- 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.
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29 April 2026, 6:00 pm - 53 minutes 33 secondsWhy Startups Win Or Lose On People: Witena Partner Samuel Berger (EP #556)
Timestamps:
9:49 - Challenges for Founders in Hiring
20:26 - The Role of Boards in Startups
38:52 - Incentivizing Management Teams
49:00 - Celebrating Swiss Innovation and Competitiveness
Episode Summary:
Samuel Berguer is a Partner at Witena, an executive search firm with a dedicated focus on supervisory board and executive committee appointments. Before moving into executive search, he spent years working closely with growing companies in Switzerland, giving him a front-row seat to what actually drives success as companies scale - and where most of them get it wrong.
In this episode, we break down why startups quickly become a people game, and how having the right people in the right roles at the right time separates companies that scale from those that stall. Samuel shares why founders should surround themselves with challengers, not supporters, and why decision-making, not consensus, is one of the most underrated leadership skills. We also dive into hiring mistakes founders repeatedly make, including why they tend to hold on to the wrong people for too long.
We also explore the role of boards in Swiss startups: when to set one up, how to structure it, and why most early boards fail to add real value. Samuel explains why boards shouldn’t be filled with “fans,” but with people who bring experience, challenge assumptions, and evolve with the company. On a broader level, we discuss the Swiss startup ecosystem, from its strong technical foundations to its talent pipeline challenges, and what needs to change for Switzerland to build more globally competitive companies.
If you’re building a startup and want to make better hiring, leadership, and board decisions early, this episode is a must listen.
The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io.
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23 April 2026, 8:07 am - 50 minutes 58 secondsWhy Swiss Startups Still Sell Too Early: Laurent Decrue & Sophie Lamparter (EP #555)
Timestamps:
6:00 - Big Signals in the Swiss Ecosystem
14:46 - US vs Europe - The IPO Landscape
30:49 - Concentration and Kingmaking in Investments
35:55 - The Role of Founder-Led Funds
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 Swisspreneur Briefing, Sophie Lamparter (Partner at VitaminºC) and Laurent Decrue (Co-founder & Co-CEO at Holycode) join us to break down the latest signals shaping the Swiss startup ecosystem. From a fresh $20M climate fund launch to major deep tech exits and IPO ambitions, we look at what’s really happening beneath the headlines - and whether Switzerland is finally entering a new phase of growth.
We dive into three key themes. First, the tension between early exits and long-term ambition - and why Swiss startups still tend to sell before reaching global scale. Second, the growing gap between Europe and the US when it comes to capital markets, with companies choosing Nasdaq over local exchanges. And third, the rise of concentrated capital in venture, where a handful of funds are increasingly “making kings” and determining which startups get to win.
Beyond the headlines, the conversation gets more nuanced. What does it mean for Switzerland if its best deep tech companies are acquired early? Is Europe structurally disadvantaged when it comes to scaling - or does it still have an edge in areas like robotics and physical AI? And how do cultural factors, risk appetite, and investor mindset shape the kinds of companies that get built here? This episode is a candid look at where the Swiss ecosystem stands today - and what still needs to change.
The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io.
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20 April 2026, 9:20 am - 34 minutes 53 secondsHow Switzerland Is Reinventing Life Sciences: François Capel & Loïc Roch (#554)
Timestamps:
2:46 - Understanding Self-Driving Labs
6:07 - Defining BioTools and Their Market
14:49 - Building an Ecosystem for BioTools
18:11 - Future Directions for Ateneri and Innovaud
This episode was co-produced with Innovaud, the innovation and investment promotion agency for the canton of Vaud. Check out https://www.innovaud.ch/en/ to learn more.
Episode Summary:
In this episode we’re joined by François Capel, Innovation Advisor at Innovaud, the innovation agency behind the canton of Vaud, who is leading the push to define and build a new category in life sciences: BioTools, positioning Switzerland as a hub for companies building tools for research, not just end products. With him is Loïc Roch, the co-founder and CTO of Atinary, a Swiss deep tech AI company building self-driving labs from Lausanne and Silicon Valley. By combining robotics, machine learning, and automated experimentation, Atinary is fundamentally changing how scientific discovery happens.
In this episode, we unpack three key ideas. First, why the next wave of AI is moving beyond software into the physical world, automating entire R&D pipelines and accelerating discovery by up to 1000x. Second, how BioTool startups operate under a completely different business model than traditional biotech, avoiding regulation and enabling faster go-to-market, but facing new challenges in sales, pricing, and positioning. Third, how Atinary is building a data flywheel through self-driving labs, turning experimentation into a scalable, AI-driven process.
We also go deeper into the nuances behind building in Switzerland. François shares why BioTools require a new category identity for investors, coaches, and founders to understand the opportunity, and how ecosystem coordination in places like Vaud can accelerate entire industries. Loïc reflects on the real bottleneck in deep tech, not technology, but change management, and what it takes to shift decades-old scientific workflows. And together, they highlight why Switzerland’s strength is not just in individual startups, but in building tightly connected ecosystems that can compete globally.
The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io.
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15 April 2026, 11:01 pm - 1 hour 25 secondsHow 3 Friends Built a CHF 10M Plant Brand From their Kitchen: Feey Co-founder & CEO Sven Jakelj (#553)
Timestamps:
6:02 - Founding Feey: The Birth of a Plant Brand
18:11 - Building a Unique Brand Experience
33:34 - Leveraging Logistics as a Strategic Advantage
42:05 - Harnessing AI For Enhanced Operations
Episode Summary
Sven Jakelj, Co-Founder and CEO of feey, went from cybersecurity to building Switzerland's category-defining plant brand — starting with zero knowledge about plants, a 5th floor apartment in St. Gallen, and a kitchen that doubled as a repotting station.
In this Swisspreneur Documentary, we visit feey's headquarters and vertical farm to uncover how Sven, his brother Janko, and co-founder Severin built a CHF 10M business by rethinking everything about how plants are sold, shipped, and cared for.
In this episode, you'll learn:
🌱 Why a 2B+ CHF market had zero brands — and how feey spotted the gap
📦 How they developed their own packaging and logistics to ship living products safely
🏭 Why they built a vertical farm with no farming experience ("I didn't even know where to turn it on") ✍️ The handwritten card strategy that still scales today — for less than a paid ad click
💀 How 7,000 plants died weeks before their biggest product launch — and how they recovered
🤖 How AI is transforming the way they learn, iterate, and grow faster than ever
📈 Their path from side hustle to CHF 10M revenue — and why retail could 10x the business
The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io.
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12 April 2026, 7:25 pm - 49 minutes 10 secondsBuild & Share Native Apps From Your Phone: Bloom Co-founder & CEO David Oort Alonso (#552)
Timestamps:
12:54 - The Y Combinator Journey
16:24 - The Need for Solutions Like Bloom
24:23 - Raising $3.4 million in three days
37:07 - The future of AI and software development
Check-out Bloom: https://bloom.diy/android
Episode Summary
David Oort Alonso is the co-founder of Bloom, a mobile app builder that’s aiming to make your phone a creation device. Trained in aerospace engineering and robotics in ETH, David’s path into software started with tinkering, then spiraled into a bigger thesis: the friction in software creation is still keeping most people from shipping real products.
In this episode, David shares why mobile is still fundamentally broken compared to web (hardware constraints, distribution, approvals, and iteration loops); how Bloom uses universal apps and a radically simpler sharing flow to get native apps onto real users’ phones in minutes; and the category race in “vibe coding” and why speed alone won’t win -reliability and retention will.
We also go deeper into the founder journey: the mechanics behind getting into Y Combinator after five rejections, and raising $3.4M in five days without a pitch deck, and why building from Zurich can be strategically smarter than competing for the same talent pool in San Francisco.
The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io.
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2 April 2026, 8:37 am - 57 minutes 45 secondsThe $100M TechBio Built Without VCs: Cutiss Co-founder & CEO Daniela Marino (EP #551)
Timestamps:
10:22 - Navigating the Shift from Academia to Startup
16:47 - Innovative Skin Tissue Therapy: The NovoSkin Product
33:53 - Navigating Growth Challenges
41:37 - Investment Journey and Strategies
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:
Daniela Marino is the co-founder and CEO of Cutiss, a Swiss late-stage tech bio company developing personalized skin tissue therapies for reconstructive surgery. With a background in biotechnology and years in academia, Daniela transitioned from research into entrepreneurship to bring a breakthrough innovation to patients. Today, Cutiss is advancing through clinical trials, working to turn regenerative science into real-world medical impact.
In this episode, Daniela shares why cutting-edge scientific research often struggles to become companies, what it takes to transition from academia into building a startup, and how Cutiss scaled into a late-stage tech bio through an unconventional path - raising over CHF 100 million without relying on traditional venture capital. Daniela also shares insights on navigating the European regulatory landscape and why Switzerland can be a unique advantage for deep tech founders.
Beyond the business, Daniela reflects on the personal reality of becoming a founder without prior startup experience, including learning the fundamentals while building the company in real time. She talks about the importance of resilience, surrounding yourself with the right people, and leading a growing team through uncertainty. The conversation also touches on the real-world impact of Cutiss’ work - including supporting patients with severe burns, such as victims of the recent Crans-Montana tragedy - and what it means to build a company with a deeply human mission.
The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io.
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26 March 2026, 9:34 am - 51 minutes 38 secondsInside Switzerland’s Startup Pipeline: Laurent Decrue & Sophie Lamparter (EP #550)
Timestamps:
9:05 - Big March Funding Rounds
24:13 - ETH Zurich Record Pipeline and Startup Ecossystem
35: 22 - The Future of Robotics and Industrial Tech in Switzerland
43:53 - Investment Strategies (Spray and Pray vs Focused Approach)
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 March 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 rounds and deep tech momentum to the structural challenges founders still face when trying to scale globally.
The conversation explores three major themes shaping Switzerland’s startup landscape right now. First, why significant funding rounds are still happening in Switzerland despite the global AI hype, particularly in sectors like medtech, biosensing, and crypto. Second, the growing impact of ETH Zurich as a startup engine with their 2025 Ventures report, where they had record spin-offs, stronger investor interest, and improving conditions for founders commercializing research. And third, why robotics and industrial tech could become one of Switzerland’s most important breakout sectors in the coming years.
Along the way, the discussion goes deeper into some of the structural questions behind the headlines: why Switzerland excels at inventing but often struggles to scale, why American investors still dominate late-stage rounds for Swiss startups, and how culture, risk appetite, and ecosystem incentives shape the kinds of companies that ultimately emerge. The episode also touches on the role of programs like Venture Kick, the growing international attention on Swiss deep tech, and what the ecosystem still needs to produce more global category leaders.
The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io.
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16 March 2026, 8:02 am - 49 minutes 58 secondsHow ETH Zurich Became a Startup Machine: Frank Floessel & Vanessa Wood (#549)
Timestamps:
7:59 - ETHs Modernization in Supporting for Founders and Startups
21:03 - Growth of Spin-offs and Startups at ETH
29:52 Identifying Gaps in the Ecosystem
35:43 Metrics for a Healthy Ecossystem
Episode Description:
In this episode we’re joined by Vanessa Wood, Vice President for Knowledge Transfer and Corporate Relations at ETH Zurich, and Frank Floessel, Head of ETH Entrepreneurship. Vanessa oversees how ETH connects its research with industry, government, and society, such as partnerships, intellectual property, and spin-offs. Frank brings the perspective of a founder and operator: after studying electrical engineering at ETH, he co-founded Tempobrain before returning to help shape the next generation of entrepreneurs at ETH.
In the conversation, we explore how ETH is transforming its approach to entrepreneurship, making the spin-off process faster, clearer, and more founder-friendly. They also go into why deep tech could be Europe’s opportunity to compete globally again, with institutions like ETH producing the research and talent needed to build the next generation of companies. They then discuss the structural challenges still facing Europe - including the lack of late-stage liquidity and strong public markets compared to the U.S.
We also dive into the founder mindset behind successful startups. Vanessa explains why great technology alone doesn’t build a great company - founders also need to understand customers, markets, and how to assemble teams that can turn research into real products. Frank shares his own journey from ETH student to founder and back to the university, highlighting how successful entrepreneurs often return to support the next generation. Together, they discuss how ecosystems like ETH grow stronger over time as experienced founders reinvest their knowledge, networks, and capital into future startups
The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io.
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11 March 2026, 10:45 pm - 59 minutes 24 secondsFinding Product-Market-Fit, Scaling Swiss SaaS, and building the Equity Flywheel: Ledgy Co-Founder & CEO Armon Bättig (#548)
Timestamps:
5:32 - Understanding Product-Market-Fit
19:24 - Scaling across geographies
25:45 - Cultural shifts in european entrepreneurship
30:04 - The equity compensation flywheel
Episode description:
In this episode we sit down with Armon Bättig, Co-Founder and CEO of Ledgy, a Swiss scale-up helping companies manage equity and build real ownership culture across more than 40 countries. Ledgy’s mission is to make equity work globally - giving employees transparency and access to ownership while enabling Startups to scale compensation beyond cash. Armon’s journey into entrepreneurship was anything but linear, moving from Michelin-star kitchens to data science before building one of Europe’s leading equity management platforms.
In the conversation, we explore three major themes for Founders building in Europe and Switzerland. First, Armon explains why product-market fit isn’t a single moment, but something companies must rediscover repeatedly as they scale across new S-curves. Second, we discuss why Ledgy deliberately built its product for multiple jurisdictions from day one, enabling them to expand across Europe, the UK, and the US much faster later on. And third, we dive into the Europe vs. US ecosystem debate - from how Americans buy software to why Switzerland offers unique advantages for building deep technical companies.
Beyond the big themes, Armon shares why early Startups often over-index on their first 10 customers, and how that can quietly push companies toward building an agency instead of a scalable product. We discuss why employee equity only works if companies are radically transparent about it, and how secondaries and liquidity events are critical to creating Europe’s next generation of founders. Finally, Armon reflects on leadership and resilience - from maintaining personal balance as a founder to why he still participates directly in sales conversations to stay close to customers.
The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io.
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4 March 2026, 11:11 pm - 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.
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