Swisspreneur Show Swisspreneur

Timestamps:

6:48 - The market gap in radiology

15:47 - The accurateness of AI models

17:31 - Software patenting

26:35 - b-rayZ’ subscription model

33:02 - Going international from day 1



About Alexander Ciritsis:

Alexander Ciritsis is the co-founder and CTO at b-rayZ, an AI medical software for breast cancer early detection. He holds a PhD in Medical Science from RWTH Aachen University and was a researcher at University Hospital Aachen and Universitätsspital Zürich before starting b-rayZ in 2019.

During his time as a research scientist in the medical field, Alexander Ciritsis noticed a clear gap in the radiology market: not only is there a lot more data for radiologists to analyze nowadays (a CT scan takes 12 secs to give you 128 slides, whereas 10 years ago it took 5 min to provide 30 slides), but only 10% of radiologists and radiographers are breast imaging specialists, in spite of the growing number of exams performed globally (270M+). Add to that the fact that breast density (a factor which varies naturally from person to person) makes catching lesions and cancer more difficult, and that it’s up to the physician to determine whether or not the breast is dense enough to warrant further testing, and you’ve got a perfect storm for malpractice suits.

b-rayZ offers an AI solution that provides standardized, reproducible and real-time classification of breast density with a proven accuracy of 93%. This means that people with dense breasts are more likely to be directed towards further testing, and so the likelihood of breast cancer being detected early on and successfully combated by cancer treatments increases. b-rayZ does not claim to diagnose cancer themselves: they simply help smooth and improve the workflow that does detect it. They haven’t patented their code (since people could code around the patent anyways) but they have patented the process of training and developing their AI software. 

Currently they are looking forward to expanding into the US market, and in 2022 they raised a CHF 4 million round partially funded through the Swisspreneur Syndicate.



"Outsource as little as possible. Your IP is your most precious asset, and you need to protect it."

"You need to find the tedious tasks in a department which can and need to be standardized — then AI is your friend."



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Timestamps:

4:47 - How the idea for Batmaid started in a New York apartment

6:45 - The importance of social responsibility in business

17:15 - Profitability in a people business

24:22 - Building a strong brand in Switzerland’s different regions

36:48 - Journey of finding investment



About Andreas Schollin-Borg:

Andreas Schollin-Borg always knew he wanted to become an entrepreneur. At the age of 16 he began a small business selling caps, and the bug bit. Due to his father’s insistence, he obtained a finance and ship trading degree from HEC Lausanne and a Master's from the University of Geneva, and even went on to study at NYU, all the while trying out different entrepreneurial ideas in his mind — fast forward to the present, he is the co-founder of Batmaid, and the CEO of Batgroup, the parent company of Batmaid, Batwork, and Batsoft.

Back in 2014, he initially wanted to start a shoe business while in New York and was actively studying this industry. While doing this, his apartment was a mess and difficult to work in, so he found a locally-based app to book a housekeeper to do some cleaning. It was such a good experience, and he loved the idea so much that he decided to take it back to Switzerland with him.

However, he knew he would need support and partnership, and found it one night at a beer pong tournament where he met his future partner, Eric Laudet. They have only grown from there: Batmaid has become the Batgroup, including Batmaid, Batwork, and Batsoft, which all combat different areas of the cleaning business, and it has expanded to other regions of Switzerland and 8 countries around Europe. Initially, it was challenging to convince investors to give capital to the company because people-based businesses are often seen as unreliable, but Andreas proved there was a demand for this service, and with some significant branding initiatives, a partnership with Onet (one of the biggest facility management companies in Europe) and some damn good tech, investors became convinced. 

An essential part of their business is the social mission of combating the black market and giving their staff rights, legal agency, and financial and emotional support. Having a constant fear of going to work in the case that somebody asks for a social security number, or simply not getting a retirement package, is a reality for many of the cleaning staff, and it is Batmaid's goal to improve that experience, to be a safe environment fueled by trust between the employer, the employee and the client.

For the next 12 months, Andreas is taking a brief pause on growth and focusing on profitability, while also working towards improving their service. He would love Batmaid to be something that is accessible to everybody in any part of Switzerland, and for it to be the number one tech-based cleaning company in the world.



“Bringing the supplier and user together, it’s the chicken and egg problem – you need the supply before the demand, because if you have no supply, demand will never come.”

“When you’re in a startup or scaleup, the problems don’t get simpler, they just get more complex.”



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Timestamps:

7:13 - Product building mistakes

11:13 - What makes a great product

17:42 - Prioritizing certain product features

27:10 - Key roles in a product team

34:20 - Maintaining a strong culture



About Laurent Decrue:

Laurent Decrue is the co-founder of the moving company MOVU and the software company Holycode, and the former CEO at Bexio. Currently he is active as CFO and co-CEO at Holycode. He holds an MBA from the University of Basel and previously worked at DeinDeal.

Throughout his time at MOVU, Bexio, DeinDeal and Holycode, Laurent observed time and time again the following product building mistakes:


Delegating product responsibility to a CTO who isn’t familiar with the necessary product architecture that needs to be set up early in the game;


Not allowing your product team to grow as much as it needs to, when it needs to — i.e., not hiring a product owner but instead having one of the founders do that job part-time, on top of all their other responsibilities;


Picking a technical co-founder without consulting with CTOs whose technical opinion you respect.



What do all great products have in common, regardless of industry?


They result from a huge focus on user experience;


They come from working with a large set of data very early on;


They were iterated continuously through fast product cycles.



When it comes to KPIs which can keep product iteration on track, Laurent warns you not to focus too much on stuff like revenue or absolute number of users, but instead conversion rate, which points to stumbling blocks along your funnel regardless of your user scale.

What are 4 key sub departments in a product team?


UX research;


Data/BI analytics;


Requirements engineering;


End tests.



How can you cultivate a strong culture not only within the product team, but the whole team overall?


The founders need to sit down and reflect on what the company values are. Write them down;


Values should be emphasized during the hiring and onboarding process;


Respect for company values should be taken into consideration when assessing someone’s yearly performance. Sometimes, disrespect of values is a good reason to let someone go;




Company values should be revisited yearly, as the team grows.







"Values have to come from the founders. Otherwise it doesn’t work."

"You have to be naive when starting a business. If you actually knew how hard it was going to be, you simply wouldn’t do it."



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Timestamps:

09:49 - How Nathalie got into climate entrepreneurship

12:02 - The tipping point: How close is it?

15:25 - How can richer countries like Switzerland play a role?

27:54 - Simultaneously being an investment and impact firm 

34:08 - How can the economy adapt to climate-centered frameworks?



About Nathalie Moral:

Nathalie Moral is the founder and CEO of Clima Now, a foundation that finances and invests in climate solutions She received a degree in business administration from the University of St. Gallen and a certification in business and climate change, from both ZHAW and Cambridge. She followed a career in consulting, working at companies like PwC, but soon realized she felt like she had a bigger purpose and wanted to make an impact, and to do something she would be proud to tell her children about one day.

Born in Switzerland, her family unconventionally spent the first few years of her life in India, and upon moving back to Switzerland, she was confronted with how different the experiences were between the two places. She gained awareness early on in life of the privileged bubble that Switzerland can be and  became cognizant of the experiences of others. That is what got her interested in helping to fight climate change, and her optimistic outlook has often infectiously inspired other people. She tries not to focus on the pessimistic aspects when thinking about climate change but rather to be aware of the fantastic work people are doing around her to make a difference in this pressing issue – she believes the future is bright.

The combination of impact and investment is one of the best ways she sees to make real change, as in this capacity you can get involved with political movements  which are focused on the climate, and not just their own political agenda. She has a goal to get 100k signatures  for Clima Now’s initiative, Spotlight, which allows communities  to submit climate-conscious ideas that are then voted on by the public at large.  Since in Switzerland 100k is a large enough  number of signatures to change the law,  hitting this milestone would be a huge stride for the organization. 

Switzerland being one of the world’s wealthiest countries, it is often thought that we are already doing enough to be carbon neutral, and we are, in fact, doing many positive things. However there are still areas where improvements can be made and it is largely to do with aligning political agendas,  because climate consciousness should not be a political strategy, and neither should taking responsibility and providing support to the Global South. 

Clima Now’s future focus will be on the youth aged 18-35, which is the generation that climate changes will affect the most, and they will as well be focused on climate-positive food security sourcing and how people think about what they eat, and where it comes from. Like any venture, there has to be a focus on the finances, and there is a hope to raise between 50 and 100 million Swiss francs in the next few years to be able to invest in even more projects. They want funders to see this investment as a climate return, more than a financial one.



“Getting a seat at the table, and then changing the role that people have for you, is where the true shift for women begins.”

“Challenges for startups will always come up both when you have money  and when you don’t have it.”

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Timestamps:

04:29 - Meeting Smallpdf

14:37 - Backstabbed by a competitor

22:50 - Identifying acquisition targets

44:39 - Structuring the deal

51:30 - Announcing the acquisition



About Dennis Just:

Dennis Just is a serial entrepreneur and the former CEO at smallpdf, the rapidly growing and fully bootstrapped PDF powerhouse. He holds a BSc in Economics and Engineering from the Technische Universität Berlin and previously founded companies like dSLASH.de, compreo.de, TopFachhandel.de, Numbrs, and Knip AG, and also worked at the famous scaleup DeinDeal. Currently he’s active as a venture partner at the European venture capital group 3VC. 

Dennis was CEO at smallpdf from 2019 to March 2023, and during his time there the company acquired PDF Tools AG (2022) for $30M. He advises founders to cultivate a strategic mindset before even beginning the acquisition process: you need to make sure you have both the revenue and the talent to support the massive growth that acquisition implies.

When trying to identify acquisition targets, Dennis suggests liaising with the competitors in your market from early on. Find out who’s who, where they’re headed, whether or not they’re your 1:1 competitors, and, if they’re not, whether it would make sense to join forces with them. In smallpdf’s case, since they’re a bootstrapped company, it didn’t make sense for them to look for companies backed by VCs, since investors tend to have demands which bootstrapped buyers (with building generational, sustainable businesses in mind) typically cannot meet. So instead they looked for bootstrapped companies with a track record of organic growth.

Something that’s also crucial is to assess the cultural fit, and that’s why having a long-term relationship with these companies comes in handy. But regardless of how long you’ve known them, a due diligence process should always include cultural assessment interviews with all employees. It’s important to set clear standards for what you want the culture to be, even if that means losing 30% of the people from the company you acquired.



Memorable quote:

"The due diligence process should include cultural assessment interviews with every single employee from the company you’re considering buying."



If you would like to listen to our previous conversations with Dennis, check out episodes 85, 87 and 259.

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Timestamps:

8:27 - How to know if you can work well with someone

14:28 - Gift cards in Switzerland

18:55 - Building trust in e-commerce

25:18 - Credit card fraud and liability

28:55 - Getting big brands on board



About Dominik Megert:

Dominik Megert is the founder and CEO at offerz, a company which provides the largest assortment of digital vouchers and gift cards in Switzerland. He studied Retail Trade at the Business School Thun and started offerz when he finished his studies, in 2015. 

Whether it’s credit for gaming services (PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo, Blizzard, Steam), vouchers for entertainment ( Spotify, deezer, Google Play), gift cards for everyday needs (Coop, Manor, Lidl, MediaMarkt, Zalando, Just Eat) or prepaid mobile top-ups, offerz has it available at any time and printable as PDF. They also allow you to personalize your gift card with text, image or video. In return for promoting the gift card issuing companies, offerz receives a commission between 2% and 20%, depending on how well the card typically sells. 

Though the average gift card sale in Switzerland is twice as high as in other European countries (due to the higher purchasing power and stronger currency), gift card issuing companies don’t usually go for Switzerland, because of its small size and multilingualism. 

However, offerz’ innovative solution seems to have convinced a number of them, and they feature offerz’ logo on their online shops. This helped offerz build up trust with potential customers, and for that same purpose they also upgraded the look of their own website and logo and invested in building a strong customer support team. 



Memorable quote:

"If your online shop looks ugly, that certainly won’t help build trust with customers."



Don’t forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, 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 give-aways or founders dinners!