Swisspreneur Show

Timestamps: 1:07 - The fundraising momentum in Switzerland 3:25 - Setbacks in Swiss investing today 11:53 - Going beyond the pitch 15:43 - How to approach investors 27:38 - An overview of Swiss brokers About Lukas Reinhardt Lukas Reinhardt is the head of UBS' Growth Advisory, the leading partner for fast-growing Swiss companies, such as On Running, VIU Eyewear and farmy.ch. He first joined UBS in 2006 as a Graduate Trainee and since then worked in different M&A and Corporate Finance positions for UBS in Zurich and New York. In 2020 over $2bn were invested in Swiss startups and scaleups, so it's never been more relevant to discuss the intricacies of fundraising in Switzerland. Some main fundraising challenges are: - Being ready: knowing what your most recent milestones were, having your documentation in order, gaining some pitching experience; - Access to investors: this can be tricky, especially if you don't make a habit of proactively networking with them; - The Valley of Death: seed stage money can be relatively easy to acquire, but growth stage money not so much (since the amount needed is bigger). How to approach potential investors: - The best possible option is already knowing one — this requires constant networking on your part; - The second best thing is to get a warm introduction; - A pitching event can be a good platform, but one-on-one conversations are usually more fruitful, because you can tailor your pitch to a specific investor and build trust more quickly; - If all else fails, there's always cold emailing/calling. After the initial contact: - Send a one-pager/teaser document quickly summarizing the investment case; - In case of a positive reaction, send them a pitch deck. Why you might want to work with a broker: - It frees up resources: fundraising is not something you can just do on the side, but you also don't want to let it steal time away from operational tasks; - Brokers have transaction expertise and know-how which you yourself might not possess; - Brokers have easier access to investors; - The good reputation of a broker can elevate your own reputation within the market. But naturally, brokers charge fees, and demand a certain exclusivity. Memorable Quotes: "Fundraising is not just something you can do on the side, but at the same time, you can't dedicate all your time to it and neglect operational tasks. That's why you should outsource it to an advisor." If you would like to listen to more episodes related to UBS, check out our conversation with Verena Kaiser. 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: 1:05 - The Goldman Sachs epiphany 9:28 - Getting into impact investment 18:53 - Women in developing countries & traditional banks 32:44 - From a 20$ loan to an SME 51:23 - Investing in European startups About Roger Müller Roger Müller is a board member and managing partner at Enabling Qapital, an microfinance advisory company. His background is in traditional asset management. During the 2008 financial crisis, he was working at Julius Bär's Asset Management — at that time, a conversation with a colleague about the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy made it clear to him that he needed to pursue a more independent path, because he did not want to suffer the risk of losing everything from one day to another. He began to pursue entrepreneurial projects. But it was only in 2014 that he became involved in the impact investment world by joining Blue Orchard. Years later, in 2020, he built his own impact investment fund: Enabling Qapital. What is impact investing? It's a small loan you dispense to someone in an emerging market, helping them raise their living standard and become financially independent. The minimum amount is around $20, and the maximum is $30'000. Any higher than that is considered an SME loan. Which precautions should you take? You cannot take anything for granted. Make sure the person knows what a loan is, how they will repay it, and what to do if business goes south. Before dispensing loans to people, Enabling Qapital execute a due diligence process with more than 100 checks. Why is microfinance necessary? People who live in remote areas and only wish to borrow a small amount of money have trouble getting loans from traditional banks because the operational costs offset the profits for banks. Whether you give out a $50 loan or a $20'000, the due diligence process is the same. Enabling Qapital is active in all emerging markets except for North Korea, South Sudan, Cuba and the Central African Republic. Once per year they produce a Social Impact Report, showcasing the achievements of the previous 12 months. Memorable Quotes: "My finances were stable, and I felt like I'd stopped growing as a person. It was time to start taking risks." Resources Mentioned: The Happiness Lab  Business Wars  Naval Ravikant Yuval Noah Harari If you would like to listen to more episodes about impact startups, check out our conversation with Anaïs Matthey-Junod. 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: 1:50 - From farm boy to computer geek 10:13 - Being greedy for positive feedback 16:56 - Ending up in a broken team 23:18 - Perseverance 25:05 - Getting close to burnout About Igor Susmelj Igor Susmelj is the co-founder of Lightly, where he helps companies improve machine learning models by curating vision data. He has previously worked at SIX Group and Unicorn Labs, and holds a master's in Electrical Engineering from ETH. Igor grew up on a riding stable, where he spent much of his time helping out his parents. He had to fight tooth and nail for his first computer, and struggled with his family's expectations for his future career. It was at ETH that he first came into contact with the field of machine learning. After finishing his master's, he co-founded Lightly (originally called Mirage/What To Label), which aimed to make the machine learning process for autonomously driving cars more efficient and human. Several things went wrong at first: - He mismanaged his team: Igor did not take care to discuss either the expectations or the roles of everyone in the team early on, and then when they finally did, it was extremely hard to make everyone happy. - He became obsessed with the success of the company and neglected his interpersonal relationships. A loved one died during this period of Igor's life, and he feels he did not spend enough time with this person in their final days. Nowadays he calls his family every second day. - He understood success as completely dependent on other people's perception of him and his team. He changed his business model too hastily based on external feedback. There was even a time when, having run out of money, Igor found himself having to flip cars in order to support himself and his project. But thankfully, there was no difficulty too great for Igor to overcome, and nowadays Lightly is back on track and has in fact just been accepted to a very famous accelerator (more details to follow soon). Memorable Quotes: "I used to define success as what other people thought of me." If you would like to listen to more fuck-up stories, check out our most recent episode with Cédric Waldburger. 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 - Saying goodbye to Big Pharma 18:26 - Fulfilling your parents' expectations 47:53 - Stepping down from the CEO role 58:56 - Joining Dezentrum 1:05:18 - A do tank, not a think tank About Malik El Bay Malik El Bay is the co-founder of the household management app Flatastic and a partner at Dezentrum, a think-tank concocting positive scenarios of the future. His background is in interdisciplinary natural sciences and he has previously worked for Fit Analytics and Modum. He also co-founded Yeppt, an app which aimed to be a mix of Facebook events, Whatsapp and Doodle, and which participated in the Axel Springer Plug and Play Accelerator. After graduating from ETH, Malik discovered lab work and the world of Big Pharma weren't what he was most suited for. This identity crisis led him to send out a great deal of job applications, namely to Fit Analytics, where he eventually had his first startup experience. Here he was able to run experiments dealing with data about people and products. By then, he was sharing an apartment with a group of entrepreneurs who encouraged him to become one himself, so he did — but after a failed project, he felt he needed to go back to ETH to study some more. At this time Malik also participated in the ETH Entrepreneur Club. Fresh out of university once again, he co-founded the social network Yeppt, and even managed to get in the Axel Springer Accelerator. Looking back, Malik can pinpoint a few mistakes: - They received great feedback because they asked the wrong questions. - Accelerators serve as social proof and as a stage, which they thought would easily permit them to achieve viral growth. For this reason, they didn't prioritize fundraising. - They lost sight of what their ultimate company vision was. After dedicating his time to Flatastic (2014/present) and Modum (2016/2020), Malik joined the think-tank Dezentrum, after having originally received a one-pager from them for feedback and remained in contact. Dezentrum calls themselves a "do-tank" because, more than write papers (which they don't enjoy doing all that much), they are able to build in-house prototypes based on their ideas. They're financed by private companies, academic institutions and foundations. They mainly discuss Universal Basic Income, remote work and decentralized companies. Malik is of the opinion that UBI should be a top societal priority, since poverty sincerely hinders decision-making and prevents human flourishing. However, he also thinks that citizens need to take into account that a UBI will have to be payed for by everyone, though it may not necessarily be enjoyed by everyone. Regarding this topic, as with all other discussions of the future, Malik is of the belief that it's up to us to avoid dystopian scenarios. Memorable Quotes: "You get great feedback if you ask the wrong questions."

Timestamps: 8:16 - Leaving your well-paying corporate job 13:29 - The business model behind a free product 22:08 - Is Revolut a competitor? 27:29 - Being on Höhle der Löwen 29:35 - Doing a 5M tokenized crowd investment About Simon Youssef Simon Youssef is the co-founder and CTO of neon, a transaction account for everyday finances. Before starting his own company, he was an associate at the management consulting company Strategy&. His educational background is in Physics, and he holds a PhD from the Microsoft Research Lab. Simon and his co-founder Jörg Sandrock worked together at Strategy&, where they became well acquainted with the Swiss banking market. After a few unfulfilling projects, Simon went on a surfing sabbatical in Indonesia. During this time, Jörg proposed the neon business idea to him, and Simon decided to take the leap. Whereas typical banking apps cater to the bank's sales interests, merely replicating the organizational structure of a traditional bank, neon offers a client-focused product free of charge, with the lowest fees in Switzerland. Neon manages this because, having a team of around 20 employees, they can live on much slimmer margins. Their revenue comes from card interchange, premium plans like neon Green, and finance fees (from when clients buy partner products on the app). Revolut and Transferwise don't pose a very big threat, since they're more travel cards than anything else. neon, on the other hand, is a Swiss banking product, meaning they can offer you a Swiss IBAN, e-bills, and so on. Having been the first of its kind in the small Swiss market, neon has already amassed 70 000 users, in part due to the large amount of press coverage they received. Their participation in Höhle der Löwen, while helpful cashflow-wise, did not bring them as much of a boost as they initially imagined. Memorable Quotes: "Leaving our corporate careers was a huge risk, so we did not want to fuck this up. Not wanting to fuck up is a big motivator." Resources Mentioned: - How I Built This  - The Happiness Lab  If you'd like to know more about the neon story, check out our episode with Simon's co-founder, Jörg Sandrock. 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: 4:45 - The importance of a good social circle 10:51 - The right to disconnect 26:40 - Taking care of your body 38:32 - A good night's sleep 47:49 - Taking care of your mind About Mathias Wegmüller Mathias is an accomplished entrepreneur, board member and investor, with multi-year expertise in digital transformation. Together with Simon Scheurer, Mathias co-founded Qumram in 2011 and led it in different roles - CEO, Head of Business Development and Sales - until the successful exit and trade-sale in November 2017 to Dynatrace. Throughout his entrepreneurial journey, Mathias learned by trial and error how to best maintain his health. Below are a few of his tips. Cultivating your social circle: - It's a good idea to make friends with your co-workers, because you spend a good deal of your time at work. - When having quality time with your family, don't go on and on and on about work. - If necessary/possible, you can take your romantic partner on business trips. - The number of close friendships you can have really varies from person to person. Managing your stress: - If you have lots of muscle pain, can't sleep, and have a hard time focusing, these might be the side effects of chronic stress. A healthy person should be free of pain most of the time. - Make sure you exercise regularly and that your job is not incompatible with your in-built stress tolerance capability (which varies genetically from person to person). - Exercise-wise, if the workout you've picked leaves you in pain, and/or doesn't help you build muscle or flexibility, it's probably not the right workout for you. Balancing your diet: - You might wanna consider investing money in a test that tells you how well you digest carbs. Not everyone is intolerant. - Before you splurge on supplements, make sure you've already got the "carbs/proteins/fat" balance right. - You might wanna look into the 16/8 intermittent fasting regime. Improving your sleep: - If you can power nap to make up for lost sleep, do it. But investing in a good night's sleep is better. 6h of good sleep is the ideal number, in Mathias' opinion. - Go to sleep at more or less the same time everyday or you'll mess up your circadian rhythm. - Invest in a good mattress, a good pillow, and black-out curtains. - Avoid screens in the last 1-2h before bedtime. Final takeaways: - Don't sacrifice your health for work performance. A life full of professional failures can still be a rich life as long as you are healthy. - You can try to stay on top of your health through metrics like your resting heart beat, but at the end of the day qualitative feedback is much better. When you run into someone you haven't seen in a long time, do they tell you you look tired/old/too skinny/too fat? We look at ourselves everyday, so incremental changes can slip below our notice. Memorable Quotes: "Successful founders just have an in-built high stress tolerance — otherwise they wouldn't be where they are." Resources Mentioned: Der Ernährungskompass, by Bas Kast

Timestamps: 04:40 - How market dynamics affect young companies 8:38 - Validating the market 20:35 - Why startups should participate in the SEF Growth initiative 22:23 - How SEF assesses companies 33:26 - The UBS growth advisory About Alexander, Lukas and Tom Alexander Curiger is the managing owner of the spirits company Silverbogen, which he co-founded in 2010. Since 2010 he has also been a board member at the family business Curiger Immobilien. Lukas Reinhardt is a corporate finance professional and head of the UBS Growth Advisory. He previously worked at UBS as a corporate finance specialist and M&A analyst. Tom Schlup is a financial analyst and the head of the SEF Growth initiative. He previously worked at Scout24 as an M&A project manager. The Silverbogen story began when Alex's younger brother, Raphael, came back from his study exchange in St Petersburg with 4 bottles of Beluga Vodka which both brothers really enjoyed. They started importing bottles of Beluga and selling them in Switzerland, but it eventually dawned on them that selling just one product would be difficult, so they began adding more brands to their portfolio. By moving their business online, they saw some growth, but also had to face the difficulty of getting brands to agree to this different route to market. To test a possible european-level scale up, they have recently expanded to Germany. Silverbogen participated in the SEF Growth initiative. Tom Schlup indicates the following as the biggest challenges for SEF Growth companies: 1. Cash handling: young companies don't necessarily have a CFO, and are usually always short of cash. 2. Market orientation: young companies don't always understand the market well, even though they may have a very good product. 3. Team: Tom advises you build your team before you actually need it, since growth stages happen fast and require stable structures. Why should companies participate in the SEF growth initiative? - There are not many offers for growth companies out there, but mainly early stage or seed stage. - SEF has a wide network of experienced entrepreneurs. - SEF companies also benefit from a wide range of partner offerings, namely with their main partner UBS. Why did UBS choose to be a part of SEF growth? - They wished to strengthen their position in the SME and startup growth market, where they feel they can be impactful. - It seemed to them that SEF was offering something truly innovative and beneficial to startups. Memorable Quotes: "In every company stage you need different people. At the beginning, it's generalists you want, but as you grow, so does the need for specialized skills." If you would like to listen to more conversations on successful family businesses, check out our episode with Iman Nahvi.

Timestamps: 1:06 - Summarizing your life in 10 year spans 6:32 - Deciding to focus on just one thing 11:11 - What made UNIC special? 19:53 - Escaping the bootstrapping trap 50:06 - Being acquired by Dynatrace About Mathias Wegmüller Mathias is an accomplished entrepreneur, board member and investor, with multi-year expertise in digital transformation. Together with Simon Scheurer, Mathias co-founded Qumram in 2011 and led it in different roles - CEO, Head of Business Development and Sales - until the successful exit and trade-sale in November 2017 to Dynatrace. He met his co-founder Simon at UNIC, one of the mother companies of the Swiss Startup Mafia. Mathias thinks what set UNIC apart was its founder team's commitment to hiring entrepreneurially-minded people who could handle a lot of responsibility. When he first heard about Simon Scheurer's idea to start recording the internet's history, Mathias decided to take the entrepreneurial plunge himself, and so qumram was founded. During his time at Qumram he learned many valuable lessons, namely: 1. Bootstrap at your own peril: If you bootstrap, you'll be so dependent on your first customers and on your next deal that you will most likely pivot too much, and lose sight of your long term strategy. 2. It's your product: Always making the customer happy is not the way to build a big company. Always be very customer-centric, but don't let your customer own your product roadmap. 3. What not to do: If you've got generalists for founders, your first hires should be specialists, for the sake of focus and strategy — because strategy is less about what to do and more about what not to do. 4. The most important "win" comes from sales — then fundraising, and only then stuff like awards. 5. Having a bunch of money is useful if you want to scale up; otherwise it's not necessarily a recipe for success. 6. When managing the exit, if you go for the best possible price, you might not get the best possible fit, and then the earnout period can be a bit rough. Memorable Quotes: "When you move to a foreign country, no one knows you. It's a great time to start finding yourself." "The 'always make your customer happy' mindset is not really ideal to build a broader company." 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: 3:45 - Die ersten Startup Ideen 7:48 - Wie entstand die Idee zu yamo? 15:30 - Die erste Produktion 22:10 - Tipps an Studierende die etwas starten wollen 30:50 - Gebrandete Kühlschränke im Coop Über Tobias Gunzenhauser: Tobias Gunzenhauser ist Mitgründer und CEO von Yamo, einem Startup, welches mit seinen gesunden Snacks für Kinder und Babies den Markt revolutioniert. Bevor er selbst zum Gründer wurde, arbeitete er im Bereich Purchasing und Marketing Controlling bei Coop und später als Brand Manager bei Gruppo Campari. Parallel studierte er BWL, Marketing und Kommunikation an der Hochschule Luzern. Durch seine Passion für’s gute Essen bemerkte er während eines veganen Experiments, dass Babynahrung sowohl geschmacklich als auch inhaltlich Verbesserungspotenzial bietet. Da er Spass daran hat etwas aufzubauen, entschied er gemeinsam mit einem der späteren Mitgründer mit einer neuen Produktart in den Baby- und Kindernahrungsmarkt einzutreten. Für Tobias sind Arbeit und Freizeit keine getrennten Bereiche. Deshalb ist es für ihn enorm wichtig, dass er etwas macht, woran er Spass hat und er etwas verwirklichen kann. Die Zusammenarbeit in einem kleinen Unternehmen, mit tollen, divers aufgestellten Mitarbeitenden, welche etwas anpacken wollen geben ihm Energie und machen Freude. Memorable Quotes: "Ich sagte, wir müssen Kühlschränke in die Regale reinstellen. Das war wohl etwas frech oder naiv, aber ich dachte einfach 'Let's do it!'" Wenn du mehr über SEF startups erfahren möchtest, hör dir unsere Episode mit Sergio Studer, Andreas Lenzhofer, Jörg Sandrock, Martin Stadler, Jeannette Morath, Carlo Loderer, David Gugelmann, Simon Ittig, Léa Miggiano, Freddy Hunziker und Melanie Gabriel an. Folge uns auf Twitter, Instagram, Facebook und Linkedin um auf dem Laufenden zu bleiben. Wir posten regelmässig über Live Shows, Give-Aways und unsere Founders Dinner Events.

Timestamps: 2:09 - Der Weg ins Unternehmertum 5:50 - Wie aus Spesen ein spannendes Thema wurde 9:28 - Tipps für die Unternehmensgründung 20:59 - yokoy in drei Ländern 26:20 - Der Deal bei 'Die Höhle der Löwen' Über Melanie Gabriel: Melanie Gabriel ist Mitgründerin des Schweizer Fintechs Yokoy, welches mit künstlicher Intelligenz den Spesen- und Lieferantenrechnungsprozess von Unternehmen automatisiert. Bevor sie 2019 die Rolle als Mitgründerin und Chief Marketing Officer bei Yokoy einnahm, studierte sie BWL, VWL und Soziologie an der Universität Basel und absolvierte das Masterstudium in Business Management an der Universität St. Gallen. Während dem Studium gründete sie bereits eine Kleidertausch-App und war mit Leidenschaft in der Musik- und Kulturbranche tätig. Anschliessend arbeitete sie während vier Jahren als Marketing Managerin, später als Head of Marketing bei der B2B Software Firma dizmo. Nebst ihrer Leidenschaft für Musik und Nachhaltigkeit setzt sich Melanie passioniert für Diversität in Teams ein und fördert dies unter anderem mit ihrem Engagement als Board Member bei We Shape Tech. 2021 wurde Melanie vom Female Innovation Forum als Innovator of the year ausgezeichnet. Memorable Quotes: "Auch wenn uns Österreich und Deutschland sehr nahe sind, gibt es doch Unterschiede, welche man durch digitale Kommunikation nicht immer direkt feststellt." Folge uns auf Twitter, Instagram, Facebook und Linkedin um auf dem Laufenden zu bleiben. Wir posten regelmässig über Live Shows, Give-Aways und unsere Founders Dinner Events.