aws First Incubator

As Innovation & Community Lead at the Social Impact Award, Stefanie Beßler manages consulting projects in (social) innovation consulting and is building up the international alumni community in 20 countries. Prior to this, she spent three years as coordinator of the Social Impact Award in Austria, supporting aspiring social entrepreneurs in setting up their social enterprise.

During her international business studies at ESB Business School in Germany and interdisciplinary master studies, as well as research stays in Austria, Colombia and Brazil, she developed a strong interest in the intersection of social innovation and sustainable development. As a mentor and impact coach for the Vienna Business Agency and aws First Incubator, among others, she advises start-ups on the topics of impact analysis, impact strategies and social & sustainable business models.

Fredrik Debong is a serial entrepreneur, angel investor, and VC with a focus on health, technology, and regulation. He is managing partner of 1921.vc, an early-stage fund for companies involved in type 1 diabetes and precision medicine.As co-founder of Syntactiq.ai, he is pioneering data-driven research using a multi-agent AI network and the world's largest type 1 diabetes database – with the goal of reducing medical research from six months to six minutes. At OneTwenty.ai, he is QMO – the Zurich-based medtech startup develops learning insulin algorithms and digital twins for personalized diabetes therapy. 
Previously, he founded mySugr, the world's most successful digital diabetes management system, CE and FDA certified, with millions of users (exit to Roche, 2017). With hi.health, he built an innovative payment system that automatically processed health insurance bills with over 100 insurance companies – including its own Visa and Mastercard products (exit to Pliant, 2025). As co-founder of Pioneers.io, he organized startup events in over 15 countries and established the Pioneers Festival, a Europe-wide platform for tech innovation (exit to startup300, 2018). Fredrik is a medical informatician, former software engineer, and has conducted research on diabetes technology and health economics.

With an eye for the essentials, a feeling for people and a passion for good ideas, Egon Friebus has been supporting start-ups as a business angel, mentor and sparring partner for many years. His career to date has taken him from the creative industry to the media and tech sector to the founding and successful exit of a start-up. Since 2017, Egon has been supporting young founders in sharpening their vision, developing viable business models and mastering the challenges of the early stages - with experience, curiosity and a clear, honest opinion.

His motto: Who knows what it's good for! - because every detour can bring a new perspective.

Florian Glatt-Wodzynski has been working successfully as a management consultant and interim manager for many years. His focus is on marketing and innovation, always with the controlling requirement of measurability. He studied at WU Vienna and successfully completed his Master's degree at HEC Paris. In the course of his work as a lecturer at the Vienna University of Technology, he set up the EIT Manufacturing CLC in Vienna and has been mentoring teams for aws First Incubator as a “bad cop” since 2017. For his teams, he focuses on the business model and solution development and accompanies them as a critical sparring partner through the highs and lows of being a young entrepreneur.

Anna Greil is the founder and CEO of the impact start-up uptraded. Together with her team, the young entrepreneur is developing a clothes swap app to close the gap between the consumer needs and climate protection goals of Gen Z and Zillennials. During her studies in Business & Management, she spent a semester abroad in New Zealand. There she specialized in entrepreneurship and creative industries. Since then, she has been fighting for second-hand fashion to become more established and for circular economy concepts to be promoted. She has already won several awards with uptraded, including the Get active Social Business Award 2021.

Eva Gruber gets to work where change is needed! As a mindset and habit coach and business companion, she supports founders, managers and organizations worldwide who need to tackle important goals or changes - or are struggling with them. By working with Eva Gruber, managers and their teams learn to think, act and lead positively - because a positive attitude achieves a goal or change with more ease and real impact. In this way, her clients discover a new approach to their well-being, how to create healthy relationships or how to strengthen their ability to perform at their best. Eva Gruber grew up in her grandparents' family business. In her first job, she experienced “corporate life” first-hand (and ultimately frustratingly) from the inside. In 2013, she set up her first impact company for financial education (called Three Coins) with a team in Europe. The learning curves were and still are steep - and valuable for Eva Gruber's contribution as a jury member and mentor at aws First Incubator.

Bernhard Hofer studied business informatics at the Management Center Innsbruck and as a Marshall Plan Foundation scholarship holder at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. He gained professional experience in the fields of online and social media marketing, (IT) project management and even became the office manager of an IT company. After several years in professional life, Bernhard founded the social entrepreneur talent 2 talent GmbH together with his wife Doris. One of the central projects is talentify, a social education network that promotes cooperation and learning from each other among pupils in Austria, Germany and the Czech Republic and, as an eEducation partner of the BMBWF, works with schools throughout Austria to set up local peer projects and promote the talents of young people with various programs. Since 2020, the social enterprise has been supporting the public sector in the implementation of digitalization projects, including #weiterlernen, the BMBWF's 8-point plan, the Digital Lower Austria Learning Workshop and the WohlfühlPOOL for psychosocial support for pupils, teachers and parents. Bernhard Hofer has been an Ashoka Fellow in Austria since 2015, was the first Austrian honouree to be included in FERD's List of Inspiring Entrepreneurs and Leaders in 2018 and was named Social Entrepreneur of the Year by EY in 2022. In addition to talentify, Bernhard Hofer teaches at several colleges of education, universities and MBA programs and is a passionate tennis player in his spare time.

Alexander Hummer studied business administration with a specialization in controlling and entrepreneurship. After a long career in the financial sector, he has been working as a management consultant with AERC Consulting KG since 2015, focusing on start-ups and innovation management. In addition to more than 70 start-up projects from a wide range of industries, which Alexander Hummer has been able to accompany over the past eight years, he has also been involved as a creator, lecturer, mentor and jury member in various Austrian start-up programs. Since 2022, Alexander and his partners have been running the Ideas2Ventures association, which offers a new type of service for people with innovative product and business ideas who are unable or unwilling to implement their creative ideas themselves. The association aims to address the issue of “first mile drop-out” of innovations.

Désirée Jonek-Lustyk is a freelance management consultant and founder of the social business WoMentor and is an advocate for creating more social and sustainable businesses and start-ups. She uses her education at European business schools as well as her start-up and scale-up experience, including in European market leaders of online platforms such as leboncoin and Willhaben, to successfully support and accompany social innovation. She passes on her expertise in the areas of branding, prototyping, user research and impact ventures to founders as a start-up coach and at the aws First Start-up Camp and critically examines (social) business models and their feasibility. Her motto is: “Be the change you want to see in the world”.

Markus Kainz is the founder and CEO of Gateway Ventures. He leads the management and corporate strategy and is himself a passionate business angel (15 start-up investments) and start-up mentor. Markus Kainz has been active as an entrepreneur and start-up investor for more than 14 years and is strongly committed to passing on his knowledge and experience to other investors and founders.

Florian Kandler has been a consultant for investor search and pitch strategy for over ten years, with a clear focus on start-ups and innovation-driven organizations. Through his platform “Der Perfekte Pitch”, he helps founders present their ideas in a convincing, concise, and effective manner - whether to investors, funding agencies, customers, or partner companies. He is known as the official pitch coach for “2 Minuten 2 Millionen” and Erste Bank's Glaubandich Challenge. In addition, he leads the fundraising summer and winter camps, runs the “Pitch Ambulanz” as a “Pitch Doctor,” is the editor of the “Startup Report,” and is the author of the books “Business Angels/Devils” and “33 Pitch Tips.”
After studying business informatics and pursuing a career in sales in Munich, he founded three companies himself - two of which were financed by business angels and VCs from Germany, Austria, and the US. Six months in Silicon Valley shaped his practical approach to fundraising and start-up communication, which he now passes on as part of the aws First Incubator.

Lena Köninger has been part of the Austrian start-up ecosystem for many years. She has experience in the areas of venture building, start-up operations and financing. After a long time in small companies, she is now part of the strategy team at ÖBB. Among other things, she leads the project for automated driving on the road. Lena is a member of both the Future Management Club and the Global Shapers Hub of the World Economic Forum in Vienna. In her private life, she loves natural wines, nature in general and inspiring conversations.

Verena Maria Mai has been active in the Austrian start-up scene since 2014. She is responsible for the development and implementation of marketing strategies in successful scale-ups. This includes setting up and expanding the marketing team, as well as positioning the company in terms of content and generating reach in the relevant target group. As part of her experience, she has witnessed and shaped strong growth phases in start-ups and has a particular interest in organizational development methods. In addition to her position in Marketing & Growth, Verena Maria Mai passes on her knowledge as a lecturer and mentor. As part of the aws First Incubator, she helps start-ups to validate their business idea and the assumptions behind it. Verena Maria Mai studied Business Administration at the Vienna University of Economics and Business and Entrepreneurship & Innovation at the SKEMA Business School in France.

Flavia Mazzanti is multimedia artist and co-founder of Immerea, a Vienna-based media company focusing on the development of Virtual Reality Games and interactive Installations. At Immerea, she is interested in creating immersive experiences with high artistic quality and level of experimentation. Listed on the Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe list of 2023, her work has been featured and awarded at multiple national and international festivals, among others the Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, DIG Shibuya in Tokyo, FILE Festival in São Paulo, DA Z - Digital Arts Festival in Zurich. Additionally, Flavia is also co-organizer of XRAustria, Austria's biggest community for XR professionals, and active as university lecturer and speaker at conferences and festivals.

Dr. Alexandra Nitzlader has more than 25 years of experience in the international corporate finance business, which she gained in leading positions at banks, private equity and venture capital companies in Germany and Austria. She is Regional Manager Austria at FASE, the leading impact finance advisor in Europe. Her goal is to connect impact investors and impact ventures with joy and competence. In addition, Alexandra Nitzlader is involved in two European angel investment groups with a strong focus on impact and gender lens investing. As part of her jury work at aws First Incubator, she supports promising start-ups and young companies in successfully implementing innovative and sustainable business ideas.

Ifeoluwa Ogunbufunmi is the Founder and Chief Strategist at SWIF, a global startup advisory firm that helps startup founders, accelerators, corporate & government startup programs with their growth through precise, and proven winning strategies. With extensive experience working with 200+ founders across 23 countries, and over 15 global startup accelerators and government startup programs, Ifeoluwa scales startup ambition with expertise, execution, and excellence. She has almost a decade of experience leading strategy, operational implementation, and value creation within BigTech, Fintech, Venture Capital, Law, and Government Institutions.
Ifeoluwa has an MBA from the University of Oxford, and has been honoured with prestigious recognitions including the UK Global Talent for Tech Strategy, Women in Tech Excellence Award, Top 100 UK Entrepreneurs, and McKinsey Next Gen Women Leader. Her mission is to power the next generation of scalable, future-ready startups, bringing unmatched insight and execution to founders ready to lead.

Simone Pies has been involved as a business angel and mentor for early-stage start-ups since 2016. She is particularly committed to promoting female founders and supports the founding team in their personal and professional development. Simone is convinced that, in view of the social and ecological challenges of our time, only those companies that create real meaning and benefit for their customers will be successful in the long term. She advises forward-looking companies on the conception and realization of their business idea and strategic orientation. In doing so, she places particular emphasis on the development of a sustainable business model and the integration of measurable impact.

Maya Pindeus is CEO of the AI company Another Earth. She is an architect and designer with a special focus on responsible AI and human-machine interaction and has been active in the start-up scenes in London and Vienna since 2015. With Another Earth, she and her team develop technologies that serve as enablers for artificial intelligence for sustainability and climate resilience. Maya is a graduate of the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, Imperial College London and the Royal College of Art in London. She is a Forbes 30 under 30 award winner and her work in the AI and technology industry has been recognized worldwide. As part of her jury work at aws First Incubator, she helps start-ups validate their business idea and develop strategies for responsible AI implementation.

Josefine Schulze is Managing Partner of WOMENTOR, a Verified Social Enterprise that promotes diversity and fair participation in the world of work. Previously, she worked as an Impact & Social Business Expert at Vienna Business Agency, where she was responsible for the development and implementation of the impact strategy in the "Startup Service" division. In this role, she carried out an impact analysis and advised over 120 founders annually. With her extensive experience in advising start-ups and developing sustainable business models, Josefine Schulze brings in-depth expertise in promoting social impact and corporate responsibility. She supports companies in achieving their strategic goals through responsible innovation and achieving a sustainable impact.

Constanze Stockhammer is Managing Director of the Social Entrepreneurship Network Austria (SENA), the interest group and networking platform for Austrian social entrepreneurs founded in 2018. Previously, the doctor of economics worked as an innovation researcher and at the Austrian Council for Research and Technology Development, where she was responsible for the areas of innovative entrepreneurship, start-ups and innovation in addition to her role as Deputy Managing Director. In doing so, she endeavored to establish a broader concept of innovation that also encompasses social innovation.

Tina Trofer works with people who have innovative ideas and want to turn the world upside down in order to make a positive difference. She supports them in developing and implementing their ideas or finding funding for them. As co-founder of ‘Cultural Impact’, she is looking for ways to make the social impact of museums and cultural institutions visible. As co-founder of the initiative ‘found objects - Wiener Handwerk made by Refugees’, she reproduces design products with expired trademark protection together with young refugees. Tina has also been a certified impact manager since 2019.

Harald Uhlig studied Industrial Engineering at the Vienna University of Technology and, as a specialist for medium-sized companies, can look back on many years of experience as a managing director and comparable management positions in the food industry, metal processing, plant engineering and the graphics industry. He was a member of advisory boards and boards of directors as well as a partner in consulting companies. In the course of his career, Harald Uhlig has worked for international companies in the telecommunications sector, has worked for food manufacturing companies in Italy and Austria and has managed manufacturing companies in Austria as well as gaining international experience in marketing and sales of capital goods. He has also been able to expand his knowledge of big data applications in software development for the paper and steel industry. He works both as a consultant and manager and has a broad knowledge of the industrial sector, plant engineering, special machinery and toolmaking. New technologies and developments as well as innovations appeal to him, which is why he has also accompanied and helped to set up start-up companies in recent years.

Kambis Kohansal Vajargah is Head of Start-up Services at the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber. He is responsible for the StartupNOW initiative and is the central point of contact for Start-ups in Austria. As an entrepreneur, company builder and start-up mentor, he supports start-upsG in the early development phase in the market-ready implementation of their ideas. His successful ventures include Start-ups such as whatchado, Saturo, Carployee, Freebiebox and ALVERI or the investor network primeCROWD. His activities focus on digital marketing, strategic corporate development and leadership management. Named a European Digital Leader by the World Economic Forum, he is an active force driving Europe's digitalization. His motto: Believe. Execute. Learn.

Birgit Wimmer-Wurm is convinced that ideas need a chance to become great. As a start-up consultant at tech2b, she supports start-ups with know-how and coaching in business modeling, strategic market entry strategies and the structuring of start-up ideas. As co-founder of a software store, she has already gained start-up experience. It is always important to her to shed light on different perspectives and to take a holistic view of projects. Her professional background ranges from corporate customer advisor at a bank and debt prevention to university assistant and technology transfer at the JKU. She is currently responsible for the early-stage program Ideate and for Sustainbility and GreenTech projects at tech2b.

Albert Vogl-Bader is co-founder of Carployee GmbH - an app that rethinks sustainable mobility on the way to work. Following the successful sale of the company in 2021, he took on the role of Managing Director at RideAmigos Europe. His focus: business development and growth. As a versatile entrepreneur, he also co-founded Vendevio GmbH, a former software agency and now a start-up investment company. In 2022, he was included in the prestigious Forbes 30 under 30 list. Since his participation in the aws First Incubator Program in 2016, Albert Vogl-Bader has regularly contributed his expertise as a juror and mentor to start-up programs, supporting the next generation of innovative founders.

Peiman Zamani has been passionately committed to supporting early-stage start-ups for many years. As CEO and co-founder of 4u-ventures GmbH, he supports young companies on their path to sustainable success. With his expertise in business planning, marketing and strategic management, which he also teaches as a lecturer at FH St. Pölten, he supports founders in developing their business ideas and getting them ready for the market. Thanks to his broad network of universities, industry and investors, he supports start-ups in the long term. His experience is reflected in formats such as the aws First Incubator, where he supports teams in defining target groups and developing a viable business model, among other things. 

With over 25 years of experience in international sales and as Managing Director of IMCD South East Europe, Peiman combines practical expertise with a sound academic background in export management, marketing and textile chemistry. His involvement in the start-up scene, coupled with his work in technology transfer at FH St. Pölten, underlines his passion for actively promoting spin-offs and founders.