“You shouldn’t start a company just because it’s trendy”

You co-founded your first company while still a Bachelor’s student at ETH Zurich. How did that come about?
I had already programmed various apps with a few of my fellow students when we were offered a big contract by Thurbo AG, which we couldn't accept as private individuals. So, following consultation with ETH, we founded a general partnership called Mobile Development Hitz & Partner.

You became known mainly for your role in co-creating Bitspin, a start-up that was eventually bought up by Google. How was this company founded?
Between finishing our Bachelor’s and starting our Master’s degrees, we decided to code an Android app and make some money with it. Android had a reputation for terrible apps back then, so our plan was to make something that already exists and that everyone needs – but to do it much better than everybody else. We opted for an alarm clock, because we’d found 50 alarm clock apps in the store, each one worse than the other. Young as we were, we thought that we could easily create something better in two months. In the end, it took four months, but we succeeded. We knew little about things like business plans or financing rounds. We just did it.

After the acquisition of Bitspin, you chose not to join Google. Instead, you founded a new start-up a year later, which you shut down again after a few months. Would you recommend ETH students to follow in your footsteps and found a start-up?
I would even be inclined to advise against it unless you do it for the right reasons. The start-up scene is often glorified to some extent. In reality, starting a business is hard work with no guarantee of success. You shouldn’t do it just because it’s trendy or because you want to make a lot of money. If that’s what drives you, you’re better off with a job at Google. You have to love the process itself, because then you will still benefit even if the start-up fails.

In your opinion, what sets computer science apart from other engineering disciplines, especially with regard to starting a company?
In computer science, all you need to develop a product is your laptop. That is unique. Take a look at mechanical engineering, for example: you can design something, but you need specialised materials and tools to build it. And that, in turn, requires money. Additionally, computer scientists benefit from the open source movement. Designs for machines or parts are often proprietary and expensive to license. A start-up can hardly afford them. In contrast, there is so much open-source software available, even from big players like Google and Facebook, that a 12-year-old child can now equip their app with the latest machine learning methods, backed up by decades of research and development – at no cost whatsoever. That makes computer science very powerful.

You originally received vocational training as a food technologist. Why did you decide to study computer science at ETH Zurich afterwards?
I was fascinated by computer games. I bought a book, C++ for Game Programmers, and started to teach myself. The book had cool 3D graphics on the cover, and I thought that after reading these 300 pages on game programming, I’d be able to do that as well. In the end, it was just about enough for simple 2D games. But I realised that I was much more interested in the technology in the background than in the finished game. I wanted to code everything myself: tiling and font rendering systems, sorting algorithms for high scores, etc. That’s when I knew that I wanted to learn more.

Is it more difficult to study at ETH Zurich with the Berufsmatura and Passerelle than with a high school diploma?
Maybe at the very beginning. The Passerelle is broad and teaches a wide range of subjects. In the first year at ETH, however, only mathematics and physics are required. At ETH, you start from scratch and go through the entire school curriculum in the first few months. Fellow students who had attended scientific and mathematical schools were already more familiar with large parts of the material than I was. But after a certain point, everything was just as new for them as it was for me. I was very happy that the Passerelle option was available and that I didn’t have to attend the Gymnasium for three years first. The Passerelle is a lot of work, most of it is self-study. In this sense, it was excellent preparation for ETH.

What did you learn during your studies that goes beyond computer science?
I have learned to think analytically and not to be afraid of difficult tasks. I was quite in awe of ETH Zurich because the best of the best study there. And that is quite true. However, it’s not only geniuses that attend ETH but also normal people, if one can put it like that. And they can also succeed if they put in the work. That gives you confidence. Once you’ve mastered “Numerical Methods for Partial Differential Equations”, you can probably handle anything thrown at you (laughs).

Can you explain that?
NumPDE was a lecture course by Professor Ralf Hiptmair which was particularly confusing at first. But then, in the last few weeks, it all suddenly clicked, and I understood! This was often the case during my studies. At first, you don’t understand anything, everything seems really complicated. But if you keep studying consistently, at some point, the subject matter starts to make sense. Sometimes, this epiphany only happens in the final weeks before the first-year exams. So, you end up studying for a whole year before you understand anything. You need some tenacity for that.

What did ETH Zurich fail to teach you?
There were a lot of things that I learned the hard way as an entrepreneur, but this is all part of the experience. I don’t believe that it’s the job of ETH to teach students such things. There are so many career paths available to ETH graduates, how do you find a common denominator?

What’s next for you?
I will most likely remain an entrepreneur. But I’m not completely ruling out a Master’s degree, either. In general, I don’t like to commit myself in advance. Many of my successes so far have been helped a little by luck and being in the right place at the right time. And, of course, I owe my entire career to the people who have worked with me: my co-founders and employees.