What is the story behind the successful launch of Parcandi as a venture and Corsin as founding entrepreneur? Corporations rarely succeed in finding, developing and facilitating entrepreneurship internally, despite large investments and ambitious programs on innovation and business venturing.
In 2019, Baloise started their Kick Box program – originally developed within Swisscom – to identify and nurture new business ideas, as part of their Mobility Unit and Ecosystem, which was in development at that time.
Corsin Sulser emerged as one of the participants who completed all stages of the program successfully. He received funding and support from Baloise to turn his idea Parcandi into reality, and became the founder and CEO of his own company, which launched in 2021.
Wouter In ‚t Velt – a pioneer of Baloise’s Mobility Unit and one of the judges in the selection process, revisited Corsin recently. They had a conversation about Corsin’s journey from corporate employee to founding entrepreneur.
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Wouter: What was your career like at Baloise before you founded Parcandi?
Corsin: I was exactly ten years at Baloise holding different positions in Marketing & Sales Department and Product Management. In my most recent role at Baloise I worked on Omni-Channel-Strategy, Development of Partner Sales, and New Business Management and transformation of the value chain of the insurance business.
The path I was on was pretty comfortable. If you do the right things, of course, you have a pretty high degree of security, predictability and a pretty low degree of risk.
When did you make the decision for yourself that you wanted to become an entrepreneur? What were for you the major events that lead to this moment?
It was actually more of a gradual process that evolved over time. At the time, I was working in a group level project where we were thinking about what the insurance industry could look like in 10 years and what would be needed for Baloise to stay relevant. Then, the Kickbox competition was announced to generate new business models for a world beyond insurance in the sector of mobility.
And I thought: Hey, you can’t be working on innovative products and not participate in such a competition.
At some point I started to work on the idea and business model of Parcandi content-wise. The decision to risk a very good job ripened throughout the process. I was 41, when I started the project as a side job to my work at Baloise.
I am married and have three kids so becoming an entrepreneur was not an easy decision. It was more a process which took me and my family two years.
I made the real decision to leave my job to become an entrepreneur came very late – sometime in February 2021 = some two weeks before Baloise gave the green light before the founding of Parcandi AG.
How did you experience going through the Kickbox program and the support from Baloise?
Well, the program announced back in 2019, so it really was a long process to go through from start to the finals. But the process as well as the duration worked well for me. The structured process taught me that there are a lot of things you need to think about and cover, ranging from prototyping, customer validation to legal and compliance. It was great to get support from all the experts at Baloise on these topics.
I learned that becoming an entrepreneur is not simply about having an idea, and then receiving funding from people. There is a lot of hard work on details involved.
At times it was frustrating to keep explaining and elaborating to all different groups of stakeholders, Sometime I felt like I was in front of the pack in the program. Which is great on the one hand, but I also had to put in a lot of effort to sort of pave the way for others. But looking back now, I believe I was really building mental muscle for my business idea.
How did your managers and colleagues react when you told them that you were leaving to become a founder?
My managers and colleagues really gave me the space to develop my idea. Some colleagues even encouraged and motivated me to take the leap, at times when I hesitated or felt reluctant to leave the safety of my job and career.
Wouter: By now, you have been an entrepreneur for ~2 years, with Parcandi growing – and growing up -fast. What has your new life as an entrepreneur been like of far?
Looking back, it is still hard to believe that we have grown 10-fold every year for 2 years in a row now. Starting with a simple idea: to improve the ugly parking experience.
The great thing is that we can still move fast, and have the freedom to go our own way. That we have no restraints in thinking and trying out stuff.
Work and private life do become blurred. Sometimes, I have to take a customer call in the middle of the night – we have to be available for our customers 24/7, and we do not have a call center team. So yeah, sometimes I have an interrupted night. And the funny thing is, my wife always says, “Hey, be more friendly. The customers are your assets”. In a normal job, you would expect that your spouse says “What the heck is that? Why is someone calling in the middle of the night?” It is great to know that my family supports my choices.
What kind of cooperation with and support from Baloise do you have these days?
Baloise has been supporting the project and our venture from the beginning, and they funded the venture when we launched. They are in the board of Parcandi, and as a Baloise board member from the Mobility Unit we get great strategic insights and advice from Patrick Wirth.
Also in our day-to-day business we get a lot of support. For our parking places, we need to develop relationship with real estate players, and in Switzerland Baloise Asset Management has a very good network and reputation, which definitely helps us. The new Group CEO of Baloise and soon ex-CEO of the Switzerland business – Michael Müller – is also very supportive of our venture. He was actually my boss in my past job at Baloise.
And of course Baloise provides all our insurances.
What advice do you have for other people who are thinking about entrepreneurship beyond their corporate career?
If you have a dream, go for it. Don’t be scared to move ahead. I remember that Baloise’s former Group CEO Gert de Winter said at the launch of the program in 2019 “Do not ask for permission, ask for forgiveness”. I really took that to heart, and put my energy into my idea and dream.
Yes, there needs to be substance. And yes, you will need a business case at some point, but live your dream and don’t limit your dream before you start trying it.
What advice do you have for companies who want to stimulate entrepreneurship among their employees?
The key is to give people freedom to experiment and fail. For me, it was Gert de Winter’s statement that triggered me, but it has to be credible and consistent across the organisation. I also got great support from my colleagues and freedom from my direct boss.
Also, this cannot be the flavour of the year. It takes time for employees to get used to the idea of entrepreneurship and make the jump. If a company expects employees to be willing to make life-changing commitments for the next 5-10 years, it is only fair that company leadership also make long-term commitments to guide and support them.
Wouter In ‚t Velt has more than 20 years of experience in Transformation in Digital and Marketing, as a strategy consultant and interim executive.
He worked with national and international companies in financial services, energy, facility services, retail, consumer products and technology companies.
His track record in Digital Transformation includes ERP and Ecommerce, change processes, sales and marketing excellence, data and analytics, venture-building and product and portfolio management.
Wouter has a background in Marketing and Business Economics at Erasmus University Rotterdam, and is co-founder of multiple ventures.
email wouter@inc-management.com
mobile +31 622 97 37 60
LinkedIn
Dr. Corsin Sulser had the idea to improve the parking experience and is now Founder and CEO of Parcandi AG, the outcome of that idea. He has more than 20 years experience in Strategy, Marketing & Sales.
He held different positions at Baloise Group in the sales, marketing & sales department and in the product management. He worked on several strategic projects in the area of sales strategy, CRM, multi-channel management and on transforming the value chain of insurance industry.
Corsin holds a PhD in management, which he obtained after his studies in Strategy, Marketing & Sales and Change Management at University of St. Gallen.
email corsin@parcandi.ch
mobile +41 76 342 56 78
LinkedIn