Startups and a Future that doesn't yet know what it will look like
In a world increasingly marked by uncertainty, tensions, and competing objectives, one thing is clear: the future cannot be planned. It can only be shaped – through the conscious integration of contradictions into a larger, dynamic, and complex whole. This is where transformative power lies. The future unfolds where opposites are no longer seen as contradictions but are allowed to touch – or even embrace.
Paradoxes and antagonisms lose their dividing force when integrated into a greater whole. This is the essence of dynamic complexity: not either-or but both-and – as the foundation of genuine future potential.
The Future as a Paradoxical System
In systems theory, this is described as causality not being linear, but running in feedback loops – where small impulses can trigger major effects, often in unexpected places. Metaphorically, it is the flap of a butterfly’s wings setting off a hurricane on the other side of the world – the “Butterfly Effect” of chaos theory.
The great questions of our time cannot be answered in a linear way. Climate change and economic growth. Technological progress through AI and social cohesion. Self-determination and collective responsibility. These tensions cannot simply be resolved – but they can be shaped. By adopting a new mindset: seeing the paradox not as a problem, but as potential.
Startups as Living Laboratories of the Future
For me, startups are the living expression of this mindset. They are search movements. They test what tomorrow might sustain. Experimentation, failure, rapid adaptation, and the courage to ask radical questions – what if things could be done differently? – are part of their DNA.
On a societal level, startups generate enormous impact: not only creating jobs and innovation, but embodying a new way of thinking. Not stable and predictable, but adaptive and exploratory. In times when social, economic, and climate realities are constantly shifting, this way of thinking becomes a vital cultural technique. One could say that the startup scene is society’s response to a future that does not yet know what it will look like. In Austria, diverse ecosystems have emerged in recent years that see entrepreneurship not only as an economic category but as a cultural mandate.
Epigenetics: How We Shape the Future
A similar movement of thought can be observed in epigenetics. This young field of research shows that our behavior is not determined solely by our DNA, but also by environment, lifestyle, and mindset – which strongly influence gene expression. In other words: our biology is not a static blueprint, but a dynamic system that responds to signals. How we live, think, feel, and act also influences our genetics. We are active co-creators of our biological existence, not passive victims of our genes.
I see epigenetics as the scientific counterpart of the startup mindset at the molecular level: courage to shape, openness to the new, and the self-responsible power of decision-making. Anyone founding a startup today is not only entering a market but also stepping into a cultural space of possibilities. Likewise, those who consciously eat, think resiliently, meditate, and exercise are influencing not only their well-being but also their genetic self-regulation.
What Connects These Worlds?
For me, it is the realization that control is an illusion – and shaping is a responsibility. Both in entrepreneurship and in biology, the lesson is the same: the future is not created by replicating the past, but by openness and responsible action.
Original article:
Guest commentary by Dr. Susanne Lederer-Pabst in Börse Social Magazine, Issue #103, 07/2025.