18:15 – How to make it work when your co-founder is your wife
28:39 – How to find product-market fit
36:24 – Selling his company Wildfire to Google
41:45 – What it’s like working for Google
47:14 – The Swiss startup ecosystem
Alain Chuard is a Swiss serial entrepreneur and former professional snowboarder living in Palo Alto, California. He is best known as the founder and Chief product officer of Wildfire Interactive, the social media marketing technology company acquired by Google in July 2012. At Google, Alain was responsible for overseeing Wildfire’s strategy, integration into Google’s Display Ads Division, and external representation of the product. His early professional years were spent as a financial analyst with New York investment bank Salomon Smith Barney and as an Entrepreneur in Residence at Highland Capital Partners. Alain is also a former world-ranking professional snowboarder who competed on the World-Cup Pro Tour. He was ranked in the top 4 in Switzerland, placed in the top 4 in the NY State qualifier for the U.S. National Championships, and is among the most published snowboard athletes in history. Alain holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business (2007) and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Macalester College (1999) in St. Paul, MN.
“It’s important for every kid to have something at which they’re better than everyone else.”
“The easiest way to build a product fit for the market is to create something which fulfills your own needs.”
“As an entrepreneur, it’s very easy to just fall in love with your idea and not think critically about it.”
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