Should employees buy shares or receive them free?

Timestamps:

5:32 - Understanding Product-Market-Fit

19:24 - Scaling across geographies

25:45 - Cultural shifts in european entrepreneurship

30:04 - The equity compensation flywheel

Episode description:

In this episode we sit down with Armon Bättig, Co-Founder and CEO of Ledgy, a Swiss scale-up helping companies manage equity and build real ownership culture across more than 40 countries. Ledgy’s mission is to make equity work globally - giving employees transparency and access to ownership while enabling Startups to scale compensation beyond cash. Armon’s journey into entrepreneurship was anything but linear, moving from Michelin-star kitchens to data science before building one of Europe’s leading equity management platforms.

In the conversation, we explore three major themes for Founders building in Europe and Switzerland. First, Armon explains why product-market fit isn’t a single moment, but something companies must rediscover repeatedly as they scale across new S-curves. Second, we discuss why Ledgy deliberately built its product for multiple jurisdictions from day one, enabling them to expand across Europe, the UK, and the US much faster later on. And third, we dive into the Europe vs. US ecosystem debate - from how Americans buy software to why Switzerland offers unique advantages for building deep technical companies.

Beyond the big themes, Armon shares why early Startups often over-index on their first 10 customers, and how that can quietly push companies toward building an agency instead of a scalable product. We discuss why employee equity only works if companies are radically transparent about it, and how secondaries and liquidity events are critical to creating Europe’s next generation of founders. Finally, Armon reflects on leadership and resilience - from maintaining personal balance as a founder to why he still participates directly in sales conversations to stay close to customers.

The cover portrait was edited by⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ www.smartportrait.io⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

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