Taubstummengasse 11, 1040, Vienna, Austria
+43 (1) 58801 406 677
office@i2c.tuwien.ac.at

Mentors & Lecturers

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

Klaus Zimmermann

Owner at Danube BioSolutions