Custom Manufacturing Industry podcast is an entrepreneurship and motivational podcast on all platforms, hosted by Aaron Clippinger. Being CEO of multiple companies including the signage industry and the software industry, Aaron has over 20 years of consulting and business management. His software has grown internationally and with over a billion dollars annually going through the software. Using his Accounting degree, Aaron will be talking about his organizational ways to get things done. Hi ...
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State Secrets: Inside The Making Of The Electric State
1 Family Secrets: Chris Pratt & Millie Bobby Brown Share Stories From Set 22:08
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LikedHost Francesca Amiker sits down with directors Joe and Anthony Russo, producer Angela Russo-Otstot, stars Millie Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt, and more to uncover how family was the key to building the emotional core of The Electric State . From the Russos’ own experiences growing up in a large Italian family to the film’s central relationship between Michelle and her robot brother Kid Cosmo, family relationships both on and off of the set were the key to bringing The Electric State to life. Listen to more from Netflix Podcasts . State Secrets: Inside the Making of The Electric State is produced by Netflix and Treefort Media.…
EP #477 - Simon Michel: Swiss Politics & Running a Large Medtech Business
Manage episode 468077612 series 1259851
Content provided by Swisspreneur. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Swisspreneur or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://player.fm/legal.
Timestamps:
7:55 - Is Ypsomed just an insulin company?
10:12 - Selling B2B and B2C simultaneously
18:33 - Doing an IPO in 2004
20:20 - How to make your stock 7x
22:47 - Getting into regional politics
This episode was produced in collaboration with startup days, taking place this year on May 14th 2025. Click here to purchase your ticket.
About Simon Michel:
Simon Michel is the CEO of Ypsomed, the leading developer and manufacturer of injection systems for self-medication. He is also the head of Swiss Startup Supporters, a new startup days initiative. Simon holds an MA in Media and Communications Management from HSG and worked for the consultancy Arthur D. Little and the telecommunications company Orange Communications SA before joining his father’s company, Ypsomed, in 2006.
In 1984, a company named Disetronic was founded by the brothers Willy and Peter Michel (Willy being Simon’s father), in Burgdorf, Switzerland. Disetronic was the first company to introduce a micro insulin pump to the medtech/pharma market. Besides its infusion systems, Disetronic also specialised in injection systems. In 2003, co-founder and main shareholder Willy Michel sold Disetronic’s infusion business to Roche and kept the injection business — that’s how Ypsomed was born.
Simon first joined Ypsomed as a Business Development Manager of Diabetes Care, and rose through the ranks until he became CEO in 2014. He credits this gradual rise, based on concrete achievements within the company, as the reason for his easy integration in its team.
Nowadays Ypsomed focuses on the treatment of chronic diseases such as diabetes, obesity, polyarthritis, Alzheimer and migraines. On 22 September 2004, Ypsomed was registered on SIX Swiss Exchange under the ticket SWX:YPSN.
Simon is also affiliated with FDP (The Liberals party) and is a member of Switzerland’s National Council. When asked about Switzerland’s political strengths and weaknesses, he identified the following strengths:
Strong majority support: Switzerland takes an average of 6 years to get a new law approved. This makes its political system quite slow, but this slowness has the advantage of ensuring majority support for many of the laws approved.
Strong R&D: The Swiss government invests CHF 10B per year in education and research, out of a CHF 90B budget. This results in a robust education system.
Independence and neutrality, which give Switzerland international credibility.
Simon also identified 2 weaknesses in Switzerland’s political system:
Speed: This system is, indeed, quite slow, and unnecessarily so, in Simon’s opinion.
Left vs Right disagreements: Simon opposes the Swiss left’s ideas of rebuilding Switzerland as a state-run operation less reliant on private enterprise. He considers this a political weakness.
The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io
Don’t forget to give us a follow on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin, 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.
485 episodes
ShareManage episode 468077612 series 1259851
Content provided by Swisspreneur. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Swisspreneur or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://player.fm/legal.
Timestamps:
7:55 - Is Ypsomed just an insulin company?
10:12 - Selling B2B and B2C simultaneously
18:33 - Doing an IPO in 2004
20:20 - How to make your stock 7x
22:47 - Getting into regional politics
This episode was produced in collaboration with startup days, taking place this year on May 14th 2025. Click here to purchase your ticket.
About Simon Michel:
Simon Michel is the CEO of Ypsomed, the leading developer and manufacturer of injection systems for self-medication. He is also the head of Swiss Startup Supporters, a new startup days initiative. Simon holds an MA in Media and Communications Management from HSG and worked for the consultancy Arthur D. Little and the telecommunications company Orange Communications SA before joining his father’s company, Ypsomed, in 2006.
In 1984, a company named Disetronic was founded by the brothers Willy and Peter Michel (Willy being Simon’s father), in Burgdorf, Switzerland. Disetronic was the first company to introduce a micro insulin pump to the medtech/pharma market. Besides its infusion systems, Disetronic also specialised in injection systems. In 2003, co-founder and main shareholder Willy Michel sold Disetronic’s infusion business to Roche and kept the injection business — that’s how Ypsomed was born.
Simon first joined Ypsomed as a Business Development Manager of Diabetes Care, and rose through the ranks until he became CEO in 2014. He credits this gradual rise, based on concrete achievements within the company, as the reason for his easy integration in its team.
Nowadays Ypsomed focuses on the treatment of chronic diseases such as diabetes, obesity, polyarthritis, Alzheimer and migraines. On 22 September 2004, Ypsomed was registered on SIX Swiss Exchange under the ticket SWX:YPSN.
Simon is also affiliated with FDP (The Liberals party) and is a member of Switzerland’s National Council. When asked about Switzerland’s political strengths and weaknesses, he identified the following strengths:
Strong majority support: Switzerland takes an average of 6 years to get a new law approved. This makes its political system quite slow, but this slowness has the advantage of ensuring majority support for many of the laws approved.
Strong R&D: The Swiss government invests CHF 10B per year in education and research, out of a CHF 90B budget. This results in a robust education system.
Independence and neutrality, which give Switzerland international credibility.
Simon also identified 2 weaknesses in Switzerland’s political system:
Speed: This system is, indeed, quite slow, and unnecessarily so, in Simon’s opinion.
Left vs Right disagreements: Simon opposes the Swiss left’s ideas of rebuilding Switzerland as a state-run operation less reliant on private enterprise. He considers this a political weakness.
The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io
Don’t forget to give us a follow on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin, 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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1 EP #485 - Andrea Silberschmidt-Buhofer, Teddy Amberg, David Hug & Tanvi Singh: VC Predictions for 2025 37:26
37:26 Play Later Play Later Lists Like Liked37:26
Play Later Play Later Lists Like LikedTimestamps: 6:54 - An investor generating returns for their LP 8:22 - The Swiss startup ecosystem is 18 years old 12:09 - Does big data drive innovation? 19:20 - What if you don’t perform as promised? 21:25 - Dealing with FINMA regulations as a VC Click here to check out our free Founders Agreement masterclass, with Melanie Gabriel from Yokoy, Christof Roduner from Scandit, and Viviana Gropengiesser from Talent Kick. About Andrea Silberschmidt-Buhofer, Teddy Amberg, David Hug & Tanvi Singh: Andrea Silberschmidt-Buhofer is the general partner at EquityPitcher Ventures , an early-growth VC firm that focuses on B2B tech startups, and the vice-president of FEM'UP SWITZERLAND. She holds a MSc in Entrepreneurship from the UCL School of Management and is also a startup coach at Venturelab. Teddy Amberg is the founding partner at Spicehaus Partners , a VC fund that focuses on seed and early stage Swiss tech companies. He holds an MA in Banking and Finance from HSG and worked at Partners Group and CreditGate24 before founding Spicehaus Partners in 2018. David Hug is the co-founder of Marcau Partners , an investment manager managing Ringier Digital Ventures and Lightbird Ventures AG. He holds a MSc in Entrepreneurial Management from the Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft Chur and worked at btov Partners and Zürcher Kantonalbank before becoming a VC in 2015. Tanvi Singh is the founding partner at Nirmata-ai Ventures , a VC fund focusing on AI-driven investments for a sustainable future. She holds a Master’s degree from UZH and worked for banks like Credit Suisse and UBS before founding Nirmata in 2024. During their chat with our co-host Merle, these 4 VCs shared their best practices for managing a fund. Their tips included: Being proactive in including your LPs in your fund’s journey by giving them co-investment opportunities and full access to your data room; Not shortcutting when it comes to compliance and regulatory demands (or you will regret it!); Underpromising and overdelivering when it comes to the goals you communicate to your LPs, and being transparent with them when something goes wrong, so as to ensure that trust is never broken; Sticking to your portfolio companies both in good times and in bad — the startup journey is rocky, and your investments need your help! The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io Don’t forget to give us a follow on Twitter , Instagram , Facebook and Linkedin , 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.…
1 EP #484 - Riad Sherif: The Publicly-Listed Swiss Company Nearing $1B Market Cap 39:12
39:12 Play Later Play Later Lists Like Liked39:12
Play Later Play Later Lists Like LikedTimestamps: 5:55 - An Icelandic company headquartered in Switzerland 16:29 - Fundraising for long development cycles 19:00 - Doing the only Swiss IPO in 2023 24:23 - Splitting your focus to sell 3 products at once 28:39 - Advantages and disadvantages of being publicly listed This episode was produced in collaboration with startup days, taking place this year on May 14th 2025. Click here to purchase your ticket. Click here to check out our free Founders Agreement masterclass, with Melanie Gabriel from Yokoy, Christof Roduner from Scandit, and Viviana Gropengiesser from Talent Kick. About Riad Sherif: Riad Sherif is the CEO at Oculis , a company focused on the development of topical treatments for ophthalmic diseases in the back and front of the eye. He holds a MSc in Medical Management from the ESCP Business School and worked at companies like Sanofi, Novartis and Alcon before joining Oculis as CEO in 2017. Oculis’ pipeline includes a topical eye drop candidate for diabetic macular edema and for the treatment of inflammation and pain following cataract surgery. It also includes a candidate for dry eye disease and for non-infectious anterior uveitis, and a candidate for acute optic neuritis. The company’s origins are in Iceland, where the OPTIREACH® solubilizing formulation technology was developed by two Icelandic co-founders, Professors Einar Stefánsson and Thorsteinn Loftsson, to enable eye drops to reach the back of the eye. Nowadays Oculis is headquartered in Switzerland, with operations in the US and Iceland. Oculis has raised a total of $284.6M in funding over 13 rounds, and went public in 2023 (the only Swiss IPO of that year) before their product was even live. It is currently at stage 3 of clinical trials. The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io Don’t forget to give us a follow on Twitter , Instagram , Facebook and Linkedin , 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.…
1 EP #483 - Simon Youssef & Nenad Nikolic: How to Scale Your Product & Dev Team 35:36
35:36 Play Later Play Later Lists Like Liked35:36
Play Later Play Later Lists Like LikedTimestamps: 5:30 - When is it time to scale your dev team? 10:03 - Nearshore, offshore, or in-house? 12:37 - Can we trust AI to write code? 14h33 - Top criteria to hire developers 27:38 - Costly mistakes setting up a dev team Click here to subscribe to our newsletter. About Simon Youssef & Nenad Nikolic: Simon Youssef is the co-founder and CTO of the online bank neon . He holds a PhD in Computational Biophysics from Microsoft Research Cambridge and worked at Strategy& before co-founding neon in 2017. Nenad Nikolic is the co-founder, Co-CEO and CTO of Holycode , and also the co-founder of MOVU and the former CIO of Bexio. He holds a MSc in Computer Science from the Faculty of Computer Science (Belgrade, Serbia) and worked for DeinDeal before joining Laurent Decrue on their 10+ year entrepreneurial journey in 2014. During their chat with Silvan, Simon and Nenad discussed best practices for scaling your dev team. Naturally, the first question that poses itself when it comes to this topic is: When is it time to scale your dev team? It depends, obviously — but, generally speaking, the tech team needs to follow the growth of the company itself. At an early stage, you may be able to cut corners when it comes to security and backup strategy to move fast, but at some point you will need to start dedicating 25-30% of development time to these tasks. Don’t scale too early: big teams are costly and may run you to the ground. You should only have the tech stack that you absolutely need. Besides, if you scale too fast, your culture is going to go down the drain, and then you’ll be left with a whole lot of infighting and inefficiency. Don’t scale too late: waiting around for too long can result in a build-up of pressure on your developers that may very well burn them out. Should you hire in-house developers? Or nearshore them? Offshore them, perhaps? neon did it all, and Simon can confidently say that nearshoring works best: If you have your dev team in-house in Switzerland, you are going to pay a lot. 2-3 engineers in a nearshoring location are equivalent to 1 engineer in Switzerland. Besides, you’ll be vulnerable to the “Hey, Joe!” principle: having the dev team, product managers and the management all in the same building means these latter two will be able to bother your dev team with random tasks which slow the dev team down overall. You also don’t want to offshore it, because then you cannot visit as often. It’s best to nearshore your dev team to somewhere within your timezone which has great flight connections to your main location. What’s the top criteria to hire developers? Pay attention to your gut feeling when it comes to the culture fit. Don’t hire someone you wouldn’t want to spend 2h straight with. And don’t hire someone who is too proud or inflexible to be proven wrong. They may be fast when developing all on their own, but they will never be effective in a fast team. When hiring senior engineers, look for strong domain knowledge and experience. When hiring junior engineers, hire for brains, not experience. The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io …
1 EP #482 - Lessons From yamo: Navigating the Highs and Lows of Startup Life 54:18
54:18 Play Later Play Later Lists Like Liked54:18
Play Later Play Later Lists Like LikedTimestamps: 6:25 - Why yamo started with D2C 15:30 - Dealing with regulation in the food industry 28:39 - When yamo hit a breaking point 33:35 - How to be a leader in tough times 44:23 - How Tobias defines success Click here to subscribe to our newsletter. About Tobias Gunzenhauser: Tobias Gunzenhauser is the co-founder and former CEO at yamo, an omnichannel FoodTech company creating the healthiest and tastiest products good for people and the planet. He holds a Master of Advanced Studies in Digital Marketing and Communication Management from the Hochschule Luzern and worked for Campari Group for 4 years before starting Yamo with 2 co-founders in 2016. What differentiated yamo back in 2016 was that they sterilized baby food using pressure instead of heat, which preserved not only flavor but also the vitamins. They also tuned their recipes to contain nutrients for age-appropriate development, with no added sugar and 100% natural and organic ingredients. They initially started selling their products D2C, afraid that retail wouldn’t take them in, but eventually broke into the world of Migros and Coop shelves as well. They also took advantage of influencer marketing quite early on, at a time when it wasn’t so common, which allowed them to work with big name creators. Over 8 years, Yamo grew to an award-winning international multi-million organization with over 2700 points of sale in Europe’s biggest retailers, and a thriving E-commerce business. However, despite the team’s best efforts, they were unable to reach profitability. It was at a board meeting in April 2024 that Tobias first got the terrible news: since they had not been able to ensure the capital needed for their next step (but only accrued 2/3s of it), yamo could not continue in business. They had to declare bankruptcy and communicate the news not only to their entire team but also to their partners and stakeholders. Looking back, Tobias thinks this was when he learned what it truly means to be a leader — leadership is most important of all during the toughest times. Also in April 2024, Tobias announced the yamo shutdown on LinkedIn, after which he received an outpouring of support from both friends and strangers alike. Almost 1 year later, Tobias has come to view success as the ability to say that he has done his best creating something where before there was nothing. The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io Don’t forget to give us a follow on Twitter , Instagram , Facebook and Linkedin , 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.…
1 EP 481 - Georges Khneysser: Foreseeing the Unseen as a Swiss-Based VC Fund 57:03
57:03 Play Later Play Later Lists Like Liked57:03
Play Later Play Later Lists Like LikedTimestamps: 2:09 - From Lebanon to Brussels 5:41 - From the trading floor to the startup world 23:40 - Why Georges prefers Switzerland to California 36:55 - The efficiency and discipline of the Swiss ecosystem 48:40 - Is it difficult for VC funds to raise money nowadays? This episode was produced in collaboration with startup days, taking place this year on May 14th 2025. Click here to purchase your ticket. About Georges Khneysser: Georges Khneysser is the founder of QBIT Capital , an early-stage venture capital firm with headquarters in Zurich and an office in Los Angeles. Georges is originally from Lebanon, where he completed his education. He went on to work in Brussels as a trader and later as the head of a family office, before moving to Geneva to work in banking and wealth management. He started QBIT in Zurich in 2021. QBIT specializes in investing exclusively in Switzerland and Swiss startups and currently has 8 portfolio companies: Demosquare, LogBook, Largo.ai, Helio, Duramon, Relio, Agrinorm, Everon. Georges credits three key pillars for the success of the fund: 6 of their LPs are entrepreneurs themselves, and are passionate about the Swiss ecosystem; QBIT offers their portfolio companies the services of their “pirates”, i.e. growth hackers, free of charge. Each company gets 800 hours per year of support with building their website, improving their pitch deck, developing their pricing and growth strategy, etc… QBIT has connections all over the world which help them make informed investment decisions and provide a network to their portfolio companies. Georges is not a proponent of the “spray and pray” investment strategy (meaning investing in a diversified manner and hoping it works out for the best). At QBIT capital, he and his fellow VCs often spend several months getting to know founders better before making an investment decision. The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io Don’t forget to give us a follow on Twitter , Instagram , Facebook and Linkedin , 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.…
1 EP #480 - Karim Saleh: Why Video AI is the Solution to Manufacturing Labor Shortages 53:15
53:15 Play Later Play Later Lists Like Liked53:15
Play Later Play Later Lists Like LikedTimestamps: 11:40 - The early days of Cerrion 22:39 - Adapting your tech to different environments 27:45 - Being obsessed with customer pain points 32:15 - Getting into Y Combinator 42:15 - Why would an international company stay in Zurich? Click here to subscribe to our newsletter. About Karim Saleh: Karim Saleh is the co-founder and CEO of Cerrion , a startup developing digital AI workers for the manufacturing industry. He holds a BSc in Information Technology and Electrical Engineering from ETH, and worked at Unicorn Labs and Assaia – The ApronAI before co-founding Cerrion in 2022. Cerrion’s AI workers use standard video cameras to monitor production, detect deviations and respond to them on their own, empowering production teams to make better and more timely decisions. Cerrion’s platform is currently deployed across factories in eight countries, including the USA, Germany, Italy and Turkey, where it has already reduced production losses by over 30% on average. Cerrion participated in Y Combinator back in 2022. During his time in San Francisco, Karim highly valued the fact that YC holds founders accountable to what they say they’re trying to achieve. He was also glad to benefit not only from his batch’s network but from the entire YC community, which includes many top 1% founders. YC perks notwithstanding, Karim still thinks Zurich is the best headquarters for Cerrion, as it boasts a very strong talent density. The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io Don’t forget to give us a follow on Twitter , Instagram , Facebook and Linkedin , 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.…
1 EP #479 - Geri Kirilova: An American VC in Zurich 53:10
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Play Later Play Later Lists Like LikedTimestamps: 10:04 - Laconia’s investment strategy 12:56 - Why no warm intro is needed 19:17 - How Laconia evaluates deals 27:55 - Wishful thinking & investment red flags 36:27 - Do Swiss companies need outside investment? This episode was co-produced with the Deep Tech Nation Switzerland Foundation . About Geri Kirilova: Geri Kirilova is a partner at Laconia , a seed stage fund focused on B2B software companies. Geri holds a BA in Information Systems & Management from the NYU Stern School of Business, and worked as a VC for funds like Credo Ventures and LAUNCHub before joining Laconia in 2017. She recently moved to Switzerland with her husband. According to Geri, Laconia mainly invests in industries like retail tech, ecommerce enablement, proptech, fintech and digital health, and their investment strategy focuses on three key aspects: Strong unit economics; The ability to grow in a capital-efficient manner; The ability to make decisions in a repeatable fashion. As a rule, Laconia does not require a warm intro, and encourages companies to cold email them. This is because nowadays warm intros have become so standard that they no longer hold any value in Geri’s eyes. What used to be “Hey, this person I worked with before is the smartest person I know, and they’re raising funds for their company” has become “Hey this person I know is raising funds for their company”, so to Geri and her team, a “lukewarm intro” is the same as a cold email. When evaluating deals, Geri thinks of the following questions: What are the key beliefs, risks and hypotheses of this company? Is there market demand for their product? What’s this company’s go-to-market strategy? Can this company acquire significant market share over time? Do the founders have the right balance of ambition and realism to execute their vision? The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io Don’t forget to give us a follow on Twitter , Instagram , Facebook and Linkedin , 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.…
1 EP #478 - Wendy Jordan: Building Central America’s Biggest Online Marketplace 41:18
41:18 Play Later Play Later Lists Like Liked41:18
Play Later Play Later Lists Like LikedTimestamps: 3:50 - Creating a property database in Panama 5:18 - Creating a company with your spouse 12:30 - Bootstrapping for a decade 15:40 - Having Shaun Di Gregorio as an investor 26:00 - Why Wendy left her company This episode was co-produced with EO Zürich . Check out their upcoming event, Entrepreneurs Summit 2025 . Click here to subscribe to our newsletter. About Wendy Jordan: Wendy Jordan is the co-founder and former COO of Encuentra24 , the leading marketplace and fully integrated business solution in Central America. She holds a BA in Marketing and Advertising from Universidad Latinoamericana de Ciencia y Tecnología (Panama), and previously worked for companies like Publitesa and Gold Dragon Capital Management Ltd before starting Encuentra24 in 2005. Wendy and her husband built Encuentra24 at a serendipitous time: back in 2005, the Panama government was just starting to show interest in attracting foreign investment. Based on their own experience of having difficulties buying an affordable home in Panama, Wendy and her husband decided to create Panama’s online marketplace themselves, and focused on the items/issues which are essential to people’s lives: a home, a job, a car, etc. Encuentra24 was bootstrapped for 10 years. Wendy and her team advertised the business B2C by placing ads on buses and taxis and running radio ads; when it came to B2B, they initially sought each and every partner for a 1-1 conversation. They grew the business slowly, through trial and error, and in 2013 faced perhaps their biggest challenge when OLX built offices in Central America in an attempt to take them over. Despite OLX hiring Harvard-educated staff and resorting to things like exclusivity contracts with partners and hiring people fired from Encuentra24, Wendy and her team stayed laser-focused on their goals and the quality of their product, and ended up acquiring OLX’s Central American operations a few years later. In 2015 Encuentra24 welcomed Shaun Di Gregorio, founder and CEO of Frontier Digital Ventures, as an investment partner, which enabled them to list themselves on international stock markets and, most prominently, in the Australian Stock Exchange. In 2022 Encuentra24 had a successful exit, after which Wendy left her operational role at the company. Nowadays she’s active as a business angel and will soon take on the role of president at EO (Entrepreneurs Organization). The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io Don’t forget to give us a follow on Twitter , Instagram , Facebook and Linkedin , 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. …
1 EP #477 - Simon Michel: Swiss Politics & Running a Large Medtech Business 40:43
40:43 Play Later Play Later Lists Like Liked40:43
Play Later Play Later Lists Like LikedTimestamps: 7:55 - Is Ypsomed just an insulin company? 10:12 - Selling B2B and B2C simultaneously 18:33 - Doing an IPO in 2004 20:20 - How to make your stock 7x 22:47 - Getting into regional politics This episode was produced in collaboration with startup days, taking place this year on May 14th 2025. Click here to purchase your ticket. About Simon Michel: Simon Michel is the CEO of Ypsomed , the leading developer and manufacturer of injection systems for self-medication. He is also the head of Swiss Startup Supporters , a new startup days initiative. Simon holds an MA in Media and Communications Management from HSG and worked for the consultancy Arthur D. Little and the telecommunications company Orange Communications SA before joining his father’s company, Ypsomed, in 2006. In 1984, a company named Disetronic was founded by the brothers Willy and Peter Michel (Willy being Simon’s father), in Burgdorf, Switzerland. Disetronic was the first company to introduce a micro insulin pump to the medtech/pharma market. Besides its infusion systems, Disetronic also specialised in injection systems. In 2003, co-founder and main shareholder Willy Michel sold Disetronic’s infusion business to Roche and kept the injection business — that’s how Ypsomed was born. Simon first joined Ypsomed as a Business Development Manager of Diabetes Care, and rose through the ranks until he became CEO in 2014. He credits this gradual rise, based on concrete achievements within the company, as the reason for his easy integration in its team. Nowadays Ypsomed focuses on the treatment of chronic diseases such as diabetes, obesity, polyarthritis, Alzheimer and migraines. On 22 September 2004, Ypsomed was registered on SIX Swiss Exchange under the ticket SWX:YPSN. Simon is also affiliated with FDP (The Liberals party) and is a member of Switzerland’s National Council. When asked about Switzerland’s political strengths and weaknesses, he identified the following strengths: Strong majority support: Switzerland takes an average of 6 years to get a new law approved. This makes its political system quite slow, but this slowness has the advantage of ensuring majority support for many of the laws approved. Strong R&D: The Swiss government invests CHF 10B per year in education and research, out of a CHF 90B budget. This results in a robust education system. Independence and neutrality, which give Switzerland international credibility. Simon also identified 2 weaknesses in Switzerland’s political system: Speed: This system is, indeed, quite slow, and unnecessarily so, in Simon’s opinion. Left vs Right disagreements: Simon opposes the Swiss left’s ideas of rebuilding Switzerland as a state-run operation less reliant on private enterprise. He considers this a political weakness. The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io Don’t forget to give us a follow on Twitter , Instagram , Facebook and Linkedin , 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.…
1 EP #476 - Thomas Schori: How to Recycle Plastic & Save the Oceans 57:38
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Play Later Play Later Lists Like LikedTimestamps: 5:15 - When tide ocean became a full-time project 14:50 - What happens to tide ocean when we run out of plastic? 28:26 - Plastic vs glass or paper recycling 32:36 - How tide ocean pays and incentives employees from developing countries 46:51 - Do startup competitions actually help startups? This episode was co-produced with SEF.Growth , the Swiss Economic Forum's Growth initiative to support Swiss startups and SMEs with growth plans free of charge. Click here to subscribe to our newsletter. About Thomas Schori: Thomas Schori is the co-founder and CEO of tide ocean , a startup turning 100% ocean-bound plastic into safe, useful products. Thomas worked for his family’s business, Braloba Group, before co-founding tide ocean in 2018. Originally linked to the Swiss watch industry through its mother company, Braloba Group, tide ocean was founded when Thomas investigated the possibility of using recycled polyester yarn for watch straps. Nowadays, tide ocean has teamed up with multiple partner organizations to collect and reuse what already exists. The result is an award-winning material that comes in the form of recycled plastic pellets for plastic injection, recycled polyester yarn for textile applications, and recycled plastic filament for 3D printing. Already when founding the company, Thomas and his team realized that their business model could not be founded solely on fixing the damage of plastic pollution, but must also strive towards preventing it. This means they not only clean oceans and rivers, but they also prevent plastic from ending up in the ocean by employing plastic collectors in developing countries (like Mexico and Thailand) and paying them by the kilogram. This plastic is brought to tide ocean’s ecohubs, where salaried employees sort the plastic, so that it can then be shredded, washed and reshaped, resulting in a new plastic of 97% virgin quality — quality so high that consumers can’t tell the difference. These employees also get health insurance and support with language learning, IDs (which are not as common or as easy to obtain in developing countries) and education. tide ocean’s opportunity is huge: 14 million tons of plastic end up in the ocean every year, and if we recycled merely 1% of it, we would run a turnover of 300M. Not to mention, of course, the social and environmental impact. tide ocean currently counts among its customers brands like Migros and Tom Ford. They recently raised money through the Swisspreneur Syndicate . The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io Don’t forget to give us a follow on Twitter , Instagram , Facebook and Linkedin , 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.…
1 EP #475 - Manuel Hartmann: Why Trust is Broken in Sales – And How to Restore It 44:23
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Play Later Play Later Lists Like LikedTimestamps: 4:48 - What is ‘speed of trust’? 7:40 - Why AI is a trust-breaker 12:35 - Cultivating customer trust 23:15 - Hubspot taking market share 33:43 - Learning from other people’s mistakes This episode was co-produced by the SalesPlaybook , DACHs' leading B2B Sales & HubSpot agency for fast-growing 7-8 figure entrepreneurs to increase pipeline, revenue & sales efficiency. About Manuel Hartmann: Manuel Hartmann is the founder and CEO of SalesPlaybook , a sales agency with 7-figure annual revenue helping clients like bexio, Beekeeper, Skribble, Brame & Urban Connect. He holds an MA in Business Innovation from HSG and worked for companies such as Tesla, Accenture and Onedot before founding SalesPlaybook in 2019. During his chat with us, Manuel discussed “speed of trust”, a concept first developed by Stephen M.R. Covey in his book of the same name . Speed of trust is the speed at which trust is established with clients, employees, and all stakeholders. Manuel applies this concept specifically to sales, where, according to him, trust is currently rather broken, due to practices like sending mass AI-written cold emails and email-bombing prospects who have not opened a salesperson’s previous emails. It’s easy for us to understand and recognize trust in our personal lives: we do not need a 17 page contract to move in with our best friend — we simply trust that it will work out fine. But how can we scale this, especially in a field where trust needs to be restored? Manuel recommends doing things that don’t scale: send postcards, meet people in person. He is also a fan of the 4/7/11 framework, according to which salespeople need to meet a prospect in 4 different locations, spend 7h with the prospect in total (not necessarily consecutively) and have 11 touchpoints with them (email, whatsapp, etc). This framework has been proven to work at a neurobiological level when it comes to creating trust. Finally, Manuel urges salespeople to ask for referrals. Only 10% of salespeople do so, when 90% of happy customers would gladly give a referral — so there’s an 80% gap that is ours for the taking. The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io Don’t forget to give us a follow on Twitter , Instagram , Facebook and Linkedin , 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.…
1 EP #474 - The Successful Contovista Exit & Building NORM 54:54
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Play Later Play Later Lists Like LikedTimestamps: 7:35 - The successful Contovista exit 12:30 - Contovista investors getting a 33x return 17:17 - How do you reach product market fit? 31:05 - Why Gian started NORM 42:10 - Energy efficiency and climate change Resources Mentioned: The 4 Levels of PMF, First Round Capital About Gian Reto à Porta: Gian Reto à Port a is a serial entrepreneur and business Angel. He co-founded and successfully exited Contovista, a 2013 fintech pioneer, and nowadays is active as a co-founder and CEO at Norm , a startup which wants to help drive the decarbonization in the building sector. Gian holds a MSc in Computer Science from UZH. Gian started Contovista in 2013, and the company quickly garnered so much success and media attention that he had to quit his corporate job. Despite its very small number of employees, Contovista began working with most of the banks in Switzerland. They were acquired by Aduno Group in 2017 for an undisclosed amount, and Contovista’s early investors received a 33x return on their investment. After working a few years solely as a business angel, Gian descended once more into the startup trenches by founding NORM, a company which assesses the energy efficiency, CO₂ emissions and renovation costs of buildings. They saw a need for this product not only because Swiss banks will soon have to mandatorily discuss energy efficiency with clients when issuing mortgages, but also because there was no “centralized” way to improve the energy efficiency of your home outside of finding an energy consultant, who may or may not be acting in their clients’ best interest. The NORM co-founders, of which there are 6, started their business because they wanted to work with tech which had a positive impact on society. They’ve certainly hit the nail on the head with NORM, considering that in Europe 30-40% of all CO₂ emissions come from the building sector. The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io Don’t forget to give us a follow on Twitter , Instagram , Facebook and Linkedin , 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.…
1 EP #473 - Alessandra Agnello: Investing In Swiss Founders Across The Globe 56:01
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Play Later Play Later Lists Like Liked 1 EP #472 - Victoria Ransom: Building An Incredible Culture, In-Person or Remotely 36:02
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Play Later Play Later Lists Like LikedTimestamps: 6:13 - Why culture can’t be copied 12:24 - Hiring fast and well 15:30 - Creating a sense of belonging 17:36 - Making tough decisions for the sake of culture 20:36 - Being clear about your values About Victoria Ransom: Victoria Ransom is the co-founder of Wildfire, a social marketing software-as-a-service company which was acquired by Google, and of Prisma , a global virtual school (grades 4-12). She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and worked as a Financial Analyst at Morgan Stanley before co-founding Access Trips, the travel startup that led her to creating Wildfire. During her chat with us, Victoria reflected back on the values which sustained Wildfire and which drive Prisma nowadays. She thinks they boil down to 5 characteristics: Being non-hierarchical (though this also created some problems further down the line at Wildfire); Being transparent, i.e. sharing both the good and the bad with your employees; Being scrappy, or resourceful: even though Wildfire’s biggest competitor raised about 10x more money, Wildfire still beat them, because they knew how to do more with less; Encouraging innovation and accepting failure, i.e. showing enthusiasm for employees who decide to try new things, and understanding that it’s okay if these experiments fail; Being humble and down to earth. Victoria is not surprised that the same culture reproduced itself at Prisma, since startup cultures are, in her opinion, a reflection of the founders’ values. When it comes to maintaining your culture, Victoria thinks this can be achieved by ensuring 4 things: That you hire the right people; That you often reward the people who live up to your values; That you are quick to fire those who don’t; That you yourself are seen upholding these values. This means making tough decisions at times, like when Victoria had to fire their top sales person at Wildfire. The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io Don’t forget to give us a follow on Twitter , Instagram , Facebook and Linkedin , 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.…
1 EP #471 - Harnessing Human Motion Analysis to Create a Digital Personal Coach 1:25:54
1:25:54 Play Later Play Later Lists Like Liked1:25:54
Play Later Play Later Lists Like LikedTimestamps: 13:18 - Splitting shares with your co-founders 24:42 - Have they hit product-market fit? 30:48 - Getting Alex Ilic as an advisor and investor 34:43 - Giving an advisor phantom stocks 38:20 - Getting acquired by BowFlex About Joel Roos & Ben Simon: Joel Roos and Ben Simon are the co-founders of VAY, a startup offering motion tracking technology for fitness and physical therapy. Joel holds a MSc in Robotics Systems and Control from ETH and worked at Rapyuta Robotics before co-founding VAY in 2018. Ben holds an MA in Accounting and Finance from HSG and worked for atfinity and EY before co-founding VAY with Joel. VAY digitizes human movements through human motion analysis, to make products more competitive, immersive, and intelligent. They provide real-time tracking and audio feedback from any device and camera. Their target industry is physical therapy, rehabilitation, and digital health apps. VAY was acquired by Nautilus (now called Bowflex ) in 2021 for an undisclosed amount. Alex Ilic is one of their board advisors. The cover portrait was edited by www.smartportrait.io Don’t forget to give us a follow on Twitter , Instagram , Facebook and Linkedin , 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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