Timestamps:

7:13 - Democratizing AI

9:37 - You’re right to be worried about AI

11:38 - The EU AI Regulation Act

20:13 - Expanding to the US

32:30 - How to enter a new market

This episode was co-produced with Switzerland Global Enterprise. Click here to learn more about the SWISS Pavilion at Singapore Fintech Festival 2024, mentioned at the start of the episode.

About Elena Maran & Angela di Rosa:

Elena Maran is the Global Head Financial Services at Modulos AG, an ETH spin-off developing and operating AI products and services in a new regulated environment. She holds a MSc in Finance from Università Bocconi and previously worked at banks like Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley and Citi Group before joining Modulos in 2022.

Angela di Rosa is the Senior Consultant Southeast Asia and Fintech Internationalization Expert at Switzerland Global Enterprise, the official Swiss organization for export and investment promotion, which supports Swiss SMEs in their international business, and helps innovative foreign companies to establish in Switzerland.

Modulos offers a Responsible AI Platform that seamlessly integrates AI governance, risk management, and data science, ensuring that your organization remains compliant while innovating. Platforms like these have become increasingly relevant ever since the passing of the EU AI Regulation Act back in March 2024. This AI Act is the most comprehensive effort at regulating AI so far, and punishes failure to comply with its requirements with a fine of up to 7% of a company’s annual turnover. Although Switzerland is not part of the EU, any Swiss company that deals with EU customers will be forced to comply with this new piece of legislation.

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Timestamps:

7:12 - Growing a company for 20 years

12:13 - Kids fashion should be beautiful

16:20 - Going into untapped markets

23:16 - PFC-free clothing and why it matters

43:36 - How to define success

Click here to apply to join our Founders Slack.

About Franz Bittmann:

Franz Bittmann is the founder and CEO of namuk, the Swiss premium-quality and sustainable outdoor clothing brand for children. After his Matura, Franz started his first clothing brand, eleven GmbH, back in 1998, which lasted until 2011. He then worked in consulting for 5 years before starting namuk in 2016.

namuk was born out of a personal problem: Franz’ rambunctious, outdoorsy son would time and time again tear through his clothes and stay out in the rain for long periods of time. Franz quickly came to the conclusion that kids’ clothes were very cheaply made, and that he himself, as a tailor, could do much better. He was also rather concerned about the highly regimented routines of kids nowadays, which allow for very little play time outside. So he set out to make a kids’ clothing line which was both durable and outdoor-proof.

namuk clothes are breathable, durable and water-proof (while still avoiding unsustainable chemicals like PFCs), and come with neat additions like integrated suspenders and toilet zippers. To prevent mountains of trash made of fabric remnants, namuk uses recycled materials. The annual, limited upcycled collections are made completely out of fabric remnants from previous production. They’ve also launched their own repair service and provide a market for second-hand namuk clothes on their ReUse platform. That’s why every product features three name tags: each child who wears a piece of namuk clothing can leave their name and know other children will be able to inherit this wonderful product.

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Timestamps:

4:56 - Having an investor back out

11:45 - Was the AVA exit a good or bad thing?

14:55 - Femtech stopped paying salaries and vendors

21:08 - Moving on to expeerly

30:29 - Is bootstrapping more stressful?

About Lea von Bidder:

Lea von Bidder is the co-founder and former CEO of AVA Women, a femtech startup advancing women’s reproductive health by bringing together artificial intelligence and clinical research. Since 2022 she’s also the founder and CEO at expeerly, a startup which makes it easy and efficient for companies to leverage the power of video without the hassle of production, editing, and distribution. She holds a MSc in Global Entrepreneurship from Emlyon Business School and Zhejiang University.

AVA Women garnered much fame and success in Switzerland from 2015 up until 2021 (more on that in Lea’s former episode with us), but unfortunately in 2021 they had their leading investor back out of their Series C round, which made the whole fundraising round fall apart. Since they did not have the money necessary to carry on for another 6-12 months, which would have been the time necessary to set up a new fundraising round, Lea and her co-founders decided to sell the company, and contacted CEOs they were personally acquainted with.

Out of many potential buyers, they chose FemTech Health, because they believed in their vision to unite the fragmented femtech market. Sadly, FemTech didn’t not follow through with the promises they had made post-exit, and even stopped paying vendors and employees, resulting in a round of layoffs. At this point, Lea left the company herself.

She has since begun a new venture, expeerly, which she is bootstrapping.

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