Piavita CEO Dorina Thiess: ‘The mountains help me get a fresh perspective and recharge’

25.01.2021 08:05, Isabelle Mitchell

Dorina Thiess participated in our series about Switzerland’s most inspiring entrepreneurs: As the co-founder and CEO of Piavita, she transforms veterinary care with innovative digital solutions that help veterinarians monitor their patients remotely to provide better diagnoses.

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 eleven questions from a questionnaire about their personal and professional life. Sharing her answers this week is Dorina Thiess, co-founder and CEO of Piavita. The Zurich-based medtech startup was a Venture Leader Technology in 2017, a Venture Leader China in 2019, and one of the TOP 100 Swiss startups for the last four consecutive years. In 2020, Piavita ranked third at the TOP 100 Swiss Startup Award.

Name: Dorina Thiess
Location: Zürich, Berlin
Born in: 1988 in Prien am Chiemsee, Germany
Graduated: with a PhD in Entrepreneurship, University of St.Gallen, 2016
Job title: CEO of Piavita
Number of employees: 25
Money raised: CHF 15 million
First touchpoint with Venturelab: In 2017, for the Venture Leaders Technology (San Francisco)

“Piavita develops a digital monitoring system for equine veterinarians.”

What is your morning routine?
This ranges from very good days when I get up at 5:30 a.m., do sports, meditate, read, and schedule, to days where I just get up at 8:00 a.m. and first need two coffees to get my systems up and running.

What is your evening routine?
I go to bed rather early, around 10:30 p.m./11 p.m., as I very much try to get at least seven hours of proper sleep. However, there are evenings where I really have a productivity boost, so I tend to take it as it comes (and then might miss my morning routine—see above).

What is your lunch routine?
I hardly have any; I prefer to take something on the go or bring something to the office and eat while reading the news, sorting emails, etc. I rather have a slower point in production in the afternoon, so I mostly work through lunch.

What podcast are you currently listening to?
Swisspreneur. I love to hear about other startup stories that evolve out of Switzerland, and it is always interesting to learn from others.

What book are you currently reading?
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Nova Harari. The book was recommended to me by our VP Product, and it is very educational and entertaining.

What are your four favorite social media accounts?
YouTube, Instagram, Linkedin, and WhatsApp.

What is always in your fridge?
Pizza.

What is your favorite productivity tool?
ToDoist: It’s so simple and yet very effective for me. I can write any and all thoughts down immediately, wherever I am (phone/laptop), order and rearrange priorities very easily, and make sure that I have a balanced workload over the week.

Where and when are you most productive?
Mornings between 8 a.m. and 11 a.m. and late afternoons from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Usually, it doesn’t really matter where I am. Sometimes, I need earplugs with concentration music or pure silence; sometimes, I am super productive in a coffee shop, just zooming out for two to three hours and getting something done in one stretch.

What do you do while commuting?
ToDoist organization, emails, and Slack. When in a car: phone calls or singing loudly to the radio.

What do you do when you are creatively stuck? 
A change of perspective—it really helps me to change location or just my position to reset my thoughts. If it’s a deeper issue, I need to go to the mountains—it helps every time to get a fresh perspective and recharge.

What is the most challenging aspect of being a founder?
Switching off completely and letting go of to-do’s that you know you cannot squeeze into your day anymore.

What is the most rewarding aspect of being a founder?
Positive customer feedback.