Romy Sigl is Salzburg’s coworking pioneer and has been supporting company founders since 2012. Your new goal: co-finance 1,000 good ideas.
Young founders struggle with different challenges. Three essentials: sufficient capital, the right network, the right workplace – as we all know, just having a good idea is not enough to start your own successful business. When it comes to working environment and environment, Romy Sigl has been the first point of contact in this country since the establishment of Coworking Salzburg at Techno-Z in Itzling.
Now the pioneer of shared offices is going a big step further: the 41-year-old from Flachgau is also taking on the role of investor.
“I now believe in my ideas,” Sigl laughs mischievously. It should be taken as a swipe at those who predicted she would fail quickly when she launched her coworking business in 2012. “Startups, co-working spaces, Salzburg is far too small for that, I have heard it many times.”
Since then, the startup mom and her growing team have helped hundreds of young founders get off the ground. With the Euregio program ‘Do What You Love’ she brought together 100 ideas (and therefore people) in 2023 alone.
“This program will enter its second edition in March. Co-Rocks will be interesting for those who want to move on and start a business,” the entrepreneur explains. Translated, this means: Once the ideas have grown into a clear business vision, a fund must provide the necessary start-up support. “My goal is to raise 100 million euros for 1,000 ideas over the next ten years,” Sigl deliberately sets extremely high goals.
Complete focus on artificial intelligence
The first investors who have to put down 500,000 euros for a ticket, or a bet, have been found. One of the financiers is Sigl itself. The biggest obstacle to remaining attractive as a start-up and business location is, not only in the eyes of Sigl, artificial intelligence. “If we don’t act quickly here in Salzburg, in Austria and in Europe. If you collect knowledge about AI and miss the boat, things will get dark very quickly.”
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
