Péter Balogh - or Petya Balogh as he is known to many – start-upper, angel investor, mentor, one of the sharks of the Hungarian version of the television show Shark Tank, was a guest of the Spinoff Extra programme of Széchenyi István University. The speaker not only presented his own life story but also gave useful advice to the young attendees thinking about starting a business.

The Spinoff Club at Széchenyi István University aims to bring together people who are interested in business, entrepreneurship and innovation and eager to create connections that can lead to research and development projects or even start-up companies. Building on the popularity of the TV programme, the team of the Higher Education and Industry Cooperation Centre (FIEK) has created a series of events entitled "Spinoff Extra - leaders up close", where each event brings together a well-known and respected manager. Last spring, the first lecture in the Győr Innovation Park featured Dr István Szászi, Head of the Bosch Group in Hungary and the Adriatic region, while in the autumn, Dr Norbert Fogarasi, Head of Morgan Stanley in Hungary, gave a presentation.

Péter Balogh, whose innovations include the IGO navigation application that achieved global success in the 2000s, was the guest of this year's first sold-out lecture at the University's Innovation Park in Győr. The entrepreneur knew from a young age what he wanted to be and has never lost sight of this goal.

Péter Balogh was the first guest of this year's Spinoff Extra event series at Széchenyi István University (Photo: Gergely Nagy)

"When I was ten years old, during a playground bullying incident, I told the bullies that I was going to have an international software company, although I didn't know what that meant at the time, " he began. He recalled his early attempts, which failed because, he says, he was very good at programming but lacked the other skills needed to run a business. When all his money ran out, he applied for an advertisement for programmers for Nokia in Finland. "I spent three years there, helping to develop the first generations of wireless networks. It was a great source of pride for me, but I decided I wanted to be my own boss and I wanted to decide on strategic issues. I started developing games and had an app that was downloaded by a million people, which was a huge number at the time. Then I was approached with the idea of developing navigation, and I didn't even have a driver's license," he says. IGO became a success story and conquered the world. When that period of his life came to an end, angel investments followed. He began supporting and mentoring startups so that more successful Hungarian enterprises could thrive and achieve international success.

A full house welcomed the speaker at the University's Innovation Park in Győr
(Photo: Gergely Nagy)

Balogh Péter reminded the audience that success doesn't come easily; it requires hard work and the ability to take the hits. "When we start a business, we think we have to create a perfect product. That is the biggest mistake we can make. We don't have to develop a product first; we have to find a real problem to solve. If we spend years tweaking our development without the customer seeing it, we might put a lot of effort into it and end up with nobody wanting it," he said. He encouraged students to pitch their ideas to the target audience as early as possible so that their startup can offer a solution that meets real needs.

The entrepreneur urged the young people to be persistent, because the beginning of the journey is difficult, but there is a lot to learn, and when the time comes, success will find them. He added that it is important for those who start a business to want to be the best in their field and either find a new problem to solve first or provide a new solution to an existing problem.

The audience also asked the guest about the TV show Shark Tank. As he said, he was delighted to accept the invitation, but he hadn't expected it to be so popular. He feels the broadcasts contributed to a better image of entrepreneurs, because it showed how many people with a desire to create are choosing this path. Finally, he reminded the young attendees that if they too want to build something, they should not shy away from challenges.