HEALTH: Leadership in startups, with IDUN Technologies cofounders Séverine Chardonnens and Simon Bachmann

“It’s a challenge to give enough input, but not too much, and not feel like you’re doing the other person’s job” - Séverine   Simon Bachmann and Séverine Chardonnens met at ETH Zurich studying health sciences and technologies. They founded IDUN Technologies in November 2017 with the vision to produce the best electrodes for improved health and performance monitoring. To provide accurate data and be accepted by the user, a wearable device needs to have two main attributes: excellent signal quality and user comfort, and IDUN Technologies’ electrodes build on exactly that. With a team of eight people - most of them engineers - the duo is thinking long term and envisioning a future where their company focuses on brain-computer interfaces and virtual reality, among other exciting things.    In this episode we discuss: Learning how to lead a team of engineers Raising CHF 100k from family and friends (spoiler alert: use WhatsApp!) The importance of stable relationships for entrepreneurs The advantages of founding a company together and much more!   Our favorite quotes were: “I would never do a startup on my own…when you’re two people you discuss and take decisions together.” - Séverine “There’s no other way than being direct when it comes to money.” - Severine “The customers are comprehensive that we’re not perfect yet.” - Séverine “The problem with bigger companies is that they don’t customize anything.” - Simon “We’re engineers in the heart, creative people, and we still want to have the flexibility to be creative and to innovate.” Séverine “You always need a balance [in the team]. Engineers love their problems and circle around them, and that is awesome but you also need to channel it in a certain way.” - Simon “Now we hired real engineers, and they really want a perfect product before they go anywhere near a customer. And it’s our challenge to tell them that nobody will hate them just because it doesn’t look like a serial product.” - Séverine “I think there’s so much potential for our technology, and that’s what makes it exciting.” - Simon   Please give us feedback and improve our podcast by answering our questions: http://bit.ly/nerdentrepreneursfeedback