Traditionally Austria has many problems with founding of startups. In particular the culture does not embrace failure, the social security net is ridiculously tight and rewards people who do not work a bit too much, the taxes are high and the rules and regulations are strict. None of that is new however.

What is new is that for the first time in a long time this has been acknowledged as a problem and it would appear that the ones in charge are genuine about wanting to change this.

Taxation wise I think it would be nice to improve things a bit but if you do the math a fully insured person in California will have to deliver a similar percentage of their income to the state so I think this is mostly a marketing problem than an actual issue.

We will see how this goes. In the last few years many of my friends and collegues when to the states and I really wish that some of that talent will eventually come back. There is a lot that is wrong in Austria but the quality of living is great and at one point in life this matters a lot.

Apart from missing venture capital, the biggest hurdle for a flurishing startup ecosystem is of a cultural nature. Failure is still somewhat of a taboo in Austria. Risk aversity is taught from an early age on in most households.

That being said, things are starting to move a little. Small hubs develop around universities in Vienna/Graz/Linz, with regular meetups for networking. Much of it is in its infancy, and attending those events sometimes feels like being in a badly acted version of Silicon Valley. But it's still better than not having them.

I live in Austria, founded (and sold) a company years ago and have invested in 2 startups (6 figure each) - and I believe this is a misleading PR article. Austria has lackluster, under-funded universities, unattractive tax rules for companies and higher-paid employees and the country is dropping in most competitiveness, growth rankings that matter for startups. Infrastructure is good, but hiring good developers e.g. is very difficult because salaries are both low and burdened with high taxation, so they look elsewhere.

Personally, I wouldn't found another company in Austria. There are many better places in the EU, Ireland is probably the best option right now.

You don't want to pay the ultra-high taxes and social security in Austria. While corporate taxes are ok, they went berserk with personal income.

Vienna! ha ha ha. You better have some VC if you want to afford that kaffe. I was there for a few days earlier this year & felt like I was getting fleeced at every turn.

What is the point? About 30 minutes drive you come to Bratislava. They have the Euro, they have the more affordable everything.. including old slavic roots who kick some serious butt at everything programming & math related.

Nice parks though.

So it's Austria this week? I thought it was Norway last week.

I can't remember who said it, but I remember someone saying there was one question you should ask yourself when reading any news story... Why am I reading about this now? In other words, for what purposes is this story being shared right now?

I'm not suggesting there's a conspiracy behind every story, and there are often benign explanations that can coexist with dramatic ones. What I am suggesting is that question is a vital one for seeing through media spin, regardless of whether it's intentional or unintentional.

It would be hard to attract talent in Austria. Brno is real startup hub in that region.