Smart Industry 1/2017

construction, for example would obviously
have a head for heights, so why
not offer to retrain them for a job that
may be closer to home – and pay
more, to boot. “There are still hundreds
of ways we can make better use
of our data,” Bockholdt believes, “and if
we can clean up by finding them, then
so much the better.”
and in some instances, special training
is required.
The cleaning of wind turbine blades
is required from time to time. The job
requires ‘cleaner-climbers’ who, like
mountaineers, can scale to dizzying
heights. These specialists are in huge
demand and finding them on the job
market is tricky.
Again, Bockholdt asked his computer
people to scan the backgrounds of his
employees to see if any of them had
previous job experience that would
qualify them to become climbers. Anyone
who used to work in high-rise
Floor Drees of Sektor5
No wait and see
Floor Drees may be from Holland
but she loves to live and work in Vienna
where she heads Sektor5, a coworking
space cum startup incubator
– even though she admits that the
Austrian startup scene probably isn't
the most exciting one in Europe. In
fact, she believes that Austrians are
plagued by what she calls the “waitand-see
mentality” (‘Schau-mer-mal’
Mentaliät).
Soon after arriving in Vienna, Drees
became interested in helping budding
entrepreneurs to get a foot on the
ladder, especially female entrepreneurs
like herself. “There aren’t enough
women starting their own businesses
in IoT, ” she complains.
After almost three years at the helm
of Sektor5, she is proud to have been
chosen by Austria Wirtschaftsservice
Gesellschaft to organize its incubator
program AWS JumpStart, a venture
capital fund run by the development
and financing bank.
Starting with three candidates, a number
which has since risen to five, she
provides coaching and help in keeping
the books balanced, as well as
holding hands through tense times,
and keeping the java flowing. She connects
budding business owners with
trainers, and organizes visits abroad to
major startup hubs in Europe and the US.
Startups have to apply to become
members but no one is expected
to submit a business plan “because
business plans are all outdated anyway,”
she says. Instead, she grills each
candidate, expecting them to provide
a frank assessment of their own
strengths and weaknesses. Applications
are whittled down to a shortlist of
candidates who are invited to a
There aren’t
enough women
starting their
own businesses
here
Floor Drees
‘screening day,’ which is a make-orbreak
chance to convince Drees and
her team that they really do deserve
to be funded.
Most applications are from Austria or
Eastern Europe, and their focus ranges
from fintechs to software-as-a-service
and hardware. Each program lasts
five months after which, the ‘alumni’,
as Drees calls them, are more or less
on their own, barring the occasional
coaching session or assistance in finding
IT talent.
She finds the conditions for founding
a startup in Austria are “great – it’s
pretty easy to get an appointment
with the authorities, and even with
other people willing to provide money.”
She thinks Austrians are rather
risk-averse, and notes a tendency
among young people to rely too much
on the excellent social net that embraces
everyone in the small nation
of Alps and lakes. “They could really
be a bit more adventurous,” she chides.
Finally, she would like the government
to be more willing to invest directly.
“All this trickle-down stuff is not really
expedient,” she feels.
She is fiercely proud of her alumni.
These include Codeship, a specialist in
continuous integration software, and
MySugr, an app that helps diabetes
patients and allows them to personalize
medication. MySugr recently received
€4.2m in funding and is rapidly expanding
into the US market.
The latest portfolio of incubator
projects includes ExtraSauber, Austria’s
first online cleaning portal, ChillBill,
for automating receipt management,
and Getfolyo, a mobile advertising
venture. "We’re much more than a coworking
space,” Drees boasts. “We’re
a community of entrepreneurs.” And
one where she feels quite at home.
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