Swisspreneur Show
Swisspreneur
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.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Mar 26, 2026 • 58min
The $100M TechBio Built Without VCs: Cutiss Co-founder & CEO Daniela Marino (EP #551)
Daniela Marino, co-founder and CEO of Cutiss and biotech founder who turned academic research into personalized skin therapies. She discusses the NovoSkin personalized skin graft, moving from academia to startup life, building in-house GMP production, navigating phase 3 trials and European regulatory pathways, and raising over CHF 100M without traditional venture capital.
Mar 16, 2026 • 52min
Inside Switzerland’s Startup Pipeline: Laurent Decrue & Sophie Lamparter (EP #550)
Laurent Decrue, Co-founder and Co-CEO of Holycode and active angel investor in robotics and medtech. Sophie Lamparter, Founder and Managing Partner at VitaminºC, early-stage investor focused on deep tech and health data. They discuss big March funding rounds and investor sentiment. They unpack ETH Zurich’s record spin-off pipeline and why robotics and industrial tech may be Switzerland’s next breakout sector.
Mar 11, 2026 • 50min
How ETH Zurich Became a Startup Machine: Frank Floessel & Vanessa Wood (#549)
Frank Flössel, ETH alumnus turned entrepreneur and head of ETH Entrepreneurship who builds founder programs. Vanessa Wood, VP for Knowledge Transfer who connects research with industry and policy. They discuss modernizing spin-off processes, speeding up licensing, building student and research startup tracks, and why deep tech plus returning founders strengthen Europe’s startup ecosystem.
11 snips
Mar 4, 2026 • 59min
Finding Product-Market-Fit, Scaling Swiss SaaS, and building the Equity Flywheel: Ledgy Co-Founder & CEO Armon Bättig (#548)
Armon Bättig, co-founder and co-CEO of Ledgy, builds global equity management software to help companies scale employee ownership. He discusses why product-market fit is an ongoing process. He explains building for multiple jurisdictions from day one to speed international growth. He explores cultural differences in buying software and why recurring secondaries and radical transparency matter for equity culture.
Feb 25, 2026 • 1h 9min
From 80M Sequoia Round to Exit: Yokoy Co-Founder Philippe Sahli (#547)
Philippe Sahli, co-founder and former CEO of Yokoy, led the Swiss AI spend-management startup through product-market fit, an $80M Series B with Sequoia, and a strategic sale. He talks about choosing expense automation, building AI-first MVPs, signs of customer-driven PMF, fundraising dynamics with top-tier investors, and the tradeoffs of hypergrowth and timing.
Feb 19, 2026 • 49min
How a Young Founder Built a Marketplace for Extreme Sports: Avento Co-Founder Lean Stein (#546)
Leon Stein, co-founder of Avento and former START Global board member, built a vertical marketplace for extreme sports gear after a bad secondhand buy. He talks about hands-on startup training, building trust with escrow and sport-specific features, and the nonstop but rewarding work of launching a niche marketplace.
Feb 16, 2026 • 58min
Does Switzerland need its own Startup AG?: Laurent Decrue & Sophie Lamparter (EP #545)
Laurent Decrue, Co-founder and Co-CEO of Holycode, shares a founder’s view on fundraising and scaling. Sophie Lamparter, Founder and Managing Partner at VitaminºC, brings early-stage and climate-tech investing insight from Switzerland and San Francisco. They debate AI’s energy squeeze, whether Swiss funding is big enough, the appeal of Delaware C-Corps, ESOP tax hurdles, and quick policy fixes like a tailored Startup AG.
Feb 4, 2026 • 1h 5min
EP #544 - Stefan Wittwer: Product Obsession and Why Most AI Products Feel Useless
Stefan Wittwer, founder and CEO of Infinity.swiss and former teenage freelancer turned product-maker, talks product obsession and designing bookkeeping that feels effortless. He discusses user-tested workflows, building compliance-first accounting software, practical AI that makes humans reviewers not operators, and the tradeoffs of product-led growth in a regulated market.
Jan 29, 2026 • 55min
EP #543 - Mershad Jervan: From Musician to Maker - Building and Rebuilding a Global Music Startup
Mershad Jervan, musician-turned-founder who built, sold, bought back and rebuilt the music distribution platform MondoTunes (now Octave). He tells the story of exiting and reacquiring a startup, operational and cap table mistakes that sank a venture, scaling music distribution across the US and Europe, why Switzerland became strategic, and the shift from songwriter to entrepreneur.
Jan 26, 2026 • 57min
EP #542 - Laurent Decrue & Sophie Lamparter: Do Swiss Startups Need the US to Win Big?
Laurent Decrue, Co-founder & Co-CEO of Holycode, a builder of AI-driven software for startups and SMEs. Sophie Lamparter, Founder & Managing Partner at VitaminºC, an early-stage climate and deep-tech investor. They discuss Switzerland gaining attention for AI, robotics and drones. They explore liquidity paths beyond IPOs, founder trade-offs between exits and scale, and the playbook of building in Europe while fundraising in the US.
