Matthias Reisinger, thoughtSeeker
Who are you and what do you do?
My name is Matthias, I am 28, born and raised in Austria, since 10 years living in Vienna, co-founder of the Hub Vienna. I have a background in business and I believe that business, just as other things in life, is a tool; a tool does not have an inherent meeting, you have to give it one.
The question I asked myself is how can we use this business tool in order to create value for others? How can we address the most pressuring challenges in society that we currently have? The long way of discovery leads us to social innovations, to the social innovators and into ways to help and support them.
What is meaning for you?
A certain sense of purpose; being part of the solution not part of the problem. Is connected to what I feel I should be doing and hopefully creating value for others.
being part of the solution not part of the problem
How do you feel when you wake up in the morning?
It’s excitement. I am excited about my job, I am surrounded by people who think as they are, as they could and should be and have a positive attitude about reaching that scenario.
I am surrounded by people who want to get things done working for the world to become a better place. This is extremely motivating. When I hear the stories of that what happened due to the existence of the Hub, it keeps me motivated to work further.
Could you describe your job?
I was one of the cofounders of the Impact Hub Vienna, an innovation space for people who find innovative solutions to social challenges (from migration to education, from renewable energies to poverty).
These people come and use the hub as a space to work and they create together with other people. My job currently is to manage this whole thing and to make sure that the Hub delivers what it promises in the brochure.
According to which principles does the activity in the Hub take place?
When you enter the space you find an interesting crowd of people who want to make a difference. They have access to inspiring events, to workshops that give you the tools; they have access to mentors with experience. They ecosystem helps them to realize their projects faster and better. These aspects help you with your idea. They help you co-create and get together people that are inspiring.
What brought you to the idea to get these people together?
What they do is really impressive. Simply put, they go out there in order to solve challenges. They did this in isolation from each other until now. We tried to create the physical space where those people can come together and exchange the resources, experience and mutual support. Together we are always stronger than individually.
How did you come to the idea to start the Hub?
During our studies we realized that there are loads of people who actually think like us. We as humanity need to find a different way to create a business. We need to find and use tools to solve social challenges. This kind of concepts were not so known in the German space, in the DACH region, though the potential was huge. The question we asked ourselves was, how can we create tools for these people?
We started differently, organizing conferences, workshops, etc. On a conference you go from Friday to Sunday and then comes the Monday. So you are back in your normal routine. You should reconnect with your week-end energy actually from Monday on. We looked around and a friend of us started the Hub in Sao Paolo; so we thought: let’s bring it to Vienna.
How do you look at failures?
A failure could be a philosophical concept; I see it as missing an opportunity because I was unprepared. Learning and trying things that might not work is failure, but is failure which is part of the process. If there is an opportunity you lost because you did not capitalize enough on the potential, that is what I think a real failure is.
How do you cope with things which do not go out as you want?
If you are on an entrepreneurial journey, a lot of things are based on assumptions which one can validate or invalidate. So I can see if things that I see are true or not true, usually easily. It I s not about how not to fail but how to make the product or service better; for me is about creating a great product.
What are your life principles?
Quite simple: I am looking for a way how to be happy, how I can pursue happiness. I started to look around and try to see who are the people who appear happy to me? It was not necessarily the people who had accumulated material wealth, but people that were quite clear about their purpose and who create value for others.
Find the things that you do passionately and which create value for others, this will bring happiness in your life.
What would you like to leave behind you?
I would like to leave behind no regrets. I would want to live in the moment and do the things that I could have done and should have done. I would like people to hint I lived the life as I imagined it.
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