On April 30, anyone interested in bringing their ideas to reality were invited to the Entrepreneurship Lunch Talk, “Two or three weird advices for entrepreneurs that seem to work”. Celebrating April as the month of science, Bruno Martinaud was invited to the Startup KAIST Studio (W8) to share his entrepreneurial insights with the KAIST community over lunch.

Bruno Martinaud is a serial entrepreneur — one who continuously provides new ideas for businesses, thus starting and leading several businesses at the same time. This distinguishes him from other entrepreneurs who start and stay with the business until retirement while managing the day-to-day operations. With continuous innovation being a key trait of serial entrepreneurs, Martinaud has been teaching a Masters course in technology and entrepreneurship at the École Polytechnique in Paris. He is also the founder of Innover Entreprendre, a foundation that promotes entrepreneurial spirit by organizing various events and sharing contents on innovation and entrepreneurship, free of copyrights for any interested entrepreneur.

In this lunch talk, Martinaud initiated the conversation by challenging the notion that startups are mainly about opportunities. He used Juniper Networks as an example, which started with two researchers quitting work and starting a new business. Despite the criticisms and lack of enthusiasm for their ideas, the team and their dedication towards the item eventually led to a major initial public offering. Martinaud mentioned how an irrational idea can be made rational through firm belief and consistent efforts.

Then, the talk progressed to answer a fundamental question, “What drives entrepreneurial success?” by emphasizing key aspects of starting a business: “Startups are not about opportunities”; “Experience does not matter [so much]”; “Good ideas always look bad at first”; “Understanding is a luxury”; and “Luck is a skill.” By suggesting that experience may not matter as much as most people deem it to be, he noted how the ability to innovate — which involves thinking differently and coming up with new solutions — may not stem from experience, which often consolidates into a routine way of solving problems.

With the casual environment of the event, even students with no background knowledge of startups got a thought-provoking introduction to the world of entrepreneurship. The event successfully wrapped up the month of science with new questions and ideas to be discussed and explored.

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