HARDWIRED // Vol. 02 with Andreas Klinger
HARDWIRED is a meetup series by the TU Wien Robotics Club for anyone at the intersection of hardware and intelligence. Robotics, embedded systems, agentic AI, or anything where bits meet atoms.
This edition made possible by the PROTOTYPE. Hosted by the Home of InnoVation.
Every edition brings in one builder or investor to share real lessons from real projects, followed by an open session where you can bring your own builds, ask for feedback, find collaborators, or just hang out with people who know what a tolerance stack-up is.
Vol. 02 features Andreas Klinger, founder of PROTOTYPE, a solo-GP fund backing Europe's most ambitious frontier tech founders. PROTOTYPE writes first checks into robotics, automation, manufacturing, energy, and space companies across the continent, with portfolio names like Sunrise Robotics, Voltrac, and Luma AI. All three of his funds rank in the global top 1 to 5 percent by performance.
Before investing, Andreas was founding team and CTO at Product Hunt, VPE at CoinList, Head of Remote at AngelList, and CTO at On Deck. He studied at TU Wien. He also runs EU Inc, the grassroots initiative pushing Brussels toward a pan-European legal entity for startups.
He's coming back to Vienna to talk about how to actually raise money to build robotics and hardware companies in Europe right now, why he thinks this is the moment, and what separates the founders he backs from the ones he doesn't. Then he'll take any question you throw at him.
After the keynote there's an open floor. If you're working on something, bring it. No slides, no deck, no prep needed. Just stand up, show what you've got, and get feedback from the room. Whether it's a half-soldered PCB, a CAD model on your laptop, or a 3D-printed part that doesn't fit yet.
The rest of the time is co-working. Work on your own build, find collaborators, or just talk shop.
This isn't a conference. There's no dress code, no agenda that runs until 9pm. Come when you can, stay as long as you want.
Limited to 40 spots.