Sherif Kamel: “Many people believe entrepreneurs are born rather than made. Our experience suggests it is a combination of both. Tools and frameworks are relatively easy to teach; judgement under uncertainty is much harder. Entrepreneurs must make decisions without complete information, remain committed while being willing to change course and know when to persist and when to pivot. This is why experiential learning is so important. We expose students to real ventures through competitions, company projects, international hackathons, customer conversations and investor pitches. “We also invite entrepreneurs to speak openly about both successes and failures. When students see that entrepreneurs experience doubt too, resilience becomes something they can develop rather than something they must be born with. Business schools teach students to reduce uncertainty through analysis; entrepreneurs must learn to act productively despite it.” María del Pilar Lopez Gonzalez: “Perhaps the most challenging element to teach is entrepreneurial discernment: the ability to make responsible decisions when neither the evidence nor the outcome is certain. ITESO’s Jesuit educational tradition provides a strong framework because it emphasises reflection, autonomy, dialogue, responsibility and learning through real-life situations. “Entrepreneurs must exercise judgement without obvious answers. Capabilities such as creativity, communication, risk assessment and
an important capability. Students also learn to recognise what they do not know, identify who can help and ask for that help. A worthwhile accelerator creates valuable connections, but it should also help participants develop the confidence and skills to seek the right support from the right people. “There is a particular advantage when an incubator or accelerator is embedded within a technology-focused university. Entrepreneurship students gain exposure to technologies and scientific expertise they might never encounter in a traditional business school.” María del Pilar Lopez Gonzalez: “An incubator becomes truly valuable when it mobilises capabilities and relationships around a venture. ITESO’s model combines technological infrastructure, specialised laboratories, mentoring, intellectual property and technology-transfer expertise, business support and industry connections. “CEGINT’s high-impact business development programme focuses on viable, sustainable and scalable ventures, including technology- based companies built around scientific knowledge and innovation. The programme combines specialised consulting, capability development and impact monitoring. “The accelerator serves organisations at a different stage, providing diagnosis, consulting, innovation support and links with public, private and academic actors. Its emphasis on transferring methodologies and competencies helps organisations sustain improvements beyond the intervention. This changes how success is measured. The important question is not simply how many ventures were incubated, but what entrepreneurs became capable of doing, what problems were solved and what sustainable economic and social value was created.” Entrepreneurship is often viewed as an innate trait rather than a learnable skill. What specific element of the founder mindset do you find most challenging to teach and how do you address this? Maija Renko: “I am somewhat sceptical of entrepreneurial ‘traits’ or the idea of a single entrepreneurial personality. If we tell students that entrepreneurs are simply born risk-takers or visionaries, we risk excluding many people. Much of entrepreneurship is learnable and therefore teachable. One of the hardest lessons, however, is learning how to act when there are no right answers. “In most educational contexts, students are rewarded for finding the correct solution. Entrepreneurship is often the opposite: nobody knows whether customers will buy, whether a business model will work or whether an opportunity is worth pursuing. I try to move students from asking, ‘What is the right answer?’ to asking, ‘What can I do next?’ When the future is uncertain, action itself can become an answer. “That combination of agency and humility is difficult to teach. Students need enough confidence to act despite uncertainty, but enough humility to learn from the results and change course when necessary. The best way to develop this is experientially: giving students real companies, founders and ambiguous problems, then expecting them to speak to customers, test assumptions and make recommendations.”
24 Ambition • ISSUE 5 • 2026
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