CASE STUDY
TU Wien Innovation Incubation Center (i²c)
Customer
Industry: University Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Project: Year-Long Negotiation Training Curriculum for Spin-Offs and Entrepreneurs
Company: TU Wien Innovation Incubation Center (i²c)
Contact persons: Alexandra Negoescu, Scientific Program Manager at TU Wien Innovation Incubation Center (i²c)
Challenges
Bridging the “Commercial Agility” Gap:
TU Wien founders possess world-class technical expertise, but often lack the “commercial muscle memory” required for high-stakes startup negotiations.
Moving Beyond Theoretical Workshops:
One-off seminars are insufficient for long-term skill retention; founders needed a longitudinal support system to apply tactics to real-world deals in real-time.
Need for Experience-Based Training:
The challenge was to create a high-frequency, experience-based environment that mirrors the daily reality of a founder and supports skill refinement over time.
Our Approach and Execution
Immersive Foundational Bootcamp
Launched with a high-intensity “Tactical Bootcamp” to replace academic negotiation myths with a unified strategic framework and actionable core techniques.
Longitudinal “Just-in-Time” Deep Dives
Delivered six specialized modules throughout the year, timed to startup milestones, covering investor negotiations, B2B sales, partnerships,
hiring, and conflict resolution.
Iterative “Lab” Environment & RealWorld Application
Each session allowed founders to role-play real negotiation challenges, receive expert feedback, and test tactics in a safe environment before applying them in actual deals.
Results and Impact
- 360° Strategic ‘War Room’ for Real-World Deals
- 1 Year Longitudinal training curriculum
Key Highlights
- 360° Strategic “War Room” for Real-World Deals: Each session became a high-trust lab for founders to pressure-test tactics and role-play scenarios
- The Mastery Curve: The year-long format proved negotiation is a trainable discipline, shifting participants from reactive haggling to value-driven negotiation.
- Measurable improvements in confidence and deal outcomes.
Key Learnings
- Longitudinal Integration vs. The “One-Off” Fallacy: Negotiation is a behavioral skill that requires spaced repetition and real-world application.
- Overcoming the “Technical Perfectionism” Trap: The most critical shift is moving founders from “Technical Convincing” to “Value-Based Negotiation”.
About the collaboration
With the help of our negotiation expert Petra Wolkenstein, our founders have taken their negotiation skills for B2B Sales & Partnering to the next level. From understanding negotiation theory and processes to strategic steps and systematic preparation to overcoming difficult moments, our tech founders learned how to get more out of their negotiations.
Alexandra Negoescu, Scientific Program Manager at TU Wien Innovation Incubation Center (i²c)
I am truly impressed by TU Wien’s deep commitment to their founders’ success. By moving beyond traditional academic support and investing in a full year of intensive negotiation training, they have recognized that commercial ‘soft skills’ are, in fact, the hard drivers of startup survival. It is a privilege to watch these founders transform their technical brilliance into tactical negotiation mastery—a shift that will undoubtedly define the trajectory of their ventures.
Petra Wolkenstein, CEO Konsultori