Where Innovation Meets Purpose: Two EO Founders Build Businesses Around Impactful Medical Products

In celebration of Inventors Day on 11 February, Entrepreneurs Organization is highlighting two new members of the EO Austria chapter — Jason Golan and Stefan Kampusch — who have built companies around medical innovations born from scientific rigor and a desire to bring comfort to those who need it most. Together, their stories reflect the power of entrepreneurial drive meeting purpose.

Jason Golan (ELARIS)

Jason Golan (left) is co-founder of ELARIS

Jason Golan recently joined via EO Austria, bringing with him decades of experience in biotech and a new startup focused on preventive healthcare. Jason is the co-founder of ELARIS, a biotech company dedicated to developing vaccines that aim to prevent serious bacterial infections before they take hold — particularly among aging and vulnerable populations.

Jason’s path to founding ELARIS reflects both experience and introspection. Earlier in his career, he launched a custom medical device company before moving to Austria and joining a vaccine biotech firm. What he expected to be a short stop that turned into a 20-year journey. Over time, he gained broad exposure across scientific development, commercialization, fundraising, and leadership.

After two decades, though, he made a deliberate return to entrepreneurship. While his career provided stability and success, the pull to build something new never fully faded. “Deep down in my gut, I said, ‘No, I want to push myself more,’” Jason says. “Rather than being comfortable, I want to see how far can I push this.”

ELARIS was born from that impulse and a clear mission. As societies age, Jason believes healthcare must evolve beyond simply reacting to illness. “We do not want only to live longer,” he says. “We want to live healthier.” That mindset shapes ELARIS’ focus on prevention — specifically through vaccines designed to protect against high-risk bacterial infections.

“Entrepreneurship is like you jump off a cliff and you have to believe that you are going to build the plane or the parachute before you hit the ground."

- Jason Golan (EO Austria)

The company’s first vaccine candidate targets Clostridioides difficile, a severe hospital-acquired infection that disproportionately affects elderly and immunocompromised patients. The disease is notorious for recurrence, often trapping patients in cycles of antibiotic treatment and relapse.

Today, ELARIS operates as a lean startup with a small founding team, navigating the capital-intensive realities of biotech while advancing its proof of concept. Jason acknowledges the challenges of fundraising and building a vast new network, but views it as an opportunity for learning and growth.

“Entrepreneurship is like you jump off a cliff and you have to believe that you are going to build the plane or the parachute before you hit the ground,” he says.

Joining EO Austria this year was a natural next step: Jason sees value in learning from other entrepreneurs who have made comparable leaps of faith. “You are operating in a very high-risk environment with very high unpredictability,” he says. “I found that learning from other people has allowed me to accelerate … and can help me navigate some of the challenges moving forward.”

Stefan Kampusch (AURIMOD)

Stefan Kampusch, co-founder and CEO of AURIMOD

Stefan Kampusch, another new member of EO Austria, has built a company focused on rethinking how chronic pain is treated. Stefan is the co-founder and CEO of AURIMOD, a medical device company developing drug-free therapies based on vagus nerve stimulation.

Armed with degrees in electrical engineering and biomedical engineering, he co-founded AURIMOD with a clear purpose: “Chronic pain is one of the largest and most overlooked health crises of our time,” Stefan says. “More than one billion people have to live with pain every single day.”

AURIMOD’s work centers on a first-of-its-kind auricular vagus nerve stimulation device that treats chronic lower back pain. The device delivers a small electrical impulse through the pinna of the ear, activating the body’s natural pain control mechanisms without opioids or surgery.

The company grew out of Stefan’s early fascination with the vagus nerve during his work as an engineer and evolved into a commercial-stage medical device business. “I saw firsthand what this technology could do for patients,” he says. “They gained their life back.”

The company’s device has helped more than 1,000 patients to date and is now focused on expanding internationally while building a broader clinical pipeline. “Turning this vision and new bioelectronic therapy into a real business has been a true entrepreneurial journey,” he says, “navigating development challenges, regulatory pathways, building awareness and clinical credibility, scaling production, and establishing reimbursement across diverse European markets.”