General Assembly 2025: Ready for Takeoff!
🚀 Ready for Takeoff: Startup Carinthia Enters a New Phase
Four years after its founding and the early rallying cry #WakeUpCarinthia, Startup Carinthia (SUC) is entering its next stage — stronger, broader, and more connected than ever. At the 2025 General Assembly, held on November 4, the community gathered to reflect on growth, celebrate new leadership, and align on what’s next.
This was not a restart. The reset already happened. Now, it’s time for lift-off.
🧭 Staying True to Our Roots: Founders First
Startup Carinthia was born from a simple but powerful frustration: for two years, Carinthia ranked last in the Austrian Startup Monitor. Instead of complaining, the startup community organized. SUC was built to support, improve, and collaborate — and remains strictly independent, nonprofit, and grassroots.
Strategic decisions are made by those who build: founders, co-founders, C-levels, and active startup investors. SUC’s independence means no institutional body — public or private — can buy voting rights.
Today, SUC unites over 340 members across startup, community, and supporting tiers.
👥 Fresh Leadership, Expanded Capacity
The General Assembly saw the official discharge of the previous board, many of whom now continue their work in SUC’s new “Expanded Team.”
At the same time, four fresh faces joined the board:
- Manuel Grassler
- Natascha Heinrich
- Angelika Kolbitsch
- Pouriya Najafi
They join Alexander Mann and Gerald Müller, who were re-elected. This blend of continuity and new energy reflects SUC’s commitment to diversity in experience, perspective, and background.
With a new team structure — board + expanded team + volunteers — SUC is better equipped to handle growing community needs. And everything is guided by a simple principle: “Health and family come before the association.”
🔥 What We’ve Achieved Together
🌐 Stakeholders in One Room
Our recurring “Unternehme Wos” Roundtable brings FH Kärnten, University of Klagenfurt, WKO, BABEG, KWF, Makerspace and others into direct conversation with founders — eliminating bureaucracy and enabling action.
🎓 Education That Inspires Action
Through initiatives like the Youth Entrepreneurship Weeks and YEP, SUC has earned recognition as a Best Practice in entrepreneurship education. This year, 55 teachers and school leaders from Slovenia visited Carinthia to see it firsthand.
🗺️ Startup Carinthia Map V2
We’ve released an updated version of the Startup Carinthia Map, now featuring over 90 key players in the regional ecosystem — from incubators and funding agencies to educational institutions and innovation hubs. Curated with input from the community, the map serves as a go-to guide for anyone navigating or entering the Carinthian startup landscape.
🥂 Exclusive & Impactful Events
- Executive Dinner – A curated networking format bringing together top CEOs and selected founders around innovation themes like Circular Economy.
- Roast the Startup – A stage for honest, constructive feedback from investors and industry leaders. Great ideas deserve sharp critique before they hit the market.
✈️ What’s Next: Vision. Focus. Collaboration.
As we gain altitude, a few priorities are already clear:
- A new strategy retreat (Klausur) in the mountains to sharpen our mission and goals
- Deepened regional collaboration through the Startup South initiative with partners in Styria
- More English-speaking engagement to better integrate international talent and students
- Continued growth of our digital tools to serve the community — faster, broader, smarter
TL;DR
- The board changed — the mission did not.
- The ecosystem matured — now it’s scaling.
- Carinthia woke up. Now we take off.
#WakeUpCarinthia was the spark. This is the launch.
👉 Curious to get involved? Become a member today.
