Why Going Global Early Matters: How the Swiss National Startup Team Shaped greenteg’s Global Mindset

When Wulf Glatz joined Venture Leaders China in 2014, greenteg was already looking beyond Switzerland’s borders. As part of the Swiss National Startup Team, he experienced first-hand what it means to test a deeptech company against global markets, demanding customers, and different sales realities. Wulf Glatz, CEO and founder of greenteg, spoke openly with Stefan Steiner, Co-Managing Director at Venturelab, about the realities of building a thermal sensor company, how Venture Leaders shaped his mindset and the importance of understanding value creation.

From Thermal Sensors to Measuring the Heat of Performance

When Wulf Glatz founded greenteg, the company started with a clear technological focus: thermal sensors. Today, greenteg develops and produces sensing solutions for industrial applications, medical devices, and consumer wearables. But one of its most visible products now sits much closer to the human body. 

With CORE, greenteg offers a wearable sensor that measures core body temperature in real time. The device is used by Olympians, world champions, and record holders to better understand heat, performance, and energy balance. 

The seed for this product was planted early. Wulf still remembers that core body temperature measurement was already part of the company’s pitch when greenteg joined Venture Leaders China in 2014. At the time, however, the company was still mainly B2B. Turning the idea into a product for athletes took time, courage, and a much closer dialogue with the people who would eventually rely on it.

greenteg’s wearable sensor technology monitoring athletes’ physiological performance in real-world conditions
 

China Was Not Just a Trip

For Wulf, China was never just an interesting destination on the map. It was rather a market greenteg needed to understand. Already in 2014, China was one of the world’s largest economies, and for a company with global ambitions, ignoring it was not an option. 

The Venture Leaders roadshow gave him a direct impression of the market’s scale, pace, and business culture. “We learned about Chinese culture, the way they think, the way they do business,” he says. That experience mattered because China is not a market you can fully understand from a desk in Zurich. 

What stayed with him was the directness of the market. China is fast, competitive, demanding, and highly pragmatic. Customers move quickly, but they also know exactly what they need. They will not buy technology just because it sounds impressive. But when a company can offer one piece of the puzzle that they cannot solve better themselves, strong business relationships can emerge.

 

Thinking Globally Was Never Optional

For greenteg, internationalisation was not a later-stage strategy. It was built into the company from the beginning. “Switzerland is too small of a market,” Wulf says. In fact, greenteg’s first customer was in Germany, before the company sold its first product to Swiss customers. 

That early reality shaped the way the company grew. Greenteg could not develop only for Switzerland and then think about scaling afterwards. It had to learn from international customers early, understand different market expectations, and build with a global perspective from day one. 

Venture Leaders sharpened this mindset. The roadshow to China pushed the team beyond familiar European structures and exposed them to a market where customers are fast, demanding, and practical. For a young deeptech company, that kind of exposure was valuable because it made global competition feel real.
 

The Closer You Get to Users, the Clearer the Feedback Becomes

One of the biggest shifts for greenteg came when the company moved closer to the people using its technology. In B2B, feedback can be indirect and filtered through different layers. With athletes, there is very little filtering. 

“They are very direct,” Wulf says. “Working with end users has advantages, but it’s brutal in terms of feedback.” 

That directness became an advantage. It helped shape CORE into a product that responded to real needs rather than only technical possibilities. One important moment came through the Norwegian triathlon team and coach Olav Aleksander Bu. When he saw the product, he immediately understood its potential: not only as a way to measure core temperature, but as a tool to better understand an athlete’s overall energy balance. 

For Wulf, this kind of customer response gave the company confidence. It showed that CORE was not just a technically interesting innovation. It solved a real problem for people who care deeply about performance and need precise information to make better decisions.

 

The Product Is Only One Part of the Challenge

Ask Wulf about the hardest part of scaling internationally, and the answer is not technology, it is sales. 

He is clear about this: having a great product is not enough. A company also needs the right channels, the right market access, and the ability to get in front of the customers who will actually buy. Without that, even the best technology can remain invisible. 

This is a lesson many aspiring founders underestimate. Building the product is difficult. But bringing it into the market again and again, across countries, cultures, and customer groups, is a different challenge altogether. For greenteg, the journey from thermal sensors to CORE shows that global growth depends not only on what you build, but also on how well you understand where value is created and how to reach the people who need it.

 

Important Lessons

“Understanding value creation is key” says Wulf when asked for his main advice to young people leaving university on their entrepreneurial path. What value does your company create for the customer? If you are an employee, what value do you create for your company? 

Once you understand that, positioning yourself gets better, no matter whether you want to build a career inside a company or start your own. His advice is not romantic. If you have a strong idea, take the shot. If you are not ready yet, join a young company, learn as much as possible, and then decide where to move next. 

And what’s next for greenteg? After seeing interest from firefighters, defense organizations, and workers exposed to heat, the company is preparing to launch CORE Arx, a work safety product designed to help people in hot environments stay safe and productive. 

The lesson is clear: start global, listen closely, and do not fall in love with the product before the market has told you it matters. 

What are you waiting for? Become part of the Swiss National Startup Team and apply to our next events and activities. Travel to the global innovation hubs with Venture Leaders and get access to global investor and business development roadshows. This provides deeptech founders direct access to top investors, industry leaders, and vibrant startup ecosystems that accelerate their international growth.


 

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