I graduated as an electrical engineer back in the day and was one of the first entrepreneurs in the emerging field of computer science. Over a span of 10 years, by 1990, my company had become the largest Hungarian IT firm. However, I also shifted towards commerce, particularly focusing on international aspects. Even around the time of the regime change, I developed a system where, based on Hungarian development expertise, we established manufacturing in Taiwan through a Taiwanese company and entered the market in the US via a subsidiary. While this might not seem novel today, more than thirty years ago, I believe we were among the pioneers who thought in such terms and successfully implemented it. Later, I decided to head more towards management and pursued an MBA in the US. This led me to the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in Germany, where I became their first Eastern European employee. While the BCG guaranteed no office opening east of Germany for at least five years, I managed, with the help of my team, to open an office in Budapest three years later. I continued my strategic consulting there as the country manager. Subsequently, I was lured to a competitor, and in the past two decades or so, I worked with domestic and international companies through my own consulting firm. I delved into various sectors, from pharmaceutical research to digital solutions, assisting these companies in establishment, development, international market entry, capital acquisition, and even exits. This led to my involvement in December last year, when Minister János Csák approached me to be a part of a four-member advisory team, aiming to assess the state of Hungarian innovation and propose ways to elevate it. The goal is to establish a state entity, in corporate form, closely connected to the market, offering continuous support to startups in the challenging phases, gaps, and well-known “valleys of death” where most startups stumble. This is how the concept was born, and the July 1st name change symbolizes expanded functionality and a new strategy, bringing in new management. As part of this, I assumed the role of Deputy CEO for Strategy and Business.

Great! Your background is even more exciting and relevant than I thought.

Essentially, what was missing from this palette or portfolio was the ability to take a system to a higher level. To truly establish a position in the sports sector where we can excel, not just on a scale of eight million to ten million, but in terms of Olympic medals as well.

The new objectives were developed by a four-member team. One member of the team, Kiss Ádám, has been the President of NKFIH since March. Another member of the four-person team, Bendzsel Miklós, assists in this work, while Kun Zsuzsanna and I took over control with the Express Innovation Agency. The division of tasks and responsibilities between the two of us is apparent from our titles – I oversee matters related to the market and business, while she focuses more on the back office, events, administrative tasks, and administrative leadership. As acting CEOs, we complement each other. However, since we worked together to formulate the strategy, we truly understand each other’s main responsibilities. Zsuzsa comes from the field of data analysis and operational management, overseeing these areas, while I supervise the strategic and business aspects.

We aim to achieve that any market player at any stage feels it’s worth coming to us, and what they receive from us is advice, support, guidance, both indirect and direct financial backing, a network of connections both domestically and internationally, and so on, so that everyone who comes to us hopefully leaves richer than when they arrived. I would say it’s about removing obstacles along the innovation journey, because those who venture into this world of innovation, research and development know it’s like a territory that resembles a jungle, where many things are present and theoretically accessible, but in practice, the parties struggle to connect with each other. Therefore, one of our key tasks is precisely to understand this entire ecosystem, and on the other hand, to present it to our clients as supportive partners.

Our work doesn’t start at ground zero but rather at minus one, meaning evangelization and education. We’re reaching out to universities and even high schools to prepare that knowledge, to spark that interest from the very beginning, to let them know about this world of entrepreneurship, the value of engaging with the world of business, innovation, and development. They are also our potential clients whom we want to assist, but also those who have been in the market for 20-30 years, established engineering firms with around 50 employees, and have now reached the point where they want to do more than just contract work in the field of development. They have their own developments, intellectual property, products, and services, and they want to progress in commercializing them, not only domestically but possibly internationally as well. And what comes along with that are grants, fund acquisitions, international partners, conferences, and so on.

The Ministry of Culture (KIM) has a threefold motto in this regard: to achieve economic impact, such as GDP growth, job creation, and tax revenue, which aligns with the interests of companies since they also aim to grow in terms of revenue, profits, workforce, and so on. This way, harmonizing individual and corporate interests with national interests in the economic realm. The other aspect is societal impact, meaning to develop in areas and ways that have positive societal influence and effects. Moreover, all of this should occur in parallel and integrated with the growth of the country’s intellectual wealth. This might mean improved publications in more reputable journals, but even more so in terms of patents. These patents could then be licensed or applied as standalone products or services, and this way, the value of the companies would increase, and we would truly become part of that international cycle which only a few exceptional companies have entered thus far, those well-known ones that everyone wants to follow, but perhaps until now had fewer opportunities to receive support from the government.

Great! This sounds incredibly exciting. It’s quite evident that these aren’t just empty words, but you grasp the complexity and the challenges of this endeavor. I often refer to this as “bushwhacking”; there are no well-trodden paths, and although there are good practices, many things need to happen simultaneously, or reinforcing each other, to make significant progress. You also had another great analogy in the beginning, I think, with the number of Olympic medals. Hungary’s participation in the ecosystem’s “Olympics” is still ahead.

For a country that gave the world Neumann János, produced Nobel laureates, it’s about time to excel in this area too. We want to achieve that not just as employees, because those who work there surely find satisfaction, which is beneficial for them, the company, and the country, but it would be great if alongside that, we could also showcase something in the form of companies, startups, that pique the interest of these international corporations. It might involve cooperation in bilateral agreements, clusters, or even through acquisitions, making their entry into the professional league.

Great, that’s right, it’s clear. Adding to the gold medals and Neumann, if you allow me, I was there when the stock exchange was opened, and we were also the first to introduce futures trading. But then for ten or twenty years, we heard that this is the first regional stock exchange, where the transition happened, where the capital markets first opened, and so on, but then we fell behind; the stock exchange’s replenishment didn’t come, the state didn’t consistently support public capital raising, it didn’t maximize the well-known advantages of that, and the stock exchange couldn’t follow the trajectory it started on. I would really, really like, and through community financing, the capital market also gets a transfusion, so that the startup ecosystem gets a point of capital intake that automatically implements future stock exchange capability. So, even in the beginning, in the very early stages, if they receive capital that the market must account for, in simple terms, even if not in legal language, they are still publicly raising capital. Then, when the time comes, it will naturally accept operating publicly and listing on the stock exchange. So, we should work on that too – that is, here at Kanapé, we can certainly be optimists, that everything will come together, because there’s no shortage of capabilities and opportunities. So, putting our trust in this, and in what you’ve also emphasized, that evangelization and education play a significant role, and you understand the importance of that, then surely results will follow. We’re also restructuring the HSUP program, which plays a significant role in our educational activities. It won’t be simply a one-year or two-semester program that ends with applause, and everyone goes back to their place and continues from where they left off. In contrast to the previous format, the winners, the twenty teams that make it to the final selection, and probably the top 15 within that, will receive additional scholarships. And three or four starting projects or companies will receive a grand type of funding, 20 million forints each, which is non-repayable. The greatest success, of course, would be if a startup that has grown out of the students’ teaching, evangelizing, and educating activities suddenly builds its new headquarters in California, and we could be part of that.

Sure. Well then, we are eagerly looking forward to it, and count on Tokeportal.com for their successful crowdfunding campaigns to validate their businesses, build initial capital and brand value. Tokeportal.com can echo the results and bring together the stakeholders in the functioning startup ecosystem, so I trust that we will have many joint concrete projects as well.

Let’s achieve common successes, because as I said, the success of the companies is our success. We cannot succeed independently; our success depends on the success of the companies we support. And this includes not only the companies that participate, but it’s a team effort. Everyone who participates in this is needed, and together we will be able to succeed.