[bobjob]

There are no shares. It is a GmbH, which means a group of people(1-x, persons or other legal identidies) owns the company... There should be public records of owners you can follow. Understanding German and swiss law is probably helpful.

[dbrgn]

The startup scene in Switzerland is quite different from silicon valley. There are still a lot of "classic small company" startups that start with a business idea, try to become self-financed as soon as possible and then slowly build upon that. It's a very sustainable model, you add more people once you can pay them, and most people that fund a company like that are in it for the long term.

In contrast, the silicon valley idea of a startup is "get as much investor money as you can get, grow your team quickly, become a unicorn, sell your company and cash out, rinse and repeat".

Both have their advantages and disadvantages, but especially for privacy focused products I prefer to get those from companies that finance themselves, and that don't have big VC investors which will want to see big ROI sooner or later. If the startup behind a free product I use is sold, then my user data is sold with the company. And usually financial interests stand above privacy considerations. (Obviously, otherwise the investors wouldn't invest.)

Money is power. Ideally your money comes from your users.

[pjtr]

Those public records are the Commercial Register: https://sz.chregister.ch/cr-portal/auszug/auszug.xhtml?uid=C...

[znpy]

Hey, thank you for your reply. My post wasn't meant to provoke or to imply anything, it really was an honest question.