One constant of the Split Tech City community is its continuous growth. Therefore, it’s of no surprise that we’re presenting you with another new community member that recently joined us on our journey of building Split’s tech ecosystem – Silicon Castles!

Their name might be familiar to some of you, but aside from the name, we’re now bringing you their story, too!

We asked Ivana Perić, the Silicon Castles’ Acceleration Manager, to tell us more about who and what Silicon Castles is, as well as share their outlook on the local tech community and their plans for the future here in the region.

What can you tell us about the Silicon Castles team and the work you do?

“Silicon Castles is a Tech Company Builder and Strategic Business Accelerator for technology startups with a focus on intellectual property (IP) licensing businesses. Our headquarters are located in Salzburg, Austria. We work on developing European Diamonds: tech startups with unique business ideas, scalable technology, and outstanding intellectual property – three things we consider key to achieving global success.

Aside from focusing on developing European Diamonds, Silicon Castles also invests in early-stage startups with a great team, a promising idea, and innovative technology – we like painkillers, not vitamins.

Additionally, we help Diamonds to form a strong IP portfolio which includes protecting ideas and filing the right patents; support global business development with our own global sales team by identifying the target market and getting that first deal; assist with the creation of a legal framework for licensing businesses from the NDA to the licensing agreement; coach Diamonds during their scale-up phase in various areas, such as marketing, strategic teaming, and executive coaching; provide access to a global network in all major technology hotspots in Europe, the US, and Asia by leveraging the global Silicon Castles network.”

Can you also give us details about your Startup Executive Academy and Diamond Labs?

“Every year, Silicon Castles also organizes an educational program called the Startup Executive Academy (SEA), an international Go-To-Market program for founders and executives of early-stage technology startups.

The academy aims to enable startups to accelerate their business by providing highly relevant and practical input and it is delivered by a world-class faculty from academia and business and led by Prof. Baba Shiv from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. The SEA is run as a hybrid program incorporating aspects of both a face-to-face and an online program.

One other valuable activity Silicon Castles organizes are the Design Thinking workshops, the so-called Diamond Labs. They help identify and shape the ideas of people from different disciplines, experiences, ages, and cultures. The Diamond Labs are guided and led by experts from Silicon Castles and focus on developing innovative ideas in the field of new technologies.

Silicon Castles believes in the innovation power of regions around smaller cities.

Often, such regions are the home of very innovative companies and are seen as hidden technology champions. In particular, Split has been identified as one of these regions with a strongly developing entrepreneurial and technological ecosystem.

Therefore, Silicon Castles has started to support the Split region and its innovation ecosystem and engage with high-potential startups to help them accelerate to global success. We could say that we are very interested in co-founding technology startups in the Split region, so our presence here came as a natural next step.

Andreas Spechtler, the founder and CEO of Silicon Castles, believes that there is a lot of talent in Split and the surrounding region.

He also believes that Silicon Castles can offer new support to the ecosystem if people are interested.

And that is the main reason why he decided to employ me as the new Acceleration Manager in Split. Aside from the sunny weather and a beautiful city, of course!”

What comparison can you make regarding the tech scene in Split five years ago and now?

“We think that the tech scene in Split has grown and developed and that it is full of talent. And this talent deserves to be supported. We also think that, compared to the time before, they have many more opportunities for improvement at their disposal.”

What positives do you see in Split’s tech community?

“We think that the energy of Split and its people is unique.

People here are very smart, hardworking, and persistent, and it’s nice to be in that type of environment.

They also motivate you to be better. We at Silicon Castles want to surround ourselves and work with people like that! And we offer to go global immediately and think big!”

What made you join the Split Tech City community?

“We at Silicon Castles believe that Split Tech City is a unique association in this area that promotes true values within the community and enables all participants to get to know each other, network, and help each other grow. These are also the values that we at Silicon Castles promote, so joining Split Tech City was an expected next step upon opening our Split office.”

We’d like to thank Ivana for her input and wish Silicon Castles and all their European Diamonds lots of success in their future work. We are also looking forward to growing the local tech and startup ecosystem together with them!

Welcome, Silicon Castles!