STARTUP WEEK: Europe’s Internet Elite is coming to Vienna
100 investors, 70 speakers, 50 start-ups and 1,000 guests a day at the first European festival for Internet startups in October
Between the 3rd and the 7th of October Vienna becomes the European Center for Internet and mobile startups. At the STARTUP WEEK 2011 (www.startupweek2011.com) the most innovative young entrepreneurs from Germany, Austria and Central and Eastern Europe will encounter on the risk capital of more than 100 business angels and venture capitalists.
STARTUP WEEK: Challenge, Congress and Focus Events
50 startups will compete in the Startup Challenge, to present their business idea in front of a top-class investor panel.
The general program of the STARTUP WEEK is a congress with 70 top speakers and focus events. Those build the emphasis on various startup issues, including
E-health, social entrepreneurship, design and fashion, or gaming. Current Focus Event partners include, among others, the Entrepreneurship-Institute of the Vienna University of Economics or the Higher Graphic federal teaching and research institute. Another highlight of the Startup-festival is Techcrunch Vienna, the offline event of the leading startup blog TechCrunch (www.techcrunch.com).
STARTUP WEEK by InitialFactor
The STARTUP WEEK is organized by the Viennese founder cluster InitialFactor (www.initialfactor.com) which was launched by the technology- and media- entrepreneurs Markus Wagner and Oliver Holle in 2009.
InitialFactor is funded by the Creative Business Support Program impulse LEAD of the austria wirtschaftsservice (aws) as part of evolve, an initiative of the bmwfj (Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Jugend). Partners of the STARTUP WEEK are besides impulse/aws (www.impulse-awsg.at, www awsg.at), the Industriellenvereinigung (www.iv-net.at) and the Vienna Design Week (www.viennadesignweek.at).
“Startups and young entrepreneurs are the antithesis of misanthropic economic- crisis- whining. We give young entrepreneurs a platform to roll up their sleeves rather than sing the blues. Some entrepreneurs will leave the STARTUP WEEK with successful funding. All others will have learned a lot from each other, be able to expand its network and have enjoyed a week full of entrepreneurial energy”, says Mark Wagner, founder of i5invest.
“The startup scene in New York is taken as a role model for the STARTUP WEEK. We want to establish their professionalism paired with creativity and vitality in Vienna.”
“With the STARTUP WEEK, we are presenting Vienna as the ideal start-up medium,” says Andreas Tschas, CEO of STARTeurope (www.starteurope.at) and operating host of the STARTUP WEEK 2011.
“If we manage to get the one or other exciting start-up companies from Eastern and Central-Europe to Vienna, this will have many positive effects for the business location Austria,” added Jürgen Furian from STARTeurope.
Information, registration and ticket purchase: www.startupweek2011.com
About InitialFactor
InitialFactor (www.initialfactor.com) provides a corporate-development infrastructure, which is specifically tailored to the needs of the Creative Industries. It offers advice throughout the entire enterprise growth path. Cluster companies are: Creative Industries Invest GmbH, First Love Capital Beteiligungs-Management GmbH & CoKG i5invest Beratungs GmbH, TheMerger Strategiewerkstatt and STARTeurope GmbH. InitialFactor is subsidized by impulse/aws in the context of, evolve/ bmwfj.
The STARTUP WEEK is supported by InITS (www.inits.at).