VIU COO Peter Käser: ‘There is nothing more rewarding than when people are proud to work for your company’

11.01.2021 08:05, Isabelle Mitchell

VIU co-founder and COO Peter Käser is next in our series about Switzerland’s most inspiring entrepreneurs and founders. Peter transforms how the bespectacled Swiss see the world while looking the part: VIU makes prescription lenses and sunglasses that fuse timeless aesthetics with innovative technology while being committed to fair prices and a transparent production process—the glasses are designed in Switzerland and handmade in Italy and Japan.

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 eight questions from a questionnaire about their personal and professional life. Today, we learn more about Peter Kaeser, co-founder and COO of VIU, a Venture Leader China and one of the TOP 100 Swiss startups for four consecutive years (2015–2018).

Name: Peter Käser
Location: Zurich
Born in: 1984 in Bern
Graduated from: University of St.Gallen, in 2008, with an MA HSG
Job title: COO of VIU
Number of employees: >400
Money raised: n/a
First touchpoint with Venturelab: Venture Leaders China roadshow in 2017

“VIU is a young and innovative eyewear label from Switzerland that has set out to revolutionize the market for designer eyewear with our direct-to-consumer business model: By cutting out intermediaries, we are able to combine the highest quality with fair prices; VIU glasses are designed in Switzerland and handmade in Italy and Japan.”
 
What is your morning routine?
I am getting up between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m., depending on when my kids wake me up. And there is more chaos than routine as the entire family needs to get ready for the day. If things are super busy, I try to wake up earlier and have a focused morning session on my own.

What is your lunch routine?
Lunch is important, and it is all about people. I either meet friends over lunch, or I join the team to go out for lunch. Eating at the desk is a no-go.

What TV show(s) are you currently watching?
I am currently watching the Michael Jordan story The Last Dance on Netflix. His career achievements are just unbelievable, but the series also shows the person behind the sports star.

What book are you currently reading?
I am reading Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike, the biography of Phil Knight, founder of Nike. For winter, I have some more fiction books lined up, and I somehow never run out of books I want to read.

What is your favorite productivity hack?
Shutting off all communication channels. It is surprising but also shocking how productive one can be if these constant interruptions are just stopped.

What is your favorite productivity tool?
At VIU, we use Asana to manage all projects and tasks across the company. In an international setting, where people work from different places, communication and access to information is key.

How and where did you come up with the idea for your startup?
We started to think about eyewear because we wear glasses ourselves. And we entered the market because we believed we could offer something better than what was available at the time. The instant success and the product-market fit showed that we were on the right track. Obviously, we had to change various things and also failed often with initiatives and projects, but we were successful because we put the customers’ needs always at the center of everything we did.
 
What is the most rewarding aspect of being a founder?
Having a great team of people. There is nothing more rewarding than when people are proud to work for your company and are happy to share this with the entire world.

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