Swisspreneur Show
Swisspreneur
The Swisspreneur Show is a podcast series of in-depth, candid conversations with some of Switzerland’s most successful founders, business leaders and innovators. By getting to the heart of these leaders’ stories - their successes, their failures, their must-have advice and greatest regrets - we hope to both inspire and guide the next generation of Swiss entrepreneurs. Each episode deconstructs and showcases one person’s personal and professional background and provides advice and recommendations for existing and aspiring entrepreneurs in Switzerland.
- 1 hour 9 minutesFrom 80M Sequoia Round to Exit: Yokoy Co-Founder Philippe Sahli (#547)
Timestamps:
16:11 - The Role of AI in Expense Management
22:20 - Fundraising and Partnering with Sequoia
39:09 - Maintaining Urgency in Growth
51:02 - The Decision to Sell: Timing and Strategy
Episode description:
Philippe Sahli is the Co-Founder and former CEO of Yokoy, the Swiss-built platform that automated spend management for mid-to-large enterprises using AI (acquired by Perk). In this episode, he shares how his path through corporate life and as CFO at Beekeeper shaped his founder instincts, his Switzerland-first network advantage, and the ambition to build “expenses on autopilot” into a global category leader.
Philippe shares how Yokoy found early product pull (customers referring customers) and what real product-market-fit signals looked like before scaling, raising an $80M Series B led by Sequoia, and navigating the “go big or go home” reality that comes with hypergrowth.
Philippe also opens up about the role of naivety as a superpower in entrepreneurship, the culture risk of losing sense of urgency and stop pushing after big funding, and what it feels like to shift from being CEO to becoming Chief Spend Officer inside a much larger organization.
The cover portrait was edited bywww.smartportrait.io.Don’t forget to give us a follow on Instagram, Linkedin, TikTok, and Youtube 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.
25 February 2026, 6:19 pm - 48 minutes 49 secondsHow a Young Founder Built a Marketplace for Extreme Sports: Avento Co-Founder Lean Stein (#546)
Timestamps:
2:58 - The Role of START Global in Shaping Entrepreneurs
21:58 - Transitioning from Learning to Starting a Company
30:29 - Building Trust in an Online Marketplace
33:52 - The Challenges of Entrepreneurship
Checkout START Summit, Europe’s largest early-stage startup conference, happening on the 19th and 20th of March 2026. Every year, START Summit provides lifelong learning and a synergetic space to start the conversations that can shape our world. Use discout code SWISSPRENEUR10 to get 10% off on tickets.
Episode description:
Lean Stein is the co-founder of Avento, a vertical marketplace for extreme sports equipment - starting with skydiving. His path to entrepreneurship is anything but linear: he dropped out of high school, did an apprenticeship in private banking in Basel, then went to the University of St. Gallen to study economics. This is where he ran into START Global - Europe's leading student initiative for new technologies and entrepreneurship.
Lean breaks down what he learned from START Global that directly translated into building a company: learning by doing - getting real responsibility early (budgets, partners, execution); building founder-grade habits like structure, prioritization, and the confidence to reach out (and handle rejection); and developing startup judgment - seeing lots of pitches and ideas to better spot what’s worth building and what isn’t.
He also opens up about his personal journey: how buying faulty secondhand skydiving gear became the trigger for Avento, the reality that early-stage building is a workload that “never stops” - but can still be fun when you’re doing it with a co-Founder, and the mindset shift that surprised him most: you can learn hard skills faster than you think - even coding - once you commit to starting.
The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io.
Don’t forget to give us a follow on Instagram, Linkedin, TikTok, and Youtube 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.
19 February 2026, 8:20 am - 58 minutes 19 secondsDoes Switzerland need its own Startup AG?: Laurent Decrue & Sophie Lamparter (EP #545)
Timestamps:
03:06 - How the AI Boom is pushing energy back to the top of the agenda
10:34 - Impact of new Funds on Founders
35:22 - Startup Agenda Switzerland: Key Challenges
49:14 - Prioritizing Startup Needs in Switzerland
This episode was co-produced with Swiss Startup Days, the leading Swiss deep-tech catalyst event for startups, investors, enablers, and corporates.Checkout Newcomers - the ultimate pitching format for pre-seed and seed startups in Switzerland. Applications open in December 2025.Episode Summary:
In this Febuary Swisspreneur Briefing, we go live with Sophie Lamparter (Founder & Managing Partner at VitaminºC) and Laurent Decrue (Co-Founder & Co-CEO of Holycode) to break down what’s moving and shaking in the Swiss startup ecosystem in the last month - from funding and liquidity to what founders should read between the headlines.
This episode dives into three founder-relevant themes. First, the Swiss Venture Capital Report: funding is stabilising: but is CHF 2.95B remotely enough if we want global relevance? Second, AI’s real impact on startups: cheaper building, higher expectations, longer bootstrapping, and bigger later rounds. Third, structural competitiveness: why capital, speed, and investor density matter more than celebratory rankings — and why Switzerland still struggles to fund late-stage ambition.
We also go deeper into the nuances: the tension between hype cycle and fundamental shift in AI, why SaaS public market corrections signal changing assumptions - not collapse - and what a “Startup AG” could mean for Switzerland. From pension funds allocating to venture, taxation misalignment, to why the Delaware C-Corp still beats the AG in ease of setup, this conversation is less about criticism and more about unrealised potential. The takeaway: Switzerland doesn’t lack talent or capital - it lacks structural urgency.
The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io.
Don’t forget to give us a follow on Instagram, Linkedin, TikTok, and Youtube 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.
16 February 2026, 12:23 pm - 1 hour 5 minutesEP #544 - Stefan Wittwer: Product Obsession and Why Most AI Products Feel Useless
Timestamps:
15:11 - Keeping User Experience and feedback embedded in the product
27:09 - Sales strategy and product-driven growth
38:12 - AI Integration and the future of software
43:20 - Young Founder challenges in a traditional industry
Episode Description:
Stefan Wittwer is the founder and CEO of Infinity.swiss, an AI-first Swiss accounting product built to make bookkeeping radically simpler for founders and small businesses. Starting out as a teenage freelancer across design, web, and early software work, Stefan carried a strong design mindset into industries that rarely prioritize it, eventually moving from client work into building products full-time. He holds a Bachelors in Economics from University of Zurich.
Stefan goes deep into product and UX obsession as a competitive advantage, including how Infinity differentiated in a crowded market by user-testing accounting tools with real tasks and designing workflows that hide complexity. He also talks about how to build in hard, regulated markets, where shipping “fast” still requires foundations, compliance, security architecture, and the discipline to sequence big bets. He also opens up about how to prioritize product decisions without becoming feature-chaos, from translating “feature requests” into underlying needs, to using a structured triage process and keeping sales aligned with what the product truly does - even if that makes selling harder in the short term.
Beyond the tactics, Stefan reflects on being a 24-year-old founder in a traditional industry and the extra work required to earn trust, while also seeing youth as an advantage because you’re “not blinded” by legacy assumptions. He offers a sharp take on “AI button hype” vs. real AI transformation, arguing that true AI products rethink workflows from the ground up - shifting humans into reviewers instead of operators. He then opens up about his operating philosophy: staying a “maker” (still writing code and pushing pixels), building a company that’s sustainable and profitable over time, and using the GTD (Getting Things Done) Framework to avoid burnout by keeping mental RAM clear through a trusted system.
The cover portrait was edited bywww.smartportrait.io.
Don’t forget to give us a follow on Instagram, Linkedin, TikTok, and Youtube 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.
4 February 2026, 9:36 pm - 55 minutes 11 secondsEP #543 - Mershad Jervan: From Musician to Maker - Building and Rebuilding a Global Music Startup
Timestamps:
6:35 - Buying back their startup after an exit
32:42 - Building Octive
37:10 - Entering the US market
37:31 - Building in Switzerland vs US
Episode Description
Mershad Javan is the Head of Europe for GoDigital, formally known as Octiive, a global music distribution and promotion platform that empowers independent artists to publish and monetize their work worldwide. Originally from California, Mershad started his journey as a touring musician, eventually transitioning into the business side of the music industry before founding MondoTunes - the company he would later sell, buy back, rebuild, and sell again. He holds an Executive MBA in International Business from California State University.
In this episode, Mershad shares the full story behind growing MondoTunes, navigating industry gatekeepers, exiting to a large media group, and later reclaiming the company when it stagnated under corporate ownership. He reflects on the operational mistakes, investor misalignments, and cap table chaos that eventually led to the company going bust - and how he rebuilt momentum with a second acquisition under Octiive. We also discuss how independent artists are underserved, what it takes to scale in the U.S. vs. Europe, and why Switzerland turned out to be a surprisingly strategic HQ for the next chapter.
On a more personal level, Mershad talks about his move from Los Angeles to Switzerland, adjusting to a new culture, and what he loves (and still struggles with) about life here. He also reflects on the emotional shift from being a songwriter to becoming an entrepreneur - and why, after everything, he believes bootstrapping is often smarter than raising capital.
The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io.
Don’t forget to give us a follow on Instagram, Linkedin, TikTok, and Youtube 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.
29 January 2026, 7:16 am - 56 minutes 42 secondsEP #542 - Laurent Decrue & Sophie Lamparter: Do Swiss Startups Need the US to Win Big?
Timestamps:
10:37 - Liquidity in the Swiss market without IPOs
23:12 - What areas are attracting funding in Switzerland
36:55 - Europe vs US
45:22 - The guests predictions for 2026
This episode was co-produced with Swiss Startup Days, the leading Swiss deep-tech catalyst event for startups, investors, enablers, and corporates.Checkout Newcomers - the ultimate pitching format for pre-seed and seed startups in Switzerland. Applications open in December 2025.Episode description:
In this first Swisspreneur Briefing, we go live with Sophie Lamparter (Founder & Managing Partner at VitaminºC) and Laurent Decrue (Co-Founder & Co-CEO of Holycode) to break down what’s moving and shaking in the Swiss startup ecosystem in the last months - from funding and liquidity to what founders should read between the headlines.
Together with Silvan, they unpack three big themes: why Switzerland is finally getting more attention globally for local talent in AI, robotics and drones - yet still hasn’t cracked true scale; why liquidity in Switzerland often looks more like private equity or strategic moves than local IPOs; and how gaps in the capital structure (from growth rounds to public markets) shape where Swiss companies build and ultimately exit.
They then unpack the trade-off founders face between an early life-changing exit and the ecosystem’s need for bigger compounding outcomes; why secondaries could unlock more ambitious journeys but are still culturally harder in Switzerland; and what a “Europe build / US fundraise & go-to-market” playbook can look like.
The cover portrait was edited bywww.smartportrait.io.Don’t forget to give us a follow on Instagram, Linkedin, TikTok, and Youtube 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.
26 January 2026, 7:19 am - 32 minutes 4 secondsEP #541 - Stefan Weirich: Building AI-powered Robots
Timestamps:
9:03 - Challenges in AI and Robotics
17:55 - Mimics core customer segment
23:00 - The role of the ETH network
25:46 - The future vision for Mimic
Episode description:Stefan Weirich is the Co-Founder and CEO of Mimic, a deep tech startup building foundation AI models for robotic manipulation that enables robots to react, self-correct, and handle real-world variability beyond hard-coded trajectories. With a background spanning mechanical engineering, robotics R&D, and the startup ecosystem.
In this episode, we dive into founder-relevant themes at the heart of the Swiss innovation ecosystem: how ETH research de-risks deep tech, why data is the bottleneck in physical AI, and what it takes to build a company in robotics with real-world deployment constraints. Stefan also shares what’s changing in Zurich and how a rapidly maturing founder community with “San Francisco vibes.”
Beyond the technical story, Stefan goes deeper into the hard trade-offs: choosing specialization over “generalist” hype, building a go-to-market focus in manufacturing and logistics, and the operational reality that execution speed in hardware is limited by logistics, resources, and scaling talent. He also reflects on what Switzerland still needs to produce more global deep tech winners.
The cover portrait was edited bywww.smartportrait.io.
Don’t forget to give us a follow on Instagram, Linkedin, TikTok, and Youtube 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.
22 January 2026, 7:24 am - 30 minutes 46 secondsEP #540 - Moritz Futscher: Batteries Thinner Than Hair - The Breakthrough Behind Solid-State Energy
Timestamps:
11:09 - Use-cases for BTRYs technology
15:57 - Challenges in scaling production
20:43 - The Swiss startup ecossystem
23:11 - Advice for aspiring entrepreneurs
This episode was co-produced with Swiss Startup Days, the leading Swiss deep-tech catalyst event for startups, investors, enablers, and corporates.
Checkout Newcomers - the ultimate pitching format for pre-seed and seed startups in Switzerland. Applications open in December 2025.Episode description
In this episode, we sit down with Moritz Futscher, CEO and Co-Founder of BTRY, a Swiss-based deep tech startup building ultra-thin solid-state batteries. After years in academic research in multiple countries, Moritz transitioned from the lab into entrepreneurship to bring battery technology out of research and into real-world applications. He holds a PhD in Physics from Universiteit van Amsterdam.
Moritz shares what it really takes to scale hardware startups in Switzerland, from navigating early incubators and public funding programs to raising capital during a difficult period for battery companies across Europe. We discuss the strengths and gaps of the Swiss startup ecosystem, why early-stage support is strong but scale-up infrastructure remains limited, and how partnerships with European, US, and Asian players are becoming essential for global competitiveness.
Mortiz also goes deeper into the realities of deep tech execution: finding the first real customer use cases, choosing scaling partners, managing complex manufacturing processes, and building a high-performance team culture focused on psychological safety, ownership, and empowerment. He also reflects on the personal leap from academia to startup life, balancing family and leadership, and what success really means when building physical technology that aims to enable entirely new applications.
The cover portrait was edited bywww.smartportrait.io.
Don’t forget to give us a follow on Instagram, Linkedin, TikTok, and Youtube 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.
18 January 2026, 3:17 pm - 40 minutes 51 secondsEP #539 - Christian Greis: Sidepreneurship that Solves 80% of Skin Cases Online
Timestamps:
7:30 - The problem that led Christian to found derma2go
13:27 - Creating a “win-win” hybrid model
20:08 - Building a two-sided marketplace
30:07 - Raising money with discipline
This episode is co-produced with Innosuisse, the Swiss Innovation Agency. Innosuisse supports SMEs, startups, research institutions and other Swiss organisations in their research and development activities. They offer a range of programmes to help you bring your innovative ideas to life. To explore their support offerings and find the right offer for your needs, visit their online guide and take the next step in your innovation journey.Episode description:
In this episode we speak to Christian Greis, a Dermatologist at University Hospital Zürich and the Founder behind derma2go, a Swiss digital dermatology platform built to help patients get expert skin assessments faster through online photo-based consultations. Christian shares how his path from clinical medicine into entrepreneurship was shaped by real-world demand, and how he built derma2Go while staying close to the medical frontline.
Christian speaks about how derma2go creates a win-win through hybrid care - solving 75–80% of cases online and routing the remainder in-house - and what it takes to shift patient behavior from long waiting lists to digital-first care. Christian also breaks down the realities of operating a two-sided platform in healthcare and why the company pivoted toward a B2B2C model by partnering with hospitals and clinics.
Christian also goes deeper into his founder journey: the trade-offs of solo founding, why sidepreneurship can be a strategic advantage in regulated markets, and what Christian learned from Innosuisse training and coaching. Finally, he shares a pragmatic view on fundraising and why it’s important to stay lean and raise only what you need.
The cover portrait was edited bywww.smartportrait.io.
Don’t forget to give us a follow on Instagram, Linkedin, TikTok, and Youtube 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.
14 January 2026, 6:34 pm - 36 minutes 4 secondsEP #538 - Panagiotis Martakis: Scaling Deep Tech in Switzerland Without Losing Focus
Timestamps:
7:06 - What Irmos does
16:13 - The information gap that Irmos is solving for
22:51 - Why Irmos delayed raising a large financing round
31:53 - What’s next for Irmos
This episode was co-produced with KickFund, a VC fund investing in the most promising Swiss deeptech startups.
Episode Summary:
In this episode we sit down with Panagiotis Martakis, Founder and CEO of Irmos Technologies, a Swiss startup using data-driven monitoring to protect and extend the lifetime of critical infrastructure. Trained as a civil engineer, Panos transitioned from traditional structural engineering into sensing, data, and predictive maintenance through research at ETH Zurich, where the foundations of Irmos were built.
Panos shares how his work in the critical infrastructure sector operates in slow-moving, highly regulated markets where trust, references, and execution matter more than speed. Panos shares why Irmos deliberately delayed raising a large funding round, how the Swiss startup ecosystem supports founders at early stages, and why focus is a decisive advantage when resources are limited.
Panos goes deeper into the realities of building a hardware and data-driven company: reducing uncertainty in engineering decisions, moving from gut-feeling inspections to measurable risk at portfolio level, and narrowing focus after an initial phase of experimentation. He reflects on fundraising timing, working with public-sector clients, learning from Founder networks, and the long-term vision of turning infrastructure monitoring into a scalable, data-powered standard.
The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io.
Don’t forget to give us a follow on Instagram, Linkedin, TikTok, and Youtube 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.
7 January 2026, 5:56 pm - 43 minutes 9 secondsEP #537 - Imad Abdallah: The One-Customer Rule for Hardware Founders
Timestamps:
10:01 - What RTDT does
21:03 - Creating a team and spinning-off from ETH
26:19 - Getting financing for Hardware
32:08 - The One-Customer rule
Episode summary:
In this episode, we sit down with Imad Abdallah, Co-Founder & CEO of RTDT, a spin-off from ETH Zurich developing one of the world’s first systems to measure real aerodynamic behavior directly on wind turbine blades. After studying engineering in Canada and Denmark, Imad moved to Switzerland for a postdoc at ETH where the core technology behind RTDT was born.
Imad shares what it really takes to build a hardware company in Switzerland: turning a research prototype into a manufacturable product, navigating regulation, and validating a solution for an industry where no benchmark data exists. Imad also shares how early programs like Venture Kick and Innosuisse helped sharpen their pitch - shifting from “technology that can do everything” to a clear value proposition for one specific market. He explains why the wind industry is concentrated, hard to access, but ultimately ideal for focused, high-impact innovation.
Imad offers an honest look behind the scenes of hardware entrepreneurship: spending months rewriting firmware, installing patches himself in the rain on 100-meter blades, and learning the importance of one customer, one use case, one application in the early days. He reflects on fundraising challenges founders face when developing hardware, the value of choosing partners who understand manufacturing, and the long-term vision of making RTDT the reference in deploying an interface between aerodynamic data and turbine control systems.
This episode was sponsored by infinity.swiss, Switzerland’s most advanced AI accounting tool. Save 25% by entering code SWISSPRENEUR at checkout.The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io.
Don’t forget to give us a follow on Instagram, Linkedin, TikTok, and Youtube 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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