- 46 minutes 41 secondsFrom 80,000 Scooters a Day to Building Microlino: Wim Ouboter & Oliver Ouboter, Microlino (EP#580)
Timestamps:
04:39 – 300 Factories Copying the Product
15:43 – 500 Reservations in Two Days
25:57 – Building a Company as Father and Son
37:10 – What Comes Next for Microlino
Episode description:Wim Ouboter is the founder and CEO of Microlino, the company behind the micro scooter. Oliver Ouboter is the COO and Co-Founder of Microlino. Together, they have taken a family business that started with scooters and pushed it into a much more ambitious category: building a small electric vehicle for everyday mobility.
In this episode, Wim looks back at the rise of the micro scooter and how quickly success turned into a wave of copycats. Oliver shares what it was like to grow up around the business and eventually become part of the next generation building Microlino. They also explain how the Microlino idea started, why the first prototype was nearly destroyed before launch and how 500 reservations in Geneva turned what began as a PR experiment into a real automotive project.
The conversation also covers the much harder side of the journey. Wim and Oliver talk about a failed joint venture, the decision to build their own factory and what they learned about working together as father and son. They also discuss why Microlino sits in its own category, the fight over CO₂ credits in Switzerland and where they want to take the company next.
The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io.
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23 September 2026, 6:34 pm - 45 minutes 46 secondsThe Hidden Cost of AI Context: Kamel Charaf, Compresr (EP#579)
Timestamps:
04:14 – Why Context Management Matters
10:34 – How Compresr Works
20:07 – Getting Into Y Combinator
36:03 – What People Get Wrong About AI
Episode description:
Kamel Charaf is the Co-Founder and CPO of Compresr, a company helping AI teams reduce the amount of context they send to large language models. Instead of building another AI application, Compresr sits one layer lower: it decides what information the model actually needs before the request reaches it.
In this episode, Kamel explains why context management is becoming a real infrastructure problem for AI companies. As more teams use agents, company brains and large document workflows, the amount of text sent to models keeps growing. That can make AI slower, more expensive and less reliable.
Kamel also talks about building Compresr out of the EPFL orbit, joining Y Combinator, moving between Switzerland and Silicon Valley, and learning to shift from a research mindset to a more commercial one. The conversation gets into token costs, enterprise pilots, on-premise deployment, Swiss talent, YC’s “bro style” advice and why the next layer of AI may be less flashy than the apps everyone talks about.
The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io.
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16 September 2026, 6:33 pm - 42 minutes 2 secondsShould Founders Stop Following the Plan?: Luca Bortolani & Özgür Genç (EP#578)
This episode was co-produced by Founders Hive, a community of successful startup founders, industry experts, and investors promoting entrepreneurship in Switzerland and helping early-stage business concepts get ready for seed-stage investment. Founders Hive is a partner of the Entrepreneurship Training programme, empowered by Innosuisse, the Swiss innovation agency supporting SMEs, startups, research institutions and other Swiss organizations in their research and development activities. Click here to find out more about Founders Hive, empowered by Innosuisse: https://innosuisse.founders-hive.ch/
Episode description:
Luca Bortolani is the Co-Founder and CEO of Twiliner, a startup rethinking overnight travel with lie-flat bus seats. Özgür Genç is the Co-Founder and CEO of Translation-X, a biotech company developing precision therapeutics for autism spectrum disorders. In this Opposing Views episode, they discuss a founder dilemma that sounds simple until the stakes get real: should you keep executing on the plan, or change course?
The tension looks very different in each company. For Luca, pivoting is expensive because Twiliner has to deal with hardware, operations and the reality of putting buses on the road. For Özgür, the question is shaped by science, clinical uncertainty and the responsibility of building for patients with real unmet needs. In both cases, changing direction is not something you do casually.
The conversation gets into what founders should keep fixed, what they need to stay flexible on, and how to know when new information should actually change the plan. Luca and Özgür talk about unit economics, customer willingness to pay, patient subgroups, investor expectations and the moments when execution alone is no longer enough. It is a very practical look at the difference between being persistent and being too attached to the original idea.
Timestamps:
14:07 – Sticking to the Plan vs Pivoting
21:03 – Unit Economics in Hardware
27:11 – Finding the Right Patient Group
39:32 – What Should Never Change
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.9 September 2026, 9:41 pm - 56 minutes 20 secondsIs Switzerland Entering a Bigger-Round Era?: Laurent Decrue & Sophie Lamparter (EP#577)
Timestamps:
02:42 – Physical AI’s Moment
05:41 – Gravis Robotics’ CHF 200M Series A
19:39 – SWISSto12’s CHF 70M Series C
29:12 – Adaptyv Bio’s CHF 40M Series A
Episode description:
In this Swisspreneur Briefing, Sophie Lamparter, Founding Partner at Vitamin°C, and Laurent Decrue, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Holycode, join Silvan to look back at an unusually active summer for Swiss startups. After a weaker first half of the year, August brought several rounds that felt much larger than what the ecosystem is used to seeing.
The discussion starts with Gravis Robotics’ CHF 200M Series A and what it says about physical AI, ambition, and the old Swiss habit of selling too early. Sophie and Laurent also look at SWISSto12’s CHF 70M Series C and Adaptyv Bio’s CHF 40M Series A, asking what these cases reveal about deeptech, commercial traction, and the kind of capital needed to scale.
The episode then widens into a bigger question for the Swiss ecosystem. Switzerland has the talent and the technology. The challenge is whether enough capital, operator experience and ambition can come together to turn more of these companies into global champions. The conversation also touches on the future of SaaS, the rise of AI-native software, and why the next phase of startup growth may look very different from the last one.
The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io.
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7 September 2026, 10:29 pm - 47 minutes 46 secondsScaling AI Through Pharma’s Bottlenecks: Martin Keller, Acodis (EP#576)
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:
Martin Keller is the founder and CEO of Acodis, a Swiss scale-up helping life sciences companies turn document-heavy processes into structured, usable data. What started with a mountaineering app idea and a pile of PDFs eventually became a company working with global pharma players on one of their most persistent problems: making complex documents understandable for machines.
In this Scaleup Circle episode, Martin talks about the long path from a broad data extraction idea to a much sharper focus on pharma and life sciences. He explains why regulated industries need more than a generic AI solution, how Acodis narrowed its market over time and why go-to-market scaling looks very different when sales cycles can take more than a year.
The conversation also goes into the founder side of scaling. Martin shares what he learned about timing, focus, VC money, and keeping a founding team aligned over many years.It is a clear look at what it takes to build an AI company in a market where trust shapes the pace of growth, and the path to scale is rarely as clean as it looks from the outside.
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Timestamps:
01:20 – What Acodis Does
06:35 – Finding the Pharma Niche
19:20 – Knowing Where You Are on the Journey
25:54 – Scaling Go-to-Market in Pharma
2 September 2026, 10:14 pm - 33 minutes 31 secondsGo Global or Win Local First?: Habiba Alami & Milan Kuzmanovic (EP#575)
This episode was produced by Founders Hive, a community of successful startup founders, industry experts, and investors promoting entrepreneurship in Switzerland and helping early-stage business concepts get ready for seed-stage investment. Founders Hive is a partner of the Entrepreneurship Training programme, empowered by Innosuisse, the Swiss innovation agency supporting SMEs, startups, research institutions and other Swiss organizations in their research and development activities. Click here to find out more about Founders Hive, empowered by Innosuisse.
Episode description:
Habiba Alami is the founder and CEO of HappyPot, a Swiss startup making group money collection easier. Milan Kuzmanovic is the founder and Chief AI Officer of Nextesy, an AI-native business administration platform built to reduce repetitive back-office work. In this Opposing Views episode, they discuss a question many founders face early on: should you build for global expansion from day one, or focus on becoming strong in one market first?
For Milan, the ambition was global from the beginning. The problem Nextesy tackles exists far beyond Switzerland, but the company still chose to prove itself at home first. Habiba sees it differently: the problem HappyPot solves may be global, but trust, payment habits and user behaviour change from market to market. That makes Switzerland less of a limitation and more of a demanding testing ground.
The conversation gets into the real trade-offs behind international expansion. Move too late, and the market may move without you. Move too early, and you risk spreading the company before the product is strong enough. Habiba and Milan also share what they are working on next, and what founders should ask themselves before deciding whether it is time to expand.
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Timestamps:01:18 – Global vs Local Growth
02:51 – Building With Global Ambition
11:05 – Why the Solution Has to Be Local
24:31 – The Risk of Expanding Too Late
26 August 2026, 7:09 pm - 41 minutes 1 secondBuilding on Top of the AI Giants: Jonas Kamber, Mono (EP#574)
Timestamps:
00:45 – Building Mono on Top of the AI Giants
05:23 – Is Mono Just an AI Wrapper?
09:08 – Building in Public to Build Trust
25:25 – Growing Mono Through a Viral Loop
Episode description:Jonas Kamber is the founder of Mono, an AI tool that brings different models into one place and helps users get the right model for the task. After years in product, UX and startups, including co-founding Silp, Jonas is now building Mono as a one-person company from Switzerland.
In this episode, Jonas talks about the AI wrapper debate and why he believes Mono’s real edge is not just model access, but user trust. He explains how memory across different AI tools can make the experience more useful, why accessibility matters when new models appear so quickly, and how he thinks about building in a market dominated by names like ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini.
The conversation also gets into the founder side of building in public. Jonas shares why he is open about revenue, costs and product progress, how LinkedIn became an early distribution channel, and why he is now working on a viral loop for Mono. He also talks about bootstrapping, staying small on purpose, and why Swiss founders might benefit from being more open to business models that do not follow the usual VC playbook.
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19 August 2026, 11:24 pm - 43 minutes 43 secondsSME Succession as an Entrepreneurial Path: Lars Sager, ENEX (EP#573)
Timestamps:
00:24 – Buying a Business as a Founder Path
05:54 – Starting at One Instead of Zero
17:17 – Why Succession Deals Fall Apart
24:59 – The First 100 Days After the Deal
Episode description:Lars Sager is the co-founder of ENEX, a company helping ambitious entrepreneurs take over established SMEs and navigate the succession process. He grew up around a family business that goes back to 1882, later built and exited Contactify, and eventually found his way into one of Switzerland’s biggest entrepreneurial questions: who will take over the thousands of companies looking for a successor?
In this episode, Lars explains why starting from scratch is not the only way to become an entrepreneur. For some people, buying an existing business can be the better path. You are not beginning with a blank page. There is already a company there, with something banks can understand and a future owner can build on.
But succession is very different from the startup playbook. A new owner cannot just come in and break things. The first months are often more about earning trust than proving how much you can change. Lars also shares why bank financing is such a crucial part of the process, and how AI could make traditional SMEs more attractive for a new generation of entrepreneurs. For him, the real test is not whether the deal closes. It is whether the company is still alive and doing well ten years later.
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12 August 2026, 7:08 pm - 56 minutes 42 secondsScaling Deeptech Before the Market Is Ready: Mario Michan, Daphne Technology (EP#572)
Timestamps:
00:34 – What Daphne Technology Does
04:09 – From the Navy to Physics to Switzerland
12:41 – When the Original Business Model Disappeared
31:50 – Scaling Too Early
42:23 – The Catch With Strategic Investors
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:
Mario Michan is the founder of Daphne Technology, a Swiss deeptech company working on emissions reduction for hard-to-abate industries. The company started with a strong technology, but Mario quickly learned that building the product was only one part of the challenge. Scaling it meant dealing with slower sales cycles and financing pressure that does not wait politely in the background.
In this episode, Mario talks about the moments that shaped Daphne Technology’s growth, including a $6 million grant that went into limbo overnight. He also looks back on the decision to scale the team before the product was fully ready to sell. At the time, it made sense. Later, it became one of the lessons he would not forget.
The conversation gives a very honest look at industrial deeptech from the inside. Market interest can be high, but revenue can still take a long time to arrive. Strategic investors can help a lot, but they also bring their own dynamics when the company needs to pivot.
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.5 August 2026, 11:04 pm - 1 hour 2 minutesWhy European Founders Need to Think Bigger: Petter Made, EWOR (EP#571)
Timestamps:
00:45 – Petter’s Journey Into Startups
14:29 – Bringing More Founder Energy to Europe
24:26 – Europe’s Next Big Opportunity
39:24 – The Cost of Founder Obsession
Episode description:Petter Made is a founder, operator and partner at EWOR. He has spent more than 25 years in payments, fintech and company building, including as part of the founding team behind SumUp. There, he helped build a simple idea into a global payments company used by millions of small businesses. Today, he is back at the very beginning of the founder journey, working with early-stage entrepreneurs at EWOR and helping them avoid some of the mistakes he made himself.
In this episode, Petter looks back at the early days of SumUp and explains why the first three years can shape so much of what comes after. He talks about why zero to one is still his favourite stage, why speed mattered so much at SumUp, and what it cost him personally to run at that pace. One of his biggest reflections is also one of the least glamorous: they might have built the company faster if they had slept more.
The conversation also turns to Europe’s place in the global startup race. Petter shares why he thinks European founders need to build with a bigger ambition from the start, and why American investors can sometimes create the kind of pressure the ecosystem needs. He also talks about why obsession can be such a powerful signal and what it will take for more global companies to be built from Europe.
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 July 2026, 8:54 pm - 29 minutes 51 secondsMaking Living Nature Bankable: Rahel Guggenbühl, reilo (EP#570)
Timestamps:
02:12 – Rahel’s Journey to Reilo
05:09 – Why Farmers Need Finance
07:53 – How Reilo Works
17:08 – Building Across Different Markets
Episode description:
Rahel Guggenbühl is the Founder and CEO of reilo, a Swiss climate fintech working at the intersection of smallholder finance, nature-based solutions and carbon markets. Her path into entrepreneurship started on the ground, first in Kenya and Tanzania, where she saw how many smallholder farmers were locked out of financial systems despite owning land and stewarding forests with real ecological value.
In this episode, Rahel explains how reilo is trying to make living nature bankable. The company works with farmer groups in places like Tanzania and Brazil, turning future revenue from nature-based carbon projects into collateral that banks can understand. In Brazil, that means working with açaí farmers to turn bio-waste into biochar, creating new revenue potential while strengthening the position of local cooperatives.
The conversation also gets into what it means to build in markets that work very differently from Switzerland. Rahel explains why trust has to be earned before the solution can work, and why the way you explain an idea can shape the whole project. That becomes especially clear when she talks about Tanzania, where even a word like “biodiversity” does not translate directly. For her, building reilo is as much about listening and adapting as it is about creating the financial infrastructure behind it.
This episode is presented in partnership with Swissnex in Brazil. Swissnex connects Switzerland with some of the world’s leading innovation hubs and helps Swiss startups expand internationally. In Brazil, Swissnex helps ventures identify opportunities, build strategic collaborations, and engage with Latin America's vibrant innovation landscape, with a focus on climate, nature-based solutions, the bioeconomy, clean energy, and beyond. Explore their work through the link above.
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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