Swisspreneur Show

Timestamps:

0:45 - What mistakes do Swiss startups make repeatedly when it comes to bootstrapping?

14:20 - Boostrapping and growing fast

17:43 - Constant AB testing

25:48 - Building a solid user base

32:45 - Organic traffic & relying on Google

The Episode in 60 seconds:

Considerations when deciding whether to bootstrap:

Bootstrapping a user base:

Running experiments:

Timestamps:

7:16 - Competition

8:51 - Should you get a patent?

11:24 - What should you fundraise for?

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.

Timestamps:

1:23 - Studying economics and engineering

10:16 - Starting a company at 16

19:09 - Why move from the startup world to corporate?

52:52 - Jumping around from company to company

1:10:13 - Burnout and company responsibility

Biography

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.

Timestamps:

0:48 - Why start your own company?

10:35 - What are they fundraising for?

11:55 - Tackling sales

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.

Timestamps:

2:05 - Why do startups need a pricing strategy?

7:55 - Recurring revenue vs One-time fees

18:40 - How the buyer persona influences pricing

32:28 - Maximizing revenue

37:41 - Are discounts a good idea?

Biography

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.

Timestamps:

2:15 - What problem does Caressoma fix?

5:44 - Who uses Caressoma?

8:37 - What milestones has Caressoma recently achieved?

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.

Timestamps:

4:34 - Where David met his co-founders

10:28 - How to sell to lawyers

15:41 - Does Legartis have competition?

16:35 - Finding the right talent

19:29- Why create a second office in Lisbon?

Biography

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.

Timestamps:

2:32 - What problem does UNISERS solve?

8:01 - What milestones has UNISERS reached so far?

9:25 - Does UNISERS have competitors?

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.

Timestamps:

2:06 - Why are sales so important?

5:20 - When should you start having your own sales team?

6:25 - What are the different stages of the B2B process?

7:42 - How do you find the right target client?

8:29 - Should you focus on one industry only?

11:52 - How to qualify leads

14:03 - Testing sales channels

18:19 - Speed up the selling process

24:19 - How to keep in touch with customers

27:21 - How to follow up

28:27 - Do awards and news pieces help you close sales?

29:35 - What are the most important KPIs for B2B sales

31:50 - Other tools to use for sales

35:56 - Closing deals remotely

40:41 - How to create value before closing a sale

41:28 - Where I can find good templates?

Biography

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.

Timestamps:

4:00 - What milestones has What To Label achieved?

4:47 - Internationalization

8:11 - Toughest challenges to overcome

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.