The team behind betascale: Alexander Hasler, Senior Partner & Head of betascale Corporate; Mattia Rüfenacht, Co-Founder/CEO Group
Wednesday, July 9, 2025
Reading Time: 20 min
“Startups built inside a company builder have a significantly higher chance of success.”
What makes a company builder different from a traditional founding team? Why are structured processes and reusable assets such a powerful success factor? And how does venture building actually work in practice?
We sat down with betascale, the first SaaS-focused company builder in Switzerland. In this interview, they share their methodology, explain how new SaaS ventures are created, and show how talent strategy, portfolio thinking, and access to capital come together in a scalable model.
They also talk about two of their current ventures – Acquify and gutgeregelt.ch – both of which are currently raising capital via OOMNIUM. You can already register for the pre-sale. Why betascale chose OOMNIUM as a funding partner and what role external investors play in their model – that and more in the full conversation.
OOMNIUM: What exactly is a company builder – and what are the benefits?betascale: A company builder builds startups – and typically sells them again. The core idea is to reuse key assets and know-how across ventures to save time and avoid costly mistakes. In short: startups built inside a company builder have a significantly higher chance of success.
OOMNIUM: How do you select the ideas or markets for your SaaS ventures?betascale: We focus on markets that are either growing rapidly or are already large but haven’t yet been captured by a dominant new SaaS solution – fragmented, under-digitized, and ready for a fresh player. We’re not chasing the next moonshot. Instead, we build on proven models that can be radically improved with technology.
Ideas come from multiple sources: we generate them internally, collaborate closely with corporates, and receive strong input from our network. We then apply a structured evaluation framework – with clear, both hard and soft criteria – to decide which ones to pursue.
OOMNIUM: How do you structure teams for new ventures – internally, externally, with co-founders?
betascale: Our mantra is: as lean as possible. We usually start with a small, focused team – typically one person with deep market knowledge (ideally with a technical edge) and one or two engineers. This domain-driven role is filled by founders who have real “skin in the game.”
Recently, we’ve added a second key role right from the beginning: a co-founder with a VP Sales profile – because go-to-market needs to be part of the DNA from day one. Having that mindset at the table early on is a game-changer. Any additional roles are added based on the specific needs of each venture.
The default answer to new ideas is “no.”
OOMNIUM: How do you manage portfolio synergies – do the ventures benefit from each other?
betascale: Our ventures are designed to operate independently – making them easy to spin off or sell. But we deliberately leverage synergies wherever possible: process knowledge, tools, tech components, and operational learnings. One example: both Acquify and gutgeregelt.ch use our document AI solution from Parashift.
Our venture-building framework consists of four stages: Build a Product, Fix the Product, Build the Business, Scale the Business.
OOMNIUM: What does your success rate look like – and how quickly do you pull the plug on a project?
betascale: Over the past 9 years (including our pre-betascale phase), we’ve founded more than 10 companies – without a single liquidation. Two of them have already had successful exits. That’s largely thanks to our philosophy: the default answer to new ideas is “no.”
Our venture building process follows defined phases with clear checkpoints – from idea to “Minimal Viable Startup” and eventually to the growth stage. Especially early on, we’re quick to shut down a project if the necessary signals aren’t there – usually within 2 to 4 weeks.
OOMNIUM: What role do external investors play in your SaaS ventures – and when do they usually come in?
betascale: We see investors as long-term partners – but we consciously take on the early-stage risk ourselves. Our venture-building framework consists of four stages: Build a Product, Fix the Product, Build the Business, Scale the Business.
We self-finance the first two phases. Once we see repeatable revenue, we open up to external capital. Our investor network spans traditional VCs, business angels, banks, and strategic investors. Depending on the venture, we work with different investor types – and we’re also exploring new paths, like the one we’re taking with OOMNIUM.
«A tool that truly makes dealmakers’ lives easier? Still missing. That’s where Acquify comes in.»
OOMNIUM: Mattia, let's talk about Acquify. What specific customer problem are you solving – and how do you do it better than existing solutions?
Mattia Rüfenach: The M&A market for deals under $100 million in enterprise value is highly under-digitized. Many small transactions take a long time to close – often 9 to 12 months – because processes lack standardization. Interestingly, even small teams often end up using five or more disconnected tools. This leads to operational overhead and a lot of manual work just to transfer data between systems, which eats into margins and limits scalability.
Acquify combines five essential tools into one single platform – from CRM and project management to a virtual data room – all with native AI integration. We reduce complexity, eliminate manual steps, and create a unified data foundation across the entire M&A process. That’s what finally makes AI truly usable in this space.
OOMNIUM: How do you differentiate technologically – especially in terms of AI in M&A?
M.R.: Our AI is deeply embedded in the platform and has access to all tools and data through our "Model Context Protocol" (MCP) servers. This makes it a true co-worker – helping with everything from creating ideal buyer profiles and drafting sections of the information memorandum, to analyzing key documents like non-binding offers and more.
Unlike legacy M&A tools (many of which are decades old), we’re building on modern tech stacks, iterating fast, and can roll out new AI features much quicker. The vision behind Acquify isn’t just to offer another tool to support M&A work – it’s to become the work. In other words, Acquify is designed to increasingly take over actual tasks, enabling teams to focus on higher-value work.
OOMNIUM: What’s your go-to-market strategy for the next 12 months – and how do you plan to scale?
M.R.: Our Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) includes dealmakers managing 20–30+ mandates per year in the DACH region. We’re targeting them directly with automated outbound campaigns. At the same time, we’re building customer success stories with early adopters to strengthen sales and marketing efforts.
Scaling for us means building a strong, independent team outside of betascale (our company builder). We’re also focused on expanding our AI capabilities, particularly around process automation. Geographically, while we’re focused on Switzerland and the DACH region, we’re already seeing demand from the UK, Benelux, and Southern Europe.
OOMNIUM: Are you planning international expansion? If so, where?
M.R.: Our current focus is on Switzerland, but somewhat unexpectedly, we’ve already received inbound interest from beyond the DACH region – despite doing very little marketing. Mid-term, we plan to expand into the UK, Netherlands, France, Spain, and Italy. One advantage in M&A is that the industry is inherently international, which naturally eases expansion.
OOMNIUM: What are your concrete next steps over the next 12 months (hiring, product features, partnerships, sales)?
M.R.: Our top priority is sales. The product is already live with initial customers, and we’ve found a repeatable sales motion. The next step is to build a standalone Acquify team, separate from betascale. On the product side, we’re focused on expanding our automation capabilities – our internal motto is to make the “10x M&A advisor” a reality.
OOMNIUM: Why is Acquify a compelling investment opportunity?
M.R: Acquify addresses a massive, underserved market segment with a modern, AI-native solution at exactly the right time. The combination of clear customer pain points, a product already in use, and early traction with scalable sales channels gives us a strong foundation. With a focused go-to-market approach, a growing demand pipeline, and a vision to fundamentally transform how M&A gets done, Acquify is positioned to become a category-defining platform in small and mid-cap M&A.
OOMNIUM: Why is Acquify an exciting investment opportunity?
M.R.: The M&A market is on the verge of a shake-up we’ve already seen in the fiduciary world: the digital transformation. Software is revolutionizing how processes are handled—and with it, entire business models are being reshaped. While still early, the signs are clear.
Small and large M&A teams alike often still operate as they did 20 years ago: manual work, and everyone doing things their own way. But the pressure is mounting: more efficiency, less effort, and above all, AI is expected to finally start delivering real productivity gains.
For over 30 years, the market has been full of software providers focusing on niche segments like virtual data rooms. It’s a patchwork of solutions, with more than a few big names—but none of them address the full M&A process. A tool that truly makes dealmakers’ lives easier? Still missing.
That’s where Acquify comes in. We’re building the bold, young challenger that empowers the growing number of smaller deals—and taps into the full potential of the market. For strategic buyers, Acquify will be a highly attractive asset.
«Every year, more than 100,000 people in Switzerland turn 50. Our core target group is large, over 1 million people, and has strong purchasing power.»
OOMNIUM: Let's talk about your other venture gutgeregelt.ch. What specific problem does gutgeregelt.ch solve for individuals – and what’s the current “pain” people experience when it comes to legal preparedness?
Alexander Hasler:
The majority of the population (around 70%) has either not made legal arrangements for future scenarios or has done so incompletely. In the event of a serious accident or death, this leads to a lot of uncertainty and potentially even financial loss. But gut geregelt also addresses the mental side: it simply feels good to know that you and your loved ones are legally protected.
OOMNIUM: How easy is it to automate and legally validate complex legal documents – and how do you ensure quality and legal soundness?
A.H.: We use standardized templates developed by our co-founder, who is a licensed attorney. Building a platform that generates legally compliant documents usable by about 80% of our customers comes with a certain level of complexity. However, we’ve worked hard to make the processes and documents as simple and easy to understand as possible—so that anyone can grasp what’s being created. Quality is ensured both through in-house legal expertise and external reviews. During the development phase, we had these documents independently assessed for legal accuracy.
OOMNIUM: How did you acquire your existing institutional partners (e.g., banks) – and what does your sales funnel for new partners look like?
A.H.: Thanks to our previous work before founding gut geregelt and betascale, we already had a vast network within the financial industry. This helped us quickly secure initial meetings to present gut geregelt.
Currently, we're in active discussions with nearly all major, mid-sized, and even some smaller financial institutions. Our solution is generally very well received and often fits seamlessly into their strategic roadmaps. However, the decision-making processes can be frustratingly slow and drawn-out. That said, we’re confident that we’ll onboard four new clients this year.
OOMNIUM: What are the barriers to entry for potential competitors, such as legal-tech startups or banks developing their own solution?
A.H.: At its core, gut geregelt is not a highly complex platform. But the intersection of law and technology shouldn’t be underestimated. Just as important is understanding financial institutions, their needs, and internal processes—so the products and services can be tailored to be highly attractive to them. This is where we have deep expertise. That combination of know-how and execution makes our solution difficult to replicate successfully.
OOMNIUM: What’s your vision for expanding the platform – will you stay focused on legal preparedness, or are you planning to branch into other legal life areas?
A.H.: Right now, we’re fully focused on our current services and not planning to expand the platform into other areas. Our goal is to help as many people as possible get their affairs in order.
Additionally, we’re prioritizing expansion into Germany and Austria over entering new legal domains. Legal preparedness holds tremendous potential for the coming years.
OOMNIUM: What exit scenarios do you consider realistic – more strategic buyers (e.g., banking software providers) or financial investors?
A.H.: There are several scenarios we’re actively working toward. Strategic buyers could include software providers for financial institutions (like pension funds, banks, or insurance companies) who want to expand their product offerings or platforms. Alternatively, a financial institution could acquire us directly—we’ve seen this happen in previous ventures before betascale (e.g., a bank or health insurance provider acquiring a platform to strategically grow their ecosystem).
And of course, a growing startup attracting financial investors to fuel further expansion is always an attractive scenario.
OOMNIUM: Why is gutgeregelt.ch an exciting investment opportunity?
A.H.: Legal preparedness is a topic with huge potential—something nearly everyone can relate to, especially since only a small portion of the population has taken any action. In addition, demographic trends work in our favor: every year, more than 100,000 people in Switzerland turn 50. Our core target group is large, over 1 million people, and has strong purchasing power.
Our product, especially our go-to-market approach, enables us to reach large, relevant customer groups quickly (B2B2C) with relatively low acquisition costs. Major financial institutions are actively seeking digital solutions in the trending field of legal preparedness—making us a highly relevant partner. This supports our scaling ambitions.
The exit case is being driven by experienced founders with a strong track record and a low failure rate, which increases the probability of success.
And on top of that, we’re creating real social value: more Swiss citizens will be legally prepared, thanks to simpler and more affordable access to legal planning.