcy, as investment rounds often hinged on a few yes's and no's. This was particularly nerve-wrecking considering some of the people in the MOVU team were parents;
- They received a very generous offer for MOVU early on but declined it, because it did not make strategic sense. They risked a lot to play the long game, but it ended up paying off.
In 2016 Helvetia acquired Moneypark. This let Laurent know that other insurance companies would soon start making investments, and so he made sure to get in contact with the lot of them. MOVU eventually got sold to Baloise.
Simultaneously to creating MOVU, he also founded Holycode, which provides nearshoring services. He remains there as a board member, and has also since 2020 been active as the CEO of Bexio, after Jeremias Meier stepped down from the job.
"If you get 1% better everyday, that's 37times better per year."
"You need to have the courage to realize that during tough times you need to go hard, and during easy times you need to take it slow. Don't push yourself over the brink."
Peter Kempin is a Team Head of Executives & Entrepreneurs at UBS, where he has been working for the past 15 years. Patrick Arnold is a tax expert at UBS and certified financial planner.
Decades in the industry have taught Peter and Patrick that young founders don't think much about taxes. They're heavily focused on their business idea, and taxes aren't a very sexy topic to begin with. But they are nonetheless a crucial step of every business journey.
The first thing you should concern yourself with is the business plan:
- Take into consideration the liquidity needs of the company. This is the basis for your financial requirements: is it possible for you to bootstrap the business and "keep a large portion of the cake" or if there is a need to bring on investors in order to grow the company?
- If you have a business plan for your company, you need one for your personal life as well. How much money can you contribute to your own business? Is it possible to draw pension assets? Do you want to? Should you have a private, non-touchable reserve?
- Keep in mind the founders' financial situation. Do they all have low fixed costs, which will allow you to bootstrap and keep costs and income low? Or do some of them have families already, and aren't able to take on as much risk?
Profit taxes vary from 12-20% depending on the canton. At the beginning of a company, when you haven't broken even because you're not even profitable yet, tax benefits aren't really on your mind — so founders usually choose a domicile in the geographical zone most relevant to their business. But you should take into consideration that the corporate tax reform gives you different advantages/disadvantages depending on the canton you choose, so choose wisely. But even if you make the wrong decision, you can always change domicile later on.
Many founders wonder whether they should set up an individual company or a corporate one. Here are some differences to consider:
- If you're running an individual company, you're taxed on your business profit with the income tax, together with all the other private factors you have: rental income, investment income, etc... But if you're running a corporate company, you're taxed with profit taxes. The income tax only applies if you draw a salary.
- If you have a corporate company and you sell it, you can benefit from tax free capital gains. If you sell an individual company, it's fully taxed.
"Becoming an entrepreneur means tapping into your savings. It should not be done lightly."
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Christian Reiter is a co-founder and board member at Kingfluencers, the leading Swiss social influence agency. After getting his bachelor's degree in Computer Science from ETH, he created a number of ventures, most notably Hitz Dev/Bitspin and Panamove, before building Kingfluencers.
Hitz Dev was founded during Christian's university studies, as a result of a project done in collaboration with SBB. As it transitioned from an agency business to a product-centered business (more specifically, an android app), Hitz Dev became Bitspin, and got acquired by Google in 2014.
Then in 2015 he created the personal trainer app Panamove, but ended up shutting it down in less than a year. Though the company was able to secure revenue after 2 months, there were a few aspects of the core business model which the team was never able to figure out, which hindered the sustainability of the whole endeavour. Christian does not identify with the Swiss fear of failure: he thinks if you need to fail, fail fast — so instead of persisting with Panamove for years and years, he let it go.
In 2016 he became interested in influencer marketing and decided to embark on a new venture: Kingfluencers. Their business model was simple: they had influencers, and they had customers. The difficulty lay in execution, since the field was completely new to Christian — and it was also relatively new to Switzerland, so Kingfluencers needed to become a market educator. Nowadays this market has grown to become relatively big.
In 2020 Christian stepped down from his CEO role and became a board member, which, according to him, was not very hard, since he never wished to be CEO in the first place. His core motivation was to build something which would stand on its own feet, grow and evolve — and this development cannot take place if people refuse to have their roles change.
"If it's not working, don't invest another 3 years into it. Move on to something new."
Jon Brezinski is the co-founder and CEO at Invenda, a company disrupting the machine industry with connected smart technology. Invenda offers smart vending machines, digital signage and smart fridges, as well as business intelligence, customization and integration services. Their partners include Microsoft and Intel. Jon comes originally from the U.S., having studied Information Systems at the University of North Carolina.
His first job after college was at a startup. Experiencing a work environment where everybody had a fixed job but also evolving responsibilities showed Jon that this was the path for him.
In 2016 he founded Invenda, having originally been inspired by a trip to Philadelphia, where he had been working on a ticket machine project. Their MVP provided clients with a 20-80% sales increase, which is no wonder: Invenda machines have shopping carts, allowing customers to buy several products at a time, which means that for every product sold by traditional vending machines, Invenda sells 4. In the first 3 years, Invenda only invested 3% of its budget on sales and marketing, which means they ended up with a pretty solid and attractive product — but they are now ready to start shifting their budget priorities.
Even though the vending machine market is quite large (with over 15m of these machines all over the world), Jon is interested in a accessing markets whose products have not traditionally been sold by vending machines, like socks or luxury chocolate.
Jon thinks one of the biggest challenges startups face is knowing which opportunities are worth pursuing, since there's no shortage of them. But how do you maintain the right focus?
- Try to keep things fun. Choose things that your team would find interesting;
- Use market research from your core customers;
- Consult your partners.
Jon is also a big proponent of hiring for culture and not skills. People can learn almost anything, and having someone "rock the boat" is dangerous. Don't get blindsided by someone's beautiful CV. He also tells his employees that every conversation they have should be a job interview, since finding the right people is an ongoing process that everyone can participate in.
Invenda has had a couple of companies approach them about exit scenarios but thus far none seemed like the right fit. Jon also doesn't feel like Invenda is done with its journey yet.
"One of our main challenges as a startup is to figure out which opportunities are worth pursuing."
"As a founder I have a lot of weird problems I never expected to have and which none of my friends can relate to."
"I think I'm the only person I know who goes to board meetings and has fun."
Gina Domanig is a managing partner at Emerald Technology Ventures, a globally recognized investment and venture capital firm with a focus on cleantech. Before becoming an investor, Gina spent 10 years working at Sulzer as head of M&A, where she met her Swiss husband. Gina is originally from the U.S. but has since given up her U.S. citizenship and has been living in Switzerland for several decades.
In the early 2000s, Gina left Sulzer and joined the cleantech fund Emerald Technology Ventures, because she wanted a job which combined strategy/transactions with something she could believe in.
During their early days they made several mistakes:
- They invested in early stage, capital intensive ventures (which, during the dot com crash, seemed like "real" investments);
- They approved/rejected investment deals by voting yes/no, which turned out to be too reductionistic: too many deals were progressing which partners were not really that excited about. Nowadays they give deals a score of 1-5 and the deal must have an average score of 4 to pass.
Two decades in the cleantech space have taught Gina that industrial incumbents really have the power to block innovation — however, she feels we are now at a tipping point where there's finally enough regulatory and consumer pressure for industrial incumbents to start looking for alternatives. But naturally, they always look for a way to shift the blame to some other sector (for instance, plastic producers blame waste managers, and vice versa).
"Just because you believe something should happen doesn't mean it's going to. Even if all of your analysis points towards that conclusion."
"An investor needs to know that management teams tend to be unbelievably optimistic."
"Look forward with confidence and back without regrets."
Lukas Reinhardt is the head of UBS' Growth Advisory, the leading partner for fast-growing Swiss companies, such as On Running, VIU Eyewear and farmy.ch. He first joined UBS in 2006 as a Graduate Trainee and since then worked in different M&A and Corporate Finance positions for UBS in Zurich and New York.
In 2020 over $2bn were invested in Swiss startups and scaleups, so it's never been more relevant to discuss the intricacies of fundraising in Switzerland.
Some main fundraising challenges are:
- Being ready: knowing what your most recent milestones were, having your documentation in order, gaining some pitching experience;
- Access to investors: this can be tricky, especially if you don't make a habit of proactively networking with them;
- The Valley of Death: seed stage money can be relatively easy to acquire, but growth stage money not so much (since the amount needed is bigger).
How to approach potential investors:
- The best possible option is already knowing one — this requires constant networking on your part;
- The second best thing is to get a warm introduction;
- A pitching event can be a good platform, but one-on-one conversations are usually more fruitful, because you can tailor your pitch to a specific investor and build trust more quickly;
- If all else fails, there's always cold emailing/calling.
After the initial contact:
- Send a one-pager/teaser document quickly summarizing the investment case;
- In case of a positive reaction, send them a pitch deck.
Why you might want to work with a broker:
- It frees up resources: fundraising is not something you can just do on the side, but you also don't want to let it steal time away from operational tasks;
- Brokers have transaction expertise and know-how which you yourself might not possess;
- Brokers have easier access to investors;
- The good reputation of a broker can elevate your own reputation within the market.
But naturally, brokers charge fees, and demand a certain exclusivity.
"Fundraising is not just something you can do on the side, but at the same time, you can't dedicate all your time to it and neglect operational tasks. That's why you should outsource it to an advisor."
Roger Müller is a board member and managing partner at Enabling Qapital, a microfinance advisory company. His background is in traditional asset management. During the 2008 financial crisis, he was working at Julius Bär's Asset Management — at that time, a conversation with a colleague about the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy made it clear to him that he needed to pursue a more independent path, because he did not want to suffer the risk of losing everything from one day to another. He began to pursue entrepreneurial projects.
But it was only in 2014 that he became involved in the impact investment world by joining Blue Orchard. Years later, in 2020, he built his own impact investment fund: Enabling Qapital.
What is impact investing? It's a small loan you dispense to someone in an emerging market, helping them raise their living standard and become financially independent. The minimum amount is around $20, and the maximum is $30'000. Any higher than that is considered an SME loan.
Which precautions should you take? You cannot take anything for granted. Make sure the person knows what a loan is, how they will repay it, and what to do if business goes south. Before dispensing loans to people, Enabling Qapital execute a due diligence process with more than 100 checks.
Why is microfinance necessary? People who live in remote areas and only wish to borrow a small amount of money have trouble getting loans from traditional banks because the operational costs offset the profits for banks. Whether you give out a $50 loan or a $20'000, the due diligence process is the same.
Enabling Qapital is active in all emerging markets except for North Korea, South Sudan, Cuba and the Central African Republic. Once per year they produce a Social Impact Report, showcasing the achievements of the previous 12 months.
"My finances were stable, and I felt like I'd stopped growing as a person. It was time to start taking risks."
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Igor Susmelj is the co-founder of Lightly, where he helps companies improve machine learning models by curating vision data. He has previously worked at SIX Group and Unicorn Labs, and holds a master's in Electrical Engineering from ETH.
Igor grew up on a riding stable, where he spent much of his time helping out his parents. He had to fight tooth and nail for his first computer, and struggled with his family's expectations for his future career. It was at ETH that he first came into contact with the field of machine learning.
After finishing his master's, he co-founded Lightly (originally called Mirage/What To Label), which aimed to make the machine learning process for autonomously driving cars more efficient and human.
Several things went wrong at first:
- He mismanaged his team: Igor did not take care to discuss either the expectations or the roles of everyone in the team early on, and then when they finally did, it was extremely hard to make everyone happy.
- He became obsessed with the success of the company and neglected his interpersonal relationships. A loved one died during this period of Igor's life, and he feels he did not spend enough time with this person in their final days. Nowadays he calls his family every second day.
- He understood success as completely dependent on other people's perception of him and his team. He changed his business model too hastily based on external feedback.
There was even a time when, having run out of money, Igor found himself having to flip cars in order to support himself and his project. But thankfully, there was no difficulty too great for Igor to overcome, and nowadays Lightly is back on track and has in fact just been accepted to a the world-famous Y Combinator.
"I used to define success as what other people thought of me."
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Malik El Bay is the co-founder of the household management app Flatastic and a partner at Dezentrum, a think-tank concocting positive scenarios of the future. His background is in interdisciplinary natural sciences and he has previously worked for Fit Analytics and Modum. He also co-founded Yeppt, an app which aimed to be a mix of Facebook events, Whatsapp and Doodle, and which participated in the Axel Springer Plug and Play Accelerator.
After graduating from ETH, Malik discovered lab work and the world of Big Pharma weren't what he was most suited for. This identity crisis led him to send out a great deal of job applications, namely to Fit Analytics, where he eventually had his first startup experience. Here he was able to run experiments dealing with data about people and products.
By then, he was sharing an apartment with a group of entrepreneurs who encouraged him to become one himself, so he did — but after a failed project, he felt he needed to go back to ETH to study some more. At this time Malik also participated in the ETH Entrepreneur Club.
Fresh out of university once again, he co-founded the social network Yeppt, and even managed to get in the Axel Springer Accelerator. Looking back, Malik can pinpoint a few mistakes:
- They received great feedback because they asked the wrong questions.
- Accelerators serve as social proof and as a stage, which they thought would easily permit them to achieve viral growth. For this reason, they didn't prioritize fundraising.
- They lost sight of what their ultimate company vision was.
After dedicating his time to Flatastic (2014/present) and Modum (2016/2020), Malik joined the think-tank Dezentrum, after having originally received a one-pager from them for feedback and remained in contact. Dezentrum calls themselves a "do-tank" because, more than write papers (which they don't enjoy doing all that much), they are able to build in-house prototypes based on their ideas. They're financed by private companies, academic institutions and foundations.
They mainly discuss Universal Basic Income, remote work and decentralized companies. Malik is of the opinion that UBI should be a top societal priority, since poverty sincerely hinders decision-making and prevents human flourishing. However, he also thinks that citizens need to take into account that a UBI will have to be payed for by everyone, though it may not necessarily be enjoyed by everyone. Regarding this topic, as with all other discussions of the future, Malik is of the belief that it's up to us to avoid dystopian scenarios.
"You get great feedback if you ask the wrong questions."
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Simon Youssef is the co-founder and CTO of neon, a transaction account for everyday finances. Before starting his own company, he was an associate at the management consulting company Strategy&. His educational background is in Physics, and he holds a PhD from the Microsoft Research Lab.
Simon and his co-founder Jörg Sandrock worked together at Strategy&, where they became well acquainted with the Swiss banking market. After a few unfulfilling projects, Simon went on a surfing sabbatical in Indonesia. During this time, Jörg proposed the neon business idea to him, and Simon decided to take the leap.
Whereas typical banking apps cater to the bank's sales interests, merely replicating the organizational structure of a traditional bank, neon offers a client-focused product free of charge, with the lowest fees in Switzerland. Neon manages this because, having a team of around 20 employees, they can live on much slimmer margins. Their revenue comes from card interchange, premium plans like neon Green, and finance fees (from when clients buy partner products on the app).
Revolut and Transferwise don't pose a very big threat, since they're more travel cards than anything else. neon, on the other hand, is a Swiss banking product, meaning they can offer you a Swiss IBAN, e-bills, and so on.
Having been the first of its kind in the small Swiss market, neon has already amassed 70 000 users, in part due to the large amount of press coverage they received. Their participation in Höhle der Löwen, while helpful cashflow-wise, did not bring them as much of a boost as they initially imagined.
"Leaving our corporate careers was a huge risk, so we did not want to fuck this up. Not wanting to fuck up is a big motivator."
Mathias is an accomplished entrepreneur, board member and investor, with multi-year expertise in digital transformation. Together with Simon Scheurer, Mathias co-founded Qumram in 2011 and led it in different roles - CEO, Head of Business Development and Sales - until the successful exit and trade-sale in November 2017 to Dynatrace. Throughout his entrepreneurial journey, Mathias learned by trial and error how to best maintain his health. Below are a few of his tips.
Cultivating your social circle:
- It's a good idea to make friends with your co-workers, because you spend a good deal of your time at work.
- When having quality time with your family, don't go on and on and on about work.
- If necessary/possible, you can take your romantic partner on business trips.
- The number of close friendships you can have really varies from person to person.
Managing your stress:
- If you have lots of muscle pain, can't sleep, and have a hard time focusing, these might be the side effects of chronic stress. A healthy person should be free of pain most of the time.
- Make sure you exercise regularly and that your job is not incompatible with your in-built stress tolerance capability (which varies genetically from person to person).
- Exercise-wise, if the workout you've picked leaves you in pain, and/or doesn't help you build muscle or flexibility, it's probably not the right workout for you.
Balancing your diet:
- You might wanna consider investing money in a test that tells you how well you digest carbs. Not everyone is intolerant.
- Before you splurge on supplements, make sure you've already got the "carbs/proteins/fat" balance right.
- You might wanna look into the 16/8 intermittent fasting regime.
Improving your sleep:
- If you can power nap to make up for lost sleep, do it. But investing in a good night's sleep is better. 6h of good sleep is the ideal number, in Mathias' opinion.
- Go to sleep at more or less the same time everyday or you'll mess up your circadian rhythm.
- Invest in a good mattress, a good pillow, and black-out curtains.
- Avoid screens in the last 1-2h before bedtime.
Final takeaways:
- Don't sacrifice your health for work performance. A life full of professional failures can still be a rich life as long as you are healthy.
- You can try to stay on top of your health through metrics like your resting heart beat, but at the end of the day qualitative feedback is much better. When you run into someone you haven't seen in a long time, do they tell you you look tired/old/too skinny/too fat? We look at ourselves everyday, so incremental changes can slip below our notice.
"Successful founders just have an in-built high stress tolerance — otherwise they wouldn't be where they are."
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Alexander Curiger is the managing owner of the spirits company Silverbogen, which he co-founded in 2010. Since 2010 he has also been a board member at the family business Curiger Immobilien.
Lukas Reinhardt is a corporate finance professional and head of the UBS Growth Advisory. He previously worked at UBS as a corporate finance specialist and M&A analyst.
Tom Schlup is a financial analyst and the head of the SEF Growth initiative. He previously worked at Scout24 as an M&A project manager.
The Silverbogen story began when Alex's younger brother, Raphael, came back from his study exchange in St Petersburg with 4 bottles of Beluga Vodka which both brothers really enjoyed. They started importing bottles of Beluga and selling them in Switzerland, but it eventually dawned on them that selling just one product would be difficult, so they began adding more brands to their portfolio. By moving their business online, they saw some growth, but also had to face the difficulty of getting brands to agree to this different route to market. Raphael has since left the company. To test a possible European-level scale up, Silverbogen has recently expanded to Germany.
Silverbogen participated in the SEF Growth initiative. Tom Schlup indicates the following as the biggest challenges for SEF Growth companies:
1. Cash handling: young companies don't necessarily have a CFO, and are usually always short of cash.
2. Market orientation: young companies don't always understand the market well, even though they may have a very good product.
3. Team: Tom advises you build your team before you actually need it, since growth stages happen fast and require stable structures.
Why should companies participate in the SEF growth initiative?
- There are not many offers for growth companies out there, but mainly early stage or seed stage.
- SEF has a wide network of experienced entrepreneurs.
- SEF companies also benefit from a wide range of partner offerings, namely with their main partner UBS.
Why did UBS choose to be a part of SEF growth?
- They wished to strengthen their position in the SME and startup growth market, where they feel they can be impactful.
- It seemed to them that SEF was offering something truly innovative and beneficial to startups.
"In every company stage you need different people. At the beginning, it's generalists you want, but as you grow, so does the need for specialized skills."
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Mathias is an accomplished entrepreneur, board member and investor, with multi-year expertise in digital transformation. Together with Simon Scheurer, Mathias co-founded Qumram in 2011 and led it in different roles - CEO, Head of Business Development and Sales - until the successful exit and trade-sale in November 2017 to Dynatrace.
He met his co-founder Simon at UNIC, one of the mother companies of the Swiss Startup Mafia. Mathias thinks what set UNIC apart was its founder team's commitment to hiring entrepreneurially-minded people who could handle a lot of responsibility. When he first heard about Simon Scheurer's idea to start recording the internet's history, Mathias decided to take the entrepreneurial plunge himself, and so qumram was founded.
During his time at Qumram he learned many valuable lessons, namely:
1. Bootstrap at your own peril: If you bootstrap, you'll be so dependent on your first customers and on your next deal that you will most likely pivot too much, and lose sight of your long term strategy.
2. It's your product: Always making the customer happy is not the way to build a big company. Always be very customer-centric, but don't let your customer own your product roadmap.
3. What not to do: If you've got generalists for founders, your first hires should be specialists, for the sake of focus and strategy — because strategy is less about what to do and more about what not to do.
4. The most important "win" comes from sales — then fundraising, and only then stuff like awards.
5. Having a bunch of money is useful if you want to scale up; otherwise it's not necessarily a recipe for success.
6. When managing the exit, if you go for the best possible price, you might not get the best possible fit, and then the earnout period can be a bit rough.
"When you move to a foreign country, no one knows you. It's a great time to start finding yourself."
"The 'always make your customer happy' mindset is not really ideal to build a broader company."
Tobias Gunzenhauser ist Mitgründer und CEO von Yamo, einem Startup, welches mit seinen gesunden Snacks für Kinder und Babies den Markt revolutioniert.
Bevor er selbst zum Gründer wurde, arbeitete er im Bereich Purchasing und Marketing Controlling bei Coop und später als Brand Manager bei Gruppo Campari. Parallel studierte er BWL, Marketing und Kommunikation an der Hochschule Luzern.
Durch seine Passion für’s gute Essen bemerkte er während eines veganen Experiments, dass Babynahrung sowohl geschmacklich als auch inhaltlich Verbesserungspotenzial bietet. Da er Spass daran hat etwas aufzubauen, entschied er gemeinsam mit einem der späteren Mitgründer mit einer neuen Produktart in den Baby- und Kindernahrungsmarkt einzutreten.
Für Tobias sind Arbeit und Freizeit keine getrennten Bereiche. Deshalb ist es für ihn enorm wichtig, dass er etwas macht, woran er Spass hat und er etwas verwirklichen kann. Die Zusammenarbeit in einem kleinen Unternehmen, mit tollen, divers aufgestellten Mitarbeitenden, welche etwas anpacken wollen geben ihm Energie und machen Freude.
"Ich sagte, wir müssen Kühlschränke in die Regale reinstellen. Das war wohl etwas frech oder naiv, aber ich dachte einfach 'Let's do it!'
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Remo Uherek is a founder, investor and content creator who has been active since the early 2000s. He co-founded the marketing agency Trigami, a pioneer in Swiss influencer marketing, which in 2011 merged with ebuzzing and in 2014 with Teads to create a global network. In 2012 he left this group and became the CEO at the sharing economy marketplace Exsila, one of Trigami's former customers. He has since co-founded the crypto ATM network Vardex Suisse and been active as an investor, blogger and content creator. He invests in stocks, since VC funds, wealth management and being a business angel bring on too much work besides the investments themselves.
Why should you invest?
You can't become wealthy nowadays just with a good salary and longterm savings. You need to make use of compounding interest. Remo explains this term through a gardening analogy: when you plant a tree and get some seeds, you can either eat the seeds or plant them to grow more trees; from the trees that grow you will get more seeds, and can plant even more trees. This is what compounding your assets means. Remo recommends having 25 times your costs in assets.
Why not just "eat the seeds"?
Here Remo introduces the term "hedonic treadmill": whenever you upgrade your lifestyle, it feels great for 6 months or maybe even a year, but then you get used to it and you want the next upgrade, and then the next, and then the next...
Remo himself does not value material things. Stoic philosophy has taught him to be happy with what he already has, by making him imagine losing it (eyesight, two legs, house...). By comparison, what he already has seems a world of wealth.
Before you start investing, make sure you:
1. Spend less than you earn
2. Pay back any debts
3. Build up a cash reserve
4. Leverage unique skills and personality into more income: maybe build a side business.
5. Also, obviously, learn the basics of investing. Only invest in things that you really understand.
How much should you invest?
That depends on your investment strategy and what you want to get out of it. In Remo's case: except for his cash reserve, he basically invests everything, because cash is a really bad store of value. Your cash reserve should be enough to last you anywhere from 6 to 36 months.
How does Remo budget?
He periodically compiles a personal financial statement, meaning a profit and loss statement for his personal life. This statement should include things like your tax bill, yearly insurance costs, the depreciation and amortization costs for you car, etc... Based on this, you can make informed decisions when budgeting for the near future.
Which broker should you use?
Remo uses interactive brokers, because they are owner-operated. He recommends that you do your own research when it comes to brokers — namely, that you look up negative reviews. You should also set up intentional barriers: for instance, don't receive constant notifications of stock prices — this will send you into a frenzy and you will quickly burn out.
"I learned a lot about entrepreneurship from being an investor, and vice-versa."
"Only invest in things that you truly understand."
Melanie Gabriel ist Mitgründerin des Schweizer Fintechs Yokoy, welches mit künstlicher Intelligenz den Spesen- und Lieferantenrechnungsprozess von Unternehmen automatisiert.
Bevor sie 2019 die Rolle als Mitgründerin und Chief Marketing Officer bei Yokoy einnahm, studierte sie BWL, VWL und Soziologie an der Universität Basel und absolvierte das Masterstudium in Business Management an der Universität St. Gallen. Während dem Studium gründete sie bereits eine Kleidertausch-App und war mit Leidenschaft in der Musik- und Kulturbranche tätig. Anschliessend arbeitete sie während vier Jahren als Marketing Managerin, später als Head of Marketing bei der B2B Software Firma dizmo.
Nebst ihrer Leidenschaft für Musik und Nachhaltigkeit setzt sich Melanie passioniert für Diversität in Teams ein und fördert dies unter anderem mit ihrem Engagement als Board Member bei We Shape Tech. 2021 wurde Melanie vom Female Innovation Forum als Innovator of the year ausgezeichnet.
"Auch wenn uns Österreich und Deutschland sehr nahe sind, gibt es doch Unterschiede, welche man durch digitale Kommunikation nicht immer direkt feststellt."
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Remo Uherek is a founder, investor and content creator who has been active since the early 2000s. He co-founded the marketing agency Trigami, a pioneer in Swiss influencer marketing, which in 2011 merged with ebuzzing and in 2014 with Teads to create a global network. In 2012 he left this group and became the CEO at the sharing economy marketplace Exsila, one of Trigami's former customers. He has since co-founded the crypto ATM network Vardex Suisse and been active as a blogger and content creator.
The biggest lesson he learnt during his time at Trigami was that any publicity is good publicity. Trigami's first campaigns, with brands hiring bloggers to review their products, quickly went viral and generated a lot of buzz, though a good deal of it was criticism: they were being accused of bribing bloggers. Remo stood out from the crowd by answering the criticism calmly and truthfully, and all of this publicity ended up working in their favor. From this he surmized that as a startup, the worst possible situation is people not talking about your company at all, and that in crisis situations, waiting things out is not a good idea.
Another big lesson came when in the middle of his entrepreneurial career Remo hit his breaking point. Depression had always been a recurring thing for him, but it was only in 2018 that he completely burned out and had to take time off. He was so miserable that he didn't even want to be an entrepreneur anymore, but admitting this conflicted with what was his fundamental identity. He experienced insomnia, heart palpitations, panic attacks, and a constant feeling of being trapped.
During his 9 months off, he did a lot of traveling and experimented with therapy, but found it didn't click with him, just as meditation never had either. What actually helped him was discovering stoic philosophy, and developing the determination to constantly compare what his life is to what he would like it to be. Nowadays he's doing much better.
"It felt wrong to study entrepreneurship instead of putting it into practice. A shopify store is a better learning experience than a masters."
"Building something in public is the best kind of marketing."
Freddy Hunziker ist der Gründer von New Roots, einer Firma, welche nachhaltige und vegane Alternativen zu Milchprodukten herstellt.
Bevor Freddy zum Unternehmer mit einer Mission wurde, absolvierte er eine Lehre als Polymechaniker und fuhr halbprofessionell Mountainbike-Rennen. Durch einen Unfall, welcher ihn ein halbes Jahr nur an Krücken gehen liess, setzte sich der Berner intensiv mit den Themen Regeneration und Ernährung auseinander. Zu diesem Zeitpunkt lebte er bereits vegetarisch und entschied daraufhin gemeinsam mit seiner Freundin und späteren Mitgründerin Alice Fauconnet aus tierethischen Bedenken auf eine vegane Ernährung umzustellen.
Mit der Umstellung waren die beiden mit der überschaubaren Anzahl von veganen Alternativen zu tierischen Milchprodukten konfrontiert. Besonders die fehlende Alternative zu Käse erschwerte den Schritt zur veganen Ernährung. Daraufhin begann Freddy für sich und seine Freunde veganen Käse in der WG Küche herzustellen. Nach einigem Herumtüfteln und ersten Erfolgen, wurde 2015 New Roots gegründet.
Heute arbeiten über 20 Mitarbeitende am Standort in Oberdiessbach an der gemeinsamen Mission nachhaltige und ethische Alternativen zu Milchprodukten herzustellen. Für Freddy hat der Teamzusammenhalt einen enorm hohen Stellenwert, da jede/r einzelne Teil der nachhaltigen Vision von New Roots ist. In seiner Freizeit schwingt sich Freddy nach wie vor oft auf das Mountainbike und verbringt gerne Zeit mit seiner Familie und seiner Freundin.
"Mit unseren Produkten wollen wir zeigen, das es nachhaltig, transparent, ethisch und vor allem auch lecker geht. Das Ziel ist, dass unsere Kunden auf nichts verzichten müssen!"
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Julian Massler is the co-founder and CEO at Aurum Fit, the data-driven high intensity strength training startup that promises results with just 6 min per week. Before starting his own company, Julian was a junior investment banker at GCA Altium, and he holds a bachelor's in Economics from the University of Konstanz.
Back in his gymnasium days, Julian belonged to Germany's national sailing squad, where he was told he needed to bulk up in order to really be competitive. This was when Julian was first introduced to the highly-effective High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). HIIT teaches you that the most important thing is not the workouts themselves, but the resting periods in between, since our bodies were built to experience brief and intense bursts of exercise, followed by a lot of time laying around.
After university, Julian started working at GCA Altium as an investment banker, with the ultimate goal of reaching FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early). One day, his cubicle buddy Philipp asked him for fitness advice, and was surprised to hear Julian trained only once a week. Julian introduced Philipp to HIIT and thus a business idea was born.
Julian and Philipp felt gyms were not an adequate answer to people's needs: all they basically do is rent out equipment — which 1. most people don't know how to properly use, 2. has to be set up again and again, and 3. is sometimes quite the safety hazard. The results you obtain are also a pain to properly quantify and keep track of.
Julian and Philipp wanted to build facilities where coaches would always be available and where strength training was done with something better than weights — and so they built automated and highly sophisticated machines which measure the strength you're putting in and offer the same resistance, and which allow you to keep track of your achievements and break them down analytically.
Unlike regular gyms or fitness apps, Aurum Fit targets people who don't particularly enjoy exercising, and don't really know much about it. Their main customer personas are busy professionals, well-off retirees, and people recovering from injuries.
Currently they're trying to scale the company through franchising, and would like to venture further out into elderly care.
"I have a lot of empathy for people, and that makes me a really good marketer."
"Strength is the most underrated health marker out there."
Léa Miggiano ist Mitgründerin des Auto-Abo Anbieters Carvolution, mit welchem Kunden ihr Auto in einem all inclusive Paket zu einem monatlichen Fixpreis abonnieren können.
Heute ist Léa eine der Top 100 Women in Business im Bereich Digital Startups und wurde als Forbes 30 under 30 ausgezeichnet. Bevor sie zur Gründerin wurde, hat Léa ihren Bachelor in Betriebswirtschaft an der an der Universität St. Gallen abgeschlossen. Anschliessend absolvierte sie einige Praktika wodurch sie Einblicke in die Startup Welt gewann, in welcher sie sich heute wohl und gut aufgehoben fühlt.
Die Idee für Carvolution kam Léa aus einem eigenen Bedürfnis. Auf dem Land aufgewachsen, machte sie ihren Führerschein so früh wie möglich. Da sie sich mit 18 noch kein Auto leisten konnte, lieh sie sich immer wieder Autos von Bekannten aus. Ihr Mentor machte sie auf existierende Carsharing Angebote aufmerksam, worauf sie gemeinsam einen ersten Business Case für Carvolution aufstellten und sich anschliessend auf Investorensuche gemacht haben.
Heute zählt Carvolution nebst den drei Mitgründern rund 50 Mitarbeitende, welche sich um die ganze Customer Journey kümmern. Zukünftig stehen der Ausbau des Auto-Angebots sowie die Weiterentwicklung der Customer Experience anhand der Carvolution App an.
Persönlich ist für Léa wichtig, dass sie jeden Tag Freude hat an dem was sie macht. Sie umgibt sich gerne mit inspirierenden, positiven Menschen, welche ebenfalls freudig durchs Leben gehen und mit welchen man anregende Gespräche führen kann. In ihrer Freizeit kriegt Léa den Kopf auf dem Rücken ihres Pferdes frei.
"Ich bin froh, ging ich mit dieser Naivität und Offenheit an die ganze Sache heran. So konnte mich zu Beginn nichts verunsichern."
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Cédric waldburger is a startup investor, essentialist and explorer. He invests in early-stage technology companies through his VC firm Tomahawk.vc, with a focus on fintech and decentralized finance companies. Prior to that, he built companies in the agency, consumer and blockchain sector. Most recently, he co-founded DFINITY, the Silicon Valley unicorn. He also has a Youtube channel where he regularly vlogs about his life experiments and shares his insights as an entrepreneur.
In 2011, during an exchange semester in Hong Kong, he co-founded an online tailor together with "Gabriel", whom he met playing rugby. Though they had complementary personalities and skillsets, there was one crucial thing missing: trust. This made open communication very difficult, which meant that despite all the friction and all the disagreements regarding what their product should look like, Cédric kept things to himself and let his resentment grow.
Eventually, Cédric lost all respect for his co-founder and decided to leave the company. He was owed money which Gabriel deceitfully refused to pay, and so Cédric, at the height of his frustration, used the company card to wire the money to his account. 24 hours later, he logged onto Facebook to find his wall full of accusatory messages from friends of Gabriel, and his inbox full of threats. Overwhelmed, Cédric returned the money, gave up on ever getting payed, and signed over all his shares. For a year he felt too ashamed to even speak of the ordeal.
The silver lining was, of course, what he learned: it's great if you and your co-founder are friends, but that should not be the sole criteria. Both people need to be very conscious of what the roles and expectations are. If you feel something is not right, bring it up immediately. And if you feel yourself becoming miserable, pushing through it might not be the best option: sometimes you just have to call it quits, and move on to better things.
"You're gonna be a lot healthier if you focus on the portfolio companies that do well, instead of trying to save the ones which struggle."
"Smart people learn from their mistakes. Wise people learn from others."
"Failure is when I learn. Success is what allows me to learn more."
HelloFresh cupon code: HELLOSWISS
For more information: https://hlfr.sh/h0O5tq
Simon Ittig ist Mitgründer und CEO von T3 Pharma, einem Spin-Off der Uni Basel, welches eine Krebstherapie mit genetisch veränderten Bakterien entwickelt.
Bevor er eher zufällig zur Krebsforschung kam, studierte er Biochemie an der Universität Bern und Biotechnologie in Strasbourg und Wien. Von 2008-2012 absolvierte er sein PhD im Gebiet der Bakteriologie am Biozentrum der Universität Basel. In seiner Zeit als Postdoc wurde sein Doktorvater pensioniert, womit sich Simon Ittig seiner hinterlassenen Forschung widmete und erfolgreich mit dieser herumexperimentierte. 2015 gründete er mit seinen beiden Forschungskollegen Marlise Amstutz und Christoph Kasper das Spin-Off T3 Pharma, mit der Vision das Leben von Krebspatienten zu verbessern.
Simon Ittigs’ erstes unternehmerisches Vorbild war sein Grossvater, welcher verschiedene Unternehmen führte. Des Weiteren hat Simon bereits in seiner Jugend erste unternehmerische Erfahrungen gesammelt: Er hat gemeinsam mit Kollegen Events für bis zu 2000 Menschen organisiert.
Privat ist Simon Ittig ein Familienmensch, welcher viel Wert auf gemeinsame Zeit mit seinen drei Kindern legt und ihnen seine unternehmerischen und menschlichen Werte mitgeben möchte.
"Das Wichtigste ist nicht aufzugeben und nicht zu schnell zufrieden zu sein. Auch bei Investoren, Consultants und Mitgründern."
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Martin Voynikov is the director of product at Gtmhub, an OKR software for missions that matter. He previously helped create a mobile AR game called Visualz Inc, which guided kids through museums in a fun, enriching way. More recently, he was the product manager at eezy.ai, the mobile personal assistant, and Babbel, the language learning app. He is also a guest lecturer at the University of St Gallen, teaching product management analytics and heuristics.
Before coming up with some OKRs, you should make sure you have a good idea of your vision ("what will we become in 10 years?") and mission ("what purpose do we serve?").
How to create a good OKR
Let's say your startup wants to be the best in terms of product: a good objective would be something like "becoming the category leader".
The key results would be:
1. Have an NPS of +50
2. Have 100 5 star reviews on the app stores
3. Have the product team launch a new feature each month
This last key result is debatable: some might say that's just output, not outcomes. But if you tie it to another OKR, like "0 bugs introduced", or "all new features having a customer effort score of 5", you're basically counter-balancing it.
How many OKRs do you need?
Answering this question requires making two important distinctions:
1. How many key results should you have in your objectives?
2. How many objectives should you have?
Data has shown that the most successful objectives are the ones who have up to 4 key results. Numbers have also shown that an individual should usually own no more than 2 objectives. Teams, depending on their size, can accomodate between 2 and 3.
What timeframes should be used for OKRs?
The vast majority of companies are using quarterly OKRs, that tie to an annual OKR, which in turn might tie to a 3 year plan. Circumstances for companies change pretty fast, so monthly OKRs are probably the optimal option — but the quarterly basis might also work for you.
If you feel like even a quarterly OKR is too time-critical for you, keep it nonetheless and transfer it to the next quarter if need be.
How often should you check OKRs?
In order for OKRs to really work for your company, you should create some ceremonies around them: your cadences of review should be regular. Gtmhub sees clients using mostly weekly reviews, but bi-weekly can work as well.
OKR meetings should be quick and should focus on the next steps and on your learnings. No need to let people see you update the OKR card. Each person should be allotted 2-3 minutes to speak.
"A good OKR has an aspirational objective, measurable key results and outcomes. A bad OKR is a mediocre objective with non-actionable key results."
"OKRs have already become a competitive advantage in many industries."
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David Gugelmann ist der Gründer und CEO von Exeon Analytics, einem cyber security ETH Spin-Off, welches mit seinem Algorithmus versteckte Hacker-Angriffe detektiert und Firmen so vor teuren Datenverlusten schützt.
Nach seinem Studium an der ETH forschte David Gugelmann in seinem PhD zum Thema Netzwerkforensik und Machine Learning. Dabei arbeitete er eng mit grossen Unternehmen zusammen und hat somit früh erkannt, mit welchen cyber security Problemen diese konfrontiert sind.
Seine innovative und anwendungsnahe Forschung weckte rasch das Interesse der Industrie. Aufgrund der starken Nachfrage potentieller Kunden entschied sich David Gugelmann im August 2016 seine Forschung in ein Produkt zu übertragen und eine Firma zu gründen. Ende 2016 stiess Adrian Gämperli als CTO dazu und heute arbeiten rund 25 Mitarbeitende, vorwiegend ETH Absolventen, für Exeon Analytics.
Seinen unternehmerischen Antrieb hat David Gugelmann einerseits von seiner “Tüftler-Familie”, andererseits stört ihn Ineffizienz: “Wenn man etwas zwei, dreimal manuell machen muss, kann man es sicher auch automatisiert erledigen”. Mit Exeon Analytics hat er eine automatisierte Lösung für ein Problem entwickelt, welches potentiell für jedes Unternehmen relevant ist und manuell nicht lösbar wäre.
Persönlich ist David Gugelmann wichtig einen positiven Impact zu haben. Dies einerseits für seine Kunden, aber auch für die Menschen in seinem nahen Umfeld, wie beispielsweise die Mitarbeitenden. Privat ist er gerne sportlich unterwegs und schwingt sich zum Abschalten auf sein Fahrrad.
Das Bedürfnis ist nicht mehr eine reine Präventionslösung, sondern eine Lösung die reagieren kann, falls es trotzdem einmal einen Angriff gegeben hat.
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Markus Witte is the co-founder and former CEO at Babbel, the top-grossing language learning app which has been around since 2007. Nowadays he serves as its executive chairman. Markus is based in Berlin and has a background in academia, specifically the social sciences.
A passion for learning, not school
Although Markus has always been in love with learning, he often struggled to find motivation at school, since it seemed to him that most of his teachers mechanically repeated the same information over and over again. He fit in much better in academia, where people had more of a passion for their subjects.
What makes a good entrepreneur?
Markus says entrepreneurs are not made, they happen. There's no such thing as an entrepreneurial DNA, only entrepreneurial moments — and what we make of them.
He also thinks it's important to distinguish between "good" and "successful." You can be reckless and still get lucky. To be "good," you need the ability to convert everything around you into success, even your limitations.
It seems to Markus that the mindset of "just following your gut" is a luxury. He says you shouldn’t let it guide you if you don't have a cushion to fall back on. In fact, you should cultivate doubt.
Creating and pivoting Babbel
Markus and his co-founders created Babbel because they thought language learning was something everyone would need at some point in their lives, and also because they knew nothing about the subject and were keen on learning more.
Their first prototype was nice-looking, but nobody could learn a language with it. Out of arrogance, they assumed this was a tech problem, but soon realized that it was more a matter of didactics, and so called in some specialists: teachers.
Even though these were rare in 2009, they opted for a subscription-based business model, since they figured you can't optimize both for building advertising revenue and for building a good learning product. Investing money in a subscription, they think, also helps learners stick to their goals.
"In school, a lot hinges on good teachers."
"I was too in love with learning to feel like school was worthwhile."
"The entrepreneurial thing is to find strength where you feel you have weaknesses."
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Carlo Loderer ist co-founder und CEO von Zippsafe, dem Pionier für smarte, platzsparende Personalumkleiden. Vor bzw. während er Zippsafe gründete, studierte er Maschinenbau und Engineering an der ETH.
Das Bedürfnis nach einer praktischen Garderobenlösung hatte Carlo Loderer bereits vor einigen Jahren selbst verspürt, als er anfing Silvesterpartys für über 400 Leute zu organisieren. Die konkrete Idee selbst eine solche Lösung zu entwickeln, kam ihm jedoch erst 2014, während eines Zwischenjahrs im Anschluss an das Bachelor Studium. Während einer Südamerika Reise rief er seinen langjährigen Freund David Ballagi an und pitchte ihm seine Idee. Daraufhin tüftelten die beiden während ihrem Engineering Masterstudium an einem MVP, welches sie zum Patent anmeldeten.
Nach einem Pilotversuch mit Fokus auf Shoppingcenter, bedient Zippsafe heute hauptsächlich Kunden aus den White Coat Industrien mit ihrer innovativen Personalgarderobenlösung. Bereits über 64 Institutionen setzen auf das platzsparende System, so zum Beispiel das Kantonsspital Winterthur und das Städtische Klinikum Karlsruhe.
Für Carlo Loderer ist es wichtig, dass er Freude und Leidenschaft verspürt, bei dem was er macht. Das und der Wunsch von guten Leuten umgeben zu sein spornten ihn an mit seinem Jugendfreund etwas eigenes aufzubauen. Privat unternimmt er regelmässig Abenteuerreisen in exotische Länder, so reiste er zum Beispiel mit dem Fahrrad durch Ruanda.
"Wir haben uns zu Beginn vorallem auf zwei KPI's konzentriert: "Call-to-Meeting Ratio" und die "Bereitschaft für einen Test zu bezahlen."
"Es benötigt in unserem Business aufgrund der Sales-Cycles und Lead Times relativ viel Zeit bis zu einem Abschluss - das muss einberechnet werden!"
"Die grössten Erfolge waren immer, wenn wir etwas zum ersten Mal gemacht haben. Zu Beginn haben wir uns gesagt: "Wenn wir jemals eine solche Schliesstasche verkaufen.." Und drei Jahre später konnten wir 7-stellige Deals abschliessen. Das hätten wir uns niemals erträumen lassen."
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Daniel Protz is the founder and CEO of FlavorWiki, a B2B digital service supporting the food and beverages industry with customer insight and data management.
With an impressive track record in reputable corporate companies such as Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank and Groupon, Daniel’s interest in the food industry grew as learned about its complex internal logistics and bureaucratic standards from his wife, a food scientist. As of now, Daniel describes the field as heavily concentrated in a small number of players. It also maintains low levels of disruption, and consequently slow cycles of change — after all, childhood experiences and cultural identities aren’t easily displaced, so eating habits are inherently emotional.
Daniel’s original problem statement stemmed from gaps in online retail platforms. Taste is the number one reason why people care about a certain food product, but it can differ radically according to gender, ethnicity and age, a reality most recommendation models often ignored. Also, traditional market research processes were slow and expensive, so Daniel wanted to find a solution for better digital food-selling that really finds its core in large-scale, honest customer review. By accelerating data treatment on taste and personal preference, Daniel’s vision wants to provide an affordable research model that is accessible to big companies and small players alike.
As an experienced entrepreneur and sportsman, Daniel told us his two cents of advice for those fearing the entrepreneurial roller coaster:
Rely on the small moments of validation to boost your confidence.
User feedback is the most valuable tool for building new features.
Accept that failure is an inevitable part of the journey: a “no” can actually give you priceless directions on where to go next.
Overcome emotional clouds to read better into criticism.
Don’t underestimate the value of family for honest feedback and kind support along the way.
Ideological match matters when it comes to knowing potential investors.
Sticking to your unique vision is what entrepreneurship is all about, and the future is certainly looking bright for FlavorWiki! In 2020, the company grew by 400%, and they are now about to take on their first investors. Listen to the episode to hear Daniel’s personal insight on food as a promising entrepreneurial field!
"If you have your own business, it runs you. You don't walk away on Friday night, right? I think entrepreneurs need to understand that too."
“Access to the product is the most important thing to achieve success. You can have the best product as a startup, but if you can’t get it on the shelf, you have a huge problem.”
“If the prize is the only reason you’re in sport or anything else, you will never succeed. The prize is one billionth of the whole journey.”
Waking Up — A Conversation with David Whyte
Jeannette Morath ist die Gründerin von reCIRCLE, der Schweizer Branchenlösung für Mehrwegverpackung in der Unterwegsverpflegung. Vor der Gründung ihres eigenen Unternehmens war sie als Projektmanagerin im Veranstaltungs- und Marketingbereich tätig. Unter anderem als Projektmanagerin für bike to work, und in der Kommunikation und Öffentlichkeitsarbeit bei Entsorgung und Recycling Stadt Bern.
Das Ausmass der Müllproblematik von Wegwerf-Verpackungen wurde Jeannette Morath bereits mit 20 Jahren bewusst, als sie auf Korsika Beachparties für Gäste organisierte und der Strand am nächsten Tag verwüstet aussah. Deshalb entschied sie sich im Bereich Nachhaltigkeit tätig zu werden. 2014 startete sie als Co-Initiantin das Pilotprojekt «Grüne Tatze» in der Stadt Bern, welchem dasselbe Konzept wie reCIRCLE zugrunde liegt. Der Pilot sollte aufzeigen, ob überhaupt ein Bedürfnis nach diesem Produkt besteht.
Nach einer erfolgreichen Pilotphase entschied sich Jeannette Morath das Konzept auszubauen. Das Produkt und das Geschäftsmodell wurden weiter verfeinert und 2015 reCIRCLE gegründet. Das reCIRCLE Netzwerk umfasste zum Startzeitpunkt 24 Restaurants, heute sind es über 1'500 und reCIRCLE expandiert erfolgreich international. Damit kommt Jeannette ihrer Vision, dass Essen in einer Mehrweg-Box zur Normalität wird, immer näher.
Privat fährt Jeannette Morath mit dem Fahrrad zur Arbeit, betreibt Carsharing mit ihren Nachbarn und verreist mit ihrer Familie entweder mit dem Fahrrad, ÖV oder dem Auto innerhalb Europas, um so Flugreisen möglichst zu vermeiden. Für sie ist es jedoch wichtig, nicht zu missionieren oder sich selbst und ihrer Familie strikte Nachhaltigkeitsregeln aufzuerlegen, so isst sie zum Beispiel beim Grillieren im Sommer auch ab und zu gerne mal ein Stück Fleisch.
"Wir wollen eine Lösung die für 80% der Mahlzeiten und Restaurants passt."
"Wir wollen keine Lösung für 3%, das würde sich nicht lohnen."
"Unsere Vision ist es, dass sich das Aubergine-violett als die Farbe für 'reusable' etabliert."
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Tobias Gunzenhauser is co-founder and CEO of yamo, a B2C company revolutionizing the kid's food market with nutritious and organic options for kids of all ages.
Tobias’s academic background is in Business and Marketing. However, corporate jobs never motivated him, as he felt there was little he could fix with his own hands. It all changed in 2015, while Tobias was working as Brand Manager for the Campari Group. and he and his coworkers decided to go vegan for a month. The new vegans struggled to find healthy lunch alternatives near the office and, being natural problem solvers, turned to baby food for convenient and affordable meals.
As an accidental consumer of baby food, Tobias was amazed at the shelf life of these products: was something that lasted 3 to 5 years left on its own truly safe for kids? With a bit of surveying, he found out that parents shared the same safety concerns, and, in the lack of more sustainable options they could trust, they often batch-cooked purées at home during the weekends, which can become a time-consuming chore for sleep-deprived parents.
After his first hand experiences with baby food, Tobias collaborated with food scientist, close friend and current co-founder, José Amado-Blanco, who knew just how to turn this traditional industry upside down with the help of technology. The commonly used heat sterilisation technique boosted product longevity, but it also killed necessary vitamins. High-pressure pasteurisation methods changed the game for yamo: lasting a couple of weeks in a refrigerated setting, their product can really achieve that comforting homemade flavour without compromising on proper nutrition.
Yamo’s ability to innovate with exotic recipes and nutritional conscience is what really makes their product shine. Even though the company has seen harder days between navigating strict regulations and battling lawsuits from HiPP, yamo has always managed to look on the bright side, and they have plenty of reasons to do so! With their early crowdfunding campaign, they were able to pre-sell product worth 52K CHF within a month. In July 2020, they raised 10.1M CHF in a Series A round, and now have a great network of investors like Five Seasons Ventures as leverage. Other recent milestones include expanding to the Spanish market and Carrefour and launching their new plant-based Yamoghurt. Listen to the episode to learn more about yamo’s journey on the food tech rollercoaster!
"We aren't fathers ourselves, and that allowed us to think differently and have a totally detached perspective with no bias at all. We had to learn everything ourselves."
"If people asked me, Should I do a crowdfunding campaign?, I would always tell them: Yes, do it, but it'll be a lot of work. We worked almost full-time for 2 to 3 months on our campaign before it launched."
The High Growth Handbook: Scaling Startups From 10 to 10,000 People, by Elad Gil
Martin Stadler ist CEO von Altoo, einem Software Unternehmen, welches ein digitales Cockpit für die einfache Darstellung von komplexen Vermögensstrukturen anbietet. Bevor Martin selbst zum Unternehmer wurde, startete er 1996 seine berufliche Laufbahn als KV Lehrling bei der UBS in St. Gallen und studierte im Anschluss berufsbegleitend Wirtschaft an der Fachhochschule St. Gallen.
Während 20 Jahren machte er intern Karriere als Senior Kundenberater an verschiedenen Standorten, so unter anderem in Singapur. 2016 war er bei der Flynt Bank als Ambassador für die Kundengewinnung verantwortlich, wo er bereits mit den beiden weiteren Mitgliedern der zukünftigen Altoo Geschäftsleitung Stefan Thiel (CTO) und Stefan Weber (CDO) arbeitete.
Für Martin Stadler persönlich ist Authentizität von hoher Bedeutung: die eigenen Werte müssen im Privat- sowie im Geschäftsleben übereinstimmen. Er schätzt Menschen, welche in guten wie in schlechten Zeiten nicht Augen und Ohren verschliessen, sondern den Ursachen auf den Grund gehen wollen. Eine gute Stimmung und Humor sind für ihn geschäftlich wie auch privat unverzichtbar.
2017 kam es zum Buy-Out der Flynt Technologie durch zwei Schweizer Unternehmerfamilien. Dadurch bot sich für Martin Stadler die Gelegenheit als CEO die Verantwortung für das neu entstandene Fintech Unternehmen Altoo zu übernehmen. Aus diesem Grund sehen sich die Mitglieder der Geschäftsleitung auch nicht als Gründer, sondern als Teil eines grossen gemeinsamen Efforts. Dies zeigt sich auch im Namen Altoo, welcher für “all together” steht. Aktuell expandiert das Software Unternehmen in ausländische Märkte.
Altoo muss einen Hackerangriff überstehen können. Wir sind wie ein Haus ohne Fenster und ohne Türen — so haben wir unsere Sicherheitstechnologie gebaut.
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Cynthia Jurytko is a professional Business Angel and President of the Board of S2S Ventures, Switzerland's first student-run Venture Capital firm.
In 2012, Cynthia left the path of management consulting to become Head of Investment Strategy and Portfolio Management at Neue Zürcher Zeitung. This was when she also started her journey as a business angel — as of now, her points of focus are healthcare and sustainability, two traditional fields that could really benefit from extra impact and entrepreneurial innovation according to Cynthia.
However, Cynthia's endeavors didn't end there! She realized how universities were often contacted by outside professional funds, but were lacking in cross-campus initiatives. Following the footsteps of American role models such as the Dorm Room Fund, S2S knows how the upcoming generations can lead the way to innovation, because they have an unbiased view on tech trends and are close to their peers and vital infrastructures, such as research centers and university clubs. The project doesn't thrive from any connection to established angel clubs, but receives its funding exclusively from board members and private investors interested in academic funds.
At S2S, students are not only the focus of investment practices, but they run the fund themselves! Two students from each major university are chosen for membership. Their learning process is completely autonomous: they are the ones contacting early-stage startups with no limited industry focus and deciding the ticket sizes, which can range from 20-150k CHF. Change is never a problem: the constant renewing of students benefits the initiative with fresh ideas each academic year. As new campus funds spring across Europe, Cynthia is keen on keeping her ideals of transparency while hoping her project soon expands internationally.
"No investment has zero risks or weaknesses. You always find something."
“With Series A startups, you evaluate it a bit differently, because you can make more fact-checking, you have more numbers to look at. You get to have a more structured and analytical approach. In pre-seed stage, you invest in the future of the company, and mostly in the team’s ability to realize that future.”
Village Global's Venture Stories
Brené Brown's leadership advice
Jörg Sandrock ist co-founder und CEO von neon, der ersten Schweizer Smartphone Bank ohne Kartengebühren. Vor seiner Karriere als Unternehmer, war der studierte Wirtschaftsingenieur (Karlsruher Institut für Technologie) über 11 Jahre im Beratungsunternehmen Strategy& tätig, wo er auch zwei seiner drei Mitgründer kennenlernte.
Während eines Beratungsmandates für einen Kunden, der sein digitales Retail Banking Angebot erweitern wollte, erarbeiteten sie ein Konzept, welches zwar für Begeisterung sorgte, jedoch aus internen Gründen nicht umgesetzt werden konnte. Daraus entstand die Motivation die Beratung zu verlassen und das Fintech Startup neon zu gründen.
Neon hat bis heute Investitionen von über CHF 10 Mio. aufgenommen. Zu den Investoren gehören unter anderem die TX Group, Roland Brack und Bettina Hein. Die Smartphone Bank ist seit ihrem Markteintritt im Jahr 2019 bereits auf über 60’000 Kundinnen und Kunden gewachsen.
"Das teilweise in den alten Köpfen vorherrschende Bild, dass eine Bank für Vertrauen steht, geht beim Durchschnitt der Bevölkerung eher verloren."
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Serguei Beloussov is Founder and CEO of Acronis, a global company focused on cyber protection, recovery solutions and storage management services.
A scientist by training raised in the former Soviet Union, Serguei started his first business in graduate school. Then, in 2000, he founded SWsoft (later Parallels), a leading software in automation and cross-platform connections for businesses, public entities and individual customers. Parallels would later on launch Acronis, its own spin-off targeting storage and backup assistance.
Serguei's early endeavors were based in Singapore, a friendly and safe growth environment. However, the founder soon weighed his operations, and came to the conclusion that up to 40% of all transactions took place in Europe. Switzerland was a happy choice for the new corporate headquarters: according to Serguei, Switzerland is a politically stable and wealthy environment for company growth, despite the difficulties of the Swiss ecosystem in hiring foreign talent. For companies itching to go international, here are Serguei’s tips:
Study your goal-market carefully before making the big leap;
Remember that markets are often determined by geopolitical standards;
Master culturally-specific terminology. This is a big deal in deep tech: concepts and names will vary widely across the globe, so make sure you do your research.
As we write, Acronis is thriving! The company currently employs more than 1600 experienced collaborators across 33 countries, and its recent fundraising campaign raised 250M$ from CBC capital at a 2.5B$ valuation. This self-made entrepreneur has also co-authored more than 280 US technology patents while juggling many board membership positions, and he’s looking forward to seeing how machine intelligence and digital literacy progress in the upcoming years. Listen to the episode to learn more about Acronis’s story and Serguei’s personal outlook on data safety!
"It’s more difficult to hire foreign talent in Switzerland. As a global leader, it’s difficult to rely solely on the talent you can find locally while being selective.”
"What I've learned from the past is that integrating remote work could be very productive for companies."
Andreas Lenzhofer ist co-founder und CEO von Dagsmejan, ein Unternehmen, welches innovative Bekleidung für besseren Schlaf entwickelt. Bevor der Aargauer selbst zum Unternehmer wurde, studierte er Finance an der FHNW in Olten (früher HWV) und verfolgte anschliessend für knapp 20 Jahre eine Karriere in der Unternehmensberatung (u.A. bei PWC und Strategy&) mit dem Fokus auf Supply Chain Management, Operations und Finance.
Als er und seine Frau Catarina Dahlin sich ‘mid-life’ in ihren jeweiligen Corporate Karrieren befanden, entschieden sie, dass sie die zweite Hälfte ihres beruflichen Pfades als Entrepreneurs verbringen möchten. Nach einer umfangreichen Trendanalyse gründeten sie 2017 das High-Tex-Startup Dagsmejan, um die Schlaf- und Lebensqualität global zu revolutionieren.
"Wenn man unternehmerisch tätig war, ist es fast unmöglich wieder in einem Corporate Umfeld zu arbeiten."
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Ross Mason is the founder of MuleSoft Inc. and Dig Ventures. He is also a Board Member at Stackin' and Syncari.
Ross has always had an entrepreneurial spirit, and jokes that at the ripe age of seven, he was already running his own bootleg Lego club! His parents were business owners, and taught Ross two important lessons for his future projects: you should never lower your bar, and working hard isn't necessarily a bad thing if you enjoy what you do.
In 1997, Ross graduated in Computer Science from the University of the West of England and started his career in corporate work. However, he knew he wanted to build his own path, and open source software was his prime choice, since it gives you widespread distribution and insight about potential product/market fit. That’s exactly how The Mule Project was born. The platform started out as a SourceForge project in April 2003, and its aim was to make programmers’ lives simpler by allowing them to easily enable the sending of data between their SaaS (software as a service), on-premise software and legacy systems platforms which was previously hard and tedious to do.
This philosophy of avoiding “donkey work” became a guiding star for his endeavors. Born in 2006, MuleSource, later MuleSoft, got the timing just right: many open source companies were becoming commercial, and investors were starting to realize it’s actually a viable distribution model. Ross had a strong drive for building the next game changer in a fragmented market. Though integration had taken a big hit after the rise of web services, MuleSoft kept the ball rolling by uniting many different approaches in one platform, with all the proper testing, monitoring, debugging and graphical environment.
Growing the company was a rocky path. Between handling cultural differences, undergoing a draining IPO process and battling depression, things didn’t seem too cheerful for a while. However, those clouds soon passed and let the sun shine through. Ross had always wanted to make MuleSoft public, and his vision became reality. As the team flooded the building and stood beside him, MuleSoft finally rang the bell on the New York Stock Exchange in March 2017! Just a year later, Salesforce.com announced its acquisition of MuleSoft with an impressive deal of US$6.5B.
Plateauing was never an option for Ross. Now, his new firm Dig Ventures invests in B2B SaaS companies, and wants to decode the founding journey by giving framework on vital aspects of company building, such as making compelling events, nurturing team culture and shaping strong sales strategies. Providing not only inspiration but also action is DV’s key motto. Seeing a company thrive is a fulfilling view for anyone, but Ross’s final message shares something founders should keep in mind: working hard is important, but never let it swallow your personal life.
Some of Ross's favourite podcasts on the investing world include Invest Like the Best and My First Million.
A Sony A6000 camera is a part of Ross's personal setup.
“Many technical founders think that they’ll have a great outcome just by building great software. The reality is that you also have to connect software to the market and have a defined strategy. It isn’t simply about spotting immediate needs, but something along these lines: how do you reprogram people to think differently about the way they’re doing things?”
“Having a fully remote team where people are working everywhere can be difficult because of time zones, but you can do it! In the age of post-COVID-19, it won’t matter quite as much. In the early days of a company, that extra engineering talent can be an advantage.”
