Four years at GenTwo – and a great experience for me

It all started in 2018 in a small residential apartment on Stockerstrasse in Zurich. It was this space, converted into an office, that served as a workplace, initially for only a handful of employees plus the two founders Patrick Loepfe and Philippe A. Naegeli. In January 2019, I myself became the ninth hire of this fintech start-up, GenTwo, at the time only ten months old. I joined the innovative securitization platform provider to assume responsibility for its marketing and communication activities.

At that point in time, it was certainly not possible to foresee the brilliant growth that lay ahead for GenTwo. Given the fact that this was all still in the future, was it easy just then to simultaneously position two companies – the parent company GenTwo and its subsidiary for digital assets GenTwo Digital – on the market? No, not at all. For one thing, no budget was available yet, nor any additional human resources. Several marketing and communications managers at other companies were amazed when they heard that with a "one-woman department" and without any financial resources we were still managing to market two companies and their services at the same time. After all, we were not only a virtually unknown start-up in Switzerland, but also part of an industry – fintech – that itself was only beginning to emerge and had yet to prove itself.

When you have just founded a new company and want to position yourself on the market, you have a lot of convincing to do, especially at the beginning. It’s an enormous challenge. Apart from this demanding mission, there were many other practical hurdles to clear – some of which wouldn’t immediately come to mind if you were a marketing professional in the established corporate world. Take, for example, the layout of the office itself. At a certain point, the increasing noise level made it difficult for us to concentrate on our work. And since more and more new customers had become interested in us and wanted to visit our premises, the space also got more and more crowded. As our creatively converted offices were quickly becoming too small for us, in March 2020 we moved to much larger premises at Brandschenkestrasse 45 in Zurich.

But that very same month, the first lockdown of the Coronavirus pandemic was announced, meaning that we couldn’t work in our new offices after all. Like many other companies, we didn't know what was going to happen to us. This first phase, with the company’s entire staff sent home to work, knocked us off-balance, and we wondered if our newly established work processes would even survive this novel work-from-home model. Or if we would be able to gain any traction acquiring new customers during the crisis? Or whether we would continue to receive such a large number of new product inquiries from existing customers? It turned out that our worries were unfounded. Thanks to cutting-edge technologies and a well-functioning team, we were able to work efficiently even during Covid, successfully convince the market, and ultimately rack up (strong) growth.

More and more customers joined us as time went on. We were genuinely impressed by the diversity of these new business partners – and by the diversity of their investment themes. Initially, most of the companies interested in us were in the asset management business. Many asset managers and family offices wanted to benefit in particular from our off-balance sheet securitization platforms – which is no wonder, since firms in this business, more than any other, were in need of new tools to help them position themselves on the market for the long term as professionals that can exploit innovative investment strategies and offer modern services. Brokers also had a strong need for our flexible securitization solutions. More and more banks and venture capital investors became clients as well.

GenTwo's mission is to create a new investment universe together with its partners. The securitized investment areas not only included traditional assets, but also many new, alternative assets that had previously been difficult to invest in, and so for a long time had simply remained inaccessible to many investors. It is primarily these new assets that make GenTwo unique on the market. The reason: alternative assets create new investment opportunities – while at the same time reflecting the passion of many investors. For example, it has already been possible to integrate a Hollywood film strategy, early-stage blockchain start-ups, cryptocurrency strategies, even shipping containers and high-quality wines into conventional portfolios by making use of the innovative issuance platforms provided by GenTwo.

“The startup world and my time at GenTwo allowed me to benefit from a steep learning curve and to get to know myself even better”, Sandra Chattopadhyay, CMO GenTwo."

Such exhilarating investment themes set the stage for our successful communication strategy. Many journalists, already interested in developing a unique storytelling opportunity that was relevant to their readership, embraced these new investment themes with open arms. It was primarily thanks to this external reporting during our initial phase of operations that we quickly gained a high level of awareness in the Swiss financial market. At the same time, by developing inspiring case studies based on our customers’ experiences, we were able to undertake marketing activities based on unique content. Following a well-functioning, automated inbound strategy, we could market this exciting content digitally, which generated many new leads for us. We also made progress on the social media front, becoming recognized experts in this field within the Swiss financial sector.

As this success continued to grow, so did my marketing team. We created various new functions in both digital as well as classic marketing, in the process building a department that was well prepared to meet today's demands for high-performance marketing, and presenting our colleagues from Key Account Management a demonstrable and measurable number of new customers.

Simultaneously, we launched a new community within the B2B finance segment – not only digitally, but also offline. With our self-developed label “AssetRush,” we successfully established a uniquely themed large-scale networking event in the Swiss financial world. At these regularly scheduled gatherings, held in Zurich's Kaufleuten, professional and institutional investors from asset managers and banks to family offices and venture capital investors enjoy an opportunity to exchange ideas with innovators from the financial world and to learn about the latest alternative and digital assets. The mission of AssetRush is to encourage the continuing development of a newly emerging ecosystem and bring more innovation to the investment market.

Ultimately GenTwo, an innovative provider of securitization platforms, became an investable asset itself, initiating our first classic financing round in July 2020. Accompanying us in this process was the audit firm Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC). The capital we raised served in particular to finance our internationalization efforts, further expansion of our business activities, and new growth initiatives. Since then, we have also grown considerably in terms of personnel. Today, GenTwo employs more than 50 people. In addition, we also boast a strong Advisory Board comprising Martha Boeckenfeldt, Spiros Margaris, Beat Hodel, Marc Bernegger, and Ralf Glabischnig, all well-known personalities in the world of finance or fintech.

In September 2021, GenTwo made it into the top ranking of the "LinkedIn Top Startups in Switzerland," an accolade bestowed upon ten companies that were successful across all sectors in 2021 and attracted attention through investments, new hires, and increased member interest. GenTwo occupied fifth place.

My conclusion from my more than three years of activity at GenTwo: You should look forward to doing daring new things again and again. Don’t worry too much about making mistakes: they can often be corrected later. In the dynamic world of start-ups, you will benefit from a steep learning curve and the opportunity to develop an entrepreneurial mindset, which gives you a chance to get to know yourself – and appreciate yourself – even better. You should not be afraid of new ways of working. And going with the flow just because it seems expedient is not always the best thing to do. You should always listen to your instincts, blaze your own path, and never lose sight of the real goal.

As Chief Marketing & Communications Officer from the very beginning, I made a substantial contribution to building up GenTwo and GenTwo Digital. I am proud of our company's success and what we achieved together in the Marketing & Communications team, and I am grateful for the support I received from CEO Philippe A. Naegeli and Chairman Patrick Loepfe. My mission, positioning the company in the early stages, has been accomplished. After more than twelve years in Switzerland and more than three years of success at GenTwo – including a steep learning curve for me – I would now like to return to my home country Germany and bring my experience to bear on new projects there. I herewith handover my remit to a bigger marketing team, that has grown with me in the past years and is very experienced. It was a real pleasure for me to be part of GenTwo, and I wish the company the very best for the future. I leave with mixed feelings, because even though I must leave my colleagues, I made many new friends there!

About the author

Sandra Chattopadhyay
Former Chief Marketing Officer at GenTwo