i²c STARTacademy mentors & lecturers
Our mentors are an elite group of professionals carefully selected based on their expertise in business formation and for their skills as advisors as well as their desire and ability to give back. Every year we carefully select mentors actively operating in the domains where the participating projects are innovating. Participants are assured impartial and unbiased advice by a code of ethics to which all our mentors adhere.
Michael Altrichter
Business Angel, Impact Investor
Sebastian Anastassiou
Head of Investments at Nina Capital
Cornelius Ballin
Managing Director Austria and Western Balkans at Universal Music Group
Karl Biedermann
Investment Manager at Austria Wirtschaftsservice (AWS)
Hemma Bieser
Board Member and Managing Director at OurPower Energiegenossenschaft SCE GmbH, Co-Founder and CEO at avantsmart
Christian Bouda
Entrepreneur, Pioneer, Owner & CEO, Business Angel/Investor
Arnold Braunsteiner
Co-founder at Plasmo Industrietechnik GmbH
Daniela Buchmayr
CEO & Co-Founder at Sarcura GmbH
Christian Bulfon
Technical/Business Consultant | Member at startup300
Vittorio Caggiano
Technical Program Manager & Research Scientist at Meta AI
Blai Carandell
Partner & Business Designer at NOBA Ventures
Daniel Cronin
The Pitch Professor, Public Speaker, TV-Presenter and Entrepreneur
Sudhir Dahal
Product Manager - Raman Spectroscopy at Thermo Fisher Scientific
Michael Decker
Innovation & External Collaborations Manager at Takeda
David Dietrich
Serial Entrepreneur | Co-Founder of Gusta Garden
Max Ditzel
Innovation Advisor for Hidden Champions & Fortune 500, Corporate Venture Building, CEO and Managing Partner at WhatAVenture
Petra Dobrocka
Co-Founder and CCO at byrd
Stefan Ebner
Founder at Tribe.Land Holdings
Thomas Ecker
investor, consultant
Karl Eldebo
Innovation Manager, Entrepreneur
Hildegard Etz
Technical Examiner at Österreichischen Patentamt
Gordon Euller
General Partner at APEX Ventures, Board certified Radiologist, Investor/Board Member at Zetta Genomics Ltd and QUIBIM
Johannes Fischer
Principal at Wellington Partners Life Sciences
Natalija Frank
Executive Manager for Clinical Research at Comprehensive Cancer Center (CCC) at MedUni Wien and AKH Wien, Founder of two Patient Advocacy Organisations
Alexander Franz
Head of Product and Lead of Agile Transformation at Radar Cyber Security
Bernhard Fürnsinn
Advisor at Austrian Federal Ministry for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation & Technology, Department – Renewable Energy Generation
Melania Gagea
Owner at DI Constanta-Melania GAGEA, Safety Management Consulting
Rafael Gattringer
Innovation Manager at Infineon Technologies Austria AG
Martin Giesswein
Author of Digital Game Changer, Digital Academic Co Founder Talent Garden, Faculty Member at WU Executive Academy, Private Investor at TrendingTopics.eu
Florian Glatt-Wodzynski
Marketing Consultant, (interim) Head of Marketing at NodeVenture, Advisor To Chief Executive Officer at SplitX
Dietmar Gombotz
CEO & Founder of SPHARES and UGP materials
Mihail Grecea
Expert in Publishing Ethics at Elsevier
Heinrich Gröller
Partner at Speedinvest, Early Stage VC and Real Estate Investor
Evgenia Filippova-Karlusch
Associate Professor at MCI, The Entrepreneurial School
Martin Fischlechner
Co-Founder, Director Technical Development at Sarcura GmbH
Nikolaus Futter
Business Angel and Chairman, PSI Alliance
Fadi Haddad
Founder at Health Force, Advisor at Medicus AI
Peter Halwachs
Head of Department Business Support at Vienna Business Agency
Florian Hämmerle
Brand Strategist | CEO at Haemmerle / Luger OG
Herwig Haunschmid
Senior Consultant at CD Invest Consult GmbH, Owner at Herwig Haunschmid Unternehmensberatung
Manfred Heger
Head of IT Strategy, Innovation & Projects at Wienerberger AG
Georg Heinz
Managing Partner bei usePAT GmbH
Michael Heiss
Principal Consultant Digital Enterprise at Siemens
Michael (Mic) Hirschbrich
Co-Founder at Apollo.ai, Tech Optimist, Author, Speaker
Birgit Hofreiter
Director at TU Wien Innovation Incubation Center (i²c)
Bernhard Holzer
CEO & Chief Editor at woodspr
Markus Holzer
CEO & Co-founder at contextflow GmbH
Clemens Horak
City of Vienna, Executive Group for Construction and Technology – Competence Centre for Overall Urban Planning, Smart City Strategy, Participation and Gender Planning
Philipp Horner
Head of Business Optimization & Circular Economy at Voestalpine High Performance Metals
Viktoria Ilger
Team Lead Startup Initiative at Creators Expedition - an AVL initiative
Michael Ionita
No-Code Expert and Tech-Team builder
Sebastian Jagsch
Global Head of Creators Expedition AVL
Friso Jankowsky
Global Experience & Engagement Lead at Atos
Juergen Jelly
Founder and Managing Partner at itom invest GmbH, Co-Founder and Managing Director at Bodenwunder GmbH
Christoph Jeschke
Open Innovation Lead at Salzburger Aluminium Group
Richard Ljuhar
CEO & Co-Founder at ImageBiopsy Lab
Florian Kandler
Fundraising Expert and Startup Mentor, Serial Entrepreneur
Christoph Kanneberger
Founder & General Partner at APEX Ventures
Carina Klaffl
Head of Startup Accelerator at Female Founder
Thomas Kolbabek
CTO & Co-Founder at Golden Whale Productions
Andreas Kollegger, Ph.D.
Head Of Strategic Planning & Technical Education, Chief of Staff at Wiener Linien
Arnold Kopitar
Managing Director and CEO at nxtControl
Magherita Kramer
Media Entrepreneur | Mentor and Bestselling Author
Mark A.M. Kramer
Lecturer at the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria
Stefan Kreppel
Head of Open Innovation - Palfinger 21st at PALFINGER Group
Michael Kreppel-Friedbichler
General Manager at Biogen Österreich
Melanie Kriegseisen-Peruzzi
Occupational therapist, Linguist
Georg Kuttner
Key Account Manager at WeAreDeveloper, Event Moderator and speaker
Markus Lang
Partner at Speedinvest
Georg Lux
Founder and CEO at Wiener-Komfort-Fenster Lux GmbH
Wolfgang Marko
Head of Strategy Development and Implementation Magna Steyr
Angeli Möller
Head of DIGI (Data and Integrations Generating Insights) at Roche, Scientific Advisory Board member at Multiomic Health
Sigward Moser
Investor, Entrepreneur and Lecturer
Thomas Moser
CEO at Myllia Biotechnology, CEO at bit.bio discovery
Nermina Mumic
Founder & CEO of Legitary
Sylvia Nanz
Medical Director at Pfizer Corporation Austria
Alberto Nodale
SaaS Coach & Speaker, Geschäftsführer at Nodale Consulting
Natalia Novac
Partner at Delin Ventures, Investment Director at Tilikum Therapeutics, Board Member at Turbine, Board Member IMMvention Therapeutix, Inc.
Rameez Okpalaugo
Executive Growth Director at Campaigning Bureaul
Thomas Peruzzi
CTO & Spokesperson at Virtual Minds Gmbh
Bernhard Petermeier
Principal at IST cube
Alex Pinter
Innovation Strategy & Growth Lead at Accenture, Co-Founder at PlayersVote, Trayn
Lucanus Polagnoli
Founder & Managing Partner at Calm/Storm Ventures, Super-early-stage investor
Marine Popoff
Founder of MC² Ventures & VC Investor, Global Shaper (WEF), ForbesWomen Forum, Keynote Speaker, MBA, MSc
Lukas Püspök
Managing Partner at PÜSPÖK Group & Partner at PUSH Ventures
Erwin Quintus
Technischer Referent at Wiener Linien
Michael Raab
Managing Partner at Neopartement GmbH
Sasa Radic
Advisor at Guiding Innovators, Co-Founder at ChessDEX
Dieter Rappold
Founder & CEO of Speedinvest Pirates
Alexander Redlein
.a.o. Univ Prof. at TU Wien for Real Estate and Facility Management
Wieland Reichelt
CEO at Evologic Technologies - Making science based biologicals economically feasible for the Agri/Feed industry
Thomas Rosenmayr
Angel Investor, Investor and Member of the Advisory Board at BRüSLi and Smint.io, Founder and Chairman at nexxar, Founder of Speedinvest Pirates
Hans Sailer
Director & Community Manager - INNOX network E.U.
Thomas Schranz
Angel Investor at jetpack cognition lab, inc., Partner at Lemmings, Founder & CEO of Blossom IO Inc.
Alexander Schwartz
Partner at IST cube
Daria Shornikova
Storytelling & Content consultant
Karoline Simonitsch
CEO at go4health, Strategic Development Consulting GmbH & Erfolgsfabrik GmbH
Tanja Skoric
Creative Director and Co-Founder at Startaparat
Frank Smallegange
Pitch coach & Keynote speaker at FrankSmallegange.com
Lisa Smith
Co-Founder & Managing Director at Prewave - Predictive risk intelligence for SCM, Sustainability and Insurance
Alexander Sommer
Fachbereichsleiter Digital Office at Stadt Wien - Wiener Wohnen Kundenservice GmbH
Christian Soschner
Develop, Finance and Commercialize life science companies at CS Life Science Invest, Founder of LSG2G
Marijana Sreckovic
Assistant Professor at Vienna University of Technology, Department of Industrial Building and Interdisciplinary Planning
Markus Steinböck
Innovation Manager at Stadt Wien - Wiener Wohnen Kundenservice GmbH
Slaven Stekovic
Serial Entrepreneur, Investor, Author
Gudrun Strasser
Legal Department for Austrian Trademarks at Österreichischen Patentamt
Sandra Stromberger
Digital Strategy, Future Tech & Innovation, Initiator and Manager at Industry meets Makers
Joachim Techt
Managing Partner at viable - digital strategist, creator and product team builder
Andreas Teuschl-Woller
Program Director of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine at Fachhochschule Technikum Wien
Michael Trcka
CFO WEB at Windenergie AG
Günther Tschabuschnig
Digital Transformation and eGovernment at Federal Compute Center, Advisory Board Member at GAIA-X Hub Austria, Co.Founder at DIO, Associate Teacher FH Campus Wien & FH St.Pölten
Kambis Kohansal Vajargah
Head of Startup-Services at Austrian Federal Economic Chamber (WKO)
Pia Voidrot-Liszt
IT Projekt- und Portfoliomanagement at Wiener Wohnen
Thomas Walbert
Digital Innovation & Transformation Manager, Head of Product Innovation at Österreichische Post AG
Gebhard Wallinger
RnD Expert EMC/EMI Simulation at Fronius International GmbH
Marcel Wassink
Venture Partner at NLC - The Healthtech Venture Builder
Markus Weiss
Consultant at zero21 Funding Services GmbH
Guenther Wellenzohn
Innovation Manager at Infineon Technologies Austria AG
Daniela Wieser
Head of Multimodal Mobility Unit at Wiener Linien
Markus Wild
Asset Manager at ETHOS, Investment-Coach, Crypto Enthusiast, Angel Investor
David Wurm
CEO and Co-founder at NovoArc
Adrian Zettl
Founding Partner & the Growth Marketing Lead at TheVentury