Timestamps
04:53 - Product-Led vs. Sales-Led Growth
14:22 - How to Educate a Slow-Moving Market
24:43 - Sales Metrics in a product vs sale- led approach
34:16 - Choosing between product-led or sales-led
This episode was produced by Founders Hive — a community of founders, experts, and investors driving entrepreneurship in Switzerland. We support early-stage startups in becoming investment-ready and guide them through the fundraising journey.
As a partner of the Entrepreneurship Training programme, empowered by Innosuisse — Switzerland’s innovation agency — we contribute to strengthening startups, SMEs, and research institutions in their innovation and growth.
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Episode Summary:
Igor Martin is the CEO of Hydromea, a Swiss deep-tech company building underwater wireless networks and portable intelligent robots to make data collection below the surface faster, safer, and cleaner. He holds an MBA in Business Administration and Management from Saint Louis University.
Ramzi Bouzerda is the Founder and CEO of Droople, a B2B cleantech startup developing a water intelligence platform that digitizes the “last mile” of water, from faucets to appliances, combining IoT, AI, and SaaS to help buildings save resources and money. He holds a Masters Degree in Computer Science from EPFL.
In this Opposing Views episode, they debate what really drives startup growth: sales-led or product-led strategies. Drawing from opposite industries - one building beneath the ocean, the other inside buildings. They reveal how timing, product maturity, and customer education shape growth models.
They discuss why hybrid models often win in industrial tech, how to balance education with revenue, and what metrics truly matter beyond vanity KPIs. The conversation also dives into managing long sales cycles, using customer feedback loops to guide product evolution, and the ultimate truth every founder learns: great sales can’t save a bad product.
The cover portrait was edited by Smartportrait.
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