Manuel Grenacher (CEO) and Andreas Hauri (CTO) studied Computer Science together in Switzerland and launched the SaaS company Coresystems, a leading AI based Field Service Management Cloud (acquired by SAP), and the Customer Service Marketplace Mila (acquired by Swisscom). In summer 2021, the two serial entrepreneurs did it again and founded Unique. Together with a fast-growing team in Zurich and Berlin and investment from Vi Partners, Unique records client conversations and leverages state-of-the-art AI language models, namely OpenAI’s GPT-3 to generate custom call reports.

We caught up with Manuel to discuss the secrets of his success and how he got where he is today. When asked about entrepreneurship, Manuel believes that you either have it or you don’t.

“I love being an entrepreneur, I always say either you are an entrepreneur or you’re not, it’s not something you can learn. I remember as a kid, around 12 years old, I sold something and then I got into it and it became my passion”.

Reflecting on the responsibility and pressure that a founder and CEO feels, Manuel turns to meditation to help tackle the pressure. “I learned to meditate. I believe it’s important to clean your inner whiteboard before you go to bed. As an entrepreneur you need to sleep fast. This is my third company and in my first company, I felt like I was accountable for everything. I have now learned, very importantly, to give accountability to other people, not just to the leadership but to everyone. Most entrepreneurs and start-up founders take on too much accountability, so give it to others and you will build the performance culture you need to succeed.

Feeling uncomfortable is something Manuel has become comfortable with. When asked what advice he would give budding entrepreneurs he said: “You need to learn to get out of your comfort zone. It’s easy to decide to go to a large well-known company, instead, make the decision to go to a start-up and help to build a company. Make this decision and learn the hard life in business. If you feel you can deal with it, go for it!”

When looking back at his career and thinking about what he may have changed, he reflects on the importance of focus: “If I could change anything, it would be to have had more focus, my weakness is doing too much and then having to fix it! But in general, I have loved my experiences, building a company is very cool, every day is different with different challenges. You don’t know what’s going to happen, but you know you trust your team to find solutions to get over these challenges”.

Seeing investors as a core part of any business, Manuel offers some advice in what to look for when seeking investment: “Investors are part of your business. You need money to build and scale something, however, you must decide which investors you want to work and deal with. They need to bring more than just money. Their advice and access to their network will help you to get a step ahead. I recommend that entrepreneurs try and make their investors work for them, don’t be pushy but make it fun to work with you; they will be happy to promote you and your product. Of course, they have hard questions and will push you if you’re not delivering the numbers, but that’s their job”.

Manuel understands and embraces the power of culture and mentioned it many times during our conversation, “You need to build a strong culture, neither the founders nor management drives a company, culture drives it. Management may change but the culture always stays. Have good values in place and stick to them, don’t just have them for marketing purposes”.

He continued: “At the beginning, I would always be the first and the last at social events to try and create a certain culture, but I have realised that it’s important that things work with and without you. It’s so important that the culture is created by the entire team and that they have time together. Small moments are important”.

Manuel concludes with one word he would use to describe his experience of working with Vi Partners, “Trust! This is the second company I have built up with Vi Partners and I am super grateful to them. For me, the relationship with an investor is always about trust, and I have that with Vi Partners”.