In just five days and as part of a team, you can acquire important tools to implement your ideas! Is it just a bunch of boring presentations? Absolutely not. You will work as part of a motivated team mentored by experienced speakers and experts.

The topics will include learning how to put together a top team and learning more about design thinking, prototyping, business modelling, and pitching. You will learn tools to advance, refine and present ideas. During Founders.Week, you will meet like-minded people and other experts who are actively involved in Upper Austria's start-up scene. You won't want to miss out as you will learn from the experts and acquire skills to kick-start your own business!

Experiment - Fail - Learn - Be Inspired!

Together with your team, you will have one week to be creative, spin ideas, and implement your innovative ideas together. During the pitch contest at the end of the week, you can prove to the jury that your idea has market potential! The Winter School program will take place at the JKU Linz and you can earn 2 ECTS credits to count toward your studies. Your only fee for the week is €99 to cover catering costs.

For the first time as a Winter School in February
Founders Week 2025 took place for the ninth time - and for the first time as a Winter School. From February 24 to 28, 27 participants came together in teams to develop their innovative ideas. In various workshops and sessions, they learned about essential tools for successfully implementing their visions.

A look at the week's program
After words of welcome from JKU Rector Stefan Koch, the program continued with a Teambuilding workshop with Markus Eggensperger, which created a relaxed atmosphere and allowed participants to get to know each other. In the afternoon, Edith Öller supported the participants with Problem Identification before the day ended with a Networking Session at the WKO Start-up Service. There, the participants were able to exchange ideas with the founders Alyssa Kamoun, Matthias Maier and René Voglmayr and gain initial insights into the Upper Austrian start-up network.Tuesday started with a Design Thinking & Prototyping workshop by Christian Friedl (FH Joanneum), in which the teams developed solutions for the ideas they had previously identified. In the afternoon, they went to the Tabakfabrik for an exclusive tour of the Grand Garage and a subsequent Failure & Success Talk in the Startrampe with Johannes Pracher and Gerold Weisz, which was recorded as a live podcast.

On Wednesday, the teams delved deep into the Business Model Canvas under the guidance of Clemens Zillner. In the afternoon, there was valuable Mentoring with the experienced mentors Daniela Freudenthaler, Manuel Moser, Fritz Radinger, Marlene Rezk-Füreder, Vincent Stüger and Elisabeth Ulbrich.

Thursday started with Pitch Training with Georg Kuttner, where the art of perfect pitching was learned. The day was rounded off with an Expert Session with David Böhm, Boris Kamenik, Stefanie Stallinger, Alexander Stockinger, Franz Winkler and Clemens Zillner, who helped the teams to further refine their ideas and pitches with their specialist expertise.

On Friday, the participants received valuable tips on stage presence and the visual design of their presentations as part of a Pitch & Design workshop with Ingmar Thies and Daniela Wagner. The big final event took place in the afternoon: Each team presented their business idea to a panel of experts consisting of Elisabeth Berger (Chair of the Institute for Entrepreneurship), Florian Dorfbauer (dynatrace), Raphael Friedl (tech2b) and Christiane Tusek (JKU Vice Rector for Finance and Entrepreneurship) and had to answer their challenging questions. Thomas Gegenhuber (City Councilor) actively supported the jury in their decision-making process. Anna-Maria Brunnhofer (Impact AI) then gave an inspiring keynote speech before the best teams were awarded prizes.

First place went to Team Granted., consisting of Fatema Elseidy, Kyrylo Meliushko, Julia Niederwimmer, Cassandra Quean and Bastian Reich with their start-up idea to improve the allocation of funding. We congratulate them on their well-deserved victory and wish them lots of fun at the JW Summit 2025 in Tyrol (sponsored by Junge Wirtschaft Oberösterreich). Second place went to the Articul8 team (Claudiu Dangulea, Mohammad Monir Khalazaie, Florian Kierner, Viktor Loreth, and Manuel Schullitsch) for their AI tool for self-development and self-improvement in stressful situations. The team won tickets to Vienna Up 2025 (sponsored by WKO Gründerservice). Team receiptra, consisting of Abu-Bakar Husainow, Oleksa Kondratyuk, Ostap Ohlashennyy, Rinor Rexha and Carmen Teearu, took 3rd place. Their idea is the automatic integration of receipts into online banking systems. The team members were delighted to receive Linz City vouchers.

A week full of innovation and valuable contacts
Founders.Week not only gave participants an insight into the world of entrepreneurship, but also enabled them to build a network within the Upper Austrian startup community. Thanks to the support of numerous partners and sponsors, the event was a complete success.

We are already looking forward to the next edition and the 10th anniversary of Founders.Week from February 23 to 27, 2026!

As in the past, Founders-Week organizers were presented with the Upper Austrian state government's “Green Event” seal of approval, underscoring its commitment to environmentally friendly practices and sustainable catering. The teams completed workshops on topics that included design thinking, business modeling, and a pitch training session, as well as generating ideas that ranged from medical innovation to solutions for the cosmetics industry.

That week's highlight included final presentations at the LIT Open Innovation Center where teams presented their ideas to a high-profile panel of judges that included Phillip Kranewitter (Greiner AG), Benjamin Mooslechner (tech2b), Kathrin Obernhumer (Tabakfabrik) and Elisabeth Berger (head of the Institute for Entrepreneurship). Team “Deepmed” (Said Khudoyan, Uma Hasanovic and Anna Kurzecka) managed to impress the jury and earn a spot at “Vienna Up”, an unparalleled opportunity to advance their idea together with investors and industry leaders.

Founders.Week 2024 demonstrated just how important creativity, teamwork, and commitment are, especially when it comes to creating forward-looking initiatives. Thanks to the unwavering support provided by everyone involved, Founders.Week 2024 was a huge success! If you would like to be part of this unique experience and drive your own ideas forward, take advantage of the opportunity and join us in 2025! Whether you are a entrepreneur, innovator, or just curious about the world of start-ups, Founders.Week provides a platform to realize your vision and make new connections with other like-minded individuals. Together, we can shape the future!

Founders.Week 2023 brought 30 students from Linz, Salzburg, Vienna, and the surrounding areas together, representing a wide range of majors, including AI, management, psychology, law, business, computer sciences, aerospace engineering, and agricultural technology.

The Upper Austrian government notably presented Founders.Week 2023 with the prestigious "Green Event" certificate in recognition of the event's commitment to sustainability and environmental awareness. In addition to reducing the use of plastic, the event featured meals and food that were in season, locally sourced, and sustainably produced.

The six teams worked tirelessly on their ideas during the entire week, supervised by a range of mentors, experts and workshop leaders. They started off by engaging in a creative development process that included workshops on design -thinking, business modeling, and learning how to successfully pitch their ideas. As in the past, the diversity of ideas was impressive, ranging from reusing chopsticks to produce furniture, providing student-prepared meals, and an AI fitness device to track efficiency in building muscle.

The week's highlight included the final event on Friday at the LIT Open Innovation Center featuring teams pitching their ideas to a panel of experts consisting of Dominic Koll (qapture), Christian Kaar (Runtastic, Leaders21), Christiane Tusek (Vice-Rector at the JKU), and Elisabeth Berger (head of the Institute for Entrepreneurship). The Upcyklr team (Halil Metbala, Raphael Weiß, Raphael Luif, and Severyn Tsymbala) impressed the jury and secured a wild card spot for the Austrian TV show “2 Minutes, 2 Million”. This once-in-a-lifetime opportunity will elevate their idea tremendously and provide access to potential investors and industry executives. Professor Alexander Zauner concluded the formal portion of the evening by holding an inspiring keynote speech titled “5 Secrets that Make the Difference for Your Startup”, followed by opportunities for participants to meet and connect with others.

Founders.Week 2023 was an intensive program featuring local and cross-regional involvement from within the entrepreneurial community, and impressive pitch sessions. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the participants for their dedication and tireless efforts and we look forward to seeing many of these promising ideas come to fruition. We would also like to especially thank everyone who made Founders.Week 2023 possible by creating a sustainable "green event". We would like to pay special tribute to all of the experts, mentors, workshop leaders, and sponsors who generously shared their expertise and helped make this week an overwhelming success.

Founders' Week is a unique opportunity for students to embark on their entrepreneurial journey. Anyone who missed out on the excitement will be able to take part in the adventure´in 2024. Have we piqued your interest? Expand your horizons and sign up for Founders.Week 2024!

Once again, students interested in creating their own venture and developing their personal business ideas had a unique opportunity to participate in the 2022 Founders.Week. Founders.Week, a summer school program organised by the Institute for Entrepreneurship, is an exciting week packed with interesting input, a lot of work, and little sleep. True to the motto "Experiment - Fail - Learn - Be Inspired", the participants took on the exciting challenge of developing a business idea and pitching that idea to a jury at the end of the week. The program was basically very similar to past years however, this year's program was quite different as for the first time, the Climate Alliance of Upper Austria Founders.Week presented the event with the title of Green Event, setting new standards to support a sustainable and environmentally friendly organisation of the event.

What else happened?

In addition to the Green Event award, this year's participants came from various diverse and interdisciplinary backgrounds, such as AI, management, psychology, computer science, and physics. Founders Week kicked off during the last week of September and welcomed 22 participants from the JKU and the University of Applied Sciences in Upper Austria.

Accompanied by workshop leaders, mentors, and experts in various fields, the teams worked throughout the week to develop and fine-tune their personal business ideas. The programme for Founders.Week 2022 was as varied as ever, be it design thinking, protoyping, networking, business modelling, or pitching. The entrepreneurial ideas were very different, ranging from quantum computing consulting, a platform for API integration, and a social platform for leisure activities to a lab designed to discover new materials, and a functional alternative to conventional belts. The week culminated in a grand finale of pitch sessions on Friday that were a part of the "Lange Nacht der Start-Ups" at the LIT Open Innovation Center. A jury of experts evaluated the individual pitches and crowned a winning team for Founders.Week 2022. The winning team can look forward to a generous hub,ert package, including tickets for an entrepreneurial course with start-up expert Gerold Weisz.

This year's Founders.Week winner was team VRTEX (vrtex.io) and their API interface idea. Congratulations to the entire team and all the best in the future!

Following the pitch sessions, participants had an opportunity to take part in the "Lange Nacht der Start-Ups" to learn more about the Upper Austrian start-up scene and enjoy refreshments while meeting with other entrepreneuers in a more relaxed environment.

We would like to thank all of the experts and mentors who took the time to actively support students and lend their expertise, as well as everyone else involved who worked hard to hold Founders.Week as a green event this year. We would also like to thank all of the participants for their commitment and we hope to see some of their ideas implemented soon. Those who missed Founders.Week this year can apply to take part during Founders.Week 2023.