STARTeurope

He who waits for something good… Often waits far too long and misses the window of opportunity. *booyah!!*

The fact that we have received so many requests shows that smart people get the fact that a startup communities need to start from the grass roots – with the people that actually DO stuff instead of just talking about what needs to change.

Welcome to an exciting spring with STARTup Lives in 3 locations in Austria and beyond (the beyond thing is being worked out as I write this line, another event or two may pop up).

We are SO not up to lying on our couches this spring. Most of us have even sold theirs (that’s how boot strappy we are!) and are now resting our tired backs on concrete floors of our office.
Ok that was exaggerated and so totally not true. But we will keep busy.

The upcoming events for spring 2011 are….

*drumwhirl*

• April 29-May 1 - STARTup Live Graz #1
• May 13-15 - STARTup Live Hagenberg #1
• May 27-29 - STARTup Live Vienna #5

The Live Vienna event will also be integrated into the STARTup Week Vienna 2011 which we are organizing together with Initial Factor and TechCrunch EU. Smack! We’re proud. These critters are amazing and are now our partners.

Need to learn more about the events? Then simply take a look at the roundups from the last ones.

Update on our companies

This guy has been kicking it with us since STARTup Live Vienna #4 in November 2010. Actually we loved it so much that we keep in touch on a weekly basis and help him optimize presentations and concept. Wanted to hook up with him this week, but this guy had too many meetings with business angels. Have to postpone it That’s awesome news. Awesome

There are many more, but we don’t have that much of your time do we?

More? Yes, more!

We’re going to Berlin!

Thanks to Maria Dagwerker of DOKA, STARTeurope’s CEO Andy was invited to present at the Front End of Innovation Europe conference. We’re proud of this. This is one of the leading conferences on innovation in Europe, where among others the CEO of Virgin Galactic speaks. And us. Flo from runtastic, one of the first startups which we helped, is there with us to show the world how a couple of guys with the right attitude and passion get things moving.

We still start to snicker when we look at the speaker list. See that? STARTeurope is 6 steps above VA. Sure, it’s alphabetically ordered, but hell. 6 steps We are all fans of Branson, who isn’t…? Jürgen would probably not be able to decide what to do first: hug him or give him a biz card.

As STARTeurope started out, we wanted to change the world. What started as a passion has grown into a business and is now sparring at a level which is… awesome! More is to come and we’ll focus on that, don’t worry. But every now and then we need to gloat.

Visitors from overseas and the formation of an eco-system

On January 21st Michael Klein of Canaan Partners and JT Buffmire of Plug and Play Tech Center visited Sektor 5 in Vienna and our community had the opportunity to get to know these guys. Nice peeps.

It inspired us to write a few more lines on what we are doing and why we do so… In short. Entrepreneurship doesn’t start top-down, it builds bottom-up.
Read it here

Key facts

• Date: 29th to 31st of October 2010
• Place: Microsoft HQ, Vienna
• Participants: 82
• Guests: 87
• Mentors: 8
• Experts: 5
• Idea pitches: 26
• Venture teams: 15
• End presentations: 14
• Nationalities: 13

Thanks to our partners

Without them, we could not do what we are doing!

Platinum

Gold

Silver Partners

Companies and Ideas

And now, please welcome the teams and their ideas!

Rico – WINNER of Best New Venture Award @ STARTup Live Vienna #4

• Pitcher:
  Michaela Gimpl
• Tagline:
  Simple help for spastically challenged children
• Description:
  By combining the three devices always needed by spastically paralyzed children into one, cutting prices and going modular – this system will be of great help for the customers and their families. As a winner of the Best New Venture award, Michaela and her team can now move into their new office at Sektor 5 – coworking spaces, in 1050, Vienna – just around the corner from STARTeurope HQ! Also, Michaela got a ticket for the Erste Bank Gründercamp by our partners at Erste Bank!
  People had tears in their eyes as the award was accepted. Wow.

• Pitcher:
  Hari Tamvada
• Tagline:
  Product warranties. Simplified.
• Description:
  Warrantify.com is a global service platform for warranty management which will give easy access and digital storage for all consumer product warranty related data and services, a one stop shop for all product warranties. With the help of Warrantify we hope to release people from collecting paper receipts in order to be eligible to receive their consumer electronics support or warranties.

• Pitcher:
  Sylvie Chin
• Tagline:
  Make safer choices
• Description:
  300 million people worldwide suffer from food allergies. Reading the small print on each product is just too difficult and too time consuming.
  
  
  
  clearKarma.org offers a mobile application and an information website. People with food allergies see, based on personal allergies immediately the impact of their buying decisions on their personal health. The magic lies in barcode scanning and checking against a community maintained, commented, database.
  
  
  
  As a winner of the Crowds Choice Award, Sylvie will head to the Founders Workshop – sponsored by Erste Bank!

Scribando

• Pitcher:
  Albert Griesmayr
• Tagline:
  Making publishing social
• Description:
  Scribando provides a place, where books evolve through the power of community.

Twingz

• Pitcher:
  Werner Weihs-Sedivy
• Tagline:
  Twitter of thingz
• Description:
  Things (e.g. electronic devices) are enriched with communication features. Users on the go can check back state and healthiness of devices that sit at home. Devices can actively pop up with urgent news (e.g. stove overheat, fridge getting warm, espresso needs decalcifying) – users are enabled to interact with devices via short text (twingz, twitter, facebook, SMS).
  User can also check on the go which supplies fits the printer or if the game console of interest can be connected to the home entertainment center.

  @marketers: enrich your social media campaigns on consumer electronics by devices that are enabled to communicate!”

  @starteurope: @mycoffemachine make me a cappucino please!
  @mycoffemachine: @starteurope seriously!? You haven’t decalc’d me for AGES! *grumble* coffe is ready in a min :/

Playmakers Industries

• Pitcher:
  Philippe Greier
• Tagline:
  Change the world via games
• Description:
  Ok, change the world. Easy. Let’s just start another orga focused on this. Or… Make people do what they should be doing: play together!

  By smacking together startups, industry leaders and the great bureaucracies of the world in an environment where they have to let go of their tightly held assumptions – this gang wishes to change the world. Their plan is to create these environment together with the coworking spaces of the world – leading to the STOPeurope-game (yeah baby!!). Starting with a workshop on 3.11, at the Hub Vienna.

MG

• Pitcher:
  Matjaz Gorjup
• Tagline:
  Efficiency is only part of the equation
• Description:
  With a number of years as a manager in larger corporations, Matjaz saw the need to make people feel that the effort they put into their work actually has an effect. Said and done – MG is a task management and delegation system which kicks ***. Simplified, reduced and optimized to take as small a part as possible on the side of the users. The missing puzzle piece is addressed by adding game mechanics to the equation.

  The team worked on the game system and visualizations during the weekend – now all they need to do is implement.

  By the by, game mech’s is the social web of the next decade according to Seth Priebatsch and Jesse Schell, among many others.

• Pitcher:
  Manuel Gruber
• Tagline:
  A channel for entrepreneurs and visionaries
• Description:
  Entrepreneurs and visionaries are blossoming – DreamaTV will be their channel and show. By equipping coworking spaces with access to the channel and curating the content which is generated, coworking spaces, entrepreneurs and the world gain in PR, publicity and visions. Aggregating all these grand changers and building a show of the greatest ideas of the month – DreamaTV will be a high quality producer of visionary, crowd-sourced material.

  They already have 2 customers, gained during the weekend! How’s that for bloody traction?

• Pitcher:
  Florian Gschwandtner
• Tagline:
  Makes sport fantastic.
• Description:
  This was the third time that Runtastic entered the foray. As winners of STARTup Live Vienna #2, these guys now decided to implement a badge/achievement system into their sports-platform. All in one weekend. Said, and done. Wait for the next release! The whole team of 7 people travelled to Vienna for the weekend – was great to see them again! Awesome guys!

• Pitcher:
  Philipp Etzlinger
• Tagline:
  The comparison pays
• Description:
  This team decided to tackle the jungle of cell phone tarifs. Crazy – do you know how many different combos of prices and packages there are in Austria alone? 45k. Done, and done. Since 2008 they have mapped and enabled running evaluations of all providers in Austria – and on their platform they allow users to check what combo would be best for them. All in all, that has made out 1.8M different combos mapped since 2008.
  
  This weekend, they sketched and started developing an Android app to automate the comparison.

Life Missions

• Pitcher:
  Benedikt Glatzl
• Tagline:
  Start playing, start living.
• Description:
  As we’ve already seen, many are going in the direction of games. The pitcher presented at the last STARTup Live Vienna too, and this time, they went on to prototype their vision. Working with designers and experts from the field of sports they made heaps of progress. By designing common goals as achievements in a game – people are motivated to actually take the next step – rising in level as a tennis player, cook, marathon runner or being a good guy/gal. The UI prototype looks friggin great, gonna see if we cannot get a screen of it.

2-topf

• Pitcher:
  Christoph Bergthaler
• Tagline:
  traditional food – urban taste
• Description:
  Fresh food based on traditional recipes – available in several locations. The prototype of this restaurant chain to be is to be built close to a university in Vienna. By combining “Grandma” and “Zotter” – traditional food with urban trend – the opportunity will be addressed. Next steps: design concept, customer interviews and research, dish prototypes.

  Christopher Bergthaler is a chef since 10 years and worked with a team fro Austria and Germany on refining the concept. The pitch was something totally different than the presentation – which we love. Pivots ftw.

3TO – pharma and Success Time are still missing, but should pop up in here in a day or 2

The teams are now working on realizing their next milestones, until November 27, which is when the next STARTup Lounge takes place @ Sektor 5. During the afternoon, they get to show their shiz and if they have made it, they will have the opportunity to enter our mentoring program and get an office for a few months!

Us, we are receiving emails to go all over Europe!
What the hell should you do if one is called STARTeurope?
Well.
Go there.

laymakers industries @ business model canvas session

Saturday is taking off – time to take a quick look at what we have got so far.

We had 25 Ideas pitched – 12 of those turned into ideas. Game Mechanics, Web TV are some of the most popular topics amongst our teams.

Here are some impressions

Now, take a look at the teams, if you will:

S-TARget therapeutics

Pitcher: Geert C. Mudde
Description:
Using a patented technology for curing allergies, not only handling symptoms – the team is looking to hop through FDA etc and launch in 2020. The team has a scientific background and long experience in the industry.

Pitcher: Damn, lost the name – office@sorex-austria.com
Description:
SOREX is a technology company that has specialized in the development of wireless solutions with the focus on Bluetooth. Using cellphones to open locks, already well underway in industry – now looking to enter the private market.

Pitcher: Klaus Kindl – k.kindl@petwalk.at
Description:
A cat door system which is installable in all types of houses and even suits passive buildings. The door is safe and uses the identity chips which must nowdays be implanted to identify the pet and open only for the specific ID.

Pitcher: Dr. Stefan Oertl – stefan.oertl@re-compose.com
Description:
Re-Compose is concerned with the development of groundbreaking methods and technologies for digital music production and optimal music perception.

For this task they incorporate:

• music psychology and neuroscience
• informatics and mathematics
• high-end music composition and production

Pitcher: Johann Waldherr – waldherr@spectralmind.com
Description:
Using datamining and semantic audio analysis in their application, sonarflow, they can cluster and help explore large music collections – allowing their users to find the hidden gems in their libraries and also find new music, which fits the collection.

sonarflow runs on the iPad and groups your music by genre, displayed on screen as colored bubbles. Enabling the user to simply click through the interface and double tap to start playing.

PGW

Pitchers:

• Georg Wirrer
• Paul Graf

Description:
The team has developed a new door technology which removes the hassle and space waste of normal garage doors – it simply disappears into the ground. Think 007. Damn cool. Their product is called Fantom T01.

The whole system is built modularly, so that the designable parts can all be exhanged and made to fit the environment.

Actually, the door is installed at one of the founders home! Have to go there! Vienna, send’m an email!

Product: Wadi
Pitcher: Martin Wesian – m.wesian@helioz.org
Description:
Wadi is a system which helps to clean water in developing countries – the problem is HUGE and the solution looks bloody great. Hearing how many hospital beds are occupoed due to unclean water per year was pretty astounding! 50%!!? Sick. I’ll try to get my grubby hands on the presentation.
Supplying a device which is screwed on to a plastic water bottle, it notifies the user when the water has been purified – and is safe to drink.

This stuff could be great – invest?

Pitcher: Daniel Horak – daniel.horak@spokenlanguagesystem.com
Description:
The problem of finding good products online is as we all know… less easy. Using Spoken Language System in online stores – the user can use his own language to specify what he is looking for – the solution understands what is meant in tech terms etc and can find the suiting product.
Already have a customer in the cell phone market. Launching at the end of 2011.

Voxxer

Pitcher: Michael Beer – mbeer@voxxer.net
Description:
This startup aims to connect devices and online services via VOIP. The system is highly modular and the team is experienced – able to achieve a 24-72 hour iteration if needed. Already on the market, this service has traction locally in Vienna.

Gnowsis

Product:

Pitcher: Leo Sauermann – leo.sauermann@gnowsis.com
Description:
Semantic information organizing and finding. Who can remember all that stuff you need to? You? I believe not. And neither does Leo. Therefore, he developed cluug.com, a SAAS which connects stuff – whatever it is.

Via plugins for devices and systems like outlook, data, groups and all can be connected to contacts etc – but this is only a small part of the solution! The information and the connections can be used in all applications, where the plugins are available.

In the next few months, the service will be integrated in googles product portfolio.

Currently patenting the tech solution.

Pitcher: Tobias Hann – office@vooch.at
Description:
Bringing coupons to the mobile – instead of sending paper (hate that), the users of the vooch app can simply pull what they need – generating new customers for the direct customers of the startup.
Pretty decent traction already, 110.000 users, 250 voucher campaigns! Traction – check They’re on most big mobile platforms.

Looking to integrate with location based services – use facebook places? Talking to foursquare? Check, doing that already.

Oh, cool – going to Poland – expanding already

Team of ~10 people.

Lightglass

http://www.lightglass.net/
Pitcher:
Johannes Paul Schwarz – trust@lightglass.net
Description:
Multifunctional glass and lighting. They have developed a system for manufacturing wholly illuminated glass panes. Will show you a pic of their tech demo once I have a brain to find it in the blog posts

The team consists of designers, architects, bizzies… Already have a patented product, with licenses, sales channels, partners and the whole shabbang. Not yet on market.
Impressive.

First guy to feedback and ask questions is Klaus Matzka, GCP.

Clear Karma

clearkarma.org
Pitcher: Sylvie Chin – sylvie@clearkarma.org
Description:
Wish to show the consequences of using non-ecological products.

By building an off/online community they wish to promote alternative products to the less ecological and healthy ones. Using a mobile application which scans the barcode, they can find and alarm regarding the least suiting products in your cupboard. Already have a prototype on the market.
Biz model is based on partnerships with producers, partners and sales channels of the products.

The team is small, the network is pretty astounding.

Motto: enjoy the fruits of your actions.

Here are some impressions of the event

You can also view them on Flickr

Well… that’s that. Have a nice evening, gonna hit the party.

ENDeurope

Teams are ready to present, 10 mins until the end presentation begins.

During the day, a few guests visited from garmz.com, Dinner in the Dark and the HUB Vienna.

The expert panel has arrived and are getting ready to give feedback on the 5 minute presentations:

The participants are approaching the stage! Buckle up

The first STARTup Jam Vienna!

During these days sixty eighteen-year-olds, days shy of finishing their school-year, gather at the Microsoft HQ in Vienna – to pitch, work and present. Supported by experts, mentors and the STARTeurope team.

There are the groups:

Companies and Ideas

Club-Lounge-Combi

• Pitcher:
  Nina Strohmaier
• Description:
  Going out after 4AM, this is where you can hang out when the party is over – part party, part lounge.

One Night Star

• Pitcher:
  Claudia Brunnhofer
• Description:
  A small bag with the most needed equipment for “sleep overs” – always there, small, compact – restocked upon need! Have fun.

Eat ‘n ride

• Pitcher:
  Lukas Eichelter
  
• Description:
  A double decker bus traveling to the hubs of the city, serving healthy American food. The route can be found online.

Mobile Projector

• Pitcher:
  Ayhan Wolfgang Weißl
  
• Description:
  A new hardware-part for laptops – an integrated projector instead of a DVD-unit.

Ski/Snowboarding Helmet

• Pitcher:
  Chiara Höhn
• Description:
  Luxury design helmets, upload your design or pictures – it will be applied to quality protective helmets for skiing and snowboarding! Additional features like heating can be requested!

Mr. & Mrs. Muffin

• Pitcher:
  Loren Bar
• Description:
  Make and bake our own muffins, which are then sold at schools and other locations!

Location Location Location

• Pitcher:
  Elena Mokry
• Description:
  The region between Bratislava and Vienna is booming – grab a piece, or 1000!

WasteCorp

• Pitcher:
  Jenno Thanikkal
• Description:
  Take care of trash in India, sort and burn what can be burnt – make use of the energy gained!

Stationery

• Pitcher:
  Nino Röhrenbacher, Lukas Fally
• Description:
  Offer schools a vending machine with the normal supplies which always run out – paper, pens, pencils, ink… whatever could be needed!

Let’s see what happens during these few days!