“Networking is everything, when you have a company!”
This is what I was told when I founded Brumboo Engineering & Consulting GmbH, and I quickly learned that, if you can choose between living alone and living in a community, you go for the community!
After all, networking is fun and interesting, and I take a lot of pleasure connecting and exchanging with new business partners and old friends. Ideas pop up literally every day, when I talk with them, and I learn a lot observing them! Therefore, I wanted to write about some refreshing encounters that I had with start-ups and scale-ups in Styria, which all have been created with the purpose of contributing sustainably to our common society and energy transition.
When Robert Pierer of qoncept dx contacted me to discuss a potential collaboration, I was very curious about their software indeed. Robert and co-founder Sebastian Michelic – both outstanding metallurgists and formerly in leading roles at Austrian steel companies – were absolutely convinced that the biggest booster for process optimization and therefore CO2 reduction in steel plants was digitalization. They put their money where their mouth is and -after only four years – established a highly specialized software company, serving plenty of steel manufacturers, achieving their initial goal, their purpose! Round about 20 employees, mostly programmers and metallurgists contribute daily, making a big impact to a more sustainable steel production. Kodus to them!
Lukas Strohmeier and co-founder Miroslav Negovan from delphi data labs are doing their share on contributing to the energy transition by providing cleantech market data to their customers. Currently a major focus for them is hydrogen via electrolysis. They provide exceptional market insights with market studies they take months to prepare, helping their customers finding niches or the right acquisition candidate. The way they connect with other companies and research facilities to get the data needed and their marketing approach is genuinely inspiring.
Bernhard Kager is an old friend and former fellow student from TU Graz. He is also one of the most switched-on guys I know. When I visited Engenium, which he founded with Christian Madritsch and Bertram Dumböck, I knew that it could only be good! My visit there was amazing, since Engenium GmbH provides the highest level of FEM simulation, measurement technology and related engineered software programming. Their sustainability contribution arises from them serving predominantly railway vehicle companies, contributing to a greener and more sustainable transport!
My former colleague and chief engineer at ANDRITZ Johannes Erhard, Ph.D. decided to start a company about a year ago, after working 7 years at Graz University of Technology and more than 20 years in the industry! We met for a coffee recently and he told me that he currently provided engineering services to customers in the hydrogen storage and heat-pump businesses. So he went from the hydro turbine and pumps business to other sustainable topics, continuing with Erhard Energietechnik to leave his footprint to our common society. Johannes, with his vast turbomachinery knowledge comprising gas turbines, water turbines, pumps, generators and motors, will for sure deliver further significant milestones, helping companies achieve their goals for a more sustainable energy future. Respect for his ingenuity and commitment!
Finally I had the pleasure to share lunch with Gerhard Thonhauser the other day. Next to his tenure as university professor at the Department Petroleum Engineering Montanuniversität Leoben, he contributes to the family business, which he co-founded with his wife Bouchra Lamik-Thonhauser. For me as a young entrepreneur, it is utterly inspiring how they created a thriving digital services company (tde digital), which was founded in Leoben, in the meantime having a truely global footprint! Gerhard was full of enthusiasm for their latest endeavor tde energy, which represents yet again a considerable contribution to the prosperity of my hometown Leoben. tde energy develops and commercializes new technological solutions for hydrogen production at industrial scale, as well as geothermal technology and energy storage solutions. Especially the hydrogen production concept based on pyrolysis struck me, as Gerhard explained to me. He is convinced that its near-term contribution to the energy transition and commercialization is more reasonable and feasibly than electrolysis (mainly because of the favorable low energy input needed and the reuse of existing natural gas transport and storage infrastructure). I wish everyone at tde that it will be a great success!
These are only some of many outstanding individuals in my region, which are actively trying to make a techno-ecological impact. I look forward to meeting many others along the way!
Best, Michael
