Qubit Founders: From Quantum Research to Quantum Company
A new community for researchers weighing up whether their work could become a company.
The question of whether your own research could become a company is one most people carry around for months. Usually alone.
That is the gap Qubit Founders exists to close. It launches this autumn with formats in Vienna and Innsbruck, and it is open now at qubitfounders.eu.
Why we built it
Over the past year we have moved deeper into the quantum ecosystem, first through the Quantum Reality Check with the FFG, and now through this.
The reasoning is straightforward. Europe has a genuine shot at the front row in quantum, and Austria is not at the edge of that. The fundamental research here has been world class for decades, from Zeilinger through to the institutes in Vienna and Innsbruck today. Quantum technology is one of nine key technologies in Austria's industrial strategy, with 2.6 billion euros allocated to it through 2029.
The lever that turns research into value creation is spin-offs. Austria needs more of them.
The Quantum Reality Check works on the demand side, helping companies understand where quantum becomes relevant to them. Qubit Founders is the other side of the same problem.
Who it is for
Pre-docs, PhDs, postdocs and technical people from quantum and adjacent fields. Whether you are already building, actively deciding whether to spin out, or still working out whether founding is something you want at all.
You need no company, no deck and no co-founder.
It is also open to people coming at it from the other direction: business and economics graduates interested in quantum, commercial people with deep tech experience, and former corporate managers considering a move into entrepreneurship. Co-founder matching is part of the point.
Who is behind it
Qubit Founders is coordinated by weXelerate, with backing from people who have done this themselves or fund people who do.
Rupert Ursin, founder of qtlabs and Zero Third, and Alexander Glätzle, founder of planqc, both moved from science into founding. On the investor side, John Tadayeski of Entanglement Inc, Philipp Stangl of Noctua Ventures, Maximilian Schausberger of Elevator Ventures and Nils Pomberger of i5invest are involved.
The first formats
21 September, Vienna. How Investors Actually Decide. From inside a lab, investors look like a black box you approach once, at the right moment, with the right deck. That framing is wrong and it costs researchers years. John Tadayeski and Kyle Pickens, who do this for a living, take it apart. No pitching, no evaluation, Chatham House rule, ten seats.
13 October, Innsbruck. An investor fireside chat.
19 October, Vienna. From Research to Founder, with Rupert Ursin.
3 November, Vienna. Investing in Quantum.
26 November, Vienna. A quantum track at Future Forward 2026, with five free seats reserved for researchers and founders.
Beyond the events, the community offers peer mentoring on IP and spin-off strategy, corporate exchange formats built around real industry problems, co-founder matching and workspace.
One request
We know this group is small in relative terms. Our thesis is that it is larger than people think, and that the problem is that almost everyone sits with the question alone at their institute and discusses it with nobody.
Turning something over in your head on your own is a different thing from talking it through with people going through the same decision right now. That is the room we want to open.
If you know pre-docs or postdocs who have this question in their head and have not said it out loud yet, send them the link.
Sign up and see the current formats at qubitfounders.eu. Every request gets looked at personally, with a reply within 48 hours.
For the corporate side of the same work, see the Quantum Reality Check.
