Swisspreneur Show

Timestamps:

1:25 - Dropping out of university

12:29 - The early days of Seedtable

19:38 - Adding a pay wall

26:25 - The future of the European ecosystem

36:37 - An outsider's perspective on the Swiss ecosystem

About Gonzalo Sanchez

Gonzalo Sanchez is currently Head of Growth for On Deck, an educational community for those willing to learn about technology and innovation through creativity and self-improvement. Gonzalo is a natural learner: his writing skills and curiosity for new ideas led him to found Seedtable, a weekly newsletter on European tech reaching more than 60,000 monthly visitors.

Memorable Quotes:

"The European ecosystem has been able to weather this pandemic pretty well."

"For the past 40, the US has been the startup hub for ambitious founders. But nowadays that's changing — Europe might be catching up."

Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts, 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 give-aways or founders dinners!

Timestamps

1:55 - Biggest mistakes in digital administration

About Monica Maurer

Monica Maurer is a certified trustee and Swiss Certified Fiduciary at ACT Audit & Tax. In her role, she helps startups and SMEs with their accounting questions. Based on her many years of experience, here are some of her recommendations for founders who are just getting started with their accounting:

Memorable Quotes

"Was man nicht vergessen darf, ist die kontinuierliche Kontrolle. Auch wenn alles elektronisch ist und man nur noch den Knopf drücken muss, sollte man sicherstellen das alles stimmt."

If you would like to listen to more episodes on accounting, check out our first and second conversation with Renato Stalder.

Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts, 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 give-aways or founders dinners!

Timestamps:

1:33 - Working a minimum wage job in America

8:12 - Finding out what you're passionate about

26:20 - The dot com bubble

53:49 - Getting acquired for $240M

1:08:17 - Merging two teams

About Jean-Michel Pittet

Jean-Michel Pittet is Vice-President of Engineering of Adobe since 2013. With his decades-long expertise of management and product development, Jean-Michel believes any tech-savvy person can become a skilful leader. His main concerns include creating meaningful digital experiences, cultivating purposeful customer/business connections and promoting a healthy leadership spirit.

Memorable Quotes

"If I don't understand something, that motivates me. I want to understand."

"You don't have to be extroverted to be passionate."

"Even when you're at the top, you gotta ask yourself: Can't I do better?"

"If after ten years of being acquired you can say "this was the right move", then you know you made the right decision."

Resources:

If you would like to listen to more episodes on big exits, check out our conversation with Ariel Lüdi.

Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts, 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 give-aways or founders dinners!

Timestamps:

1:49 - First entrepreneurial activities

About Nicolas 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 after having been rejected by several large consulting companies he applied to intern with. Within only 4 years, he grew the company 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.

Memorable Quotes

"Konzentriere dich besser auf 6 KPI's in Marketing und Sales, anstelle von 30-40 KPI's die wir momentan haben."

If you would like to listen to our previous conversations with Nicholas, check out episodes 99 and 101.

Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts, 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 give-aways or founders dinners!

Timestamps:

2:29 - Having a surgeon and a business woman for parents

6:13 - Are entrepreneurs born or made?

25:04 - Tanja's investment focus area

29:44 - Red flags for an investor

44:52 - The Finnish and Swiss ecosystems

About Tanja Dowe

Tanja Dowe is CEO for the Debiopharm International Innovation Fund and Board Member for Novadiscovery and Oncomfort. Using her expertise in strategic business and market demands, Tanja’s work encourages commercialization of innovative healthcare technologies and patient care solutions for a brighter, healthier future.

Memorable Quotes

"Of course everyone can turn themselves into an entrepreneur. But some people are just born that way: curious, risk-taking, and eager to create something which will outlive them."

"The health industry is very focused on treating diseases. We need to start thinking about how to prevent them. And we need to start catering to the digi-native generations."

If you would like to listen to more episodes about medtech, check out our conversations with Luiza Dobre, Lea Von Bidder, Michael Friedrich, Katja Berlinger, Sophia Borowka and Dorina Thiess.

Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts, 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 give-aways or founders dinners!

Timestamps

2:46 - Why Lukas Speiser was the right co-founder

About Alain Frei and Amorana

Alan Frei is the co-founder of amorana.ch, an e-commerce platform for sex toys and lingerie. In 2020, he sold a majority stake in Amorana to the British Lovehoney Group. Before starting Amorana, he experimented with a variety of other projects such as nachhilfeportal.de and LooksOfLove, from which he learned what it takes to make a company successful. Alan is a University of Zurich alumni and headed the University’s startup center. He lives a minimalist lifestyle, counting less than 120 items in his personal possession.

After the acquisition of Amorana by Lovehoney Group, he stayed on as CEO of Amorana with the intention of expanding the brand internationally. He also decided to take his minimalist lifestyle to the next level by giving up his apartment and permanently living out of hotels.

Memorable Quotes:

"Zuerst versuchst du die Conversion Killer zu minimieren, um dann anschliessend oder auch leicht versetzt Traffic auf deine Website zu schicken."

If you would like to listen to Alan Frei some more, check out our previous episodes with him here and here.

Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, 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 give-aways or founders dinners!

Timestamps:

2:11 - A solution-oriented family

17:21 - Investing in diversity from day one

22:43 - Becoming a mother and founding WeShapeTech

30:14 - Gendered language

48:25 - How to recruit

Valérie Vuillerat is CEO of Nine Internet Solutions, the leading provider of platform management solutions in Switzerland. With ample experience in board membership, business administration and entrepreneurial expertise, Valérie was also CEO for Ginetta and co-founder of Witty Works, helping tech companies boot out unconscious bias through inclusive language choices suited for all walks of life.

Memorable Quotes

"I grew up in a very solution-oriented family. Complaining was not an option."

"In the future, diversity will be a differentiator for attractive job opportunities."

"Diversity leads nowhere if not everybody has a voice."

If you would like to listen to more episodes on female entrepreneurship, check out our conversation with Estefanía Tapias.

Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, 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 give-aways or founders dinners!

Timestamps:

About Stefan Flück and Appentura:

Stefan Flück is the founder and CEO of Appentura, a provider of surprise experience gifts. Stefan started Appentura in 2014 when he pitched the idea at a startup competition. The original idea was to offer customers the possibility to buy a surprise for themselves within a given timeframe and budget. Stefan, however, soon realized that customers were much more willing to spend money on surprising others rather than themselves and consequently, Appentura changed its offering to what it is today. Contrary to many of its competitors, Appentura sells its gift certificates almost exclusively online. Over the years, they built strong expertise in online marketing and digital sales channels which now results in a competitive advantage. The first 5 years, Stefan completely bootstrapped the company, investing every CHF earned back into online marketing. In 2019, the company participated in the “Höhle der Löwen” show and was able to win Bettina Hein as an investor. Going forward, Stefan plans to expand the business internationally. They have already run successful “test experiences” in Germany and the US and are planning to roll out larger scale offerings as soon as Covid permits. He also sees large untapped potential in the surprise gift market for businesses and wants to position Appentura in that area as well.

Memorable Quotes:

"Offline Werbung machen wir praktisch nur noch, wenn sich eine einmalige Chance ergibt. Mit unserem Budget ist es aber momentan nicht wirklich ein Thema."

If you would like to listen to other episodes on online marketing, check out our conversation with Lukas Stuber.

Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, 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 give-aways or founders dinners!

Timestamps:

0:58 - Why companies need an e-government solution

3:45 - Switzerland vs Estonia

20:48 - The startup lifecycle on EasyGov

25:27 - Covid loans

34:55 - Collecting data and protecting privacy

About Martin Godel

Martin Godel is the Head of Small and Medium Size Enterprise Policy at the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), based in Berne. In 2002, he earned his Master’s Degree of Law and Diplomacy from Fletcher School, administered by Tufts and Harvard University. For nearly two decades, Martin has held various positions in business endeavours, including Head of the Swiss Business Hub for the Embassy of Switzerland in Japan (2007-2010) and Counsellor for the Swiss Government (2002-2004; 2005-2007). Godel’s main concerns are relieving the administrative load through e-government tools and assuring prime conditions for SME’s access to funding.

Memorable Quotes

"We currently have 32 000 registered companies, and the more companies we have, the easier it is to show just how much the benefits outweigh the costs, for these companies."

"At the moment the tech offerings are quite concentrated on the big players. But I'm confident that we'll start to see much more diversity soon."

If you would like to see more episodes on startups and politics, check out our conversations with Karim Maizar, Simon Enderli and Judith Bellaiche.

Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, 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 give-aways or founders dinners!

Timestamps

5:18 Challenges at Dacuda

9:25 Lead up to the Magic Leap acquisition

13:29 How PXL vision emerged

29:02 What is digitization

33:46 Tools to help with digitization

About Karim Nemr

Karim Nemr is the co-founder and CBO (Chief Business Officer) at PXL Vision, an ETH spinoff focused on digital identity verification. Karim started his career as a business developer at Dacuda, the company founded by Swisspreneur guest Michael Born. He joined the company at a very early stage and was heavily involved in their later exit to the American company Magic Leap in 2017. After Dacuda had been acquired, he soon decided to leave the company for a new venture - PXL Vision - which he had conceived with 4 of his former Dacuda colleagues.

To date, PXL Vision is most renowned as the technology provider for the SwissID solution and for their customer verification and onboarding solutions for enterprises. In May 2020, PXL Vision secured CHF 4.6 m in seed financing. The investment round was led by SIX Fintech Ventures. The company has also been awarded the Swiss Economic Award and was admitted to the SEF Upscaler Program. Going forward, PXL Vision wishes to expand geographically and also branch out into additional use cases beyond customer onboarding.

Karim holds a Bachelor in International Business Administration and Hospitality Management from École Hôtèliere de Lausanne.

Memorable Quotes

"Aus KMU Sicht gilt es wirklich komplett neu zu denken. Digitalisierung ist nicht nur der Weg wie man den Kunden digital erreicht."

To meet two other PXL co-founders, check out our conversations with Michael Born and Roxana Porada.

Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, 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 give-aways or founders dinners!