Swisspreneur Show

Timestamps: 2:10 - What liquidation is 6:30 - When liquidation is enforced by a creditor 19:50 - Liquidation agreement 23:31 - The emotional toll 28:20- If liquidation happens to a supplier/partner About Fabian Humbel: Fabian is an executive director and the head of special segments, credit and recovery solutions at UBS, of which he has been an employee since 2006. He has an MBA from the Chicago Booth School of Business and a BASc in Business Administration from HSG. 3 misconceptions about liquidation that he believes founders must deconstruct is the idea that liquidation is not a valuable option, the idea that liquidation is in fact a failure, and the notion that liquidation is necessarily connected to an insolvency procedure. There are 2 types of liquidation: - Privately initiated liquidation: your business model didn't work out, and you've chosen to shut down in style. This may even involve a sale at the end. - Forced liquidation, under the insolvency procedure: you have not been able to pay your creditors. In this situation, you may find an agreement with the creditor and manage to have some of your debt forgiven. If you do not reach an agreement, insolvency it is. Fabian stresses the necessity of reaching out for external psychological support should you find yourself dealing with an insolvency procedure. You do not have to bear the brunt of it by yourself — and having an external, neutral perspective on your situation may end up benefiting you more than you know. Memorable Quotes: "Liquidation does not mean insolvency, and it is not necessarily a bad thing." If you would like to listen to the previous conversation in this series, check out the episode with Jürg Tauss. 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: 5:43 - Traveling for 4 months to think 9:34 - Building a highly-scalable business 21:20 - Sustainability and pricing 35:37 - A new way of experiencing online shopping 42:56 - Selling tokenized shares About Roy Bernheim Roy Bernheim is the co-founder of the men's underwear brand T-Bô, the first clothing brand to be community driven. His background is in European Social and Political studies, and after university he went on to work in private equity and brand management. Roy and his co-founder Allan Perrottet built T-Bô in 2017. They were interested in creating a highly scalable business with a large target audience, and soon discovered that men's underwear was an interesting category from this point of view, because: - Online businesses with a physical component need a basket size that is not too big (because then people wouldn't convert, or would take too long to) nor too small (because then it's difficult to compensate for the acquisition cost). Men's underwear had a happy medium; - It had an interesting customer acquisition cost; - Even if you don't establish a subscription model, men's underwear is a product people will buy more of if they like it; - You can ship it inside an envelope up to three pieces of underwear, which is highly cost effective from a logistics standpoint. T-Bô menswear is Direct By Consumer, meaning that the products are co-created together with the T-Bô community — they're not personalized, but they are highly subject to democratic changes based on feedback. This demand-driven production means the returns are very few and they don't have to factor in wastage into their margin structure, which allows them to have competitive prices while still maintaining a very nice margin. Memorable Quotes: "The clothing brands of the future will be built in a collaborative and open way." Resources Mentioned: Exponential Organizations, by Salim Ismail, Michael Malone & Yuri van Geest Give and Take, by Adam Grant Science News If you would like to listen to more conversations on sustainable clothing brands, check out our episode with Nicholas Hänny. 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: 0:52 - How NOT to do valuation 3:56 - Why do a company valuation 27:26 - Discounted cash flow 34:30 - How to influence your company value 37:49 - How often to do valuation About Jürg Tauss: Jürg Tauss is an executive director at UBS and the head of the M&A valuation desk at the corporate finance Switzerland team. The first thing Jürg thinks founders should know is that value is in itself subjective, and guided by the individual who looks at the asset. What the UBS M&A valuation desk tries to do is identify a market consensus regarding the value of this asset. Why should you do a company valuation? To prepare for the acquisition of your company, or for the buying of equity by other parties. What should you take into consideration? - Do not look to big company valuations as a reference, since your knowledge about their journey and inner workings is woefully incomplete. - Mind the difference between the value potential of your company and its time value: you cannot just calculate the supposed value of your company taking into consideration the best case scenario of your company's future progress; you have to consider all sorts of possible scenarios, good and bad, and then base your valuation on that. To prepare for a company valuation, you should first gather all knowledge about the future of your company in a transparent and easy-to-understand way. Memorable Quotes: "Large company valuations are often taken as a reference point by startups. This can go very wrong." 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: 6:02 - The psychology of flash sales 10:30 - People lie in surveys 11:51 - Selling teslas and Picassos 25:43 - Picking the right idea 43:33 - What the german part can learn from the Romandy About Pascal Meyer: Pascal Meyer is the solo founder and CEO of Qoqa, a flash sale e-commerce platform in Switzerland created in 2005. He previously worked for AMPCO Metal and Buchheim Communications. At the time of Qoqa's founding, e-commerce was quite new to Switzerland and brands were extremely hesitant about it, so the first Qoqa customers were so-called "internet geeks", who, having some knowledge on the subject, were afraid of getting their credit card details stolen by e-commerce websites or things like that. The first product Qoqa ever sold was an mp3 player, which at the time was at the cutting edge of technology. Nowadays it is through its forums, email and social media interactions that Qoqa receives feedback on what sort of products to make available next. In March 2020, during lockdown, Qoqa stepped up to the challenge by creating a platform where small brick and mortar shops and farmers could advertise their products, so that Swiss customers wouldn't just buy necessities from large companies with internet media reach. This platform, which is still up and running, is called Direqt. Memorable Quotes: "Better to try and fail than do nothing at all." Resources Mentioned: Delivering Happiness, by Tony Hsieh It Doesn't Have To Be Crazy At Work, by Jason Fried If you would like to listen to more episodes on e-commerce, check out our conversations with Alan Frei. 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: 5:43 - Organizing tours to North Korea 10:37 - Generating revenue from the start 19:38 - Being a chairman 24:13 - Taxfix makes taxes easy 41:33 - Time to leave About Mathis Büchi: Mathis Büchi is the co-founder and chairman at the pdf software company smallpdf and the digital tax accountant Taxfix. His background is in International Business and Global Management and he previously ran a tour company organizing trips to North Korea together with an NGO. His university studies, as well, took place in Asia: he frequented the University of Hong Kong and Korea University (in South Korea). When the political climate in North Korea intensified, his tour company came to an end and he took the trans Siberian railway train back to Switzerland, where he would go on to found smallpdf in2013. Smallpdf was bootstrapped from the very beginning, as their business model allowed them to generate enough revenue from day one to pay themselves a salary and keep things afloat. In 2016 he co-founded Taxfix and became itsCEO, not because he had a background in taxes or any particular expertise on it, but due to the fact that he himself found taxes an aggravating an confusing task. Taxfix got started in Germany because tax filing is even more complex there, so much so that 25% of Germans don't even file their taxes, thereby losing out on an average of 1000€. Taxfix tackles this issue by radically simplifying the process: an automated questionnaire on your phone simulates the conversation you would have with a tax accountant and the tax relevancy of your replies is then analyzed by the app. Memorable Quotes: "Building something out of nothing is what excites me the most." Resources Mentioned: FitXR, the VR boxing app No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention, by Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer 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: 1:25 - Business is psychology 9:19 - Validating the Relai idea 18:34 - Building an MVP during a Hackathon 33:47 - Simplifying bitcoin 54:06 - Showing investors traction About Julian Liniger Julian Liniger is the co-founder and CEO at Relai, the world's easiest Bitcoin investing app. His educational background is in Business Administration and Psychology an he has previously worked for Gsponer Consulting Group International and synfluence. He was originally introduced to bitcoin by a nerdy friend of his, through whom Julian bought his first bitcoin. Despite having had little talent for "techy" things all his life, he eventually grew to understand cryptocurrency. The idea for Relai came from Julian's own experience. Before, if you wanted to start buying or trading bitcoin, you had to: - Find an exchange and create an account, which required uploading all of your personal info and having it checked, which took a couple of days; - Wiring money from the bank to the exchange and waiting for that process to be completed, so that you could then exchange the money into bitcoin; - Creating a wallet, then withdrawing the bitcoin from the exchange to the wallet (since exchanges — and the bitcoin that is stored within them — are at the mercy of hackers). The whole process took about 1-2 weeks and required 2-3 different service providers. The fact that the process needed to be simplified was a no brainer. Together with his co-founder Adem Bilican, Julian started the pre-seed fundraising process. It took them 5 months to raise a meager 20k. In hindsight, Julian blames his lack of track record and the typical Swiss hesitancy, but also the fact that they were approaching the wrong investors: people who didn't understand crypto and sometimes weren't even that interested in fintech. Once they got the money, Adem and Julian built the MVP in 3 months and went live — from this point onwards, investors were the ones approaching them. And it's no wonder: Relai allows you start buying, trading and saving bitcoin within just 1 minute, and they don't even need to know your name. Memorable Quotes: "More than half of Gen Zs and Millennials say they'll be investing in bitcoin. These are the people who are gonna control more than half of all money in the future." If you would like to listen to our previous episode with Julian Liniger, click 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: 2:17 - The problem Linia solves 7:23 - Acquiring your first international customer 10:00 - The biggest competitor 15:18 - Product market fit by trial and error 19:53 - Being bootstrapped About Lorenzo Arizzoli-Bulato Lorenzo Arizzoli-Bulato is the co-founder and managing director at LINIA, a startup manufacturing drone software for power line inspection. His educational background is in Electrical Engineering and before starting LINIA in 2018 he worked for companies such as IASTE, Axpo Group and EWZ. Despite being in a rather niche market, Lorenzo has no trouble finding customers, in part because he knows the problem and buyer persona intimately (having worked in the industry for a while himself), and in part because power grid operators are under a lot of pressure: - Due to the climate emergency, weather impact on power grid infrastructure is worsening; - Due to decarbonization, more and more traffic is being brought to existing power grids; - Building new power lines is usually met with quite a lot of resistance from local communities, so operators are wary to do so; - The time frame for maintenance work is getting shorter as more and more people need to use electricity all of the time. In November 2021 LINIA won the Energy Startup Day 1st place Public Choice Award. Memorable Quotes: "I see companies which offer similar products more as partners than as competitors." 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: 01:00 - What we mean when we say "strategy" 2:22 - Knowing you value proposition 11:13 - Strategy and KPIs 26:06 - Humility and seeking out help About Elisabete Ramalho Elisabete Ramalho is an international executive with 20 years of experience in digital transformation, technology, manufacturing and consumer goods, who is currently active as an industry lead at Google. For Elisabete, strategy is, naturally, about making choices. These choices should be informed by answers to the following questions: - What is my product really about? - How am I gonna market it? - Should I target B2B? B2C? B2B2C? When answering these questions, there is no exact "right" or "wrong" answer; only answers which mean accruing more or less risk. Another thing which needs to serve as your strategy's compass is the value proposition. If you have yet to land on a definitive value proposition, consider these questions: - Does your product already exist in the market? - Could your success be detonated by lower prices from the competition? - Do you have a core competence relevant to building this product? Speaking of competition: Elisabete recommends that you be aware of what they are doing, but that you don't fixate on it — you only know what their current and past moves are, not what they're ultimately aiming at, so you may severely misinterpret their actions. When drafting an actual plan, try to answer these three points: - Where are you going? - How much do you need? - What role will each team member have? You might also want to work with OKRs (Objectives and Key Results). Your annual OKRs should tie in with the team OKRs, which in turn connect to the individual OKRs. When setting goals, do so in a way that will push you out of your comfort zone. If you know full well you'll reach them, then those aren't goals — they're a checklist! Lastly: allow your team members to shape the company strategy with you. They'll be more personally committed to achieving the goals if they themselves had a role in determining them. Memorable Quotes: "The right product to sell isn't necessarily the cheapest one. Because when you start pricing down, you cannot price up again." "If you set yourself goals you know you will reach, then those aren't goals. It's a checklist." 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: 5:03 - Going all in from the beginning 14:00 - The problems of marketplace entrepreneurs 20:22 - The Covid effect 26:22 - Höhle der Löwen appearance 33:37 - Canton-specific regulation About Oliver Huber Oliver Huber is the founder and CEO of Nomady, a Swiss sustainable camping platform. Previously he worked for VP Bank and Schwyzer Kantonalbank, and has a background in Business Admin, Finance and Banking from Hochschule Luzern. Oliver has always been an outdoors and camping enthusiast, so the Nomady idea — landowners becoming hosts and renting out their campsites — seemed only natural to him. Having successfully flipped a house in the past, he had enough capital to quit his day job and start going all in on Nomady from day one. When answering whether Nomady is capitalizing on the sustainable tourism craze, Oliver replied that wanting to get away from crowded places and connect with nature has always been a human necessity, so the growth of this market comes as no surprise. He also feels a responsibility to play his part in answering the climate emergency. He began in earnest by going around his hometown and pitching the idea to landowners — 5 or 6 of them said yes and this allowed him to test his MVP. His first customers had a very positive experience, and word of mouth really helped Nomady expand, as well as some Facebook posts from Oliver himself. Covid had both a positive and negative effect on his business: on the one hand, when the pandemic crisis began in March 2020 Oliver was in the middle of negotiations with investors, after having spent 1 year and a half bootstrapped, and his investors immediately quit. But on the other hand, since during the pandemic people couldn't travel abroad and felt safer vacationing in remote places, Nomady came as a perfect solution for their tourism needs. Memorable Quotes: "It was important for me to have real entrepreneurs on the board and as investors, because in an early stage you need to call them up and ask them difficult questions." Resources Mentioned: The Packraft: https://packrafteurope.com/ If you would like to listen to more episodes on camping, check out our conversation with Michele Matt. 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: 5:00 - The essence of entrepreneurship is timeless 10:08 - What makes a good leader? 18:55 - Biased language 25:46 - Being inclusive in a cost-efficient way 28:34 - Few women in top positions About Elisabete Ramalho: Elisabete Ramalho is an international executive with 20 years of experience in digital transformation, technology, manufacturing and consumer goods, who is currently active as an industry lead at Google. Elisabete's maternal grandparents were a big inspiration for her. They ran a successful bakery in a small town in Portugal during the 50s and travelled all over the world. Elisabete's grandparents taught her the value of working hard and of staying humble, and also of intimately knowing the needs of each of your clients — they knew everyone's name and order as soon as they walked through the door. During her career Elisabete has formed a clear opinion on what it takes to be a good leader. According to her, a good leader: - Allows their team members to co-create the company strategy; - Is always ready to acknowledge they're wrong, and always eager to learn; - Focuses on a person's strengths when giving feedback; - Avoids biased language and promotes diversity in hiring; - Makes people feel comfortable enough to speak up, and gives credit where credit is due. At Google, good leadership is measured by cross checking someone's annual performance review with employee retention, talent acquisition and team satisfaction rates. Memorable Quotes: "If you have the right people on your team, goals should be co-created. It can't just be up to one person to decide." 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!