Beekeeper CCO Daniel Sztutwojner: ‘Seeing the impact we have on frontline organizations is really rewarding’

02.03.2021 08:05, Isabelle Mitchell

Daniel Sztutwojner, Beekeeper’s Chief Customer Officer, is next in our series about Switzerland’s most inspiring entrepreneurs and founders. Beekeeper builds the essential platform to keep non-desk employees in the loop with the rest of the organization by connecting operational systems and communication channels and making it accessible by mobile and desktop devices. Headquartered in Zurich, Beekeeper has a strong presence in Silicon Valley and customers in more than 130 countries.

Switzerland boasts countless world-class startups, and our series puts the spotlight on some of the best and most inspiring entrepreneurs and founders to find out what motivates them, what they have learned, and what they do when they are not transforming the world with their innovations. To get this behind-the-scenes perspective, we ask each entrepreneur to complete a short profile and choose at least ten questions from a questionnaire about their personal and professional life. This week, we share Daniel Sztutwojner’s answers. Daniel is the co-founder and chief customer officer of Beekeeper, which was supported by Venture Kick in 2011 and was one of the TOP 100 Swiss Startups in 2016 and 2017 and a Venture Leader China in 2019. The Zurich-based ETH spin-off was also among the 25 most promising scale-ups in Switzerland in 2020.  

Name: Daniel Sztutwojner
Location: Zurich
Born in: 1983 in Buenos Aires, Argentina
Graduated from: ETH Zürich with an MSc in Mathematics in 2008
Your job title: Chief Customer Officer of Beekeeper
Number of employees: 180 (as of 02/2021)
Money raised: USD 86 million (as of 02/2021)
First touchpoint with Venturelab: Me personally—2019 for Venture Leaders China; my co-founder Cris—2011 for Venture Kick

“At Beekeeper, we digitally enable the frontline to boost productivity, quality, and safety.”

What is one thing people do not know about you? 
When I was a teenager in Buenos Aires, I used to train kids aged 3–6 to develop their fine motor skills. It was my first formal job that required planning and commitment.

What are you most proud of? 
Academically, I am proud of having graduated from the best high school in Argentina, Colegio Nacional de Buenos Aires, and then from ETH Zurich, even though I had never learned German at school. Professionally, I am proud of having grown Beekeeper and our fantastic team with my co-founders! Seeing companies like Heathrow Airport, Mandarin Oriental, Dufry, and the world's largest food processors leveraging Beekeeper is extremely exciting!

What did you want to do with your life at age 12? 
After watching the movie The Net, I wanted to become a computer scientist and be able to code. It was clear to me that the future would be software and the internet.

What are you most excited about at this time in your life?
That I get to do something that I really like and have the opportunity to work with such talented people. Seeing the impact we have on frontline organizations is really rewarding.

What is your morning routine? 
It really depends if I am in Zurich or San Francisco. In Zurich, I usually wake up between 7 a.m. and 7:30 a.m.; in SF, I typically get up between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m., which gives me a couple of hours with the teams in Zurich, Berlin, and Krakow. No matter where I am when I get out of bed, I always stand on my right foot first. 

What is always in your fridge? 
A lot of things are basics for me: Cheese, tomatoes, and eggs are needed any time (snack, lunch, or dinner); oranges and bananas are for my daily morning smoothie, and lemons and honey are for my tea.

Where and when are you most productive?
Usually in the evening. I feel that there are fewer distractions. I also did my high school in the evening (from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.), and that developed my ability to focus better during that time.

What is always on your desk?
My laptop, my monitor, a pen, blank paper (I often like to draw or write down my ideas when I need to work on a presentation, be it internally or externally), and some Kägifret to snack on during the day.

How and where do you clear your mind? 
Sports—especially a good run (either a quick 5 km run to just change the air in my lungs or a 10 km run to slow down after a long day). It helps to either disconnect or come up with the best ideas.

What is the most rewarding aspect of being a founder? 
Seeing how ideas take shape and become something. Seeing the impact that we have not only on our customers (the value we deliver) but also on our team members and their families. In two words: value creation.

What is your email strategy (inbox: 0 or inbox: 12,357)?
Inbox 0. Something very challenging but feasible. It felt great to start this year with zero emails (although with a large to-do list).

Last but not least, can you show us your workspace? 
My home office is not that exciting, so I figured I'd share a picture of the Beekeeper co-founders on our annual founders' trip in 2019; we went from our office in Oakland to Los Angeles.

The Beekeeper co-founders (from left to right): Daniel Sztutwojner (CCO), Flavio Pfaffhauser (CTO), Cristian Grossmann (CEO), and Andreas Slotosch (CGO)