IF YOU LIKED THIS EPISODE, GIVE US A FIVE STAR REVIEW ON APPLE PODCAST. This episode brings us together with Manuel Winter, cofounder at Oxygen at Work, a startup that aims to Improve air quality in office spaces using natural plants in order to improve the health of employees and reduce the energy consumption of the buildings. In this episode we started off by looking at the startup’s creation story and how Manuel and his team got their first customer without really having a product ready. Manuel dives deeper into what the first version of the product looked like and compares it to what it lo ..read more

This episode brings us together with Johann Schlieper, President of the Business Angels Switzerland network and an active investor himself, with a strong focus on market-driven innovations. Johann has founded three startups himself and primarily invests in technology and durable consumer goods startups.     In this episode we started off by exploring the good and the bad sides of being an investor, what you need to become an investor yourself, the biggest mistakes to avoid when starting out as an angel, and how he evaluates the quality of an idea. We then asked for advice he wou ..read more

Before I jump into this week’s episode I wanted to take a moment to share one of the challenges many entrepreneurs in Switzerland - including me - face when building up a team of qualified and trustful people. When you’ve built your first prototype or MVP and are ready to go all in on your idea - maybe you even received some money from family, friends or first investors - when you get to that moment when you need someone to focus on the technical side of your startup you’ll quickly realize that finding good software developers that are willing to sacrifice their high salaries to join you in yo ..read more

This episode brings us together with Alain Nicod, a business angel, founder of various startups like LeShop in 1997 and Partner at VI Partners. Alain likes searching for startups and meeting exceptional people, and he believes it’s important that an entrepreneur can manage the day-to-day firmly, be realistic and have good sales skills.  In this episode we started off by exploring what he enjoys about being a partner at an investment fund of over CHF 100 million, and what he misses about being on the other side. We then dive deeper into questions around how a fund works, what the returns o ..read more

This episode brings us together with Linda and Sofia from Casola, the first online tapas bar in Zurich. Linda, Sofia and their third cofounder Claudia started with the idea three years ago, when they realized they weren’t happy with the daily food options in Zurich, and they were looking for something between low-cost supermarket food and high-end restaurant menus - something with a good quality AND an affordable price. We discuss the first steps that the three friends took after deciding to go for it and how they registered the company - and if you’re thinking about incorporating a company yo ..read more

This episode brings us together with Cédric Bollag from GlobalTechBox, a startup enthusiast, aspiring entrepreneur, blogger, vlogger and future venture capitalist. Cédric hosts a weekly show called The Startup Show where he showcases startups and investors from different industries and stages, reaching on average 650k/month impressions across all of social media. Cédric has a passion for meeting new, interesting people which is one of the reasons he’s been so persistent and has published over 160 video interviews with founders and investors. In this episode I had the opportunity to dive into C ..read more

This episode brings us together with Alex Balderstone from AGORA, a virtual start-up launcher providing all the necessary tools for entrepreneurs, no matter the stage of their journey. Starting your own venture can be a scary project with many unknowns. How do you find the idea for your startup? How can you make sure not to make too many mistakes and fail? Where can you get support in form of advice and money? These and many more questions go through the heads of every aspiring startup founder, and they are one of the reasons Alex started AGORA. His goal is to offer a one-stop shop for early-s ..read more

This episode brings us together with Michael Haase from Plant Jammer, a startup that helps you empty your fridge with the best plant-based recipes and and also helps you stop food waste. Imagine the following situations… You are coming home after a long day at work. You open the fridge and you see some carrots, half an apple, soy sauce and mushrooms. What now? You found a nice cheap cauliflower in the supermarket, but don’t know what to do with it Your food is too salty, and you don’t know how to fix it These are just some of the situations that have made me give up and order take out, but it ..read more

This episode brings us together with Alan Cabello from Adjoint a startup that empowers businesses in the financial industry to achieve new levels of efficiency and control by delivering blockchain technology built specifically for their needs. Having Alan on and talk about hot technological topics like blockchain and API’s in layman's terms was super insightful and helped me better understand these important technologies that are gaining more and more attention these days. Alan also shared how he perceived the difference between being a founder and being a manager at a startup, how he acquires ..read more

This episode brings us together with Ross Buhrdorf from Zenbusiness, a startup that makes it simple, easy and accessible for everyone to start and run a small business. Ross, who is known for his ability in building teams and executing in a healthy company culture, is the former CTO of HomeAway, a home rental competitor to Airbnb that sold to Expedia for $3.9 billion in 2016. It was excited to have Ross on the show and get an insight into how a more seasoned entrepreneur is approaching the challenges one faces as a startup. We also talk about one of my favorite topics which is the building a c ..read more