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<div class="span index">1</div> <span><a class="" data-remote="true" data-type="html" href="/series/we-have-the-receipts">We Have The Receipts</a></span>
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Hosted by Chris Burns, We Have The Receipts is a bi-weekly all-access deep dive into Netflix Unscripted Reality! Each episode will bring you closer to the people behind the reality, with the free-flowing depth of podcast conversations and viral elements of TV’s best talk shows. We Have The Receipts is an upbeat, fan-first destination to uncover more insider secrets, more expert hot takes, and more off-the-rails drama from their favorite Netflix reality stars.
Swisspreneur Show
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Inhoud geleverd door Swisspreneur. Alle podcastinhoud, inclusief afleveringen, afbeeldingen en podcastbeschrijvingen, wordt rechtstreeks geüpload en geleverd door Swisspreneur of hun podcastplatformpartner. Als u denkt dat iemand uw auteursrechtelijk beschermde werk zonder uw toestemming gebruikt, kunt u het hier beschreven proces https://nl.player.fm/legal volgen.
The Swisspreneur Show is a podcast series of in-depth, candid conversations with some of Switzerland’s most successful founders, business leaders and innovators. By getting to the heart of these leaders’ stories - their successes, their failures, their must-have advice and greatest regrets - we hope to both inspire and guide the next generation of Swiss entrepreneurs. Each episode deconstructs and showcases one person’s personal and professional background and provides advice and recommendations for existing and aspiring entrepreneurs in Switzerland.
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475 afleveringen
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Inhoud geleverd door Swisspreneur. Alle podcastinhoud, inclusief afleveringen, afbeeldingen en podcastbeschrijvingen, wordt rechtstreeks geüpload en geleverd door Swisspreneur of hun podcastplatformpartner. Als u denkt dat iemand uw auteursrechtelijk beschermde werk zonder uw toestemming gebruikt, kunt u het hier beschreven proces https://nl.player.fm/legal volgen.
The Swisspreneur Show is a podcast series of in-depth, candid conversations with some of Switzerland’s most successful founders, business leaders and innovators. By getting to the heart of these leaders’ stories - their successes, their failures, their must-have advice and greatest regrets - we hope to both inspire and guide the next generation of Swiss entrepreneurs. Each episode deconstructs and showcases one person’s personal and professional background and provides advice and recommendations for existing and aspiring entrepreneurs in Switzerland.
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475 afleveringen
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×Timestamps: 4:48 - What is ‘speed of trust’? 7:40 - Why AI is a trust-breaker 12:35 - Cultivating customer trust 23:15 - Hubspot taking market share 33:43 - Learning from other people’s mistakes This episode was co-produced by the SalesPlaybook , DACHs' leading B2B Sales & HubSpot agency for fast-growing 7-8 figure entrepreneurs to increase pipeline, revenue & sales efficiency. About Manuel Hartmann: Manuel Hartmann is the founder and CEO of SalesPlaybook , a sales agency with 7-figure annual revenue helping clients like bexio, Beekeeper, Skribble, Brame & Urban Connect. He holds an MA in Business Innovation from HSG and worked for companies such as Tesla, Accenture and Onedot before founding SalesPlaybook in 2019. During his chat with us, Manuel discussed “speed of trust”, a concept first developed by Stephen M.R. Covey in his book of the same name . Speed of trust is the speed at which trust is established with clients, employees, and all stakeholders. Manuel applies this concept specifically to sales, where, according to him, trust is currently rather broken, due to practices like sending mass AI-written cold emails and email-bombing prospects who have not opened a salesperson’s previous emails. It’s easy for us to understand and recognize trust in our personal lives: we do not need a 17 page contract to move in with our best friend — we simply trust that it will work out fine. But how can we scale this, especially in a field where trust needs to be restored? Manuel recommends doing things that don’t scale: send postcards, meet people in person. He is also a fan of the 4/7/11 framework, according to which salespeople need to meet a prospect in 4 different locations, spend 7h with the prospect in total (not necessarily consecutively) and have 11 touchpoints with them (email, whatsapp, etc). This framework has been proven to work at a neurobiological level when it comes to creating trust. Finally, Manuel urges salespeople to ask for referrals. Only 10% of salespeople do so, when 90% of happy customers would gladly give a referral — so there’s an 80% gap that is ours for the taking. The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io Don’t forget to give us a follow on Twitter , Instagram , Facebook and Linkedin , so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly giveaways or founders' dinners.…
Timestamps: 7:35 - The successful Contovista exit 12:30 - Contovista investors getting a 33x return 17:17 - How do you reach product market fit? 31:05 - Why Gian started NORM 42:10 - Energy efficiency and climate change Resources Mentioned: The 4 Levels of PMF, First Round Capital About Gian Reto à Porta: Gian Reto à Port a is a serial entrepreneur and business Angel. He co-founded and successfully exited Contovista, a 2013 fintech pioneer, and nowadays is active as a co-founder and CEO at Norm , a startup which wants to help drive the decarbonization in the building sector. Gian holds a MSc in Computer Science from UZH. Gian started Contovista in 2013, and the company quickly garnered so much success and media attention that he had to quit his corporate job. Despite its very small number of employees, Contovista began working with most of the banks in Switzerland. They were acquired by Aduno Group in 2017 for an undisclosed amount, and Contovista’s early investors received a 33x return on their investment. After working a few years solely as a business angel, Gian descended once more into the startup trenches by founding NORM, a company which assesses the energy efficiency, CO₂ emissions and renovation costs of buildings. They saw a need for this product not only because Swiss banks will soon have to mandatorily discuss energy efficiency with clients when issuing mortgages, but also because there was no “centralized” way to improve the energy efficiency of your home outside of finding an energy consultant, who may or may not be acting in their clients’ best interest. The NORM co-founders, of which there are 6, started their business because they wanted to work with tech which had a positive impact on society. They’ve certainly hit the nail on the head with NORM, considering that in Europe 30-40% of all CO₂ emissions come from the building sector. The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io Don’t forget to give us a follow on Twitter , Instagram , Facebook and Linkedin , so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly giveaways or founders' dinners.…
Timestamps: 6:13 - Why culture can’t be copied 12:24 - Hiring fast and well 15:30 - Creating a sense of belonging 17:36 - Making tough decisions for the sake of culture 20:36 - Being clear about your values About Victoria Ransom: Victoria Ransom is the co-founder of Wildfire, a social marketing software-as-a-service company which was acquired by Google, and of Prisma , a global virtual school (grades 4-12). She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and worked as a Financial Analyst at Morgan Stanley before co-founding Access Trips, the travel startup that led her to creating Wildfire. During her chat with us, Victoria reflected back on the values which sustained Wildfire and which drive Prisma nowadays. She thinks they boil down to 5 characteristics: Being non-hierarchical (though this also created some problems further down the line at Wildfire); Being transparent, i.e. sharing both the good and the bad with your employees; Being scrappy, or resourceful: even though Wildfire’s biggest competitor raised about 10x more money, Wildfire still beat them, because they knew how to do more with less; Encouraging innovation and accepting failure, i.e. showing enthusiasm for employees who decide to try new things, and understanding that it’s okay if these experiments fail; Being humble and down to earth. Victoria is not surprised that the same culture reproduced itself at Prisma, since startup cultures are, in her opinion, a reflection of the founders’ values. When it comes to maintaining your culture, Victoria thinks this can be achieved by ensuring 4 things: That you hire the right people; That you often reward the people who live up to your values; That you are quick to fire those who don’t; That you yourself are seen upholding these values. This means making tough decisions at times, like when Victoria had to fire their top sales person at Wildfire. The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io Don’t forget to give us a follow on Twitter , Instagram , Facebook and Linkedin , so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly giveaways or founders' dinners.…
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1 EP #471 - Harnessing Human Motion Analysis to Create a Digital Personal Coach 1:25:55
1:25:55
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Timestamps: 13:18 - Splitting shares with your co-founders 24:42 - Have they hit product-market fit? 30:48 - Getting Alex Ilic as an advisor and investor 34:43 - Giving an advisor phantom stocks 38:20 - Getting acquired by BowFlex About Joel Roos & Ben Simon: Joel Roos and Ben Simon are the co-founders of VAY, a startup offering motion tracking technology for fitness and physical therapy. Joel holds a MSc in Robotics Systems and Control from ETH and worked at Rapyuta Robotics before co-founding VAY in 2018. Ben holds an MA in Accounting and Finance from HSG and worked for atfinity and EY before co-founding VAY with Joel. VAY digitizes human movements through human motion analysis, to make products more competitive, immersive, and intelligent. They provide real-time tracking and audio feedback from any device and camera. Their target industry is physical therapy, rehabilitation, and digital health apps. VAY was acquired by Nautilus (now called Bowflex ) in 2021 for an undisclosed amount. Alex Ilic is one of their board advisors. The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io Don’t forget to give us a follow on Twitter , Instagram , Facebook and Linkedin , so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly giveaways or founders' dinners. …
Timestamps: 3:26 - Getting an MBA or building a startup? 8:44 - Guy’s irrational love for Apple 14:05 - Giving startups advice in exchange for stocks 22:00 - What makes a remarkable person? About Guy Kawasaki: Guy Kawasaki is the chief evangelist of Canva and the creator of the Remarkable People podcast . He is an executive fellow of the Haas School of Business (UC Berkeley), and adjunct professor of the University of New South Wales. He was the chief evangelist of Apple and a trustee of the Wikimedia Foundation. He has written Wise Guy, The Art of the Start 2.0, The Art of Social Media, Enchantment, and eleven other books. Kawasaki has a BA from Stanford University, an MBA from UCLA, and an honorary doctorate from Babson College. During his chat with Silvan, Guy recalled his “religious experience” witnessing Mac products at work for the first time, explained why he thinks MBAs may be a hindrance to your entrepreneurial success, and also reflected on why becoming remarkable means giving up a work-life balance. On his podcast, Remarkable People, he’s interviewed the likes of Tim Ferriss, Gary V, Jane Goodall and Neil Degrasse Tyson. He makes no advertising money on his podcast and in fact spends 1-2K on producing each episode, but is glad to do so: there’s no other hobby that could bring him as much joy as this one (except, perhaps, surfing). The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io Don’t forget to give us a follow on Twitter , Instagram , Facebook and Linkedin , so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly giveaways or founders' dinners…
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1 EP #469 - Hans-Peter Strebel: Das MS Medikament aus Muri AG 1:02:14
1:02:14
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Timestamps: 4:19 - Die Forschung nach einem Psoriasis Medikament 9:45 - Biogen beteiligt sich an der Forschung nach MS Medikament 32:22 - Das OYM - Ein wissenschaftlicher Approach zum Spitzensport 44:05 - Das Businessmodell hinter dem OYM 48:50 - Erfolg trotz Gegenwind - gestärkt durch die Kritiker Über Hans-Peter Strebel: Hans-Peter Strebel ist der Gründer von Fumapharm, einem Unternehmen, das ein bahnbrechendes Medikament zur Behandlung von Psoriasis und Multipler Sklerose (MS) entwickelt hat. Sein Weg führte von einer kleinen Apotheke im aargauischen Muri bis zum erfolgreichen Verkauf von Fumapharm an Biogen . Strebel gründete auch das OYM , ein hochmodernes Sportzentrum in der Schweiz, das seine Leidenschaft für Innovation und einen wissenschaftlich fundierten Ansatz für sportliche Leistungen widerspiegelt. Das Titelbild wurde von www.smartportrait.io bearbeitet. Folge uns auf Twitter , Instagram , Facebook und Linkedin um auf dem Laufenden zu bleiben. Wir posten regelmässig über Live Shows, Give-Aways und unsere Founders Dinner Events.…
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1 EP #468 - Laurent Decrue & Boris Manhart: Have You Done Your Homework on Product-Market Fit? 46:57
Timestamps: 10:22 - Defining and testing the Ideal Customer Profile 13:11 - Does ICP vary from B2B to B2C? 20:40 - Metrics that prove you’ve hit PMF 30:29 - When is it time to start scaling? About Laurent Decrue & Boris Manhart: Laurent Decrue is the co-founder of the moving company MOVU and the software company Holycode , and the former CEO at Bexio . Currently he is active as CFO and co-CEO at Holycode. He holds an MBA from the University of Basel and previously worked at DeinDeal. Boris Manhart is a serial entrepreneur and the founder of Growth Unltd , a company that helps scale your business. He was previously involved with CodeCheck and Numbrs, and studied for a couple of years at the Universität Zürich. During their chat with Silvan, they discussed how to achieve the all-coveted product-market fit. Naturally, this journey starts with defining and testing your ICP, i.e. your Ideal Customer Profile: You’ll create an ICP in your head based on assumptions, at the beginning. That’s normal. You might even be more or less right. But you can’t rely on your intuition alone; First of all, niche down. Go for a smaller market than the one you had in mind; Then conduct interviews to find out if it’s the right market. This is how you can actually test all your customer development assumptions. Once you’ve more or less figured out your ICP based on real customer data, you can start thinking about metrics. Which ones can tell you if you’re really selling your product/service to the right market? Boris and Laurent don’t like the common overreliance on figures like Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) or the 1M ARR benchmark. They both prefer to use the Sean Ellis test, which consists of asking people how disappointed they’d be if they could never use your product again. But don’t get too hung up on the “40% were very disappointed” metric one sometimes sees floating around: each company is its own unique case. It’s often considered that once PMF is reached (or, at least, once you reach it for the first of many times), that’s when you should start scaling your company. But you might want to think carefully about how to go about it: during his chat with us, Laurent shared his story of how Holycode made the mistake of hiring 2 new sales people in Switzerland and Germany to move from founder-led sales to employee-led sales, when in fact they should have hired a growth marketing team to help generate more leads — because without generating more leads, what use is having the sales people to convert them? Check out the conversation for more valuable learnings on how to (continuously) reach PMF. The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io Don’t forget to give us a follow on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly giveaways or founders' dinners.…
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1 EP #467 - Britta Thiele-Klapproth & Tobias Britt: Should Swiss Startups Expand to Germany First? 36:07
Timestamps: 12:15 - Why expand to Germany first 16:19 - The differences between Germany and Switzerland 19:15 - The minimum budget for expanding to Germany 20:42 - Changing pricing for the German market 26:49 - The main challenge of expanding to Germany This episode was co-produced with Switzerland Global Enterprise . About Britta Thiele-Klapproth & Tobias Britt: Britta Thiele-Klapproth is the Head of Export and Investment Promotion at Swiss Business Hub Germany , helping Swiss companies do business in Germany. Tobias Britt is the founder and CEO of iunctum , which supports companies to create digital twins by running cloud solutions. During their chat with Silvan, Britta and Tobias discussed expanding to Germany. Although it makes total sense to start with your homemarket of Switzerland, to test the waters and iterate, if you want to scale your company up and grow sustainably, you need to go beyond Swiss borders. But why expand to Germany first? Germany is the only EU country which is 10x bigger than Switzerland, and also (obviously) a German-speaking nation. Testing the waters and optimizing your product never stops. You do it when you first build the product, and you do it every time you enter a new market. Testing your product within Europe is beneficial because of the cultural proximity. What are the differences between Germany and Switzerland? Switzerland is so small, everyone knows everyone. Potential business partners like to establish trust firmly before jumping on a venture together. The same can be said for Germany, despite its larger size. However, Germans are, stereotypically, louder, more self-confident, and more aggressive in regards to company acquisitions. The modest, shy Swiss mentality may mean you run the risk of not being heard. Definitely do not plan on expanding your Swiss company to Switzerland without first allocating a budget to explore the German market, but neither Britta nor Tobias can give you a minimum budget, because it highly depends on the industry. Swiss Business Hub Germany can help you tailor a solution to your specific industry needs. How should you change your pricing when approaching the German market? Again, it will completely depend on your product. But Tobias advises you not to overfocus on the pricing, especially considering costs in Germany can be lower in certain aspects. He encourages listeners to first get to know the market well and then think of how to finetune their German pricing. Both Tobias and Britta recognize that in Germany one observes a unique relationship between companies and the government (which often results in a lot of bureaucracy, that Swiss Business Hub Germany is ready to assist you with). As his main challenge in expanding to Germany, Tobias cites the development of intercultural competence. The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io . Don’t forget to give us a follow on Twitter , Instagram , Facebook and Linkedin , so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly giveaways or founders' dinners.…
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1 EP #466 - Abouzar Rahmani: How One Company is Disrupting the Food Industry 1:06:59
1:06:59
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Timestamps: 1:34 - Over 100 years of family entrepreneurship 11:40 - Why start foodyoung? 17:34 - Changes in the food industry 29:12 - Expanding to the US 35:42 - European and American investors About Abouzar Rahmani: Abouzar Rahmani is the co-founder and CEO of FoodYoung , a consumer food innovation company developing high-quality, clean, and sustainable food solutions. He is originally from Iran and holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Management from UBI Business School, Brussels. He worked for a few years at Mani Foods Industry LLC, his family’s business (which was founded in 1877), before starting FoodYoung in 2012. Abouzar created FoodYoung for two reasons: firstly, because he wanted to provide entrepreneurs with the resources and support that he thought were lacking, and secondly because Abouzar himself saw a significant improvement in his health through a change of lifestyle, having lost 35kg. FoodYoung develops and commercializes food solutions that are inflammatory oil-free, have no refined sugar, are additive free, non-GMO, gluten-free, organic, plant-rich, made with fairly traded ingredients, and packaged sustainably. Throughout his years at FoodYoung he has found that food trends tend to happen in reaction to overconsumption patterns: gluten-free is trendy in Italy, meat-free in Germany, dairy-free in Switzerland, and sugar-free in America. At FoodYoung Abouzar works with 3 types of customers: Big food retailers and large corporates looking for innovation, but without the inhouse capacity to develop it Scaleups in the food space New startups with revolutionary ideas In the case of this last group, FoodYoung takes equity through their venture studio and helps them build their business. With the first two groups, there is an amount paid for FoodYoung’s services. In no case do they take a cut from the sales of their customers. Resources Mentioned: Remarkable notepad Think again , Adam Grant Zero to one , Peter Thiel The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io . Don’t forget to give us a follow on Twitter , Instagram , Facebook and Linkedin , so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly giveaways or founders' dinners.…
Timestamps: 10:34 - What is high precision electronics manufacturing? 17:52 - How to understand the problems of potential customers 22:03 - Giving robots proximity sensors 26:55 - Inveel’s fundraising strategy 33:38 - The money candle and the motivation candle This episode was produced in collaboration with startup days, taking place next year on May 14th 2025. Click here to purchase your ticket. About Barbara Horvath: Barbara Horvath is the co-founder and CEO of Inveel , a startup providing technology for low-cost and high speed production of extreme-high resolution printed electronics. She holds a PhD in Materials Science & Engineering from the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, and worked as a researcher at the National Institute for Materials Science (Japan), the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (France) and the Paul Scherrer Institut (Zurich) before starting Inveel in 2024. Inveel fabricates 100 nm - 2 µm linewidth wires and electrodes with low resistivity — this what they term their “high precision electronics”. At first they struggled with finding a market, since the applications for their tech were very numerous, but eventually settled on robotics. Inveel adds value to a robot by basically giving it another layer of “skin”, full of “nerve endings”, which help the robot better understand how it is interacting with the world. For instance: If a robot is holding an egg, having an Inveel skin is useful to know how much pressure to apply in order to maintain grip but not crush the egg. If the egg starts slipping, the robot will know because it will feel the egg in different parts of their “hand”, and can adjust the movements of their “hand” to prevent the egg from escaping their grasp. If a robot bumps their knee, it is very easy for their whole balance to be thrown off and for them to fall over. If their knee is wearing an Inveel skin, the robot can react faster to the perception of having bumped it and more quickly readjust their body posture so as not to fall down. If a robot needs to go up and down stairs, or walk in terrain where there are voluminous rocks, having an Inveel skin on the soles of their “feet” will help them ascertain whether they’re placing their “feet” correctly on the steps of the stairs, and will help them quickly realize they’ve stepped on a rock, and again adapt their body posture so as not to fall over. Inveel skins also give robots proximity sensors, which allow them to sense if a person (or object) is nearby. Currently, robots have cameras through which they perceive the presence of people, and when they detect people, they slow down quite a lot as a form of risk mitigation. Inveel’s proximity sensors allow robots to remain fast even in environments filled with people, because they make them much quicker in reacting to the presence of a person and avoiding collision. Inveel is currently establishing pilots with big players and kicking their R&D into turbo mode in order to cater successfully to the robotics industry. The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io .…
Timestamps: 2:08 - An infamous meeting with Japanese business people 12:13 - A sock subscription in the 90s? 19:50 - Getting raw materials from all over the globe 37:51 - Tracking customer metrics in the 90s 39:33 - Bootstrapping in e-commerce This episode was co-produced with EO Zürich . Check out their upcoming event, Entrepreneurs Summit 2025 . About Samy Liechti: Samy Liechti is a co-founder and the former CEO of BLACKSOCKS , the Swiss e-commerce sock company that invented the “sockscription” back in 1999. He holds a BA in Business Administration from HSG and worked for marketing agencies like Leo Burnett, Burson-Marsteller and Wirz before starting BLACKSOCKS in 1999. It all began when Samy found himself at a tea ceremony, after a business meeting with some Japanese clients, where he had to take off his shoes, and embarrassingly found he was wearing mismatched socks. The solution to the problem of forgetting to replace old socks was, in his mind, an online sock subscription — but it was 1999: if you sold socks, you did it on catalogs or through the phone; e-commerce was still called e-business back then, and vanishingly few people ever bought anything online. To make matters even more difficult, Samy’s co-founder quit after a few months. But none of these deterrents could stop Samy, and 6 months after the official launch of the company, BLACKSOCKS had already 1000 customers. 20 years in, some of their sock models have been sold millions of times. In 2023 BLACKSOCKS was acquired by Rohner Socks, and Samy left the company. The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io . Don’t forget to give us a follow on Twitter , Instagram , Facebook and Linkedin , so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly giveaways or founders' dinners.…
Timestamps: 4:35 - Similarities between entrepreneurship and academia 9:02 - What are photonic integrated circuits? 16:07 - Approaching customers from different industries 17:09 - Why Lightium is still in beta stage 18:51 - What business model do they plan on adopting? This episode was produced in collaboration with startup days, taking place next year on May 14th 2025. Click here to purchase your ticket. About Frédéric Loizeau: Frédéric Loizeau is the co-founder and CRO of Lightium , a Swiss startup enabling the next generation of photonic integrated circuits. He holds a PhD in Microsystems from EPFL and worked as a researcher at Stanford and as a key account manager at Sensirion and Business & Technology Development Manager at CSEM before starting Lightium in 2023. Lightium provides production-grade TFLN PIC foundry services to customers in the datacom, telecom, AI, Quantum, and aerospace industries. What does this mean? It means they manufacture photonic integrated circuits, which are essential to making the transfer of information faster. This is relevant for fiber optic internet, in the telecom industry, but also quite relevant for space satellites. Lastly, it’s crucial for AI: the recent developments in this field have increased our need not only for computing power (which NVIDIA solved by providing their GPUs to data centers), but also for greater bandwidth — that’s where Lightium’s tech comes in. They frame their technology as a service, through which people from different industries can design their own photonic integrated circuits that will then be manufactured by the Lightium team. Lightium has had great success since the very beginning: when they were still working on their idea at the CSEM research center and tentatively reaching out to customers asking for letters of recommendation, they got cheques instead. Nowadays their success continues: they recently raised a CHF 7M seed round. The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io . Don’t forget to give us a follow on Twitter , Instagram , Facebook and Linkedin , so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly giveaways or founders' dinners.…
Timestamps: 3:52 - Is Switzerland a better version of Germany? 20:55 - Choosing an industry out of many use cases 24:06 - A business model for robotics 26:28 - Doing software and hardware simultaneously 31:51 - Getting Jeff Bezos as an investor About Marko Bjelonic: Marko Bjelonic is the co-founder and CEO of Swiss-Mile , a deep tech ETH spin-off connecting AI with the physical world through autonomous machines. He holds a PhD in Robotics from ETH and worked as a researcher at NCCR Robotics, NCCR Digital Fabrication and the Robotic Systems Lab (ETH), before starting Swiss-Mile in 2023. Marko was born in Yugoslavia and left the country as a child, together with his family, to escape the Yugoslav wars, which started in 1990. Growing up as an immigrant in Germany, he helped his dad recover from job loss by encouraging him to start his own business and helping him with digitization and with the linguistic aspect. This company was eventually sold, giving Marko an advantageous small business experience. In 2023 he started Swiss-Mile with friends and colleagues he’d known since 2018. Their USP was simple: they were incorporating neural networks on wheeled-legged robots, helping them to navigate complex environments. Their robots can walk, drive, stand upright, open doors, and manipulate packages. Ever since launch, they’ve had a huge amount of success on social media — their videos have gotten a total of 100M views. This, of course, resulted in over 150 companies reaching out to them to inquire about their product, with leads coming in on a daily basis. With such an innovative and useful product, Marko and his team had trouble picking the best industries to focus on. After much reflection and many feedback loops with their leads, they decided on security and logistics. When it comes to the security industry, Swiss-Mile robots are useful for maintaining critical infrastructure which must be checked 24/7, since this is a boring, repetitive job for which it is harder and harder to find human workers. In the logistics field, the operations which take place inside warehouses are already quite automated, but the transportation of merchandise from warehouses to the outside world is not, because that is a much more complex environment for a robot to navigate — but not too complex for Swiss-Mile robots! Swiss-Mile has had astounding fundraising success. They raised a $3.5M pre-seed round in 2023, and then a $22M seed round in 2024, co-led by Jeff Bezos and the Chinese fund HongShan. The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io . Don’t forget to give us a follow on Twitter , Instagram , Facebook and Linkedin , so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly giveaways or founders' dinners. …
Timestamps: 8:48 - Building a startup in tissue engineering 11:23 - Building a foodtech venture studio 15:49 - The underrated challenge of making phone calls every day 23:44 - Why having an analytical mind is crucial 26:41 - The importance of mentorship This episode was co-produced with the Female Founders Initiative . The conversation originally took place at the Rise Up Summit 2024 . Answer our quick questionnaire about entrepreneurial skills here . About Lida Ahmadi & Adam Korczak: Lida Ahmadi is the founder of Sproutd , a foodtech venture studio partnering with corporates to tackle current food system challenges. She holds an MA in Accounting and Finance from HSG and co-founded Snäx in 2018 (acquired by FELFEL in 2023) before beginning her new venture in 2024. Adam Korczak is the co-founder and CEO at Treeless , an ETH Zurich Spin-off developing microorganism-based cellulose materials with the goal to end plastic pollution. He obtained his education in Biomedical/Medical Engineering at ETH and incorporated the company in 2023. During their chat with Merle, Lida and Adam reflected on the skills which have bolstered their unique founder journeys. The abilities needed to build a successful startup were not always what this pair of founders expected: Lida recalls being surprised and feeling challenged by the need to develop her analytical mind and to gain the habit of making data-based decisions, and Adam remembered how difficult it was at first to have to make such a inordinate amount of phone calls every single day. Both founders value the technical skills they learned in school, but most of all they appreciate how their education taught them resilience — the ability to cope with stress. Adam continues to scale Treeless successfully and Lida is currently working on a new project that is still in stealth mode. Resources Mentioned: Thinking Fast and Slow , Daniel Kahneman (Lida Ahmadi) The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io . Don’t forget to give us a follow on Twitter , Instagram , Facebook and Linkedin , so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly giveaways or founders' dinners.…
Timestamps: 8:43 - Aligning co-founder incentives with company success 18:21 - How can radars track our breathing? 25:45 - Partnering up with Innosuisse 30:25 - B2B selling to hospitals 33:47 - Selling to an industry in crisis This episode was co-produced with Innosuisse . About Cyrill Gyger: Cyrill Gyger is the co-founder and CEO of QUMEA , a company that offers digital mobility monitoring for patient safety. Cyrill holds an MSc in Engineering from Berner Fachhochschule BFH and worked for Zühlke Group and Xovis before starting QUMEA in 2019. QUMEA uses a one-of-a-kind sensor and companion software to continuously monitor the activity and mobility of every patient inside a hospital or care facility, and is able to automatically call for help, depending on the individual needs of each patient. This prevents falls, makes therapy success measurable, improves patient outcomes and noticeably relieves the burden on care. Their radar is capable of sending signals of extremely different wavelengths in very quick succession, which allows them to measure whether the patient is walking about the room, but also whether the patient is even breathing. The fact that their product is a radar, and not computer vision, enables the assurance of data protection. QUMEA sells mostly to public hospitals in Switzerland, Germany and Sweden. Their usual first point of contact are nurses, who are also the product’s users. QUMEA’s very clear ROI is what gets them the attention of these institutions, but they still have to bear with rather long sale cycles (due to the nature of public sector constraints, and to the amount of stakeholders within each hospital), and they almost always have to go through a pilot phase with their prospective customers first. Cyrill is a strong believer in aligning co-founder incentives with the success of their company, which is why all 4 co-founders have invested their own money to buy shares from QUMEA. Other employees have also done so. This way, everyone rows in the same direction and gives it their all, because if the company tanks, it’s their money that’s gone forever, too. The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io . Don’t forget to give us a follow on Twitter , Instagram , Facebook and Linkedin , so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly giveaways or founders' dinners. …
Timestamps: 04:02 - Die Integration der Credit Suisse – ein Mammutprojekt 06:27 - Vom Fussballtraum zum Banker 19:32 - Leadership bei UBS: Strategie und Glaubwürdigkeit 29:36 - Verantwortung für die Schweiz und die Gesellschaft 35:23 - Sacrifice for Success: Ermottis Rat an junge Talente Über Sergio P. Ermotti: Sergio P. Ermotti , Group CEO der UBS , ist eine der prägendsten Persönlichkeiten der globalen Finanzwelt. Geboren und aufgewachsen im Tessin, träumte er zunächst von einer Karriere als Fussballprofi, bevor er im Banking seine wahre Leidenschaft fand. Seine beeindruckende Laufbahn führte ihn von der lokalen Corner Bank über Stationen in London und New York bis an die Spitze der UBS. Besonders bekannt ist Ermotti für seine Führungsrolle bei der Integration der Credit Suisse, ein Meilenstein, der ihn sowohl beruflich als auch persönlich herausgefordert hat. Mit klarer Vision und unermüdlichem Einsatz steht er für Leadership, Nachhaltigkeit und soziale Verantwortung – Werte, die er in der globalen Finanzbranche eindrucksvoll vorlebt. The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io . Don’t forget to give us a follow on Twitter , Instagram , Facebook and Linkedin , so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly giveaways or founders' dinners.…
Timestamps: 6:17 - Why go into medicine 11:24 - How to be a doctor and an entrepreneur 14:49 - Being a successful leader 31:11 - Staying healthy and stress-free 34:30 - Being an influencer doctor Resources Mentioned: Homo Faber, Max Frisch This episode was co-produced with smzh , your independent go-to partner in all matters relating to finance. About Florim Cuculi: Florim Cuculi is a Swiss cardiologist and chief of the cardiology department at Luzerner Kantonsspital . He was born in the Republic of North Macedonia in 1976 and moved to Switzerland when he was 14. He initially had a difficult time in Switzerland, having no friends and speaking no German, but eventually worked his way to fluency and was moved from Realschule to Sekundarschule by an observant teacher, who realized his potential. In 2019 Florim established the Cardio Center Luzern , a new cardiology practice in the city center of Lucerne. He is also active on social media , where he often gives health advice. During his chat with Silvan, he discussed his rules for good leadership: Fairness: value the people who work harder and achieve better results; Humility: realize that you are not perfect, and be willing to listen to criticism (which is only possible if you have cultivated the kind of psychological safety that naturally allows your underlings to speak up); Understanding: be willing to support and go easy on team members who are experiencing personal crises; Know that there is no golden rule. Often you’ll have to rely on your intuition. SMZH: tailor-made .holistic. for you. smzh is an independent financial services provider who is assisting both private and corporate clients with individual advice in the areas of finance & investments, pensions, mortgages, insurance, real estate and tax & law. Through a 360° Check-Up, smzh ensures that you receive customized and comprehensive financial planning according to your initial situation and with a view to achieving your wishes and goals, as well as being accompanied by our experts during implementation. The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io . Don’t forget to give us a follow on Twitter , Instagram , Facebook and Linkedin , so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly giveaways or founders' dinners.…
Timestamps: 13:40 - The rental car industry 20:16 - Why rent a car? 22:00 - Do people wreck FINN cars? 26:25 - The FINN car insurance 37:42 - Equity vs debt financing About Nikolai Schröder: Nikolai Schröder is the co-founder and COO of FINN , a German car subscription startup. He holds a MSc in Industrial Engineering from FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg and previously worked as a consultant at the Boston Consulting Group before starting FINN in 2019. FINN offers a car subscription which includes everything: the vehicle, insurance and maintenance. With traditional car purchases, you receive the financing (if you require a loan) from one person, insure the car with another person, send it to be repaired by a third person, etc., whereas with FINN you pay the same amount each month and can safely budget for it. FINN is aiming to become profitable by the end of 2024. The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io . Don’t forget to give us a follow on Twitter , Instagram , Facebook and Linkedin , so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly giveaways or founders' dinners.…
Timestamps: 5:19 - Helvetia Insurance teams up with ETH Juniors 7:22 - Accessing the Swiss luxury watch market 10:45 - A business model for luxury watch NFTs 14:47 - Acquiring customers 20:15 - Why Leonie wanted her business to be acquired This episode was co-produced with the Female Founders Initiative . About Leonie Flückiger: Leonie Flückiger is a co-founder of Adresta , a company which creates digital certificates for luxury watches. She holds a MSc in Micro- and Nanosystems from ETH and previously worked for ETH Juniors and BCG before starting Adresta in 2019. Adresta is a Swiss tech company redefining the ownership experience by creating digital certificates or NFTs for physical products purchased and owned by end consumers. The Adresta ecosystem embeds an end2end digital watch insurance process, enabling owners to get insurance for their watch in under 90 seconds. The NFT proves the product's authenticity and represents a tamperproof, scarce, and tradable asset. The company was acquired in Autumn 2022 by Bucherer, one of the world's largest retailers of luxury watches and jewelry. While the Adresta CEO, Mathew Chittazhathu, stayed on, Leonie preferred to take a new consulting job at McKinsey. The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io . Don’t forget to give us a follow on Twitter , Instagram , Facebook and Linkedin , so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly giveaways or founders' dinners.…
Timestamps: 10:13 - Deep Tech Nation’s ambitious goals for Switzerland 13:48 - Venture Hub Switzerland 19:07 - What’s the Scaleup Booster? 27:35 - How is Deep Tech Nation financed? 38:12 - Do all Swiss startups need to make it big? This episode was co-produced with the Deep Tech Nation Switzerland Foundation . About Joanne Sieber: Joanne Sieber is the CEO of the Deep Tech Nation Switzerland Foundation , which acts as a catalyst for the Swiss innovation ecosystem. She holds an MA in International Management from HSG. Prior to joining the Deep Tech Nation Switzerland Foundation in 2023, Joanne worked in a number of industries, from microcredit to consultancies, and even ran her own sandstone business. The Deep Tech Nation Switzerland Foundation is financed in part by their founding partners, UBS and Swisscom, and in part by their corporate partners, like SwissRe, Rolex and SIX. Their mission is to help Switzerland successfully commercialize Swiss innovation, through growth financing (covered by their Venture Hub Switzerland, which collaborates with Swiss pension funds) and by working to change the regulatory framework surrounding these questions. They want to make Switzerland the number 1 deeptech nation worldwide, and have committed themselves to help raise CHF 50B in VC capital for Swiss startups and to help create 100K jobs in Switzerland within the next 10 years. The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io . Don’t forget to give us a follow on Twitter , Instagram , Facebook and Linkedin , so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly giveaways or founders' dinners.…
Timestamps: 3:31 - Athletes are their own entrepreneurs 10:01 - Upfront investments for tourism infrastructure 15:44 - How to host a good event 21:29 - What does sustainability mean in business? 26:30 - Sustainability is not a marketing topic This episode was co-produced by smzh , your independent go-to partner in all matters relating to finance. About Pascal Jenny: Pascal Jenny is the former managing director and current president at Arosa Tourismus . He holds a BA in business administration from UZH and worked in Swiss sports television before founding Arosa Tourismus in 2008. He’s also the founder of tfy-consult, a company offering sustainability checks for other businesses, and is active as a board member at smzh. Pascal’s connection to the Arosa region is long-standing: he vacationed there every single Summer until he was 25, and his great-great-grandfather used to be a priest there, as well. As a young person, he always enjoyed Arosa, but found its tourism industry lacking in certain respects, which motivated him to create a business which not only functioned as a hotel but also hosted events and offered experiences, and, most importantly, which measured its results and iterated accordingly. Sustainability is a very important topic for Pascal, not only ecologically but also socially and economically. Arosa’s investors are aware that they’re unlikely to get back their investment, but still they offer their money because they want to build something beautiful. And when it comes to the relationship between Pascal’s business and the local Arosa population, clear and constant communication is key — and it served Pascal and his team well both when they came up with the idea to create a bear sanctuary, and when they thought of doing a gay ski week. Arosa Tourismus very intentionally does not invest much on social media marketing in order to avoid swaths of mass tourism coming their way. Pascal stepped down from his managing director role in 2020 and is nowadays involved solely as president. SMZH: tailor-made .holistic. for you. smzh is an independent financial services provider who is assisting both private and corporate clients with individual advice in the areas of finance & investments, pensions, mortgages, insurance, real estate and tax & law. Through a 360° Check-Up, smzh ensures that you receive customized and comprehensive financial planning according to your initial situation and with a view to achieving your wishes and goals, as well as being accompanied by our experts during implementation. The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io . Don’t forget to give us a follow on Twitter , Instagram , Facebook and Linkedin , so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly giveaways or founders' dinners.…
Timestamps: 5:22 - From the UK to Switzerland 11:29 - The dark genome and chronic diseases 17:35 - HTX001 and heart failure 26:44 - Sticking to grants at first 34:32 - Managing two separate teams This episode was sponsored by smzh , your independent go-to partner in all matters relating to finance. About Samir Ounzain: Samir Ounzain is the co-founder and CEO of HAYA Therapeutics , a precision medicines company targeting the regulatory genome for cardiovascular diseases, fibrosis and cancer. He holds a PhD from the University of Leicester and was previously a researcher at Imperial College London, University College London and CHUV Lausanne University Hospital before starting HAYA in 2019, together with his co-founder Daniel Blessing. Early on in his academic career Samir studied the so-called “dark genome” (also known as the “regulatory genome”), which at the time of discovery (2001) was considered “junk DNA”, i.e. the 98% of our DNA that apparently did not make or in any way affect our genes. More recent scientific research has discovered that this regulatory genome is key to understanding how our genes interact with our environment, and can therefore be useful in targeting environment-caused diseases like heart failure and cancer. HAYA’s lead therapeutic candidate is HTX-001, an antisense oligonucleotide targeting Wisper, which is a tissue and cell-specific cardiac lncRNA known to play a role in heart failure. The company is also developing a pipeline of lncRNA-targeting candidates for the cell-specific treatment of diseases in other tissues, including the lungs and the microenvironment of solid tumor cancers. The added benefit of their drugs is that by targeting the “dark” 98%, instead of the 2%, they result in zero side effects: conventional drugs help patients treat their diseases but they also produce secondary unwanted effects because the proteins that they are targeting (in our 2%) are also responsible for other functions — this same issue does not exist when it comes to drugs which interact with the dark genome. HAYA Therapeutics is headquartered at the life sciences park Biopôle, in Lausanne, with additional laboratory facilities at JLABS, San Diego. They have raised a total of $25M in funding backed by a strong consortium of investors, including Broadview Ventures, Apollo Health Ventures, 4SeeVentures, BioInnovator, Bernina Bioinvest, Humboldt and Schroder Adveq. This cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io Don’t forget to give us a follow on Twitter , Instagram , Facebook and Linkedin , so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly giveaways or founders' dinners.…
Timestamps: 1:53 - Accidentally inventing neural networks 7:19 - What does “manukai” mean? 19:44 - Competition in the AI industry 27:35 - Fundraising for AI 32:34 - Does being a spin-off pay off? This episode was produced in collaboration with startup days, taking place next year on May 14th 2025. Click here to purchase your ticket. About Pascal Weber: Pascal Weber is the co-founder and CEO of Manukai , an ETH spin-off automating repetitive programming tasks by leveraging available production data. He holds a PhD in Computational Science and Engineering from ETH and worked at Harvard and the ETH AI Center before starting Manukai in 2023. The Manukai name comes from the agglutination of “manu”, short for “manufacturing”, and “kaizen”, a Japanese term often used to refer to the principle of continuous improvement in manufacturing. Manukai’s goal is to take each and every task that a polymechanic may be responsible for and automate them, while still requiring confirmation from the technician — think of it like AI playing autocomplete, and you telling it “yes” or “no”. This technology will help improve quality in these processes and increase their speed. It will also free the polymechanic to spend more of his or her time doing creative work, instead of repetitive, manual drudgery. This cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io Don’t forget to give us a follow on Twitter , Instagram , Facebook and Linkedin , so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly giveaways or founders' dinners.…
Timestamps: 8:20 - The current state of the lab meat industry 14:10 - Does lab meat have the same nutritional value & taste? 15:40 - Sallea’s go-to-market strategy 17:45 - When all your partners are also startups 20:30 - What happens to the farmers? This episode was sponsored by NordPass . Use code “swisspreneur” at checkout to get 30% off Business and Teams plans. About Nicole Kleger: Nicole Kleger is the co-founder and CTO at sallea, a biotech startup enabling the cultivation of high-value, textured whole cuts of (lab) meat and fish. She holds a PhD in Materials Science from ETH and has been a Sports Instructor at Akademischer Sportverband Zürich since 2015. She started sallea in 2022. sallea’s propriety scaffolds enable the cultivation of whole cuts of meat and fish, as opposed to the thin layers currently being produced. This in turn will enable the sale and consumption of these products in a non-processed way: we’ll be able to eat a lean fillet of lab meat, instead of eating lab meat sausage or ground lab meat. Furthermore, sallea’s scaffolding platform allows each of their customers to pre-define the texture, nutritional value, taste, and other key attributes of the end product. They are currently raising CHF 2.2M in external funds. This cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io Don’t forget to give us a follow on Twitter , Instagram , Facebook and Linkedin , so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly giveaways or founders' dinners.…
Timestamps: 2:14 - Why go into banking in 2008? 10:52 - Working with college students and retirees 20:00 - How does smzh make money? 24:41 - Sponsoring events to acquire new clients 44:20 - Getting to 60K clients This episode was co-produced with smzh . About Gzim Hasani: Gzim Hasani is the CEO of and a partner at smzh , an independent financial advisory company headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland. He holds a MSc in Banking and Finance and started his career working for Credit Suisse and Julius Baer, before venturing into entrepreneurship. In 2018, Hasani left the bank and founded Impegno & Partners, before then taking over smzh in 2019. smzh’s goal is to join all types of financial advisory in one, thereby truly putting the customer in the driving seat, by allowing him or her to make holistic decisions. They offer advice in the areas of finance and investments, pensions, mortgages, insurance, real estate, and tax and law. smzh’s vision is to offer the best possible advice to all clients. Don’t forget to give us a follow on Twitter , Instagram , Facebook and Linkedin , so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly giveaways or founders' dinners.…
Timestamps: 8:03 - Time-of-flight technology 15:43 - Whom do semiconductor companies sell to? 19:14 - Changing from CEO to CTO 29:54 - Managing investor expectations 32:54 - Going to the moon Check out our FREE go-to-market masterclass with Ankita Mehta and Soumya Dash. About Jürg Jost: Jürg Jost is the founder, former CEO and current CTO of the semiconductor manufacturer Spacetek Technology . He holds a BSc in Electrical Engineering from Berner Fachhochschule BFH. Prior to starting Spacetek, Jürg worked as Head of Electrical Engineering Space Research & Planetary Sciences at the University of Bern. Spacetek designs and builds time-of-flight mass spectrometers (TOF-MS), bringing space technology to Earth. Their focus is semiconductor manufacturing and the issues of process engineers, end-users (foundries) and OEMs (wafer fab equipment). In 2023, Spacetek closed its seed financing round with Swisscom Ventures and the Moonshot Fund (from Spectrum Value Management), and they also accelerated their commercial developments with leading semiconductor manufacturers. Don’t forget to give us a follow on Twitter , Instagram , Facebook and Linkedin , so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly giveaways or founders' dinners.…
Timestamps: 4:38 - Gaëlle’s craziest year 9:56 - Turning metal into foam 16:34 - High innovative customers 25:23 - Hiring people as a 6 month year old company 29:03 - Having the team be 2/3s women Check out our FREE go-to-market masterclass . About Gaëlle Andreatta: Gaëlle Andreatta is the co-founder and CTO of apheros , a startup manufacturing metal foams for thermal, catalysis, and battery applications. She holds a PhD in Physics from Pierre and Marie Curie University and an MBA from ETH/HSG. Gaëlle worked for companies like Oxford Nanopore Technologies and CSEM before co-founding apheros in 2023. apheros’ novel metal foams offer unprecedented properties due to their extremely high surface area and low density. The best way Gaëlle has of explaining how metal gets turned into a foam to people with little scientific background is through the metaphor of making meringue. apheros makes metal foams in a way that is “similar” to how you would froth your egg white. They foam their metal, shape it, and then use very high temperatures to set the shape. Their metal foam is useful for cooling down certain materials (in a similar way to how liquid cooling works), for kickstarting certain chemical reactions, and for ensuring the current collectors in lithium ion batteries work optimally. apheros is currently working closely with between 60 to 70 customers, and in talks with a dozen more. Their team is 2/3s women, which Gaëlle attributes not to any conscious decision on their part but to the fact that both co-founders are women, which probably encourages female applicants to apply. Don’t forget to give us a follow on Twitter , Instagram , Facebook and Linkedin , so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly giveaways or founders' dinners.…
Timestamps: 3:57 - From neuportal to Houzy 10:20 - Building up new revenue streams over time 13:18 - Is Switzerland too small a market? 20:45 - Getting acquired by UBS and Baloise 32:43 - Did they make money out of the deal? This episode was co-produced with smzh , your independent go-to partner in all matters relating to finance. About Stefan Schärer: Stefan Schärer is the co-founder and former CEO of the proptech startup Houzy . Stefan previously founded the software company Fairgate and the real estate project management company Neubau Portal, and was briefly the CEO of Moneyhouse AG, before founding Houzy in 2017. Houzy offers services like property search, mortgage comparison, a renovation costs check and energy efficiency optimization. In the beginning they chose not to overspend on complex marketing tools and instead worked hard to optimize their SEO, which gradually became easier as they drew more users to the platform. Stefan credits Houzy’s great marketing and product teams, as well as their smart money investors, with the success of the company. In 2022 UBS and Baloise acquired a joint majority stake in Houzy, and one year later Stefan stepped down from his CEO role. Nowadays he’s the President of the Swiss Ice Hockey Federation. SMZH: tailor-made .holistic. for you. smzh is an independent financial services provider who is assisting both private and corporate clients with individual advice in the areas of finance & investments, pensions, mortgages, insurance, real estate and tax & law. Through a 360° Check-Up, smzh ensures that you receive customized and comprehensive financial planning according to your initial situation and with a view to achieving your wishes and goals, as well as being accompanied by our experts during implementation.…
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1 EP #446 - Fabio Ronga: The Hard Road to a $300M Valuation 1:09:22
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Timestamps: 5:20 - Workaholics having fun 15:35 - Market validation 33:33 - Why Switzerland is the best headquarters 46:19 - Instilling company values 54:30 - Selling 100% of your shares About Fabio Ronga: Fabio Ronga is the co-founder and CEO of beqom , a cloud-based compensation management solution. He holds a master's degree in Business Information Systems from HEC Lausanne and previously worked at Hyperion (bought by Oracle) and Outlooksoft (bought by SAP) before starting beqom in 2008. Together with his co-founders (including Tanya Jansen and Stephan Pohl, who are still active in the company), Fabio built beqom to solve HR problems he himself had encountered earlier in his career. Serendipitously enough, someone Fabio used to know from Hyperion was on the board of a French company who had built the exact tech that Fabio and his co-founders needed, but was using it for different purposes. beqom was born out of a partnership with that company. Later on, when beqom was coming into its own, it merged with this French company. beqom started out with Swiss headquarters and maintains them to this day. Fabio thinks this helped them be global-minded about their product building from day one: since Switzerland is such a linguistically and culturally fragmented country, Swiss founders cannot rely on their domestic market to keep them in business, like US companies can. In 2022 beqom received a strategic investment of USD 300M from Sumeru Equity Partners. A few years prior, beqom had received another investment from Goldman Sachs, in exchange of which they promised a favorable exit scenario — this was their motivation for the 2022 Sumeru investment. The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io . Don’t forget to give us a follow on Twitter , Instagram , Facebook and Linkedin , so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there’s no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly giveaways or founders' dinners.…
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