(1) Who are you and what do you do?
I am Michael Schwanzer: dad, husband, immigrant (from Austria to Canada), inventor of a camera that does not run out of battery or memory and founding CEO of ZEITDICE INC.
(2) In two sentences or less, describe how you participate in the startup ecosystem.
I try to help newcomers connect to the local (Toronto) ecosystem so they can spend their time most efficiently at the right events and with the right people.
(3) What are you currently reading right now and would recommend to others?
“Skin in the Game” by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, I just started though. I would like to recommend a new podcast: https://tradecraftpodcast.com/ I learned valuable lessons for my business from Marc Busch and this podcast exploring the craft of trade policy is just fascinating, considering the current international situation.
(4) What makes you stay in the startup ecosystem?
I don’t know anything else 🙂 I started my first SaaS project (50K users) that eventually financed my studies abroad when I was 12 and did not know what a startup / SaaS was back then. Between my own startups I only ever contributed to other startups.
(5) What drives your passion about the startup ecosystem?
Startups are challenging the status quo to make life / business easier while established corporations often try to keep things just the same to support their business model. Like everyone else, I have limited time on this planet, but would like to leave with positive impact for the generations to come. I believe real impact comes from politics or startups. I tried (small school) politics and decided my time will be better spent with startups, politics are f*ed up and will take more than a lifetime to get into.
(6) Where do you see the startup ecosystem in 5 years?
I think a recession will hit before that and the only surviving startups will be the ones who managed to become profitable on their own before. Existing startups should get their unit economics sorted and if they are providing real, competitive value to the market they are serving they will be fine. New startups will have to show revenue to secure more conservative sources of cash to grow.
(7) How has failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success?
Our hardware that enables our business model was a year delayed. The company had to run very lean and back then time was our enemy and I personally was implementing cloud services that would eventually get recurring revenue. These days while developing the next generation camera, time is our friend, because we implemented such valuable cloud services that every month we have more cash to spend into growth.
(8) What is one of the best worthwhile investments you’ve ever made (could be financial, time, energy, etc.)?
I spend a few hours every morning with my daughter, trying to teach her a few things but she teaches me more 🙂
(9) What do you do to refocus yourself when you feel overwhelmed or unfocused?
I go for a run, my running statistics show peaks in weeks of hardship.
(10) What’s one piece of advice you would give someone trying to break into the startup ecosystem?
Make sure you take care of yourself as well, the startup isn’t everything.
Leave a Reply