- 1 hour 10 minutesFrom Launch to a Landmark Exit to Mistral in 18 Months: Dennis Just, Emmi AI (EP#567)
Timestamps:
09:16 - How Emmi AI Reached an Exit in 18 Months
18:01 - Why They Raised €15M After Becoming Profitable
25:25 - Why Mistral Was the Right Buyer
46:49 - Can Europe Win in Industrial AI?
Episode description:Dennis Just co-founded Emmi AI and served as its CEO, building an industrial AI company focused on complex engineering problems. Around 18 months after launch, Emmi AI was acquired by Mistral AI, where Dennis now serves as VP Manufacturing Solutions. Before Emmi AI, he had already founded several companies, including Knip and Smallpdf, and was closely involved in the Swiss startup ecosystem.
In this episode, Dennis explains how the company grew around research rather than a traditional sales setup. Publishing strong technical work brought major industrial companies to them, while the €15 million seed round gave the team room to keep investing in the technology without making every decision around runway. He also takes us behind the acquisition and shares why Emmi AI chose Mistral despite having other offers on the table.
The conversation then zooms out to Europe’s place in the AI race. Dennis explains why he sees industrial AI as one of the continent’s strongest opportunities, what Europe still needs to get right, and why this deal feels more like the start of a new chapter than the end of the journey.
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.
2 July 2026, 12:03 am - 51 minutes 14 secondsCan Switzerland Stay Relevant in the AI Race?: Laurent Decrue & Sophie Lamparter (EP #566)
In this Swisspreneur Briefing, Sophie Lamparter, Founding Partner at Vitamin°C, and Laurent Decrue, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Holycode, join Silvan to discuss what the latest developments in AI and funding mean for Swiss founders.
They look at Europe’s dependence on American and Chinese AI models, why investors are becoming more cautious, and what falling seed investment could mean for the next generation of startups. The conversation also explores whether Switzerland could use its strengths in data security, deep tech, and infrastructure to build a more relevant position in the AI economy.
The episode comes back to a familiar challenge: Switzerland has the talent, research, capital, and technology. What it still struggles with is turning that potential into companies that grow at global scale.
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.
28 June 2026, 9:55 pm - 34 minutes 32 secondsFixing DNA Like a Typo: Vincent Forster, Nerai (EP#565)
Timestamps:
1:44 - Why Founders Build Again
4:20 - Turning Tech Into a Product
14:58 - How Founders Choose Focus
21:16 - From Hype to Real Execution
This episode was co-produced with KickFund, a VC fund investing in the most promising Swiss deeptech startups.
Episode description:
Vincent Forster is the CEO and Co-founder of Nerai, a Swiss biotech developing a new generation of more precise and scalable genome-editing tools for rare genetic diseases. Before starting Nerai, Vincent founded and led Versantis, which was acquired by GENFIT in 2022. Now a second-time founder, he is applying what he learned from turning scientific innovation into real medical products to a new mission: making sure no genetic disease is considered too rare to treat.
In this episode, we discuss why a breakthrough technology is only the beginning, and why execution and translation are what ultimately turn science into patient impact. Vincent explains how Nerai is building a platform rather than a single treatment, using AI and high-throughput protein engineering to create genome editors that can be adapted across multiple rare diseases.
We also explore how biotech founders can manage long development timelines, choose where to focus when their technology has many potential applications, and build a capital-efficient model around partnerships, reusable technology, and regulatory alignment.
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.24 June 2026, 4:14 pm - 42 minutes 6 secondsSwiss Startups Need to Think Bigger: Amberg Loglay CEO Yvette Körber (EP#564)
Timestamps:
5:22 - The opportunity identification
17:49 - Transitioning into a Scale-up
24:31 - How AI is impacting logistics
35-14 - The Swiss scalling problem
This episode is part of the Swisspreneur Scale-up Circle content, our curated community of Swiss Series A + founders and operators where you can get operator grade insight.
Episode summary:
Yvette Körber is the CEO and Co-Founder of Amberg Loglay, a Swiss construction logistics technology company helping some of the country's largest construction projects become more efficient through planning, software, data analytics and AI. Amberg Loglay supports complex projects such as hospitals, laboratories and large-scale developments, while expanding from a services business into a scalable software and data platform.
In this episode, Yvette shares why some of the biggest startup opportunities are hidden inside traditional industries, how founders can use consulting and services to bootstrap and validate software businesses, and why Swiss startups need to think more internationally if they want to become global category leaders. She also discusses building a company in a market that first needed to be educated, the challenge of scaling from services to software, and how AI is reshaping construction and enterprise workflows.
Beyond business, the conversation explores the mindset shift from corporate leader to entrepreneur, the realities of driving change in an industry resistant to transformation, and what Switzerland can learn from more internationally connected startup ecosystems. Yvette reflects on the importance of international networks, confidence in global markets, and why entrepreneurship remains one of Switzerland's most important tools for maintaining its competitiveness in the future.
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.
18 June 2026, 8:16 am - 1 hour 1 minuteHow Founders Build Boards That Work: Marc Stöckli (EP#563)
Timestamps:
08:55 - When to Form a Board
14:53 - Choosing the Right Board Members
20:46 - Working Effectively with Your Board
46:52 - Scaling the Board with Company Growth
Episode description:Marc Stockli is an entrepreneur, investor, board member, and author of Make Boards Work. Over the course of his career, he has built companies, advised founders, invested in startups, and served on numerous boards across Europe. In this episode, he shares what separates boards that create real value from those that become a mere governance exercise, drawing on decades of experience helping founders, investors, and executives navigate growth, fundraising, and leadership.
We discuss how founders should think about building their board from day one, why the best investors advocate for independent board chairs earlier than most founders expect, and how boards can provide meaningful support and challenge rather than simply oversee management. Mark also explains why board composition should evolve as startups scale, how to choose the right people for each stage of growth, and why shorter board tenures can often lead to better outcomes.
Beyond governance, we explore the human side of effective boards. Mark shares why trust functions like a bank account that must be built before a crisis, how a simple icebreaker exercise helped prevent a boardroom conflict from escalating, and what founders can learn about leadership from his experiences in the Swiss Army. We also discuss ego in the boardroom, psychological safety, and why the best board discussions are often the most uncomfortable ones.
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.
10 June 2026, 5:00 pm - 27 minutes 21 secondsWhy Europe Needs Its Own Cloud Infrastructure: Exoscale CEO Mathias Nöbauer (EP#562)
Timestamps:
07:20 - Building a European Alternative in Cloud Services
14:02 - Leadership Style and Team Dynamics
18:01 - Navigating the Fast-Paced Cloud Industry
21:30 - Switzerland's Role in Europe's Digital Sovereignty
This episode was co-produced with Innovaud, the innovation and investment promotion agency for the canton of Vaud.Episode description:
Mathias Nöbauer is the CEO of Exoscale, a European sovereign cloud provider helping organizations run applications and infrastructure under European jurisdiction. With more than 25 years of experience across software development, today, he is focused on building a European alternative to the dominant US cloud providers while helping organizations navigate an increasingly complex technology landscape.
In this episode, we discuss why digital sovereignty is moving from a legal and compliance concern to a strategic business priority, how Europe's dependence on foreign technology infrastructure creates new risks for companies and governments, and why Europe needs to invest more boldly in its own technology ecosystem. Mathias also shares how Exoscale competes against hyperscalers like AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud, and why he believes sovereign cloud infrastructure will become increasingly important for Europe's future prosperity.
We also explore how to build trust in critical infrastructure businesses, the leadership lessons Mathias has learned from scaling an engineering-led company, and Switzerland's unique position as a trusted hub that could help shape Europe's digital future. Along the way, we discuss talent development, risk-taking in European entrepreneurship, and why innovation, sovereignty, and prosperity are more connected than many people realize.
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.
3 June 2026, 4:14 pm - 1 hour 3 minutesVom 25m²-Büro zum grössten Onlineshop der Schweiz: Digitec Galaxus CEO Florian Teuteberg (EP#561)
(English below)
Florian Teuteberg, Mitgründer und CEO von Digitec Galaxus, empfängt uns im Logistikzentrum in Wohlen und erzählt die ganze Geschichte hinter dem grössten Onlinehändler der Schweiz: von drei Gamern in einem 25-Quadratmeter-Büro bis zu über 3 Milliarden CHF Umsatz.
In dieser Swisspreneur Documentary erfährst du:
- Wie drei Gaming-Freunde aus Leidenschaft für Hardware ein Milliardenunternehmen aufbauten
- Warum der Onlineshop aus der Frustration entstand, Kunden immer das Gleiche erklären zu müssen
- Wie Digitec Apple- und Samsung-Produkte grau importierte, nachdem die Hersteller sich weigerten zu liefern
- Warum sie ihr gesamtes ERP-System zweimal von Grund auf selbst entwickelten und wie es fast schiefging
- Was der Einstieg der Migros verändert hat
- Wie sie jetzt in Deutschland und Österreich gegen Amazon antreten
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Florian Teuteberg, co-founder and CEO of Digitec Galaxus, welcomes us to the logistics center in Wohlen and tells the full story behind Switzerland’s largest online retailer: from three gamers in a 25-square-meter office to over CHF 3 billion in revenue.
In this Swisspreneur documentary, you’ll learn:
- How three gaming friends built a billion-dollar company out of their passion for hardware
- Why the online store was born out of frustration at always having to explain the same thing to customers
- How Digitec imported Apple and Samsung products through parallel imports after the manufacturers refused to supply them
- Why they developed their entire ERP system from scratch twice on their own—and how it almost went wrong
- What Migros’ entry into the market changed
- How they’re now competing against Amazon in Germany and Austria
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.
27 May 2026, 9:29 pm - 53 minutes 43 secondsThe Two-Country Strategy for Swiss Startups: Laurent Decrue & Sophie Lamparter (EP#560)
Timestamps:
15:14 European AI Landscape and Mistral AI Acquisition
28:12 The Rise of European Startups in the U.S.
30:06 Building Bridges: Dual Ecosystems for Success
42:30 IPO Frenzy: The U.S. Market's Impact on Europe
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 episode of Swisspreneur Briefing, we’re joined by Laurent Decrue, Co-CEO of Holycode, and Sophie Lamparter, Founding Partner of VitaminºC, a climate tech venture fund investing across Europe and the US. Together, they unpack the latest developments shaping the Swiss and European startup ecosystem, from record-breaking funding rounds and AI acquisitions to the growing role of European founders on the global stage.
In this episode, we discuss why venture capital remains heavily concentrated in AI, biotech, and deep tech, and what that means for founders building outside those sectors. We explore whether Europe has already lost the consumer AI race and why industrial AI could become its biggest opportunity. We also examine the emerging playbook for ambitious European startups: keeping talent and R&D in Europe while leveraging the US for fundraising, sales, and scale. Finally, we look at the return of IPOs and large exits, and how new liquidity could restart the flywheel of startup creation and investment across the ecosystem.
Beyond the headlines, we dive into the cultural differences between the US and European startup ecosystems, what Switzerland’s quality of life means for attracting and retaining talent, and why Europe’s challenge may not be a lack of talent but a lack of ambition. We also discuss the psychology behind investor FOMO, the race to gain exposure to companies like Anthropic, and how success stories create the optimism and momentum that inspire the next generation of founders to think bigger.
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.
24 May 2026, 3:17 pm - 42 minutes 11 secondsThe Startup Tackling The Invisible Disease Affecting 10% of Women: Scanvio Co-founder & CEO Stefan Tuchschmid (EP#559)
Timestamps:
12:58 - The Challenge of Diagnosing Endometriosis
17:12 - Collaborating with Doctors for Effective Solutions
24:01 - Funding Strategies and Investor Relations
30:31 - Balancing Family Life and Entrepreneurship
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:
Stefan Tuchschmid is the CEO and Co-founder of Scanvio Medical, a Swiss medtech startup building AI-powered ultrasound support tools to help doctors detect Endometriosis earlier. In this episode, he shares lessons from building and scaling companies in healthcare, navigating AI adoption in medicine, and becoming a second-time founder.
In this conversation, we discuss why adoption matters more than obvious product value, especially in healthcare and AI. Stefan explains why the best AI products often augment experts instead of replacing them, and how Scanvio is building “a second pair of eyes” for gynecologists during ultrasound scans. We also dive into the realities of fundraising in Switzerland, including how to approach family offices and business angels, what “smart money” actually means, and why personal connection and storytelling still matter when raising capital.
We also explore the more personal side of entrepreneurship: how Stefan’s approach to leadership changed after building his first company, why he now delegates far more intentionally, and how becoming a father of three reshaped the way he thinks about founder mode, work-life balance, and scaling teams. Finally, we discuss the hidden human cost of endometriosis, a condition affecting 10% of women globally that still takes an average of 10 years to diagnose.
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.
20 May 2026, 6:46 am - 43 minutes 10 secondsHow Founders Need to Change as Their Startup Scales: Grape Founder Gregory Inauen (EP# 558)
Timestamps:
03:31 - Building Grape: From Tech to Insurance
12:36 - Building Trust in Insurance
26:53 - Scaling Leadership and Team Dynamics
31:18 - Hiring for Long-Term Success
This episode is part of the Swisspreneur Scale-up Circle content, our curated community of Swiss Series A + founders and operators where you can get operator grade insight.Episode description:
Gregory Inauen is the founder and co-CEO of Grape, a Swiss digital employee insurance company combining insurance, software, and preventive health services. Before founding Grape, Greg was deeply involved in the Swiss startup ecosystem through the ETH Entrepreneur Club, where he became immersed in the founder community early on.
In this episode, Greg shares what founders underestimate about scaling a startup in Switzerland. We discuss why scaling is mostly an organizational challenge rather than a growth challenge, how founders need to evolve as the company grows, and why improving the organization becomes more important than simply working harder yourself. Greg also explains why Grape deliberately avoided positioning itself too strongly as a “startup,” how trust changes the way you build in regulated industries, and why disciplined hiring compounds over the long term.
We also go deeper into the more nuanced side of company building: what it feels like when “everything breaks” during scale-up phases, how the co-CEO model works in practice at Grape, and why some of the company’s earliest employees chose to personally invest in the business. Greg reflects on building in industries where reliability matters more than hype, learning an entirely new sector from scratch, and what it takes to continuously reinvent yourself as a founder while the company scales.
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 May 2026, 5:34 am - 46 minutes 41 secondsHow to Thrive in the Swiss Startup Support Ecosystem: Pascal Stürchler, Wendy Jordan & Sam Dumelin (EP# 557)
Timestamps:
6:38 - What makes Switzerland a unique environment for startups
14:42 - Global best practices the Swiss startup world can adopt
20:11 - How to network and approach VCs
25:46 - The role of academic and research institutes in the Swiss startup ecosystem
28:41 - Top 3 tips for launching a startup in Switzerland
This episode was produced in collaboration with Startup Days, which took place on May 14th 2025.
About Pascal Stürchler, Wendy Jordan and Sam Dumelin:
Pascal Stürchler is the co-founder and CEO of Bloomhaus Ventures, a seed and early stage startup investor, as well as the President of Founders2, a growth program guided by top Silicon Valley coaches. Wendy Jordan is the Founder and COO of Encuentra24.com, the leading online classifieds platform in Central America, and founder of Fyiar Ventures, a private capital firm focused on tech scale-ups. Sam Dumelin is the co-founder of Novu Campus, a state-of-the-art coworking on-site campus in the heart of Zurich, and Novu Office, a full service provider for office refurbishing equipment.
In this session we spoke about what makes the Swiss startup ecosystem unique, namely the presence of diverse and innovation-dense industries in close contact with each other, as well as the top quality higher education and legacy around innovation in Switzerland. We also discussed the best practices that can be implemented to level up the ecosystem, such as transitioning from a more specific to holistic approach in supporting early stage start-ups, the role of universities in promoting cross functional talent matchmaking, and how pitches are moving towards a more personal storytelling approach.
We then heard the panelists share their insights on best practices for networking and reaching out to VCs in the Swiss context, as well as the how-to’s and value of validating a product before scaling-up, pivoting quickly, and leveraging the mentorship and support opportunities already in place for start-ups in Switzerland.
The session ended with a Q&A with the audience, where our panelists shared tips on how to break into the large manufacturing space with limited capital and how to work with banks to secure debt funding.
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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