Swisspreneur Show
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.
Show episodes
EP #518 - Denys Sutter & Girisha Fernando: Bootstrapping vs. Fundraising: Which path actually wins in the early days?
Timestamps: 6:00 – Deciding between chasing investor money vs. revenues from day one 29:42 – How founder pressure differs across funding strategies (runway vs. cash-flow anxiety) 37:22 – Can a bootstrapped startup realistically become a market leader? 35:10 – In what scenario would they switch financing strategies? Thi
EP #517 - Laurent Decrue & Jeremias Meier: Operations, Fundraising, Finance — Don’t Make These Mistakes!
Timestamps: 03:14 - What even is “operations”? 7:57 - Should OKRs be set top-down or bottom-up? 17:05 - Top 3 key KPIs for early stage startups 26:00 - How to focus on fundraising without losing traction 43:26 - What happens when you don’t have your finances in order? This episode was originally a live webinar co-hos
EP #516 - Patrick Pestalozzi & François Capel: How This Biomarker Can Detect Sepsis 3 Days Early
Timestamps: 6:00 - Tackling the early detection of sepsis 17:17 - Why obsess over hard challenges? 27:41 - Marketing a new biomarker 34:20 - Expanding and delegating to distributors This episode was co-produced with Innovaud, the innovation and investment promotion agency for the canton of Vaud. About Patrick Pesta
Timestamps: 2:30 - What makes a startup attractive to VCs? 7:44 - Why VC money isn’t for everyone 16:40 - What if the VC tells you no? 21:00 - What is “vibe coding”? 24:25 - When VCs decide to invest This episode was originally a live conversation which took place at startup days 2025, in Bern. Check out startup days t
EP #514 - Bolko Hohaus & Tomas Sluka: The Augmented Reality Breakthrough That Could Replace Your Smartphone
Timestamps: 8:30 - The problem in VA that CREAL is tackling 15:10 - VA as the future 34:45 - What’s next for CREAL after closing another funding round 46:45 - Why don't we see more Swiss startups becoming global category leaders? This episode was co-produced by SICTIC, the leading angel investor network in Switzerland
EP #513 - Besfort Biljali: What Really Works in Swiss Sales (and in Greener, Faster, and Cheaper Lighting)
Timestamps 3:52 - Past failures that paved the way for success 9:12 - Shifting from finance, to vocation training, to retrofitting luminaries 13:57 How Lumvin found a swiss-based cheaper, faster, and sustainable way to upgrade luminaries 32:28 Tips for driving sales in Switzerland 37:14 - Winning the Swiss Economic Aw
