Entrepreneurial design

"Designers who also become entrepreneurs often have a hard time finding a balance between the right and left side of their brain. I was already a successful entrepreneur when I first came to the Industrial and Strategic design program as a MA student. As a designer and company founder, I think Aalto has equipped me with the knowledge, tools, and methods to manage both my creative and analytical side equally.

Aalto makes a great effort to be interdisciplinary and to facilitate access to complementary expertise within the institution. Our students can explore different fields and tailor their studies in accordance with their personal objectives.

This access to diverse areas of knowledge is one of the key factors contributing to Aalto’s lively culture of entrepreneurial thinking, which I would roughly define as an unstoppable curious mind with an endless urge to build new scenarios. The entrepreneurial life is full of challenges. It is having a continuous need for new knowledge.

Aalto University fosters people’s entrepreneurial mindset even in the unlikely areas, such as research. I feel very privileged to have the opportunity to be a researcher and, at the same time, maintain and also be challenged in maintaining my entrepreneurial mindset.

As a doctoral student at Aalto, I find space in my research group to purposefully seek research subjects and angles that will benefit from and enhance my experience as an entrepreneur." 

– Patricia Naves Pinheiro, Visiting Researcher, Department of Design