EP #17 - Christian Hirsig: Founding a Coding Academy For Refugees

Timestamps:
3:00 - Changes for Swisspreneur.
6:28 - Associations vs For-profit companies.
12:40 - Finding good employees.
23:25 - Growing up in an entrepreneurial family.
26:47 - When to leave a startup.

Biography

Christian is one of the co-founders of Swisspreneur.org and a passionate serial entrepreneur. He founded his first venture — Atizo, a crowdsourcing platform for ideas — in 2007. He eventually sold the company and went on to start the consulting business and startup incubator Pacific Catch Ltd. together with his wife, Bettina Hirsig. Under the umbrella of Pacific Catch, he has initiated and supported a wide variety of projects such as „Geile Eier“ — a breakfast franchise, Blacknose — a Swiss mountain pale ale brand and Powercoders — a coding academy for refugees. Additionally, Christian is the founder of TEDxBern and serves as a startup coach for be-advanced, Startfeld and Kickstart Accelerator. Christian was named one of the „Digital Shapers 2018“ by Bilanz Magazin and was invited to speak at TEDxZurich 2017.