Folgen
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Timestamps:
7:29 - How does the Swiss ecosystem compare to others?
18:09 - Which Swiss scaleups is Nicolas excited about?
23:46 - Does Swiss shyness hold us back?
30:23 - Investing in companies with long development cycles
35:08 - Creating outbound investment opportunities
This episode was co-produced with the Deep Tech Nation Switzerland Foundation.
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(Disclaimer: Relai services are exclusively recommended for Swiss and Italian residents.)
About Nicolas Autret:
Nicolas Autret is a partner at Walden Catalyst Ventures, a venture capital firm helping early stage companies in the US, Europe, and Israel build the next generation of category-defining businesses in deep tech. He holds an MBA from INSEAD and was previously a partner at Sofinnova Partners, 360 Capital and Samsung Catalyst Fund before joining Walden Catalyst in 2021.
During his chat with Merle, Nicolas explained why he thinks the Swiss ecosystem should not try to replicate the Silicon Valley phenomenon. According to Nicolas, Silicon Valley is a unique ecosystem that’s been around for 60 years, which resulted from a unique recipe for collaboration between academia, investors, entrepreneurs and large corporates. It took decades to mature, first through government funding and then later largely through private funding.
The success of Silicon Valley ought to inspire us, says Nicolas, and of course best practices can be derived from it, but we should not try to replicate the exact same phenomenon in Switzerland — a very different country with its unique set of circumstances. Switzerland benefits from excellent universities and is quite strong in terms of deep tech, but it is still maturing as an ecosystem, as are other European startup hubs. Our culture of high performance and high precision differentiates us from the Americans and their “break things” mentality, but this is not necessarily a bad thing. Each mindset has its own individual perks.
Nowadays, Nicolas is excited about Swiss companies like Scandit, ANYbotics, Ecorobotix and SOPHiA GENETICS. He thinks one major key to accelerating the maturation of the Swiss startup ecosystem (and other European ecosystems) is to allow for more late stage funding.
The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io.
Don’t forget to give us a follow on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin, 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 giveaways or founders' dinners.
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Timestamps:
6:10 - Quantifying innovation for investment purposes
10:53 - How Evelyne met Tobias Reichmuth
20:43 - Can innovation outperform ETFs?
34:18 - How to build trust with potential investors
38:34 - Why Evelyne’s team is mostly women
This episode was sponsored by Relai. Get started with Bitcoin by downloading the Relai app today, and profit from 10% less fees by entering code SWISSPRENEUR at checkout.
(Disclaimer: Relai services are exclusively recommended for Swiss and Italian residents.)
About Evelyne Pflugi:
Evelyne Pflugi is the co-founder and CEO of The Singularity Group, a company quantifying applied innovation in listed equities. She holds a MSc in Food Science and Technology from ETH and worked at Capital Group and GAM Investment Management (Switzerland) Ltd before founding The Singularity Group in 2017.
At The Singularity Group, Evelyne and her team are redefining how innovation gets quantified. Instead of measuring it by R&D expenses, patents, capex in tech or M&A in tech, Evelyne prefers to focus solely on feasibility and profitability. She co-founded the group with Tobias Reichmuth, a serial founder and investor. The Singularity Group is the initiator of the Singularity Index™ (Bloomberg ticker: NQ2045), a global, all-sector benchmark and gold standard for Applied Innovation. The Singularity Strategies include The Singularity Fund (UCITS Lux), Singularity US Innovation Leaders (AMC), Singularity US Equity (LUKB AMC), Singularity Small&Mid (UBS AMC), and the partner product LUKB Smart Farming (AMC).
The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io.
Don’t forget to give us a follow on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin, 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 giveaways or founders' dinners. -
Fehlende Folgen?
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Timestamps:
5:20 - Helping European companies set up shop in China
11:43 - SICTIC’s investment program for kids
17:57 - Building AI models to predict fundraising success
26:00 - How being a young investor changes your perspective
This episode was co-produced by SICTIC, the leading angel investor network in Switzerland.
This episode was sponsored by Relai. Get started with Bitcoin by downloading the Relai app today, and profit from 10% less fees by entering code SWISSPRENEUR at checkout.
(Disclaimer: Relai services are exclusively recommended for Swiss and Italian residents.)
Resources Mentioned:
Ep 135 with Thomas Dübendorfer
Fueled by Randomness, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
About Felix Mao & Jianhe Mao:
In this episode, we sit down with Mao and Felix, a dynamic father-son duo who share their incredible journey through entrepreneurship, venture investing, and the startup world. Mao, a seasoned entrepreneur with decades of experience, recounts his path from studying in Germany to building businesses across Europe and Asia. After starting his career in industrial engineering, he transitioned into consulting and later founded ventures in China, including an armored cash-transport business: one of the first of its kind. By 2010, he shifted focus to MedTech startups in Europe, turning around struggling companies like neoplas Med GmbH (pioneering plasma wound treatment) and Medmira Inc. (a rapid diagnostic testing innovator). His approach? Hands-on involvement, strategic risk-taking, and a sharp eye for undervalued potential.
Felix, Mao’s son, brings a fresh perspective as a next-gen investor immersed in Switzerland’s startup ecosystem. Initially drawn to history and behavioral economics, he found corporate life uninspiring and instead dove into startups through SICTIC. There, he learned the importance of team dynamics over just product-market fit, emphasizing traits like adaptability, vision, and resilience in founders. He advocates for a more structured approach to evaluating entrepreneurs, blending academic insights with real-world due diligence. Both highlight how SICTIC’s rigorous selection process sets Swiss startups apart, favoring steady, deep-tech innovations over the "go big or go home" mentality often seen in Asia.
As Mao eyes retirement, he plans to deepen his involvement with SICTIC, mentoring the next wave of entrepreneurs. Felix, meanwhile, is just getting started, aiming to build a methodical venture investment strategy while learning from seasoned angels. Their key takeaway? Venture investing is a humbling, long-game journey that rewards patience, passion, and a willingness to take calculated risks. Tune in for their candid stories, hard-earned lessons, and why the startup world’s energy keeps them hooked!
The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io. -
Timestamps:
4:00 - What’s a data breach?
10:21 - What’s a phishing campaign?
13:50 - How expensive is it to fix a data breach?
20:35 - How are startups being targeted?
22:07 - Why strong passwords are not enough
This episode was co-produced by NordPass. Use code “swisspreneur” at checkout to get 30% off Business and Teams plans.
This episode was sponsored by Relai. Get started with Bitcoin by downloading the Relai app today, and profit from 10% less fees by entering code SWISSPRENEUR at checkout.
(Disclaimer: Relai services are exclusively recommended for Swiss and Italian residents.)
About Ieva Soblickaite:
Ieva Soblickaite is the CPO of NordPass, a password management solution that is part of Nord Security, the world’s leading cybersecurity company. She holds a Masters from HEC Paris and co-founded Medigo GmbH before joining NordPass in 2021.
During her chat with Merle, Ieva broke down the topic of cybersecurity into easily digestible, actionable chunks:
What’s a data breach?
A data breach occurs whenever confidential data is accessed and used in some way (disclosed, copied, altered, destroyed). Common malicious uses include trading the data on the darkweb, decrypting the data to demand a ransom payment, and identity theft.
What’s malware?
Malware is any software developed with the express intent of causing harm. Examples include viruses, trojans, spyware, ransomware, etc. It can also completely take over a computer, putting the criminal in complete control.
Common types of malware:
Ransomware: type of malware that prevents users or organizations from accessing their files. Hackers demand payment to restore access.
Adware: type of greyware (since it does not necessarily have to be malicious) that displays ads to certain users. These ads can be unwanted or malicious.
Spyware: malware that secretly monitors and collects information about a user’s activities or devices, usually as the first step before another type of attack.
Another well-known type of cyberattack are phishing campaigns, in which a hacker pretends to be someone the user knows, or an entity that they trust, in order to get them to click on a malicious link, which can download malware or take the user to a fake website where sensitive information will be requested.
On average, a cyberattack occurs every 14 seconds, and the cost of fixing it depends on how quickly the user notices it and how quickly they act. On average, users will take 204 days to notice a cyberattack and another 73 days to contain the breach.
In order to prevent an attack, several components are necessary:
Strong passwords
Multifactor authentication
Limiting access to accounts & regularly reviewing who has access
Anti-virus software
Regular vulnerability assessments
Hackers target big and small companies alike, as well as both famous and anonymous people, so it’s safest to start improving the cybersecurity of your professional and personal accounts now.
The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io. -
Timestamps:
4:30 - Wie konnte Alex Frei immer die höchste Leistung abrufen
9:20 - Liegt der Fokus auf Input oder Output?
19:30 - Was bedeutet Fairplay im Business?
33:50 - Mentale Gesundheit im Sport
39:22 - Kurze Abschlussfragen
Get started with Bitcoin by downloading the Relai app today, and profit from 10% less fees by entering code SWISSPRENEUR at checkout.
(Disclaimer: Relai services are exclusively recommended for Swiss and Italian residents.)
Über Stefan Lichtsteiner, Alex Frei, Diego Benaglio, Sergio Ermotti:
Sergio P. Ermotti, Group CEO der UBS, ist eine der prägendsten Persönlichkeiten der globalen Finanzwelt. Geboren und aufgewachsen im Tessin, träumte er zunächst von einer Karriere als Fussballprofi, bevor er im Banking seine wahre Leidenschaft fand. Seine beeindruckende Laufbahn führte ihn von der lokalen Corner Bank über Stationen in London und New York bis an die Spitze der UBS. Besonders bekannt ist Ermotti für seine Führungsrolle bei der Integration der Credit Suisse, ein Meilenstein, der ihn sowohl beruflich als auch persönlich herausgefordert hat. Mit klarer Vision und unermüdlichem Einsatz steht er für Leadership, Nachhaltigkeit und soziale Verantwortung – Werte, die er in der globalen Finanzbranche eindrucksvoll vorlebt.
Diego Benaglio, langjähriger Torhüter und Integrationsfigur der Schweizer Nationalmannschaft, ist ein Symbol für Beständigkeit und Professionalität im internationalen Fussball. Aufgewachsen in Zürich, führte ihn seine Karriere von Grasshopper Zürich über Portugal und Deutschland bis zum AS Monaco – mit seiner erfolgreichsten Zeit beim VfL Wolfsburg, wo er Deutscher Pokalsieger und Meister wurde. Als ruhiger Rückhalt auf dem Feld und authentische Persönlichkeit abseits davon steht Benaglio für Disziplin, Loyalität und Teamgeist. Auch nach seinem Karriereende bleibt er dem Fussball verbunden – mit einem besonderen Augenmerk auf die mentale Stärke und nachhaltige Entwicklung von jungen Spielern.
Stephan Lichtsteiner, ehemaliger Captain der Schweizer Nationalmannschaft, zählt zu den prägendsten Figuren des Schweizer Fussballs. Geboren in Adligenswil im Kanton Luzern, entwickelte er früh eine Leidenschaft für den Sport, die ihn von den Jugendmannschaften des FC Adligenswil bis zu internationalen Top-Clubs wie Juventus Turin und Arsenal führte. Lichtsteiner ist bekannt für seine unermüdliche Einsatzbereitschaft, seine Führungsstärke und seine Mentalität als «Mentalitätsmonster» auf dem Platz. Nach seinem Rücktritt engagiert er sich für soziale und sportliche Projekte und bringt seine Erfahrungen zunehmend auch abseits des Rasens ein.
Alex Frei, der Rekordtorschütze der Schweizer Nationalmannschaft, ist eine der markantesten Persönlichkeiten im Schweizer Fussball. Geboren in Basel, prägte er mit seinem Torriecher und seiner Leidenschaft das Spielgeschehen auf nationaler wie internationaler Ebene – unter anderem bei Stade Rennes, Borussia Dortmund und dem FC Basel. Frei war nicht nur als Spieler ein Führungstyp, sondern auch nach seiner aktiven Karriere als Trainer und Fussballexperte aktiv. Mit analytischem Blick, klarer Kommunikation und einem tiefen Verständnis für den Sport setzt er sich für die Entwicklung junger Talente und die Förderung des Schweizer Fussballs ein.
The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io.
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Timestamps:
6:21 - How much equity to give up in a Series A
13:32 - How investors assess valuation at Series A/B
17:55 - What makes a good vs. bad investor
26:29 - Why some investors lead founders on
36:50 - Don’t spray and pray: smarter ways to reach investors
This episode was sponsored by Relai. Get started with Bitcoin by downloading the Relai app today, and profit from 10% less fees by entering code SWISSPRENEUR at checkout.
(Disclaimer: Relai services are exclusively recommended for Swiss and Italian residents.)
About Laurent Decrue and Arijana Walcott:
Laurent Decrue is the Co-CEO and CFO at Holycode, a product and engineering powerhouse serving fast-scaling startups. After building and exiting companies like DeinDeal, Bexio, and MOVU, Laurent Decrue now supports founders as an investor, board member, and operator. Laurent Decrue brings real-world startup empathy to every cap table conversation—and a no-BS attitude about what actually moves the needle.
Arijana Walcott is the Founder and General Partner at DART Ventures, where she backs early-stage European startups tackling climate and health challenges. With roots in San Francisco’s tech scene and a sharp eye for scalable impact, Arijana Walcott is on a mission to change how—and why—we invest. Arijana Walcott is also a board member, educator, and startup ecosystem builder focused on helping founders go big instead of going home.
The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io.
Don’t forget to give us a follow on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin, 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 giveaways or founders' dinners.
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Timestamps:
3:51 - How T3 Pharma launched a clinical trial
15:44 - When a partner wants to acquire you
30:55 - Selling for more than you expected
44:56 - Why they publicly disclosed the acquisition cost
52:52 - How the company changed post-exit
Click here to check out our free Founders Agreement masterclass, with Melanie Gabriel from Yokoy, Christof Roduner from Scandit, and Viviana Gropengiesser from Talent Kick.
About Simon Ittig:
Simon Ittig is the co-founder and CEO of T3 Pharmaceuticals, a company developing bacteria-based cancer therapies. With a background in molecular biology and a PhD from the University of Basel, Simon transitioned from academic research into the high-stakes world of biotech startups.
In this episode, Simon shares how he approached some of the most complex and sensitive aspects of his entrepreneurial journey: how to sell a startup without losing its soul, how to build trust in an industry where confidentiality is currency, and why he chose to stay after his company was acquired by Boehringer Ingelheim in 2023 for CHF 450M.
He also opens up about the emotional calculus founders make — the pressure to execute, the doubts that come with big decisions, and how staying grounded is what really lets you go far.
The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io
Don’t forget to give us a follow on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin, 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 giveaways or founders' dinners. -
Timestamps:
2:49 - How Sherpany got acquired
18:05 - Discounting vs additional free features
23:20 - Should you hire salespeople or marketing people first?
32:03 - Where to hire salespeople
45:47 - The fixed/variable salary split
About Tobias Häckermann, Lars Mangelsdorf & Laurent Decrue:
Tobias Häckermann is the co-founder and CEO of Sherpany, a provider of meeting management software for leadership meetings that was acquired by Datasite in 2024. He holds a Master of Laws from UZH.
Lars Mangelsdorf is the co-founder and CCO at Yokoy, a spending management software company which enables companies to automate their expense and credit card processes using artificial intelligence. Yokoy was acquired by TravelPerk in 2025. Lars previously worked as Senior Account Executive at Beekeeper.
Laurent Decrue is the co-founder of the moving company MOVU and the software company Holycode, and the former CEO at Bexio. Currently he is active as CFO and co-CEO at Holycode. He holds an MBA from the University of Basel and previously worked at DeinDeal.
During their chat with Silvan, Tobias, Lars and Laurent shared their insights on how to scale your sales team from founder-led scales to a fully operational sales army. When asked about KPIs to track early on, they stressed the importance of AE efficiency (2 AEs bringing in 90% of your revenue is bad) and also talked about sales cycles: if your average deal size goes up by 200% but your sales cycle goes up by 400%, you’re clearly doing something wrong.
Laurent recalled a lesson he once learned from a fellow entrepreneur about how discounts, despite their attractively lower pricemark, ultimately signal that you’re giving your customers the same product for less money, which insinuates that you were overcharging them before. Laurent’s friend encouraged him to add additional free features for the same price, instead of lowering the price with discounts.
Still on pricing, Lars shared that since some markets have a competitive price pressure, it may sometimes pay off to go into them with a lower pricing number and increase your price by 15% every year. It’s easier to get people to pay more once you’ve already started to earn their trust. This will allow founders not only to branch out into different markets but also to ultimately increase their deal sizes.
Another topic discussed during this episode was the old chicken and egg problem of whom to hire first: sales or marketing people? Here the guests held different opinions. Laurent said that because you need lead magnets first, you should hire marketing people before sales people. He added that your sales should go from founder-led, to hiring a couple of people to build a really great pipeline, to then hiring a larger number of salespeople. Lars, however, argued that doing sales first allows you to test whether there is a strong demand for your product in the market you’re targeting, and whether your messaging is properly crafted. Finally, Tobias added that marketing is much less relevant for B2B businesses than it is for B2C, since you only need to reach a couple thousand people, as opposed to millions.
When it comes to actually hiring salespeople, Tobias encouraged listeners to start hiring way earlier than necessary “in their head”, meaning that they should build relationships proactively (including with competitors) with the goal of later on acquiring great talent. This is especially important considering that the likelihood of making the wrong hires early on is very strong. He finished by sharing that founders should hire their sales team themselves, instead of outsourcing the job.
The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io
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Timestamps:
7:51 - Why is entrepreneurship a lonely journey?
13:55 - Comradeship in entrepreneurship
15:04 - Is post-exit depression a thing?
23:56 - Thinking about the meaning of life
26:23 - The social responsibility of founders
This episode was co-produced with EO Zürich. Check out their upcoming event, Entrepreneurs Summit 2025.
Click here to check out our free Founders Agreement masterclass, with Melanie Gabriel from Yokoy, Christof Roduner from Scandit, and Viviana Gropengiesser from Talent Kick.
About Ronnie Zemp:
Ronnie Zemp is a serial entrepreneur, startup investor and the current president of EO Zurich. He holds an MBA from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Throughout his career, he has (co-)founded the following companies: RZ Capital AG, bitConsult, notime AG (exited to Swiss Post), OSUISSE AG, RZ Real Estate GmbH, and Tears of Bacchus AG.
During his chat with Silvan, Ronnie talked about the most difficult aspects of being a startup founder. He stressed the loneliness of being an entrepreneur: when you’re your own boss, you’re the ultimate decision marker, responsible for hundreds of employees, and this can really cause quite a bit of anxiety, and even insomnia. When Ronnie sold notime to Swiss Post, he felt like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. He credits EO for relieving this sense of loneliness by introducing him to many people who have walked the same path.
Ronnie also warned founders not to see exits as the end-all, be-all of entrepreneurship. They happen, sometimes, yes, but not always, and building a cash-generating company that pays dividends is also a great (or perhaps an even better) goal for which to strive.
Ronnie feels it’s natural for founders to require a long time after an exit to be ready to build a startup again, not only because at that point they can financially afford to be picky, but also because having achieved a successful exit makes them wary of damaging their reputation. There’s also a point to be made about how age makes people more risk-averse.
Ronnie’s life was made more complicated by the fact that he lost 4 very close people within the span of 3 months, which really made him reflect about who he is and what he thinks is the meaning of life. Due to all his success, Ronnie feels a social responsibility to give back: he has financed the university studies of several students from abroad, and has spent a great deal of time supporting those closest to him, namely the daughter of his best friend, who was diagnosed with leukemia at the age of 16 years old.
The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io
Don’t forget to give us a follow on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin, 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 giveaways or founders' dinners.
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Timestamps:
8:01 - What drew Brynne to entrepreneurship
15:10 - Brynne’s political debut
24:12 - What’s a smart society?
27:05 - Measuring growth as a VC
43:25 - How can you find the right co-founders?
This episode was produced in collaboration with startup days, taking place this year on May 14th 2025. Click here to purchase your ticket.
Click here to check out our free Founders Agreement masterclass, with Melanie Gabriel from Yokoy, Christof Roduner from Scandit, and Viviana Gropengiesser from Talent Kick.
About Brynne Kennedy:
Brynne Kennedy is the co-founder and managing partner of Smart Society Ventures, a decarbonization and energy tech investment firm striving to accelerate net zero. She holds an MBA from London Business School, and founded and successfully exited Topia, a company providing technology solutions to manage all forms of employee movement and work location flexibility.
After stepping down from her CEO role at Topia in 2019, Brynne had a brief stint in American politics, running for US Congress in California's 4th Congressional District. She was not elected, and nowadays she’s able to look back with gratitude at that turn of events, considering the current political climate in the US. In 2023 she co-founded Smart Society Ventures, and began her career as a VC in the climate tech space.
Smart Society Ventures strives to build a “smart society” (as the name would indicate), which they define as a society enabled by tech and data to achieve better outcomes and do more with less. Brynne is extremely committed to creating the societal impetus necessary to successfully manage the energy transition. She also co-hosts The Smart Society Show with Former MP and UK Energy Minister Chris Skidmore, where they discuss climate news and scaleups.
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Timestamps:
12:48 - Anyone can have a mental health crisis
26:30 - Creating trust in a mental health tool
29:12 - How to measure mental health
35:48 - Realizing you don’t want to work with a client
40:43 - Earning the SEF.Growth High Potential Label
This episode was co-produced with SEF.Growth, the Swiss Economic Forum's Growth initiative to support Swiss startups and SMEs with growth plans free of charge.
Click here to check out our free Founders Agreement masterclass, with Melanie Gabriel from Yokoy, Christof Roduner from Scandit, and Viviana Gropengiesser from Talent Kick.
About Vlad Gheorghiu:
Vlad Gheorghiu is the co-founder and CEO of Kyan Health, an AI-powered enterprise solution that connects employee well-being with measurable business impact. He holds an MBA from INSEAD and worked for Stryker and McKinsey before starting Kyan Health in 2021.
Vlad’s interest in the topic of mental health and wellness came about as the result of a crisis he himself had during his time at McKinsey. After experiencing a panic attack, he sought medical care and took 4 weeks off work. When he returned, he decided to film a short video explaining what had happened to him, which he shared with coworkers who inquired about his absence. The video went viral within the organization and Vlad was then asked to create an employee wellbeing program, which would later become the blueprint for Kyan Health.
Using predictive analytics, Kyan helps companies monitor and reduce risks like absenteeism, turnover, and presenteeism. Notable clients like Hitachi Energy, Hilti, STADA, Deutsche Börse Group, and On have already seen tangible results. Vlad and his team have worked hard to make their tool a trustworthy source of help for employees around the globe, not only by making the app GDPR-compliant but also by making every profile completely anonymous. This ensures employee cooperation and also allows Kyan Health to still derive insights at an organizational level.
Kyan Health was recently awarded the High Potential Label by SEF.Growth.
Resources Mentioned:
Inside Timer
The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io
Don’t forget to give us a follow on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin, 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 giveaways or founders' dinners.
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Timestamps:
2:29 - How Sami became interested in cinema
11:15 - How to define visions and impact
22:55 - What can Largo.AI actually do?
27:55 - Does AI kill creativity?
53:23 - Largo.AI’s plans for the near future
This episode was co-produced by SICTIC, the leading angel investor network in Switzerland.
Click here to check out our free Founders Agreement masterclass, with Melanie Gabriel from Yokoy, Christof Roduner from Scandit, and Viviana Gropengiesser from Talent Kick.
About Sami Arpa & Yunus Erduran:
Sami Arpa is the CEO and founder of Largo.AI, a startup providing next-generation storytelling tools for the audiovisual industry using artificial intelligence. He holds a PhD in Computational Aesthetics from EPFL and was also the co-founder of Sofy.tv, a short film streaming service later acquired by Cosmoblue.
Yunus Erduran is a founder and documentary filmmaker, and one of the first investors of Largo.AI. He holds a BA in Economics from Boğaziçi University (Turkey) and is currently active as Executive Partner at Eğlenceli Bilim, a company offering curriculum-compliant science programs to all educational institutions in Turkey. He’s also the podcast producer and host of arastirmaca, together with his co-host Müge Bakioğlu.
Largo has developed data-assisted intelligence which can be introduced early in the life of a film project, right from script choice and development, through filming, post-production and theatrical release. Largo empowers production companies with data-enhanced ROI uplift and reduction of risk.
Their AI models were trained with 400K+ movies/TV shows, 250K+ commercials, 950K+ talents. Largo’s clients are usually producers and studios (on the film side) and agencies and brands (on the advertising side).
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Timestamps:
6:54 - An investor generating returns for their LP
8:22 - The Swiss startup ecosystem is 18 years old
12:09 - Does big data drive innovation?
19:20 - What if you don’t perform as promised?
21:25 - Dealing with FINMA regulations as a VC
Click here to check out our free Founders Agreement masterclass, with Melanie Gabriel from Yokoy, Christof Roduner from Scandit, and Viviana Gropengiesser from Talent Kick.
About Andrea Silberschmidt-Buhofer, Teddy Amberg, David Hug & Tanvi Singh:
Andrea Silberschmidt-Buhofer is the general partner at EquityPitcher Ventures, an early-growth VC firm that focuses on B2B tech startups, and the vice-president of FEM'UP SWITZERLAND. She holds a MSc in Entrepreneurship from the UCL School of Management and is also a startup coach at Venturelab.
Teddy Amberg is the founding partner at Spicehaus Partners, a VC fund that focuses on seed and early stage Swiss tech companies. He holds an MA in Banking and Finance from HSG and worked at Partners Group and CreditGate24 before founding Spicehaus Partners in 2018.
David Hug is the co-founder of Marcau Partners, an investment manager managing Ringier Digital Ventures and Lightbird Ventures AG. He holds a MSc in Entrepreneurial Management from the Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft Chur and worked at btov Partners and Zürcher Kantonalbank before becoming a VC in 2015.
Tanvi Singh is the founding partner at Nirmata-ai Ventures, a VC fund focusing on AI-driven investments for a sustainable future. She holds a Master’s degree from UZH and worked for banks like Credit Suisse and UBS before founding Nirmata in 2024.
During their chat with our co-host Merle, these 4 VCs shared their best practices for managing a fund. Their tips included:
Being proactive in including your LPs in your fund’s journey by giving them co-investment opportunities and full access to your data room;
Not shortcutting when it comes to compliance and regulatory demands (or you will regret it!);
Underpromising and overdelivering when it comes to the goals you communicate to your LPs, and being transparent with them when something goes wrong, so as to ensure that trust is never broken;
Sticking to your portfolio companies both in good times and in bad — the startup journey is rocky, and your investments need your help!
The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io
Don’t forget to give us a follow on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin, 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 giveaways or founders' dinners.
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Timestamps:
5:55 - An Icelandic company headquartered in Switzerland
16:29 - Fundraising for long development cycles
19:00 - Doing the only Swiss IPO in 2023
24:23 - Splitting your focus to sell 3 products at once
28:39 - Advantages and disadvantages of being publicly listed
This episode was produced in collaboration with startup days, taking place this year on May 14th 2025. Click here to purchase your ticket.
Click here to check out our free Founders Agreement masterclass, with Melanie Gabriel from Yokoy, Christof Roduner from Scandit, and Viviana Gropengiesser from Talent Kick.
About Riad Sherif:
Riad Sherif is the CEO at Oculis, a company focused on the development of topical treatments for ophthalmic diseases in the back and front of the eye. He holds a MSc in Medical Management from the ESCP Business School and worked at companies like Sanofi, Novartis and Alcon before joining Oculis as CEO in 2017.
Oculis’ pipeline includes a topical eye drop candidate for diabetic macular edema and for the treatment of inflammation and pain following cataract surgery. It also includes a candidate for dry eye disease and for non-infectious anterior uveitis, and a candidate for acute optic neuritis.
The company’s origins are in Iceland, where the OPTIREACH® solubilizing formulation technology was developed by two Icelandic co-founders, Professors Einar Stefánsson and Thorsteinn Loftsson, to enable eye drops to reach the back of the eye. Nowadays Oculis is headquartered in Switzerland, with operations in the US and Iceland. Oculis has raised a total of $284.6M in funding over 13 rounds, and went public in 2023 (the only Swiss IPO of that year) before their product was even live. It is currently at stage 3 of clinical trials.
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Timestamps:
5:30 - When is it time to scale your dev team?
10:03 - Nearshore, offshore, or in-house?
12:37 - Can we trust AI to write code?
14h33 - Top criteria to hire developers
27:38 - Costly mistakes setting up a dev team
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About Simon Youssef & Nenad Nikolic:
Simon Youssef is the co-founder and CTO of the online bank neon. He holds a PhD in Computational Biophysics from Microsoft Research Cambridge and worked at Strategy& before co-founding neon in 2017.
Nenad Nikolic is the co-founder, Co-CEO and CTO of Holycode, and also the co-founder of MOVU and the former CIO of Bexio. He holds a MSc in Computer Science from the Faculty of Computer Science (Belgrade, Serbia) and worked for DeinDeal before joining Laurent Decrue on their 10+ year entrepreneurial journey in 2014.
During their chat with Silvan, Simon and Nenad discussed best practices for scaling your dev team. Naturally, the first question that poses itself when it comes to this topic is: When is it time to scale your dev team?
It depends, obviously — but, generally speaking, the tech team needs to follow the growth of the company itself. At an early stage, you may be able to cut corners when it comes to security and backup strategy to move fast, but at some point you will need to start dedicating 25-30% of development time to these tasks.
Don’t scale too early: big teams are costly and may run you to the ground. You should only have the tech stack that you absolutely need. Besides, if you scale too fast, your culture is going to go down the drain, and then you’ll be left with a whole lot of infighting and inefficiency.
Don’t scale too late: waiting around for too long can result in a build-up of pressure on your developers that may very well burn them out.
Should you hire in-house developers? Or nearshore them? Offshore them, perhaps? neon did it all, and Simon can confidently say that nearshoring works best:
If you have your dev team in-house in Switzerland, you are going to pay a lot. 2-3 engineers in a nearshoring location are equivalent to 1 engineer in Switzerland. Besides, you’ll be vulnerable to the “Hey, Joe!” principle: having the dev team, product managers and the management all in the same building means these latter two will be able to bother your dev team with random tasks which slow the dev team down overall.
You also don’t want to offshore it, because then you cannot visit as often. It’s best to nearshore your dev team to somewhere within your timezone which has great flight connections to your main location.
What’s the top criteria to hire developers?
Pay attention to your gut feeling when it comes to the culture fit. Don’t hire someone you wouldn’t want to spend 2h straight with. And don’t hire someone who is too proud or inflexible to be proven wrong. They may be fast when developing all on their own, but they will never be effective in a fast team.
When hiring senior engineers, look for strong domain knowledge and experience. When hiring junior engineers, hire for brains, not experience.
The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io
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Timestamps:
6:25 - Why yamo started with D2C
15:30 - Dealing with regulation in the food industry
28:39 - When yamo hit a breaking point
33:35 - How to be a leader in tough times
44:23 - How Tobias defines success
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About Tobias Gunzenhauser:
Tobias Gunzenhauser is the co-founder and former CEO at yamo, an omnichannel FoodTech company creating the healthiest and tastiest products good for people and the planet. He holds a Master of Advanced Studies in Digital Marketing and Communication Management from the Hochschule Luzern and worked for Campari Group for 4 years before starting Yamo with 2 co-founders in 2016.
What differentiated yamo back in 2016 was that they sterilized baby food using pressure instead of heat, which preserved not only flavor but also the vitamins. They also tuned their recipes to contain nutrients for age-appropriate development, with no added sugar and 100% natural and organic ingredients. They initially started selling their products D2C, afraid that retail wouldn’t take them in, but eventually broke into the world of Migros and Coop shelves as well. They also took advantage of influencer marketing quite early on, at a time when it wasn’t so common, which allowed them to work with big name creators.
Over 8 years, Yamo grew to an award-winning international multi-million organization with over 2700 points of sale in Europe’s biggest retailers, and a thriving E-commerce business. However, despite the team’s best efforts, they were unable to reach profitability. It was at a board meeting in April 2024 that Tobias first got the terrible news: since they had not been able to ensure the capital needed for their next step (but only accrued 2/3s of it), yamo could not continue in business. They had to declare bankruptcy and communicate the news not only to their entire team but also to their partners and stakeholders. Looking back, Tobias thinks this was when he learned what it truly means to be a leader — leadership is most important of all during the toughest times.
Also in April 2024, Tobias announced the yamo shutdown on LinkedIn, after which he received an outpouring of support from both friends and strangers alike. Almost 1 year later, Tobias has come to view success as the ability to say that he has done his best creating something where before there was nothing.
The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io
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Timestamps:
2:09 - From Lebanon to Brussels
5:41 - From the trading floor to the startup world
23:40 - Why Georges prefers Switzerland to California
36:55 - The efficiency and discipline of the Swiss ecosystem
48:40 - Is it difficult for VC funds to raise money nowadays?
This episode was produced in collaboration with startup days, taking place this year on May 14th 2025. Click here to purchase your ticket.
About Georges Khneysser:
Georges Khneysser is the founder of QBIT Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm with headquarters in Zurich and an office in Los Angeles. Georges is originally from Lebanon, where he completed his education. He went on to work in Brussels as a trader and later as the head of a family office, before moving to Geneva to work in banking and wealth management. He started QBIT in Zurich in 2021.
QBIT specializes in investing exclusively in Switzerland and Swiss startups and currently has 8 portfolio companies: Demosquare, LogBook, Largo.ai, Helio, Duramon, Relio, Agrinorm, Everon. Georges credits three key pillars for the success of the fund:
6 of their LPs are entrepreneurs themselves, and are passionate about the Swiss ecosystem;
QBIT offers their portfolio companies the services of their “pirates”, i.e. growth hackers, free of charge. Each company gets 800 hours per year of support with building their website, improving their pitch deck, developing their pricing and growth strategy, etc…
QBIT has connections all over the world which help them make informed investment decisions and provide a network to their portfolio companies.
Georges is not a proponent of the “spray and pray” investment strategy (meaning investing in a diversified manner and hoping it works out for the best). At QBIT capital, he and his fellow VCs often spend several months getting to know founders better before making an investment decision.
The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io
Don’t forget to give us a follow on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin, 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 giveaways or founders' dinners.
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Timestamps:
11:40 - The early days of Cerrion
22:39 - Adapting your tech to different environments
27:45 - Being obsessed with customer pain points
32:15 - Getting into Y Combinator
42:15 - Why would an international company stay in Zurich?
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About Karim Saleh:
Karim Saleh is the co-founder and CEO of Cerrion, a startup developing digital AI workers for the manufacturing industry. He holds a BSc in Information Technology and Electrical Engineering from ETH, and worked at Unicorn Labs and Assaia – The ApronAI before co-founding Cerrion in 2022.
Cerrion’s AI workers use standard video cameras to monitor production, detect deviations and respond to them on their own, empowering production teams to make better and more timely decisions. Cerrion’s platform is currently deployed across factories in eight countries, including the USA, Germany, Italy and Turkey, where it has already reduced production losses by over 30% on average.
Cerrion participated in Y Combinator back in 2022. During his time in San Francisco, Karim highly valued the fact that YC holds founders accountable to what they say they’re trying to achieve. He was also glad to benefit not only from his batch’s network but from the entire YC community, which includes many top 1% founders. YC perks notwithstanding, Karim still thinks Zurich is the best headquarters for Cerrion, as it boasts a very strong talent density.
The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io
Don’t forget to give us a follow on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin, 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 giveaways or founders' dinners.
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Timestamps:
10:04 - Laconia’s investment strategy
12:56 - Why no warm intro is needed
19:17 - How Laconia evaluates deals
27:55 - Wishful thinking & investment red flags
36:27 - Do Swiss companies need outside investment?
This episode was co-produced with the Deep Tech Nation Switzerland Foundation.
About Geri Kirilova:
Geri Kirilova is a partner at Laconia, a seed stage fund focused on B2B software companies. Geri holds a BA in Information Systems & Management from the NYU Stern School of Business, and worked as a VC for funds like Credo Ventures and LAUNCHub before joining Laconia in 2017. She recently moved to Switzerland with her husband.
According to Geri, Laconia mainly invests in industries like retail tech, ecommerce enablement, proptech, fintech and digital health, and their investment strategy focuses on three key aspects:
Strong unit economics;
The ability to grow in a capital-efficient manner;
The ability to make decisions in a repeatable fashion.
As a rule, Laconia does not require a warm intro, and encourages companies to cold email them. This is because nowadays warm intros have become so standard that they no longer hold any value in Geri’s eyes. What used to be “Hey, this person I worked with before is the smartest person I know, and they’re raising funds for their company” has become “Hey this person I know is raising funds for their company”, so to Geri and her team, a “lukewarm intro” is the same as a cold email.
When evaluating deals, Geri thinks of the following questions:
What are the key beliefs, risks and hypotheses of this company?
Is there market demand for their product?
What’s this company’s go-to-market strategy?
Can this company acquire significant market share over time?
Do the founders have the right balance of ambition and realism to execute their vision?
The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io
Don’t forget to give us a follow on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin, 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 giveaways or founders' dinners.
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Timestamps:
3:50 - Creating a property database in Panama
5:18 - Creating a company with your spouse
12:30 - Bootstrapping for a decade
15:40 - Having Shaun Di Gregorio as an investor
26:00 - Why Wendy left her company
This episode was co-produced with EO Zürich. Check out their upcoming event, Entrepreneurs Summit 2025.
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About Wendy Jordan:
Wendy Jordan is the co-founder and former COO of Encuentra24, the leading marketplace and fully integrated business solution in Central America. She holds a BA in Marketing and Advertising from Universidad Latinoamericana de Ciencia y Tecnología (Panama), and previously worked for companies like Publitesa and Gold Dragon Capital Management Ltd before starting Encuentra24 in 2005.
Wendy and her husband built Encuentra24 at a serendipitous time: back in 2005, the Panama government was just starting to show interest in attracting foreign investment. Based on their own experience of having difficulties buying an affordable home in Panama, Wendy and her husband decided to create Panama’s online marketplace themselves, and focused on the items/issues which are essential to people’s lives: a home, a job, a car, etc.
Encuentra24 was bootstrapped for 10 years. Wendy and her team advertised the business B2C by placing ads on buses and taxis and running radio ads; when it came to B2B, they initially sought each and every partner for a 1-1 conversation. They grew the business slowly, through trial and error, and in 2013 faced perhaps their biggest challenge when OLX built offices in Central America in an attempt to take them over. Despite OLX hiring Harvard-educated staff and resorting to things like exclusivity contracts with partners and hiring people fired from Encuentra24, Wendy and her team stayed laser-focused on their goals and the quality of their product, and ended up acquiring OLX’s Central American operations a few years later.
In 2015 Encuentra24 welcomed Shaun Di Gregorio, founder and CEO of Frontier Digital Ventures, as an investment partner, which enabled them to list themselves on international stock markets and, most prominently, in the Australian Stock Exchange. In 2022 Encuentra24 had a successful exit, after which Wendy left her operational role at the company. Nowadays she’s active as a business angel and will soon take on the role of president at EO (Entrepreneurs Organization).
The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io
Don’t forget to give us a follow on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin, 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 giveaways or founders' dinners.
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