The Austrian Startup Report 2013 provides data on Austria's growing startup community through surveys of 575 individuals, including founders, employees, investors, and institutions. It finds that most Austrian startups are still in the early idea phase, founded by first-time entrepreneurs in their early 30s who pursued business or engineering degrees. While startups seek international growth, they struggle to connect with investors and face challenges such as high taxes and a lack of culture supporting failure. The report calls for reforms like tax incentives, liberalized laws, simplified information, and rethought subsidies to better support Austria's startup ecosystem.

1. AUSTRIAN
STARTUP
REPORT
2013

2. The Austrian Startup Report is an ongoing
joint research project to structure data
about the development of the growing
startup community in Austria.
The Austrian Startup Report provides
detailed information about a nationwide,
representative selection of startups,
investors and public institutions.

3. Goals
» raise public awareness for activities regarding the
founding and growth process of startups
» determine critical success factors for Austrian startups
» gain information about the influence of public and
private support initiatives for startups in Austria
» make Austrias startup community internationally
compareable und therefore more noted in Europe
...

4. The Analysis

5. Qualitative
survey
» By e-mail
» 50 interviewees
within ecosystem
Befragt von
Quantitative
survey
» Questionnaire
» End of May –
end of July
» 575
interviewees

6. The majority of the 575
interviewees are
founders or work in a
startup, aged 32 years
and male.
Average age
32,3
years
7%
6%
Private investors
Public funding agency
87%
Founders & startup
employees
Gender
Comparison
Region
Gender
Silicon
Valley
12%
Age
34,12
90/10
Tel Aviv 36,16
88%
91/9
LA
88/12
31,55
London 35,98
Male
Female
91/9
Berlin
97/3
31,86

7. The Results

8. Highest degree
University
High school
Apprenticeship
Compulsory School
Field of study
3% 3%
Business administration
13%
Engineering
24%
45%
31%
81%
The broad majority of founders holds a
university degree, mostly business
administration.
Other

9. The Startup Report shows that
most Austrian startups are
founded by first-time founders
and are still in the idea
generation phase.
Most founders have
already been
around for three
years
73% First-time
founders
30 %
70 %
Motives
14%
Growth phase
Idea / early stage phase
27% Serial founders
17%
69%
Not having to
work for other
people
Financial
freedom
Self-realisation
& fun

10. The broad majority of founders pursue international market
perspectives, one half considers the global market a goal.
14 %
20 %
17 %
48 %

11. 30 %
Other
70 %
Private
Investors
Amount of
investment
30%
36%
The majority of startups is financed
by private investors. The size of the
investment ist growing, but still
remains clearly below international
levels.
How does establishing contact with Austrian VCs work
compared to contacting international VCs?
34%
11% easier
<100.000
100-500.000
16% not specified
76% harder
>500.000
76 % find it hard to connect with
Austrian Business Angels

12. 65%
67%
find the subsidy jungle
confusing
?
think that approaching
public funding agencies
works well
Subsidies
60%
received subsidies from a
public funding agency
Amount of subsidies
45%
<100.000
35%
20%
100-500.000
>500.000

13. 50% of founders never
attended a course or a
lecture about
entrepreneurship.
80% would have attended such a course if
it was offered at educational institutions

14. Ecosystem Austria

15. 70 %
think that
entrepreneurship and
innovation gained
attention over the
last two years.

16. 73 % don’t see the value of startups recognized by society,
75 % don’t think startups are valued enough by government.

17. 90 %
of interviewees think that our society lacks a “culture
of failure”. 90% think that the absence of a culture of
failure is the biggest restraint for entrepreneurship.

18. The
broad
majority
… social security taxes and non-wage
labor costs should be lower (93%)
supports the
idea that...
… signing the first employee should be
encouraged (93 %)
… the mininum corporate tax should be
removed (88 %)
… the antiquated trade regulation act
should be reformed fundamentally
(80 %)

19. Implications

20. Developing alternative forms of
investment
Creation of tax incentives for private
risk investments
Raise awareness for the topic of
startups, entrepreneurship and
financial education
ATTENTION!

21. Liberalisation of corporate and
labour laws
GmbH
(LLC) light!
Simplify the information research
for entrepreneurs
Rethink subsidies