Swisspreneur startup podcast

About Doris Albisser and CLS Communication

Doris Albisser is the founder and executive Chairwoman of Evaluglobe AG. Through Evaluglobe, she focuses on board mandates, growth investments and advising companies’ in their international expansion. Before starting Evaluglobe, Doris served as the Group CEO for CLS Communication AG for 16 years, developing CLS from a startup through a management buyout and internationalization, to a company with 600 employees and 5.000 freelancers in 10 countries across Europe, Asia and North America. Amongst others, Doris also served on the boards of Switzerland Global Enterprise, SOS Children’s Villages and the Psychiatric University Clinic of Zurich.

The Episode in 60 Seconds

Bootstrapping your marketing from scratch

• The first commandment of bootstrapping: do it yourself. Don’t pay agencies or lawyers for things you can do yourself or copy paste from templates.
• Don’t start with branding, start with the performance marketing of your product. This way, you’ll earn back your ad spend immediately (if you do it well).
• Use cheap CPM media (cost per 1 million clicks) such as Pinterest or snapchat for brand awareness. Facebook and Instagram for retargeting.
• A lot of world class knowledge about social media marketing is freely available on the Internet. Use it!

Experimenting and tracking success

• Experiment with a broad variety of channels to find out what works. Be sure you understand the basics of how the platform’s algorithm works, so you are able to interpret your data  (e.g. how long does the algorithm take to learn, i.e. how long until it produces significant results).
• Run experiments over 1-4 weeks. External events such as the weather or other events can significantly influence the performance and skew your data.
• Branding ads should have at least a return of 1x, performance ads a return of 2x or higher. This means, with every $ spent, you earn 2 $ in purchases or customer value.
• Watch the CTR (click through rate), engagement and ROAS (return on ad spend) to gauge how effective your campaigns are.

Tracking offline marketing

• Usually a billboard alone won’t cut it. Combine off- and online marketing to build strong brand awareness.
• Use custom links or discount codes in order to track your offline marketing.

Finding your target audience

• Google analytics or Facebook audience are great tools to help you with this.
• You can create “look alikes” based on your Facebook pixel. Be sure to integrate it on your website early, so it can collect data.
• Look into the other Facebook pages that your audience likes and build your targeting based on them.

Scaling your social media marketing

• If an ad performs well DON’T just double the ad spend. This will throw off the algorithm and it will start learning from scratch again (and you’ll pay again for the learning). Instead, increase your spend slowly or duplicate your campaign and launch a second one with the same spend, to immediately duplicate your spend.
• Don’t go too broad. When expanding, do so in narrowly targeted locations to help build word-of-mouth.

About Joseph Jung:

Joseph Jung is a historian, consultant and the author of one of the most influential biographies of Swiss entrepreneur Alfred Escher as well as “Laboratorium des Fortschritts – die Schweiz im 19. Jahrhundert”. Joseph studied Swiss history, modern general history, history of law and German language and literature at the University of Fribourg, where he received his doctorate in 1987. In 1998 he habilitated at the ETH Zurich and was a private lecturer there until 2006. In addition to his scientific activities, Jung was Managing Director and Head of Research at the Alfred Escher Foundation (2006 to 2016).

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About Alfred Escher:

Alfred Escher (1819-1882) is considered one of Switzerland’s most influential early entrepreneurs. Among his “ventures” are the ETH Zurich, Credit Suisse, the Gotthard railways and Swiss Life. He was also a prominent political figure of his time. He served as National Councilor (Bundesrat) for 34 years and was elected National Council President (Bundesratspräsident) four times during this period.

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About Nicholas Hänny and Nikin

Nicholas Hänny is the co-founder and CEO of Nikin, a sustainable fashion startup. Nicholas started Nikin in 2016 together with his childhood friend Robin Gnehm. Within only 4 years, the startup grew to 30 employees and CHF 7.2 m revenue. In 2019, Nicholas received the “Aargauer of the Year Award” as recognition for his work with Nikin. Nicholas has a background in marketing and business administration. He holds a Master of Arts in Business Innovation from the University of St. Gallen and was part of the CEMS program.

About Phil Lojacono and Advanon

Phil Lojacono is the co-founder and CEO of Advanon, one of Switzerland’s formerly fastest growing fintech startups. Advanon offers a platform for SMEs to bridge long payment terms by providing them with liquidity through financial investors. Phil started Advanon in 2015, shortly after his internship at Google, where he also met his co-founders. In January 2017, the company closed a financing round of CHF 13,5 m with investors such as Daniel Gutenberg, Partners-Group co-founder Urs Wietlisbach, Eric Sarasin und Moneypark founder Stefan Heitmann. In 2018, Advanon was confronted with a significant fraud case on its platform. Under Phil as their CEO, Advanon recovered, and in 2020 successfully sold to CreditGate 24. Phil has now started his own blog where he reflects on the learnings of his tumultuous 5 years at Advanon.

The episode in 60 seconds

Starting a business with your significant other can be a rewarding experience. In this episode, Dorina shared her insights about how to make it work.

Rules and communication

• Starting your business is a 24/7 endeavor and it can become overbearing if you also spend your free time with your business partner. Set clear rules about when you plan to take breaks from work.
• Set more rules than you think are necessary because you’ll likely underestimate the temptation of wanting to talk about your business on your date night out.
• Be realistic about the chances to succeed with your business and don’t make your relationship dependent on business success.

How to know if your partner would make a great co-founder

• As with all co-founding relationships, complementary skill sets are crucial.
• Working together on smaller projects (like building an IKEA shelf) is probably a good indicator on whether you function well in a business context or not.

Advantages of starting a business with your partner

• Studies show that family businesses on average are more sustainable than other businesses although with lower growth rates.
• Being able to share the roller coaster ride of entrepreneurship with your partner can be very valuable and rewarding.
• In tough times, you won’t have to put on a brave face for your partner because they’ll know what’s going on.

About Dorina Thiess and Piavita

Dr. Dorina Thiess is the CEO and co-founder of Piavita AG, a medtech startup that develops and distributes digital veterinary diagnostic systems. Previously, Dorina worked for the innovation team at BHS in Munich and in the US while completing her doctorate in entrepreneurship at the University of St. Gallen, where she also served as the Managing Director for the Center for Entrepreneurship. She started Piavita in 2016 together with her partner Sascha Bührle. Within three years Piavita has grown to over 30 employees and has obtained financing from renowned investors, among them Fyrefly Venture Partners and Investire.

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The Episode in 60 Seconds

Getting inspired for your brand

• Building a recognizable brand is like building a character – it can come with its own edges and quirks.

• Your brand is probably not the first thing you need to worry about but if you move beyond the proof of concept phase, you should invest some time into it.

• Get your inspiration from the how, what and why of your company.

• Looking around for inspiration is good but your brand needs to be unique and recognizable, so don’t just copy paste from someone else

Getting real with your brand

• Getting the branding right is important – and hard. If you can, work with specialists in your surroundings – friends, board members, investors…

• Your brand follows your purpose and mission, so make sure to have that defined first.

• Your brand is not just your logo and color palette. Take a holistic approach and include everything from the language you use to how you present yourself in pictures (and of course make sure those pictures are high quality).

5 steps to your first brand set up

• Choose a short, simple name.

• Add some simple and concise messaging (a claim).

• Define your core audience and how you’ll address them with visual, spoken and written language.

• Connect the dots between the three first steps.

• If you can, work with a specialist in the field to fine tune your branding work.

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About Peter Käser and VIU

Peter Käser is the Founder and COO of VIU Ventures AG, a Swiss eyewear brand. He started VIU in 2013, together with his co-founder Kilian Wagner, both of them bespectacled. VIU was originally conceived as an online-only store, integrating the entire eyewear supply chain and therefore offering higher quality at a lower price. But the founders soon realized that their customers like to physically try on their glasses before buying them. Today VIU has over 50 physical stores in 6 countries and several hundred employees. Peter holds a Masters in Banking and Finance from the University of St. Gallen (HSG).

About Renato Stalder and Klara

Renato Stalder is the Founder and CEO of Klara Business  AG, an accounting and administration software provider for SMEs. Previously, Renato rose through the ranks to become CEO at Soreco, where he served for 12 years. Afterwards, he held the CEO position at Axon Ivy, a digital platform provider which is part of the Axon Group. Renato holds an MBA in International Management from Fachhochschule Nordostschweiz.

The Episode In 60 Seconds

What is Generation Z?

Young people born between 1995 – 2010, NOT Millennials.

How to win Generation Z as customers

• Do not simply base your assumptions on conversations with your kids.
• Talk TO members of Generation Z instead of only ABOUT them.
• Your brand image is important
• Remember, members of Generation Z are activists.

How to win Generation  Z as employees and retain them

• A compelling company vision will be more important than high salaries.
• A clear path for growth within the organization.
• Meaningful and mission-driven work.
• Responsibility and appreciation.

What’s the deal with TikTok?

• Fast growing social media platform with over 2bn downloads (July 2020).
• Very young audience.
• Still high virality potential.
• Now is the time to get started with your company account.

About Yaël Meier and Zeam

Yaël Meier is an actress, journalist and the co-founder of Zeam, an agency helping companies leverage Generation Z. At the age of 14, Yaël held her first movie role in the Swiss Drama “Upload”. She later on also featured in movies such as «Die fruchtbaren Jahre sind vorbei» and «Blue my Mind». As a journalist, she worked for SRF, Ringier and Weltwoche in various roles. In January of 2020, she started Zeam together with her co-founder Jo Dietrich.

About Julian and Relai

Julian Liniger is the co-founder and CEO of Relai, a startup aiming to empower everyone to invest in Bitcoin. Julian was an early crypto currency aficionado and the go-to person for his friends for anything crypto-related. This made him realize that there was no easy way for the “average Joe” to purchase Bitcoin – and that’s how Relai was born. He and his co-founder, Adem Bilican, went from 0 lines of code in April to launching the first version of their app on July 1st of this year. Relai is looking to raise CHF 200k in order to scale their product and make it more user friendly.

About Verena Kaiser and UBS

Verena Kaiser served as the Head of Direct Investment at UBS before becoming Chief of Staff, Corporate & Institutional Clients International in May 2020. As Head of Direct Investment, she was responsible for due diligence and matching of growth stage startups with UBS private investors. The UBS Direct Investment arm has already provided over CHF 120m in capital, among them VIU Ventures AG, Coatmaster AG and Cutiss AG.

About Christian Fehr and Clickahoy

Christian Fehr is the CEO and co-founder of clickahoy, a Swiss marine-tech startup. The founding team behind clickahoy is the same as for ship-ahoy.ch, the boat sharing platform launched in 2016. The founders saw a personal need to make owning a boat “smart” the way owning a car or a house can be. The company is currently looking to raise CHF 400k to increase the number of connected boats 10x and expand outside of Switzerland within the next 18 months.

The Episode in 60 seconds

Considerations when deciding whether to bootstrap:

• Bootstrapping is a long term project which needs time and dedication.
• Once you decide to get on the VC train, you can’t go back.
• External funding rounds also mean valuation rounds, which you have to keep driving up. A downround can be detrimental.
• If you cannot get a top tier international investor, it may not be worth the trouble.

Bootstrapping a user base:

• Brand: building trust and recognition is a long term game that will pay off.
• SEO / organic search: quality content and a product that truly meets the user needs will go a long way. Of course, this makes you dependent on the search engine algorithm.
• Community: know your target audience and build a community around your product.

Running experiments:

• Once you have a user base, experiment everything and optimize whatever you can.
• Always test on a subset of users to minimize overall impact of negative test results.
• Monitor all KPIs, not just conversion (e.g. customer retention, customer lifetime value, satisfaction, etc.).

About Ketevani and Logmind

Ketevani Zaridze is the CEO and Founder of Logmind, an AI-accelerated log data analytics platform. Originally from Georgia, she got her Masters in Computer Science from EPFL in Switzerland. After gaining work experience at Xerox, Open Systems and Cern, she started Logmind in 2018. Recently the company signed their first enterprise customer. They are now looking to raise CHF 1.3m in their seed round in order to grow to CHF 1.5m in recurring annual revenue within the next 2 years.

About Dennis Just and smallPDF

Dennis Just is the CEO of smallPDF, a SaaS company which offers all-in-one easy-to-use online PDF tools such as merging, editing and signing. Dennis is a serial entrepreneur, having started his first company, dSlash.de, while still in high school. During his university years, he started compreo.de, a translation service, but stopped the venture after 2 years because it was too early for the market. He went on to be Head of Product at DeinDeal and subsequently started Numbrs and Knip  (now Digital Insurance Group), two successful fin/insurtech companies.

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About Martin and Turicode

Martin Keller is the co-founder and CEO of turicode, a machine learning based document extraction solution. The company bootstrapped to CHF 1m in revenue. Their technology, MINT.extract, works to extract information from any type of document, supporting their customers along the entirety of their business processes. They are looking to raise CHF 2m to diversify the skillset in their team and also to scale internationally.

About Reto Lämmler and Testing Time

Reto Lämmler is the CEO and co-founder of Testing Time, a recruiting  platform for usability test users. Some of Reto’s previous ventures include:  Xellery, a cloud-based collaboration service for Microsoft Excel, which was sold to expressocorp.com and RememberTheName, an app for learning names in your address book. At doodle.com, Reto gained international startup experience as VP Product Management. He holds an MAS in Interaction Design and a BSc in Computer Science.

About Sophia and Caressoma

Sophia Borowka is the CEO and co-founder of Caressoma, a startup providing ultrasound diagnostics for monitoring soft tissue injuries. Sophia is a physicist by training and has spent several years as CERN Fellow in Geneva. Together with her two co-founders, Jana Maes, an experienced Osteopathy practitioner and Jinesh Kallunkathariyil, a physicist and R&D expert, they have already raised 270k CHF from investors. Now looking to raise an additional 800k CHF to bring the product to market as a non-medical device for training optimization for athletes.

About David Alain Bloch and Legartis

David Bloch is the CEO and co-founder of Legartis, a legal tech company which uses AI to help businesses with their legal needs. David is an Attorney at Law admitted at the Zurich bar. He was a member of the “Global Shapers”, a World Economic Forum (WEF) community network of highly motivated individuals who have a great potential for future leadership roles in society. David also co-founded Foraus, a Swiss think tank on foreign policy.

About Fabian and UNISERS

Fabian Walter is the co-founder and CTO of UNISERS, an ETH spinoff specialized in automated analysis equipment for high-purity liquids used in semiconductor production. UNISERS emerged out of the ETH pioneer fellowship in 2017. The company holds a patent for their technology and is currently looking to raise $ 1.2 m to expand their marketing activities at several high profile events and to bring their MVP solution to the market.

About Manuel Hartmann and SalesPlaybook

Manuel Hartmann is the Founder of SalesPlaybook, a Swiss sales accelerator for B2B startups. Before starting the SalesPlaybook, Manuel was part of Onedot, where he increased sales by 260% over 2 years. He holds a Masters of Business Innovation from University of St. Gallen and spent three years as a consultant at Accenture.

About Igor and What To Label

Igor Susmelj is the co-founder of WhatToLabel, a Data Preparation Platform for Machine Learning. Together with his co-founder, Matthias Heller, they bring together the best of the tech and business world. WhatToLabel is both a HSG and an ETH spinoff. Currently, they are looking for funding to take them to the next milestone – 100k in recurring revenue from their international client base.

The Episode In 60 Seconds

Lars Mangelsdorf is one of the co-founders of Yokoy, an expense automating tool.

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The ABC of B2B sales

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First Contact:
– Consider a mix of standardized outreach via cold emails and personalized strategies via phone or more creative means (ever thought about sending your prospects a shoe?)
– Don’t pitch your product upon first contact. Ask questions about your customer’s pain points and wishes.

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Demo:
– Don’t just demo all your features. Know what will create value for this specific customer.
– If possible, demo on-site to establish a more personal relationship.
– Even if you can’t convince the customer, ask for a referral to someone else in the industry.

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Tools to help you close:
– Hubspot
– LinkedIn Sales Navigator
– Hunter
– Soap Box
– Outreach

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Documents you need:
– Data security whitepaper
– 1-pager of your product
– Testimonials of happy customers, if possible

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KPIs of your sales team:
– Accounts Receivable vs target
– Conversion rates after first meeting. 30% would be desirable
– Diversified leads: ⅓ big accounts, ⅔ small / medium accounts

About Alex Tyropolis and Realbot Engineering

Alex Tyropolis is a co-founder and CEO at Realbot Engineering, a startup offering robot technology for remote viewing of real estate. He co-founded the company after years of experience in the real estate industry as an analyst for Engel & Völkers. After only 2 years of bootstrapping, the company already has a working product on the market and has conducted 4145 remote viewings for clients such as wincasa and livit.

About Melanie Gabriel and Yokoy

Melanie Gabriel is co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer at Yokoy, a SaaS company which leverages Artificial Intelligence to fully automate all expense- and company credit card processes. Before starting Yokoy, Melanie joined Dizmo as Marketing Manager and worked her way up to Head of Marketing. She is a board member of WE SHAPE TECH and holds a degree in Business Management from the University of St. Gallen (HSG).

About Michael Besmer and onCyt

OnCyt, a startup offering microbial monitoring, emerged from Michael Besmer’s PhD at ETH Zurich. He assembled a team of co-founders from a diversity of backgrounds including engineering and business development. After 3 years, the team is already looking back on 20+ successful projects and over 800k CHF in revenue.

The Episode In 60 Seconds

Setting up your Board of Directors – the right way.

The right composition

• Get diversity of perspectives and skills, be sure you cover at least: legal, finance and your industry
• Don’t go for titles, go for people with time and expertise
• 4 is considered a good number to start

Founders on the board

• In small companies where they hold a large stake, this may be appropriate
• In large companies, operations and board roles have to be separated

Compensation

• Consider paying a fixed compensation in cash or equity and a variable compensation based on time invested

Where to find the right board members

• Choose people you know you can work with
• If you have smart money investors, they will probably be a good addition to the board

How boards change when companies grow

• Small company boards may be more operational
• As companies grow, boards necessarily have to professionalize and become less operational

Meeting and decision making

• Meetings at most once a month and at least once a quarter
• If possible, decisions should be unanimous or more time should be invested into discussions
• If a board member dissents, be sure to note it in writing

About Kevin Häfeli and Helio

Kevin Häfeli is the co-founder of Helio, a platform to connect demand and supply of computing power. He started Helio in 2018 together with Christoph Buchli. Previously, he worked as a DevOps engineer at Zatoo and Snowflake Productions and co-founded the e-commerce venture Brandeer Sports.

About Katja Berlinger and Swiss Medi Kids

Katja Berlinger is the CEO of Swiss Medi Kids and a professional board member. Katja started out as a journalist at the publication “Cash”. She quickly realized that she’d rather have an impact herself than write about people who do. Consequently, she turned to her law degree and became an associate at the law firm von der Crone, where she worked on the Swissair lawsuit. Once again, she concluded that this career path was not for her. She switched gears and joined a tech startup as their corporate sales manager. From there, she set herself up to become a professional board member and today holds more than 5 board member seats.  

Biographies

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Beat Brechbühl

Beat Brechbühl is managing partner of Kellerhals Carrard and head of the M&A team. He holds a LL.M. degree of the Chicago Law School and worked with Sandoz / Novartis Nutrition. He works primarily in the area of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and joint ventures, venture capital and succession planning. He is a lecturer for entrepreneurship at the University of Berne and he has been acknowledged as one of the leading Swiss corporate lawyers by Legal500 and Chambers.

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Michèle Remund

Michèle Remund has many years of experience in corporate and tax law and regularly assists clients in M&A transactions. She is also a member of Kellerhals Carrard’s Startup Desk and advises start-ups in particular in connection with employee shareholdings, financing rounds and various other issues.

The Episode in 60 Seconds

Dream Big – Sell Big

• Swiss people have a tendency to sell themselves and their business short. Instead of going for the billion dollar deal, they settle for the first offer which comes their way. Dare to be great and know your true potential.

Don’t crack under pressure

• One of the reasons founders sell their companies too early (and too cheaply) is because of the immense pressure they are under; from employees, family, VCs and, sometimes, from themselves.
• Know that VCs may not always have your best interest in mind and/or know the business like you do.
• Be truthful with your employees, especially in hard times. If you have invested in building a company culture, this will now pay off.

Selling done right

• The bad news: you cannot plan an exit strategically. The good news: if you’re good at what you do, the opportunity will arise naturally.
• Make plans but be ready to abandon them if a better course of action presents itself.
• Money isn’t everything. It may be smart to accept a smaller offer if this means that your company’s vision will persist and your employees will have a “good home” even after the acquisition.

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About Ariel Lüdi

Ariel Lüdi is a parachute stuntman turned millionaire. After dropping out of his physics degree at ETH Zurich, Ariel joined IBM as a developer. From there he joined Oracle, where he discovered his passion and talent for sales. After 8 very successful years as SVP of Sales at Broad Vision and Salesforce, he joined Hybris as CEO. He invested all his previous earnings into the company and even went into debt. In 2013, he sold Hybris to SAP for $1.5B.

About Tanja Lau and Product Academy

Tanja Lau is an experienced entrepreneur and the founder of Product Academy, a coaching business for product managers. Previously she was Head of Product at Siroop, where she played a crucial role in scaling the company to over 200 employees. During this intense period of her life she found herself experiencing symptoms of burnout, even suffering a breakdown at her own wedding. With the goal of building a balanced yet challenging career for herself, she started Product Academy and is running it part time while raising her two young children.

The Episode in 60 Seconds

Competing with Silicon Valley Startups – what to expect

• Switzerland is generally strong in research and not so strong in productization and marketing. Be aware of this and give your amazing product the showlight it deserves.
• Cap tables (the “who owns what” in a company) are a big topic. SV investors don’t like to see large, fragmented cap tables. Be smart and don’t give away more than 20% of your company per round.
• SV is fast-paced and direct. Be prepared to adapt your style of doing business.

Is Silicon Valley the promised land for all startups?

• The short answer is: no. The long answer is: it depends. Know where the experts in your field cluster. This can be Houston, New York, Chicago …
• Don’t underestimate the value which comes from a Swiss brand: neutrality, trust and reliability, to name a few.

Building up your presence in the US

• Your expansion should be customer centric. Move to a new market when you feel you understand and are ready to serve the customer there.
• Expanding abroad usually entails building a physical presence there. Often this requires at least one of the founders to relocate in order to build a quality team away from home.
• Ideally, your first hires have existing customer relationships that you can leverage.
• Build the business first, fundraise second. This will give you much more negotiating power.

About Philipp Stauffer and FYRFLY

Philipp Stauffer is the co-founder of and Managing Partner at FYRFLY, an early stage technology venture firm. Amongst their former and current portfolio companies are Beekeeper, Philz Coffee and AngelList. Prior to becoming an Angel and early stage investor, Philipp co-founded his own ventures: Dropimpact, an innovation catalyst and early stage investment firm, and Onor, an impact digital marketing project. He moved to San Francisco in 2001, days after the 9/11 terror attacks.

Philipp holds an MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and a BA in Microeconomics from the University of Applied Sciences in Zurich.

About Daniel Sandmeier and Instimatch

Daniel Sandmeier is the CEO of Instimatch, a platform for digitizing money markets. Instimatch was named “Growth Startup Of The Year” at the Swiss Fintech Awards 2020. Before joining Instimatch, Daniel had spent 12 years at Credit Suisse and over 2 decades in banking over all. He holds a Master of Arts in Economics from the University of Zurich.

About Andreas Iten and SIX FinTech Ventures

Andreas Iten is the co-founder of F10 FinTech Incubator & Accelerator and also the head at SIX FinTech Ventures. He has worked for over 15 years within leading institutions in the IT service, airline & transportation and the financial industry.
Andreas holds a degree in Digital Innovation and Business Transformation from the University of St. Gallen.

The Episode in 60 Seconds

Getting the timing right

• Rather than going and planting a flag abroad, consider letting your customers lead the way. Wherever you find a “big fish”, find an agreement to localize for them.

Finding international customers

• Try to engage analysts such as Forrester and Gartner early on. This can be in an informal way, since formal engagements can cost you lots of money.
• Look for international technology partners such as Salesforce and the like.
• Attend conferences abroad to gain visibility.

Organizational setup

• For technology products, marketing and sales are usually the areas which need localization, while engineering can stay centralized.
• A coherent reporting structure and rigorous documentation are vital to successfully move an international team forward.

Successful international partnerships

• Partners are followers, not leaders. Even though you might have a partner in a certain market, you still need to lead the way for the first successful implementations.
• It’s a long term game. Try to become part of your partner’s daily routine to stay on the top of their mind.

International fundraising

• International investors are desirable but not a requirement to expand abroad.
• Don’t underestimate the difficulties which come with operating in two different legal systems.
• Since you are missing the benefit of a shared culture, introductions to international investors through your network are even more important.

About Dorian Selz and Local.ch

Dorian is the founder of local.ch, Switzerland’s leading local search platform which he grew to >$50M revenues in 4 years. Today he is co-founder and CEO Squirro.com, a personal digital research assistant. The company also offers memonic.com, a web based digital notebook. Prior to launching local.ch, from 1999 to 2005 he was Partner and COO at Namics, an internet professional services firm. Dorian holds a PhD in information systems from the University of St.Gallen and a degree in econometrics from the University of Geneva.

About Christian Burger and EOS

Christian Burger is the founder and owner of Antarius Gmbh and one of Switzerland’s first licensed implementers of EOS (the Entrepreneurial Operating System). Christian advises the leadership teams of companies how to effectively set up their organization. He holds a degree in electrical engineering but focused a major part of his career on project management before starting his own company Nomasis in 2007, which focused on enterprise mobile device management, and later Antarius, a business consultancy, in 2010.

The Episode in 60 Seconds

Getting the basics right

• Don’t underestimate how long it will take you to build sales channels. Invest time into developing them at the same time as you are developing your product.
• Switzerland is too small. Go international fast.
• Be present where you want to build your network.

Managing high growth sales channels

• Your partner has to make an upfront investment in order to be able to sell your product. They will only be willing to do this if they believe in your vision and see an opportunity to grow together with you.
• You should own the selling process and have your partners’ commissions tied to project delivery milestones. This will maximize their incentive to make the customer happy.
• To assure quality, you should own the certification process of everyone who sells your product

Culture at scale

• Leadership is culture. Culture is what drives the company beyond the term of any single manager.
• At scale, culture has to become more explicit in order to keep everyone on board. Write down your values and talk about them often.
• The trust of your employees is your most valuable asset. Do not squander it by paying salaries late or otherwise breaking your word.

Surviving the race to scale

• Growing a company is tough, there is no other way to say it. If you aren’t willing to put in the hours, it may not be the right business for you.
• Sleeping is vital. Learn how to sleep “effectively” by shutting off your thoughts and finding deep relaxation, at least for a few hours.

About Manuel Grenacher and Coresystems

Manuel Grenacher is the founder and fmr. CEO of Coresystems, a cloud solution that helps companies to source and coordinate technicians for customer service. In 2017, Siemens decided to use Coresystems to digitize their global customer service technicians network. Subsequently, in 2018, Coresystems was bought by SAP, where Manuel is now General Manager for Cloud Service Solutions. Previously, Manuel had already successfully sold Mila, a spin-off of Coresystems to Swisscom in 2015.

The Episode in 60 Seconds

Thinking about bootstrapping? Jutta Jertrum has done it and here are some of the points to consider:

Trade-offs

• Bootstrapping usually means higher independence in exchange for fast growth.
• It may take longer until you pay yourself a salary, since any money comes directly out of the company’s cash flow.

Getting your partner on-board

• Starting a business can strain a relationship, particularly the financial aspects. Do not underestimate this and address it with your partner early on.
• In an ideal situation, a partner can provide the financial support to cover the monthly living expenses. This should however not be expected or taken for granted.

Client acquisition

• Reference clients and authentic customer testimonials are some of the most powerful tools for client acquisition.
• If your offer is declined, always ask why. Don’t be afraid to try again.
• Awards and startup competitions are a great way to get the word out there, gain credibility and free PR.

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This episode is brought to you by Blinkist.

About Jutta Jertrum and Twist Out

Jutta Jertum is the inventor and owner of Twist Out, an ecological drain cleaning device. Jutta was the General Manager at the Castle Rapperswil when she discovered that she could clean her clogged drains more ecologically and effectively using a wooden stick of a very specific shape. She then quit her job and patented the invention. In Switzerland, Jutta is best known for her appearance on the TV show “Höhle der Löwen”, where she was offered a deal which she ended up rejecting after the show.

The Episode in 60 Seconds

Getting your finances right.

In the beginning:

• There is no point waiting with signing up to VAT, if you go over the threshold of 150k revenue in a year, it is already too late and will be painful to catch up.
• You can, however, save yourself time and effort by doing your first year end closing after 23 months instead of 12. Check the regulation of the Canton where your company is registered.
• Invest some time and energy into the setup of your accounting system. Having to fix it later down the road is costly and time consuming.

Choosing a fiduciary:

• Chose your fiduciary first and take the accounting software they recommend.
• Use a simple system in the beginning, without subledgers.
• If you switch systems, do it at the end of the financial year. Don’t import old data into the new system.
• Excel is not powerful enough.

Liquidity planning:

• Cash is the oxygen of your company, so better know how much you got left until you run out.
• Be aware of the “hidden costs” of growth: on-boarding employees, finding additional workspace, setting up new tools and processes.
• Consider the impact of your payment terms on your liquidity.
• If you are ecommerce, the way you manage your stock will be significant for your liquidity. The smaller you keep it, the better.

The Episode in 60 Seconds

Just like your apartment, your company needs some basic housekeeping in order to avoid descending into chaos.

Financing rounds

• It’s not advisable to negotiate your term sheet without a lawyer if you don’t have previous experience. Although they aren’t legally binding they set a strong precedent which is hard to negotiate your way out of.
• By the same token, don’t use the template of your investor.
• Be sure you understand the liquidation preferences you agree to
• If fundraising has to be fast and determining a price is difficult, consider a convertible loan

Employment contracts

• Watch out for IP (intellectual property) rights, notice period and non-compete clause (limit 3 years)
• For employee incentivisation, you can decide between
• Share plan: more tax friendly for your employees, usually higher administrative burden for the company
• Phantom stocks: easier to administer but taxed as income

Exit

Exits usually take the form of either an M&A (Merger and Acquisition) or an IPO (Initial Public Offering)

• M&As come in 2 forms:
• Asset deal: meaning you sell all the companies assets, including employees to a new owner
• Share deal (more common): the acquiring party buys a majority of the shares and therefore takes control of the company.
• IPOs are still rare in Switzerland, mostly because they involve large costs (several $ millions) for preparing the so called “prospectus”, the document based on which the shares are offered on the stock exchange.

About Carole Ackermann and Business Angels Switzerland

Carole Ackermann was the president of Business Angels Switzerland (BAS) Association from 2010 to 2018. In 2007, she founded Diamondscull AG, an investment and coaching firm based in Switzerland. Through BAS and Diamondscull as well as her mandates on multiple Boards of Directors, she has acted as a startup and executive coach for many years. Carole holds a PhD in Marketing from University of St. Gallen (HSG).