The Fedtrade® podcast recently interviewed Lukas Zitz, Deputy Austrian Trade Commissioner of Advantage Austria, as part of our SelectUSA Investment Summit Spotlight series. With around 100 offices in over 70 countries, Advantage Austria provides a broad range of intelligence and business development services for both Austrian companies and their international business partners. Members of Advantage Austria will be attending the 2025 SelectUSA Investment Summit in National Harbor, Maryland, from May 11-14, 2025.
Learn more about Advantage Austria on their website or follow them on LinkedIn. Connect with Lukas on LinkedIn.
Key Takeaways:
- Exports from Austria to the U.S. have significantly increased since 2005.
- A common misconception for companies entering the U.S. market is that the legal and regulatory compliance aspects are similar to Austria.
- Advantage Austria’s network of resources includes not only legal experts and tax advisors, but cultural experts that help overcome potential cultural differences between U.S. and Austrian companies.
- SelectUSA provides a platform for Austrian companies to explore opportunities that exist in the U.S. market.
Listen to podcast here.
[a copy of the written transcript is here]:
Hello, welcome to Fedtrade®. My name is James Hastings of Rothwell Figg. Joining us on the podcast today is Lukas Zitz, Deputy Austrian Trade Commissioner of Advantage Austria. Lukas will be sharing the importance of Austrian-U.S. trade and how Advantage Austria provides startups and growth companies with vital resources to assist in their U.S. market entry journey.
Lukas, welcome to Fedtrade®.
Thank you for having me, James.
Lukas, what is the mission of Advantage Austria?
Advantage Austria is the trade promotion agency for all Austrian companies. As a small and strongly export-oriented country, our organization supports companies of all industries in their endeavors on foreign markets.
Specifically, what types of activities are involved in U.S. market entry?
So for the U.S., the most relevant aspect obviously is exports. The U.S. is our second most important export partner after Germany. And our exports to the U.S. actually have increased by 188% since 2005. And in 2023, we reached about 14.7 million euros of exports to the U.S. In 2024, we already exceeded that number by roughly one billion through November. So we’re seeing very strong growth and also interest from Austrian companies that are not yet exporting to the U.S. market. So this is number one: exports. The second aspect are investments. Austrian companies across all industries invest in the United States. There is a focus however on the manufacturing industries, certain service providers, but really anything that is well known from Austria, there will be one or the other company going to the United States with investments and having substantial production also in the U.S.
The sectors that export to the United States from Austria include high-tech sectors as well, is that correct?
That is correct, yes. The largest chunk of Austrian exports to the United States are machines and also the automotive industry. There are second tier companies that are exporting to the U.S. and all these companies can be considered high-tech. There is no bulk export of simple products. It’s usually high value added products that will be exported to the U.S.
I understand that pharmaceuticals and medical devices are also an important export for Austria.
Yes, Austria has a very strong research landscape in these fields and the result out of that is that we are able to sell these products across the globe and also to the United States.
What are some common characteristics of Austrian startups or established companies who seek out your market U.S. entry services?
So maybe it’s good to start with the USP (unique selling proposition) of Austrian companies overall, which really is they’re usually highly specialized in a certain niche market that will allow them to be very competitive in their specific market. We like to call them hidden champions. And that is really what sets them apart from other companies.
Are they at particular stages of their business, from startup to established companies?
I would say the very well established or large Austrian companies that are in business for decades and have a certain size, that are stock listed, there’s few of them that will not have any exposure to the U.S. market. So many of them are in the U.S. market in some way, whether that be exports, investments, or partnerships. For smaller and medium sized companies, the picture is a bit more diverse. There are a good number of companies that have already discovered the U.S. market as a big opportunity and are successfully operating here for quite some time. And then in the last three years there is a growing number of companies that are very interested in entering the U.S. market, either exporting their products to the U.S. or investing here as they’re realizing that a large consumer base is interested in their products. That is true for B2C and B2B businesses. And on the third aspect, I think our startups that are startups in the classical sense where they have an innovative idea with a relatively young founding team, they will come to the U.S. for different reasons. The medical device market is an interesting example where the U.S. is particularly appealing because it’s one large coherent market that can be addressed with a product without looking at different legal situations and legal environments of different countries. So if you want to roll out, for example, a medical device and test it in a very large market, the U.S. is many times the go-to market for these startups.
That’s very interesting. In your experience, how important are legal and regulatory compliance issues in the United States?
I think that they are obviously very important. I think from a European perspective and also from an Austrian perspective, we have very tight regulations in critical industries, but overall, I would say that if you have a company in Austria, you are already quite aware of legal requirements that your company has to fulfill in every sense possible. So I think that there is already awareness when companies are coming to the U.S., but sometimes there is an understanding that the requirements are similar to what is known from back home. And that many times is a misconception and then companies will need to look further into when they will need advice on how to adapt their understanding of legal requirements to the U.S. market and also to the state level many times, really.
That’s an excellent point. There are several layers of regulatory compliance in the United States depending on the product or sector. And of course, intellectual property and protecting high tech sector rights is also very important in the United States. Would you agree with that?
Yes, absolutely. The companies reach out to us in order to really get an overview of what they need to look into when they’re entering the U.S. market. And one offer that we have is the so-called boot camp, which is a week-long workshop. It’s in person happening in either New York, Atlanta, or Chicago at the moment, three to four times a year. And that’s where, among other things, we and legal experts give an overview about the differences and also the challenges of the U.S. legal landscape when entering as a new company.
I’ve read on your website that Advantage Austria has several resources available to Austrian companies seeking to do business in the United States. One of them you just mentioned was Boot Camp USA. What are some others?
The bootcamp is definitely our most successful offer and it’s selling out every single time we offer it and we are very proud of that. And other than that, we understand ourselves not only as an organization that helps to overcome hurdles, but we also try to support companies in identifying opportunities. For example, we had an incoming mission, that’s what we call it, in fall of last year that was focused on the U.S. sports industry. And we wanted to give Austrian companies that are working in the sports industry, whether that is managing a stadium, producing textiles, or running a marketing company for the sports industry, the opportunity to get insight into the U.S. sports market, which is a huge industry, as you probably know. We arranged meetings with leagues like the National Football League. We also tried to highlight the increasing popularity of soccer in the United States and what that opportunity could mean for European companies that are experienced in the soccer industry. And we also talked about how sports are overall approached as a business in the U.S., whereas in Europe there’s a very strong fan culture and the fans feel like family members of this club. This dynamic in the U.S. also exists, but there’s also a very strong business focus on the sports industry. For example, when we met with the National Football League, I think some participants were quite interested in how entrepreneurial the approach of that association is.
Advantage Austria will be attending SelectUSA Investment Summit this coming May. Can you please describe your participation and the advantages of attending?
Advantage Austria has participated in SelectUSA for several years. And I have to say at this point, our primary focus is to inform Austrian companies about the opportunities that are existent in the U.S. market. And SelectUSA has proven to be a great platform to do so.
Can you share with us any examples of success stories of Advantage Austria in terms of creating relationships with U.S. companies on behalf of Austrian companies?
Yes, one particular example is every year we host an event called Austria Connect. And that is, so to say, an annual congress for all subsidiary leaders of Austrian companies in North America, so we include our colleagues from Canada and Mexico. And last year’s event happened at the Wintrust Bank, which is headquartered in Chicago. And they also are focusing on working with European companies, especially with companies from the DACH region. And we were able to host an evening reception at the Wintrust Bank. If you ever go to Chicago, it’s a very beautiful bank hall and we were very grateful we could host that event there. And at this event, we were able to introduce our Austrian companies to Wintrust Bank, our local partner. And as far as I know, there have been numerous partnerships established through that connection. So really, I think we can create connections between American and Austrian companies through events like Austria Connect, but also through incoming missions that we hold and where we really want to put American companies on stage and into the spotlight so they can share what their offer is and how they are working. And that is not only beneficial in the sense that they can promote their services, but also really it helps the Austrian companies to better understand how American companies work, which sometimes can be very different. And that understanding then can help to build relationships, trust, and then also lead to business opportunities.
Advantage Austria also arranges meetings and relationships on behalf of Austrian companies with potential investors in the United States. Is that true?
That is true upon request. I would say it is not our main focus. If companies come to the U.S., especially larger ones, they many times are family-owned companies and their funding can look a bit different so they’re not necessarily looking for investors. But we have had the case that Austrian companies asked for support to find investors and through our very extensive network, we definitely have been able to support numerous companies to find investors that were potentially then investing in their company.
Does your network of resources also includes professional service providers in the United States?
Yes, it is a very substantial part of our services offered. We try to stay in contact with service providers of all sorts, particularly legal advisors and tax experts. But it goes as far as cultural experts that will help to overcome potential cultural differences between the U.S. and Austrian companies which sometimes is a problem that is overlooked and then can cause issues. So really the portfolio is very broad and we try to stay in close contact with our service providers in order to guarantee the best quality of service for our members.
Is there anything else that you would like our listeners to know about Advantage Austria?
Yes, Advantage Austria is quite unique as a trade promotion organization because we have a very extensive network around the globe. We are very interconnected and in our globalized world where there are now questions, economic questions or business questions, they cannot be answered anymore from a national perspective. There needs to be a big picture. I think we’re doing very well at helping companies understand how they need to adapt to certain changes that can come from political changes or economic impacts of certain events in the world. And I would also like to encourage American companies to reach out to us if they think that they would want to become a partner with Austrian companies in the industries we have discussed. Because many times this is a big part of our job, where we try to do this matchmaking. If there are U.S. businesses proactively approaching me, I will greatly appreciate that and try my best to connect them with potential business partners from Austria that are interested in the U.S. market.
For companies wanting to have more information on Advantage Austria, what is the best way for them to contact you?
The best way to contact us directly is to send us an email to newyork@advantageaustria.org. And we regularly post about all our activities on LinkedIn. So if you go on LinkedIn and search for Advantage Austria USA, you will be best informed about all the events we’re hosting and the activities we were conducting throughout the year.
Lukas Zitz, Deputy Austrian Trade Commissioner of Advantage Austria in New York. Thanks for joining us.
Thank you very much, James.
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