Dr. Anjali Raja Beharelle is the CSO (Chief Science Officer) and one of the founders of collabree.com. Collabree is a Swiss eHealth / digital adherence start-up focusing on improving therapy compliance of chronically ill patients by applying behavioural economics principles. Collabree is helping patients to make lasting behavioral changes and stick to their therapy regimen by combining human engagement with scalable algorithms and using the most relevant gamification factors: fun, friends and feedback.
Anjali is responsible for the clinical track and integrating insights from behavioral economics and neuroscience into the app. Before founding Collabree, Anjali worked as a neuroscientist. Her research focused on the neuro(chemical) and behavioral components of decision making between short-term and long-term rewards (e.g. should I have a candy bar or some broccoli) and how to optimize these decisions.
We discuss:
Show notes:
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Special Guest: Anjali Raja Beharelle.
Links:
Hugo Amsellem [@HugoAmsellem] is a thought leader covering the world of the creator economy and writes the blog “Arm the Creators”. The Creator Economy enables an entire generation to bypass traditional gatekeepers for the 1st time in history. Anyone can learn anything online, build something new and distribute it all over the world—without asking anyone's permission
In 2013 he jumped the fence and joined The Family as part of the founding team. The Family is one of the world’s leading fellowship programs for founders. Twice a year, The Family selects 50 startups from around the world. In exchange for 5% equity, they provide everything you need to build a scalable business: advice, mindset, network & a world-class investor demo day.With the Family he backed hundreds of founders across Europe.
Previously, he co-founded oocto, a decentralized music label to help artists bypass the record labels and keep ownership of their projects.
Hugo recently joined Jellysmack, a “creator accelerator” to educate & empower the next generation of ambitious creators.
We discuss:
Show notes:
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Special Guest: Hugo Amsellem.
Links:
Patrick Gobonya is one of the co-founders of Ovation eSports. Ovation was founded in Zurich / Switzerland in February 2020, and is the first sustainable eSports organization. Ovation is "a lit, young & dynamic pioneer which combines professionalism and fun in one team. A network platform of champs and eSports enthusiasts."
Ovation accompanies and develops athletes on their journey to become leading eSports players. The company is committed to provide their athletes with support to protect their mental and physical well-being and offers an environment to master a successful future following a career in eSports. Ovation eSports AG is a Swiss team consisting of players from the DACH region and with partnerships all over Europe. Ovation is one of the fastest growing and up-and-coming esports teams in Europe and currently competes in the games of Fortnite and Valorant.
In March 2021, Ovation announced that it has raised a seed round investment from billionaire twin brothers Maurice and Kyril Louis-Dreyfus.
We discuss:
Show notes:
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Special Guest: Patrick Gobonya.
Links:
Arman Anatürk [@ArmanAnaturk] is the founder and CEO of FoodHack. FoodHack is a community-driven platform that inspires, highlights and connects food entrepreneurs and innovators. With FoodHack Arman is is building the 21st century media / events company for the foodtech industry. The platform's offering includes a weekly food & food tech newsletter, ambassador run meet-ups, an annual FoodHack Summit, as well as a newly launched Food Discovery board (think of the “Product Hunt of Food”) where innovative food tech startups are featured.
Arman’s goal with FoodHack is to make it easier for impact driven food founders to access the resources, network and knowledge they need to successfully launch and grow their Food (tech) business. The FoodHack newsletter has over 100+ editions sent and over 5k+ happy readers.
Arman also hosts "The Secret Sauce" Podcast, where he provides insights from food industry leaders.
We discuss:
Show notes:
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Special Guest: Arman Anatürk.
Links:
Job van der Voort (@Jobvo) is the CEO and one of the founders of Remote.com.
Remote makes it possible to employ anyone, anywhere in the world. Their mission is to simplify how companies employ the best talent globally and to help remote organizations do their best work. They offer services such as international payroll, benefits, taxes, and compliance for businesses big and small - so that they can hire anyone in the world - while outsourcing all the admin & legal work to Remote. Remote's vision is to become the "stripe for (remote) work".
Remote is also among the fastest growing startups globally and is backed by some of the best venture capital investors in the world, such as Index Ventures, Sequoia, General Catalyst, Two Sigma, and many more very accomplished angel investors. Remote recently raised their Series A financing round of $35M.
Before founding Remote, Job worked as neuroscientist, and he was one of the first engineers that joined GitLab. In his role as VP of product, Job was responsible for GitLab's product development and he helped grow the company from 5 to 450+ employees. Today GitLab is one of the largest distributed companies in the world.
We discuss:
Show notes:
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Special Guest: Job van der Voort.
Links:
Merry Christmas everyone! 🎄
This episode is going to be a small experiment. In this Christmas special, I'm introducing you to 5 of my personal and my podcast guests favorite business & startup books. Hence, I give you a crowd-sourced reading list from some of Europe's top up-and-coming entrepreneurs and VCs. I'm convinced that these books can help you to bring your business / startup to the next level, or to get motivated to "take the leap" yourself! It's also the perfect activity to read on a cold wintery day at home.
Since it’s Christmas, I'm also doing a little giveaway and will send to some lucky winner a book of his or her choice from this list. All you got to do is to review the Leap Takers Podcast on Apple Podcast (or your favorite podcast app), give it a 5 star rating, and send me proof (screenshot / link) to remo.kyburz1[at]gmail.com.
I'll then randomly draw a lucky winner. Deadline is January 1st 2021.
This is just a little thank you & Christmas gift from me to the listeners of the Leap Takers Podcast. 🎁
Thank you for your continued support and I hope you get some benefit and motivation from listening to this podcast.
I'm wishing you and your loved ones a Merry Christmas and all the best for 2021!
Remo
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Alina Bassi (@alinabassi1) is the founder and CEO of Kleiderly. Originally from London, she founded Kleiderly in 2019 in Berlin with the goal of solving the problem of fashion industry waste. She has developed a patent-pending technology to recycle waste clothing into a new and sustainable material, diverting clothing waste away from landfills and incinerators. Her mission is to lower the carbon footprint of fashion and eliminate tons of CO2 emissions.
Alina is a Google for Startups Female Founder alumna and a member of the Forbes 30 under 30 class of 2020.
In this episode you will learn about:
Show notes:
Please follow me on Instagram, Twitter, and my Website, where I post new episodes and share resources & tips for anyone interested in entrepreneurship in Europe.
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Special Guest: Alina Bassi.
Links:
Tobias Gunzenhauser (@TobGunzenhauser) is the CEO and one of the three co-founders of yamo.
yamo is Europe's first digital native vertical brand that produces fresh organic baby and children food. The company launched in 2017 in Switzerland with their first product of baby purees. In the meantime, yamo is also sold in "Coop", one of Switzerland's largest retailers.
All of yamo’s products are 100% organic, natural and free from additives. They developed every recipe together with dozens of helpful moms, dads, their little ones, nutritionists and pediatricians.
In the summer of 2020, yamo raised a €10M Series A.
You will hear the fascinating origin story of yamo, tips around production & manufacturing, how to find a good production partner, advice on online stores, and much more!
Show notes:
Please follow me on Instagram, Twitter, and my Website, where I post new episodes and share resources & tips for anyone interested in entrepreneurship in Europe.
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Special Guest: Tobias Gunzenhauser.
Links:
Heidi Lindvall (@HeidiLindvall) is one of the founders and a general partner at Pale Blue Dot. Pale Blue Dot is a seed stage ClimateTech VC investing in reducing and reversing the effects of climate change and preparing for a new world. They invest tickets of €200k - €2M, in pre-seed and seed-stage companies based in Europe and US.
Heidi Lindvall previously co-founded Storygami, an online video company that increases viewers engagement & helped monetize content. She also founded CODOC, an award winning video production company. She has a background in Media and Human Rights and has studied for two degrees in the field in London.
In this episode you hear how Heidi made her way from being a documentary filmmaker into the world of Venture Capital (VC). We also discuss her learnings from being an entrepreneur and what areas in ClimateTech she is most excited about to help save the planet. I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did.
Show notes:
Please follow me on Instagram, Twitter, and my Website, where I post new episodes and share resources & tips for anyone interested in entrepreneurship in Europe.
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If you're enjoying the podcast, the best way to support the show is by leaving a review on Apple Podcast or in your favorite podcast app.
Special Guest: Heidi Lindvall.
Links:
Anne-Laure Le Cunff (@anthilemoon) is the Founder of Ness Labs, an award-winning productivity & learning community and venture studio building products that focus on mindful productivity, wellness, creativity, and culture. She is an ex-Googler, MSc of Applied Neuroscience candidate at King's College, member of the Society for Neuroscience, and certified Mental Health First Aider accredited by the Royal Society for Public Health.
Her work has been featured in WIRED, Forbes, FT, Rolling Stone, and more. Every week, she sends a newsletter to thousands of mindful makers with practical content at the intersection of neuroscience and entrepreneurship.
She is half-French, half-Algerian. Anne-Laure was born in Paris, sold French wine in New York, studied in Tokyo, worked at Google in San Francisco, and started her company Ness Labs in London.
In this episode you will hear the origin story of Ness Labs, we discuss fascinating topics such as the concept of time anxiety, and you hear Anne-Laure’s advice for anyone that wants to start & grow a content community. I found this episode incredibly interesting and I hope you enjoy it as well.
Show notes:
Please follow me on Instagram, Twitter, and my Website, where I post new episodes, share interesting articles I found, and blog occasionally about cool startups!
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Special Guest: Anne-Laure Le Cunff.
Links:
Ville Vesterinen (@vesterinen) is a serial entrepreneur from Finland. He is one of the original founders of Slush - one of the world’s leading startup & tech conferences, that attracts around 25'000 attendees every year to Helsinki. He also founded Grey Area - a gaming company that was backed by Index Ventures, LVP, Lifeline Ventures.
Ville also serves as the chairman of Swappie, an ambitious young company selling refurbished mobile phones, which just raised $40M in June 2020. He is also on the boards of Maria 01, a 70 000 m² campus for tech companies in the heart of Helsinki as well as on the board of Startup Foundation, the organization that owns various initiatives supporting the Nordic startup ecosystem, among them Slush.
Most recently Ville joined Atomico, one of Europe's leading venture capital investors, as an angel investor to support new aspiring entrepreneurs. Ville also just started his own podcast - The Long Map, where he explores how to live an interesting life.
In this episode, we talk about the origin story of Slush, Grey Area, and Swappie. We cover Ville's learnings from being a serial founder and investor, as well as his tips for other aspiring entrepreneurs in Europe.
Show notes:
Please follow me on Instagram, Twitter, and my Website, where I post new episodes, share interesting articles I found, and blog occasionally about cool startups!
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If you're enjoying the podcast, the best way to support the show is by leaving a review on Apple Podcast or in your favorite podcast app.
Special Guest: Ville Vesterinen.
Links:
Gonzalo (@gonsanchezs) runs and writes Seedtable, one of the leading newsletters focused on European tech. Seedtable is read by tens of thousands every week, and his work has been featured in Wired and Sifted. Gonzalo's writing always provides unique perspectives of developments in technology in Europe and its impact on society. Seedtable is one of my all-time favorite newsletters and I'm super excited that Gonzalo decided to come on the LeapTakers Podcast.
In addition to Seedtable, Gonzalo is Head of Growth at Jobbatical, an Estonian Relocation Service for Tech companies, and he is mentoring startups. His previous experience includes having founded two startups, being a Content Specialist at Piktochart, growing EVELO from $1.2m to $4m as Director of Marketing, and helping to bring The Martec from 2,000 to 50,000 monthly visitors.
Gonz likes to read and to fly. He speaks 4 languages and lifts heavy things, plus he seems to be into the occasional burger or ramen.
In today’s episode we talk about practical tips for remote work and working from home, how Gonzalo started Seedtable, what makes a successful newsletter & advice on how to grow your own content, the impact of Covid-19 on various startup sectors, and more.
Please follow me on Instagram, Twitter, and my Website, where I post new episodes, share interesting articles I found, and blog occasionally about cool startups!
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Show notes:
Remo's Favorite Quote of the Month:
“Discipline equals freedom”
- Jocko Willink
If you're enjoying the podcast, the best way to support the show is by leaving a review on Apple Podcast or in your favorite podcast app.
Special Guest: Gonzalo Sanchez.
Links:
Christian (@chrjantzen) is the founder of Futuristic.vc, a micro-fund investing in Nordic pre-seed companies. He made his first investment at age fourteen when he bought shares in his favorite football club. He later started his first company, a real estate company, in 2011, which he grew while studying at university. Following his masters degree in Finance from Aarhus University , he co-founded another startup “Reunited Esports", which was a player-owned Esports organisation with teams competing in Overwatch and Rocket League.
In 2017 he founded Futuristic VC, an early-stage VC fund investing initial capital into the next generation of Nordic founders. He has invested in +20 companies across the entire region and helped founders secure follow-on funding from some of the strongest investors in Europe.
If you’re interested in starting your own company while studying / after graduating, or if you’re interested in the world of Micro VC’s, I’m sure you will find this episode very interesting and valuable. We talk about Christian’s path to starting Futuristic VC, his experience from starting an eSports company, fundraising advice, his best investment, and more!
Please follow me on Instagram, Twitter, and my Website, where I post new episodes, share interesting articles I found, and blog occasionally about cool startups! Sign-up for the mailing list to stay in the loop!
Quote:
“He who jumps into the void owes no explanation to those who stand and watch.”
- Jean-Luc Godard
Show notes:
If you're enjoying the podcast, the best way to support the show is by leaving a review on Apple Podcast or in your favorite podcast app.
Special Guest: Christian Jantzen.
Links:
Mathias (@ockenrock) eats and breathes marketplaces. He is a partner at Speedinvest, one of Europe’s leading Venture Capital funds. The fund has it’s headquarters in Vienna, Austria and just recently raised its latest fund of €190m. Mathias runs Speedinvest x, a focus fund investing into network effects and marketplaces.
Previously he was a General Manager for the German market at Uniplaces, an international marketplace for student accommodation. Before that, Mathias built out the marketplace-practice at Berlin-based Point Nine Capital, an early stage fund focusing on SaaS and marketplaces, where he was a Principal for 4 years. Previously, Mathias led the M&A-department of Ricardo Group, then a subsidiary of South African Naspers, that operates several online marketplace, classifieds and auction businesses across Europe. Earlier, he started his career as an Investment Manager at Mountain Partners in Zurich where he lead early stage investments in companies such as Lieferando or reBuy.
Mathias holds a German-French double-diploma from European School of Business Reutlingen and Neoma Business School Reims. Knowing Germany’s capital city like the back of his hand, Mathias now leads Speedinvest's Berlin office as a Partner at Speedinvest x.
Please follow me on Instagram, Twitter, and my Website, where I post new episodes, share interesting articles I found, and blog occasionally about cool startups! Sign-up for the mailing list to stay in the loop!
Show notes:
If you're enjoying the podcast, the best way to support the show is by leaving a review on Apple Podcast or in your favorite podcast app.
Special Guest: Mathias Ockenfels.
Links:
Vedika Jain (@vedikaja_in) is an investor and Chief of staff at Weekend Fund, an early stage venture capital fund that is backing your next favorite thing. Previously she worked for high profile startups like Stripe and True Layer.
Weekend Fund was started in 2017 by Ryan Hoover, the founder of Product Hunt (an amazing site to discover new products. Product Hunt was acquired in 2016 by AngelList). While Ryan and Vedika invest broadly, they are particularly excited about distributed/remote working, audio/voice technology, and tools for creators/makers. The fund invests in early stage startups with check sizes ranging from $75K to $200K. Limited partners of the fund include high profile venture capitalists Marc Andreessen, Chris Dixon, Ben Rubin, Chris Sacca, Hunter Walk, Kevin Rose, Garry Tan, and others.
Vedika has a really interesting background story and approach how she made her way into "the wonderful world of venture capital". In this episode you will hear about her tactics how she got into VC and general career advice for picking the right companies & startups to work for. In addition, you will learn more about Weekend Fund, Vedika’s favorite books & blogs, and much more!
Please follow me on Instagram, Twitter, and my Website, where I post new episodes, share interesting articles I found, and blog occasionally about cool startups! Sign-up for the mailing list to stay in the loop!
Show notes:
If you're enjoying the podcast, the best way to support the show is by leaving a review on Apple Podcast or in your favorite podcast app.
Special Guest: Vedika Jain.
Links:
Sebastian Wahl and Carl-Philipp von Polheim are the founders of mybacs.
Mybacs is a direct-to-consumer (D2C), research driven, biotechnology company for gut-health products based in Zug (Switzerland) and Munich (Germany). Their goal is to revolutionize the healthcare market around the human microbiome and thus make a decisive contribution to the health and daily well-being of everyday customers. Mybacs is specialized on the development of innovative and high-dose synbiotic dietary supplements
They have two types of products - a Travel and Daily well-being probiotic product.
Sebastian holds a Master's degree with distinction in Pharmacy from ETH Zurich. Carl-Philipp studied business administration and holds a Master of Science in Management from ESCP Europe.
In this episode we talk about the origin story of mybacs, how to start manufacturing a physical product, the emerging direct-to-consumer industry, tools and resources to start your own D2C company, VC fundraising tips, the benefits of probiotics, their key learnings for other aspiring founders, and more.
Please follow me on Instagram, Twitter, and my Website, where I post new episodes, share cool stuff & interesting articles I found, and blog occasionally! Sign-up for the mailing list to stay in the loop!
Show notes:
02:54 -- Introduction of Sebastian, Carl-Philipp, and mybacs
04:02 -- Exploring the origin story of mybacs
06:12 -- Previous work experience before founding mybacs
07:23 -- Thoughts and considerations before taking the leap
08:53 -- Awareness of probiotics and the effect of the human microbiome on well-being in Europe vs. US
10:08 -- Geographies that mybacs operates in
10:22 -- How to manufacture a physical product as a startup
11:53 -- Tips for planning your supply chain
12:34 -- Timing from idea to shipping the first product
13:15 -- Thoughts about assembling the right team in the D2C space
14:40 -- How to incentivize experienced people & experts to join your startup?
15:17 -- Raising outside capital and thoughts about raising money from VCs
16:56 -- How to find a great Venture Capital investor
18:37 -- The advantages of the D2C market and business model
21:45 -- How to ship a product?
23:24 -- Helpful resources, tools, and books to start your own company
24:36 -- The future vision of mybacs
27:28 -- Understanding the mybacs travelers product
27:51 -- Favorite knowledge resources
29:32 -- Hobbies to take your mind off the startup life
30:12 -- Key learnings from starting a company. What would you do differently?
31:07 -- Career advice for ambitious future “leap takers”
32:16 -- What does courage mean to you?
If you're enjoying the podcast, the best way to support the show is by leaving a review on Apple Podcast or in your favorite podcast app.
Special Guests: Carl-Philipp von Polheim and Sebastian Wahl.
Links:
Holger Seim (@hlgrsm) is the founder and CEO of Blinkist.
Blinkist is a book summary app that lets you get the key insights from 3'000+ bestselling non-fiction books that cover leadership, history, psychology and more in 15 minute summaries in text or audio format. Blinkist has over 11million users globally and the book-summarising startup has won positive reviews from the likes of Forbes (“This may be the greatest app you download in 2018”) and The New York Times.
In this episode we talk about how Holger and his co-founders came up with the idea for Blinkist, how they took the leap and started the company, his advice for aspiring entrepreneurs on how to find your perfect co-founder / first employees, the most important marketing channels for startups, as well as the importance of designing a unique corporate culture (such as the one of Blinkist), and much more..
Please follow me on Instagram, Twitter, and my Website, where I post new episodes, share cool stuff & interesting articles I found, and blog occasionally! Sign-up for the mailing list to stay in the loop!
Show notes:
03:13 -- Who is Holger
04:40 -- Startup idea generation and how the concept of Blinkist was born
09:01 -- How Holger and his co-founders took the leap and started Blinkist
09:50 -- Pursuing a startup idea full time vs. side hustle
10:59 -- Initial financing choices at Blinkist
12:36 -- Characteristics of a great startup founding team
18:12 -- How to find your perfect co-founder outside of your personal network (e.g. technical co-founder)
20:30 -- Blinkist’s company culture and why Holger places immense value on culture
24:42 -- The Blinkist operating system
27:07 -- Tips on maintaining a corporate culture while you grow as a startup
29:16 -- How Blinkist grew to the first 1000 clients and discussion of marketing strategies
32:46 -- Alternative marketing channels leveraged by Blinkist
34:41 -- Holger’s book recommendations for new startup founders
37:31 -- General book recommendations of the Blinkist founder
39:14 -- Holger’s best investment
40:42 -- Hobbies and habits to decompress from the startup life
41:40 -- Favorite travel location
43:09 -- Advice for university graduates about to start their career
46:23 -- What does courage mean to Holger
Resources mentioned:
If you're enjoying the podcast, the best way to support the show is by leaving a review on Apple Podcast or in your favorite podcast app.
Special Guest: Holger Seim.
Alisée (@aliseedt) is one of the founders of Seedstars, a global group of companies with a mission to impact people's lives in emerging markets through technology and entrepreneurship. The groups' activities cover over 85 cities with emerging startup ecosystems through a variety of activities, such as hosting one of the world’s largest startup competition “Seedstars World”, organizing training and acceleration programs, offering physical hubs called Seedspace, and doing venture capital investments & company building activities.
Alisée is a board member of the School of Management of Fribourg and a member of the Swiss National Innovation Council. She was nominated Social Entrepreneur Forbes 30 under 30, Innovation Fellow of Wired UK, 50: Europe’s most influential women in the startup and venture capital space and the 29 Powerful Women by Refinery29.
Born in France, she has spent most of her life abroad, from growing up in Singapore, California, and France to studying and working in Italy and Switzerland and finally accomplishing humanitarian missions in Brazil and Cambodia. As of today, she has traveled in 50+ countries.
Please follow me on Instagram, Twitter, and my Website, where I post new episodes, share cool stuff & interesting articles I found, and blog occasionally! Sign-up for the mailing list to stay in the loop!
Show notes:
02:15 -- Introduction "Who is Alisée"
03:50 -- How and why Alisée joined Seedstars / helped to start the company
06:42 -- The early days of Seedstars - Traveling the world and setting up Startup competitions globally
07:40 -- How Alisée approached the decision to take the leap and quit her job at L’oreal to start Seedstars
09:41 -- How to make a decision between corporate job or startup life
13:46 -- How to overcome the chicken & egg problem in entrepreneurship
15:55 -- Alisée’s favorite moments along Seedstars journey and within her time as an entrepreneur
18:01 -- Seedstars today: How the business look like. Raising Series A VC funds for specific regions - e.g. Africa
20:19 -- How startups can become part of Seedstars and general advice for fellow entrepreneurs
23:47 -- Favorite books
25:48 -- Advice to younger self
26:07 -- Routine / Hobby of Alisée to get her mind off work
27:01 -- What does courage mean to Alisée
Resources mentioned:
If you're enjoying the podcast, the best way to support the show is by leaving a review on Apple Podcast or in your favorite podcast app.
Special Guest: Alisée de Tonnac.
Andri Silberschmidt (@andrisilbi) is a 25 years old rising star here in Switzerland. He is a food entrepreneur, equity investor, and politician. At the age of fifteen, he began his banking education and is now responsible at Swisscanto Invest for the management of all quantitative equity funds investing in developing countries. In the summer of 2017, Andri and some of his friends founded kaisin. , a Poké Bowl restaurant and catering chain.
He has been politically active since 2011 and became president of the "Jungfreisinnige Partei" of Switzerland in 2016. Recently he was elected to the Parliament of the City of Zurich for the FDP and is now on the list of the FDP Canton of Zurich for the National Council elections in October 2019.
Please follow me on Instagram, Twitter, and my Website, where I post new episodes, share cool stuff & interesting articles I found, and blog occasionally!
Show notes:
02:14 -- Who is Andri Silberschmidt
03:14 -- How Andri started his career and got into entrepreneurship by starting a Poké Bowl restaurant
05:40 -- Opening a restaurant business without outside capital
06:53 -- How Andri started kaisin. & pitched his idea
10:10 -- Andri’s note taking app
10:34 -- Recommended resources & books for starting a business
11:44 -- Expansion plans of kaisin.
13:26 -- How kaisin. launched and promoted their store with little resources
16:04 -- How Andri balances his time and energy between all the different commitments. Why sleep is so important.
20:12 -- Andri’s involvement with “TeamStartup” to foster entrepreneurship in Switzerland
23:23 -- Challenges of entrepreneurship in Switzerland
28:02 -- Andri’s learnings from his startup experience
31:54 -- Book recommendations
35:11 -- Andri’s best investment
37:29 -- Andri’s “hobby”
39:03 -- Andri’s personal advisory board
41:37 -- Andri’s message to the world - "Respect, Create, Enjoy"
44:24 -- What does courage mean to Andri?
Resources mentioned:
If you're enjoying the podcast, the best way to support the show is by leaving a review on Apple Podcast or in your favorite podcast app.
Special Guest: Andri Silberschmidt.
Andreas Schwarzinger (@a_schwarzinger) is the founder and managing partner of uniboard AG, one of Switzerland’s largest student platforms with over 72k users. Andreas is one of the most down-to-earth people I know and with his work at Uniboard helped thousands of students to successfully pass their degrees. His motto is "Studying together is better"!
In our conversation we talk about how Andreas and his co-founder Malte grew uniboard to its current size, community building, winning customers, favorite movies, smelling car waxes and other fun stuff.
Please follow me on Instagram, Twitter, and my Website, where I post new episodes, share cool stuff & interesting articles I found, and blog occasionally!
Show notes:
02:59 -- Who is Andreas
04:13 -- How the uniboard.ch got started
06:53 -- How Andreas made the decision to run uniboard full-time
09:06 -- Growth of Uniboard in Switzerland
10:38 -- Startup vs. Traditional career in Management consulting
15:22 -- Lessons from community building and marketing
19:05 -- Thoughts about monetization of a platform
22:25 -- Challenges and learnings from switching from a student organization to a startup
24:23 -- General challenges of the startup world and how to overcome them (focus on product & focus on sales)
29:08 -- Tips for Selling, building trust, and winning customers
34:04 -- Future goals of Uniboard
35:58 -- Andreas’ favorite book or story
38:20 -- Unique interesting hobbies of Andreas
40:44 -- Personal advisory board
43:45 -- Advice to younger self / listeners in their early 20s/30s
46:35 -- Unjustified fears of entrepreneurship
48:05 -- What does courage mean for Andreas
Resources mentioned:
If you're enjoying the podcast, the best way to support the show is by leaving a review on iTunes or in your favorite podcast app.
Special Guest: Andreas Schwarzinger.