Meet our Premium Member Sandra Kobel – Co-Founder & CEO of zealy

Please tell us more about zealy

At zealy, we created a new way, how marketing and other creative services can be done. We focus on designing service products which are tangible and affordable. Our main product is CMO as a Service, addressing Startups and SMEs. Our offering provides startups and SMEs the possibility to have top-notch marketing from early on, without going through the hassle of hiring staff and/or agencies. Besides, we have developed a lot of proven frameworks on how to approach the different disciplines within marketing, for example, growth hacking, content marketing, customer interaction etc.

We’re currently a team of eight and constantly growing! The idea sprouted almost three years ago, and about 15 months ago, I decided to go all in and concentrate 100% on zealy. Since then, we have grown super fast and it has been such a fantastic journey!

Tell us more about your plans for 2023. What is your long-term vision?

The highlights of 2022 were definitely seeing our clients grow and nurturing these relationships. Besides, zealy itself was on hyper-growth and new team members joined. The plan for 2023 is to focus on scaling and digitalisation of the entire customer journey and value creation around it. We’re launching the zealy platform in early spring 2023 together with an AI-driven onboarding flow.
The vision behind zealy is to develop a system to simplify the whole process around marketing and focus more on outcome and reaching KPIs.

What has been the biggest success that you have achieved in your startup?

The entire company is 100% bootstrapped, so I’m proud that everything we achieved so far was out of our own power.

If you could do it all over again, what would you do differently? What are your biggest learnings?

I would expand the team even earlier, since this was an issue for us last year. We grew so fast, there was almost no time and energy to increase the staff side. The biggest learning was that you never can be fully prepared for what’s coming. You just need to be able to cope with the situation once it’s there.

What motivates you to continue your business every day?

Everyday holds new challenges and it’s a constant personal and commercial growth. Of course, happy clients and to witness our own development, and the motivation of the people working for us pushes us forward everyday.

One piece of advice for someone who is just starting out with their startup?

Be ready for the rollercoaster and try not to lose focus, even if unexpected things happen. Never forget why you started it and that it should be also fun developing your own business.

What does it mean to you to be a member of the Swiss Startup Association? 

It’s very helpful for me, I really enjoy the networking possibilities and also the connections with other founders to discuss challenges and exchange experiences.

Would you recommend joining the Swiss Startup Association?

Sure, it’s super supportive and offers a lot of advantages within the startup industry.

Have you ever visited the events of the Swiss Startup Association? If yes, which ones? Would you recommend them?

I always join the founders’ dinners, always a really nice opportunity to meet like minded people and establish new connections.

Reach out to Sandra on LinkedIn