Fotokite CEO Christopher McCall's career advice: 'Always drive for learning new things and pursuing subject matters that you find genuinely interesting'

Here to contribute to your series about Switzerland's most inspiring entrepreneurs is Fotokite CEO Christopher McCall. Fotokite creates cutting-edge tools that assist public safety teams, such as firefighters and first responders, with elevated situational awareness that helps them manage complex, safety-critical situations.

Switzerland boasts countless world-class startups, and our new 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 ten questions from a questionnaire about their personal and professional life. Up next is Christopher McCall, CEO of Fotokite, a Venture Leader Technology, one of the TOP 100 Swiss startups for four consecutive years (2017-2019), and one of the most promising scale-ups in Switzerland.  

Christopher McCall, CEO Fotokite, pitching as a Venture Leaders Technology 2018 in Silicon Valley

Name: Christopher McCall
Location: Zurich
Born in: San Diego in 1985
Graduated from: University of California San Diego with a B.Sc. Cognitive Science in 2007 and an M.Sc. Engineering Sciences in 2014 
Job title: CEO of Fotokite
Number of employees: 50 
First touchpoint with Venturelab: Startup Champions Event in June 2015

“At Fotokite, we equip firefighters and public safety teams with situational awareness tools to help them save lives and complete their missions safely.”

What is your evening routine?
There is not much consistency to speak of regarding bedtime, but my after-hours routine almost always involves some form of exercise with friends—basketball, mountain biking, lacrosse, climbing, or volleyball—whenever there is time after work. Apart from that, I will be spending time talking with family or checking in with our team in the US during their workday. 

What is your lunch routine?
During most lunches, I will try to fit in a one-on-one with a team member at one of the local sandwich shops, as an informal check-in and to learn more about them in ways that do not come up in the workplace. In summer, we gather as a team and cruise a couple of blocks over to jump in the river—always a favorite!

What book are you currently reading?
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Harari. It has been a fascinating read so far, and I really appreciate the perspective and context it provides on some of our daily behaviors and beliefs.

How much time do you spend on social media?
Less than five minutes a day, apart from when we have some announcements to make as a team. We are active on the same platforms that our public-safety customers are on—primarily LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

What are you most proud of?
Hands-down, it is my given and chosen family. I could not be more proud of my parents, my sisters and brother, and the friends in my life that have become family. On the professional side, it is the same: family. The team we have built at Fotokite. Everyone here is impact-driven, hardworking, and we pick each other up to meet the challenge together. I feel lucky to be a part of it.

What do you do while commuting?
Usually, I will sing along to music while biking through the city every day, rain or shine. I’m a terrible singer, but at least the people passing by do not need to hear it for very long!

What is always on your desk?
Some carved wooden blocks to remind me of family and the ocean and almost always some kind of wrapper that recently contained chocolate.

What do you do when you are creatively stuck?
I will get up, grab a coffee or chocolate, and go discuss something completely unrelated with a team member. Getting a fresh restart usually helps, and if you can also contribute to something else within the team—all the better!

Which business person do you admire and why?
I have learned a lot from leaders like Satya Nadella (Microsoft), Andy Grove (Intel), Bob Beyster (SAIC), Jim Johnson (Pierce), and someone I have been fortunate enough to meet recently is Rick Smith (Axon). I admire his approach to solving complex issues with a combination of ethical and impact-driven innovation, a disciplined engineering approach, and the humility to consistently identify, reflect, and act on what practically separates the world as-is from the world we can live in. Axon has done a lot to serve public safety’s core mission of protecting life, and I think their impact has already been significantly positive in reducing the use of lethal weapons by law enforcement officers and increasing officer accountability in the USA.

What is the best advice you have ever received and from whom?
I have been lucky enough to grow up with lots of world-class role models and advice—from family to colleagues and advisors. One piece of advice came from my first boss, Peter Niiler, who gave me some early career advice to “always do interesting things.” He had dedicated much of his career towards understanding some unanswered questions in physical oceanography, and he lived a full, creative, and inspiring life. I think that approach, and seeing him live it too, was foundational as a lesson to always drive for learning new things and pursuing subject matters that each of us finds genuinely interesting.

Last but not least, could you show us your workspace?