Bang at 2 minutes 2 million! As of now, Hans Peter Haselsteiner is no longer part of the Puls4 Startup Show investor group. After ten years he is giving up “his role as a business angel”. The successor has already been determined, with Michael Grabner a new media manager.
Puls 4 says Haselsteiner is resigning “on the occasion of his 80th birthday”. It was ten years “that I really enjoyed,” says Haselsteiner at the end. “When I look back, I am still impressed by the many surprises that were given to me.” He invested a total of around 11 million euros.
“One of the most important members”
The rest of the jury was definitely affected by the resignation: “I was really moved to tears,” says Katharina Schneider, “I will miss him very much.” Eveline Steinberger says: “For me, Hans Peter Haselsteiner is a man with a whole big hearts.” Heinrich Prokop: “He will always remain my great role model.” Christian Jäger says goodbye with words of thanks: “I have him to thank for allowing me to be here.” “No one has influenced the show in recent years as much as Hans Peter Haselsteiner,” says Bernd Hinteregger, “He will forever remain one of the most important members of the ‘2 Minutes 2 Million’ investor family.”
Kern Tec & Signa
Haselsteiner was a permanent member of the jury for eleven seasons, made many good deals, but also made one or two headlines. For example, he strongly criticized Kern Tec during their television appearance: “Your assessment is beyond all reason and what you are doing to us is an abuse and I don’t like to be abused,” he said at the time with outrage and left his investor chair empty on PULS 4 -Studio back. Kern Tec (then called Wunderkern) later raised millions, but from foreign investors (all information here).
Most recently, Haselsteiner was once again in the public eye outside of the show, albeit involuntarily. He was one of the shareholders of Rene Benko’s Signa Group and just a few weeks ago commented on the largest insolvency case in Austria’s history in a ZIB interview. According to Puls 4, it was clear long before that Haselsteiner would give up his chair at 2 minutes 2 million on his 80th birthday.
Media manager as successor
Media manager Michael Grabner is new. Haselsteiner: “Michael Grabner is an extremely clever and humorous person and I think both are important,” says Hans Peter Haselsteiner, announcing his successor. From now on, business angel and media manager Michael Grabner will be taking his place next to Katharina Schneider, Eveline Steinberger, Heinrich Prokop, Christian Jäger and Bernd Hinteregger on yesterday’s TV evening. “Being able to follow in Hans Peter Haselsteiner’s footsteps is almost a ‘super start-up’ in itself. I’m going to try my best! I am interested in new ideas from young and young-at-heart entrepreneurs who want to conquer the market with creativity and commitment,” says Michael Grabner.
In his professional career he has already been a member of the board of several media giants and on the supervisory board of ÖIAG. After studying economics, he worked, among other things, as a product manager for a well-known consumer goods company until he finally became the founding managing director of the newspaper and magazine publisher MediaPrint (Kronen Zeitung, Kurier). In 2005 he was named Media Person of the Year in Germany and has been in the management and as a supervisory board member of the Holtzbrinck Group (“Die Zeit”, “Handelsblatt”, “WirtschaftsWoche”, “Der Tagesspiegel”) for 30 years. Today he is self-employed and invested in numerous innovative, young companies.
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