Burn Rate - The Venture Insider Podcast [AI-Translated]

In this episode, Max Meister and Guy Giuffredi cover the week’s news, including the launch of Apertus, Switzerland’s new open-source LLM, Voliro’s acquisition of Sixpec’s intellectual property, and Enerdrape’s flagship U.S. projects.

For the deep dive, they sit down with Michi Baier to unpack the ins and outs of term sheets and how deal terms have evolved in recent years.

In the listener question, they discuss the KPI Net Retention Rate (NRR) — a metric increasingly scrutinized by investors, especially in AI startups.

Finally, they wrap up with a quick review of the latest Swiss startup transactions.

In this episode, Max Meister and Guy Giuffredi discuss robot-powered döner deliveries, the upcoming IPO of Swedish buy-now-pay-later scaleup Klarna, and the rise of a “new” share class — Founder Preferred Shares.

For our deep dive, we turn to a study by Professor Jay Ritter, examining U.S. tech IPOs from the 1990s to today and how the push to go public has evolved.

We also feature the current crowdfunding round of Future Kitchens, with founder Dominik Sträuli joining us as a guest.

And finally, we wrap up with a quick look at the week’s funding rounds in the Swiss startup...

In this episode, Max Meister and Guy Giuffredi discuss a negative record: the number of Swiss startup liquidations in the first half of 2025. They then turn to the upcoming billion-franc exit of Ublox and the return of U.S. VCs to the European market.

In the listener question, they address whether voting-rights shares make sense for founders in Switzerland.

For the deep dive, guest Lucas Mittelmeier, VC at Heal Capital, joins to talk about the firm’s use of a voice bot as the first point of contact for startups applying for funding.

Finally, they wrap up with a quick recap...

In this episode, Max Meister and Guy Giuffredi discuss the summer’s standout deals — including the USD 225 million exit of Daedalean to Destinus, the USD 8.9 million investment in CREAL led by Zeiss, and Modulos’ CHF 8.7 million funding round.

In the news, they cover the current state of the Swiss VC ecosystem in a global context, the concentration of capital among a handful of U.S. VC funds, and plans for a USD 250 million chip fabrication facility in Switzerland.

For the main topic, Peter Stähli joins for the second installment of a four-part series on the Upscaler Program....