An “As Told To” interview by Kristaps Kovalonoks, Research Coordinator at Aalto School of Business.
This interview is part of a first-person storytelling series highlighting the personal journeys, ideas, and insights of members of Aalto University’s Entrepreneurship Unit (ENTU). Real stories, told in their own words.
How do winter camping, rowing championships in Canada, and fieldwork in Africa shape the way one sees entrepreneurship? In this conversation, Patrick Shulist, Assistant Professor at Aalto University, reflects on how his path from engineering to academia led him to research sustainable entrepreneurship in the Global South. From navigating the complexity of markets to injecting realism into the classroom, Patrick shares why context matters, what students often underestimate, and why informed decisions beat perfect plans.
I am originally from Canada. I was born in Toronto and grew up about an hour away. I moved to Finland in 2018 for work. I had graduated at that point and saw a job opening at Aalto. I actually knew somebody who was at Aalto at the time. I heard about the job, looked into it a bit more, and learned that there were people doing stuff in Africa, which is unusual for a business school. That really caught my attention. So I applied, and here we are.
At the time, I didn’t know much about Finland. Most of what I knew came from following Finnish goalies in the NHL and reading about the Winter War. That was pretty much it.
My undergraduate degree was in mechanical engineering and management, so it was very much an interdisciplinary program. There were quite a few things I learned from being a student on the other side of an interdisciplinary program that are useful when thinking about how we teach sustainable entrepreneurship, since that is also interdisciplinary at its core.
Another way it shapes my teaching is through what I saw on the engineering side. People often came up with good ideas and assumed things would work out, that the product would sell itself. But that is not how things work. That experience has made me perhaps a bit stubborn when it comes to discussions with students about business ideas. I try to make sure they are really thinking it all the way through, because I have come across a lot of things that do not take the market side into account.
After finishing my engineering degree, a mix of circumstances and connections led me to Haiti. That was about a year after the major earthquake in 2010, and I ended up doing some work for a school system. Haiti is obviously not in Africa, but that was my first foray into the Global South or developing world or whatever terminology one wants to use. It opened my eyes up.
At that point, I had already applied for a PhD at Ivey Business School at Western University, though I had not yet been accepted. I had originally intended to focus more on the environmental side of things, the traditional view of sustainability. But those experiences in Haiti shifted my interests.
It also helped that my supervisor, just by happenstance, had some projects in Africa at the time. I spent the first summer of my PhD in Rwanda, working there for three months. That really solidified my interest in development. Most of my PhD research ended up being done in Ghana, partly because my university had some connections there.
The research culture at Aalto is good. People are open to having conversations about whatever you're working on, even if it is just a passing thought or something you're trying to figure out that day. That kind of openness helps you step out of your office, clear your head, and get a fresh perspective on things. It is something I really appreciate.
I also think the culture appreciates quality but does not necessarily force you to focus only on a very small subset of journals. That flexibility is something I value.
What I appreciate about Aalto overlaps a lot with what I value in the ENTU team. Most of the people I regularly have conversations with are part of the unit, so the things I like about the research culture are very much connected to them. Everyone is a good colleague, which is something I probably take for granted. But I know that is not the case at all institutions.
I teach two master’s-level courses, both of which have rather long names. The first one is Sustainable Entrepreneurship, Markets, and Systems Change. The name is lengthy because sustainability courses tend to attract a very diverse group of students who are looking for very different learning outcomes. The title is meant to make clear what we are going to talk about.
One of the main things I want students to understand is that sustainable entrepreneurship is hard. Just like any kind of entrepreneurship, it is not impossible, but it is difficult. A lot of students come in with a surface-level understanding. They might think there is a solution that can fix something like carbon emissions in transportation, and then assume everything will work out. But there are a lot of tensions and trade-offs involved, and that is probably the thing people have the worst understanding of when they first arrive in the course. We try to work through those issues using case examples.
I often feel like a bit of a downer in that course because students are excited about the topic and I inject some realism into the conversation. But I think that is important. We need to understand not just that it is difficult, but also the specific role ventures play in systems change.
The second course is called Market-based Development in the Global South. That course has two main purposes. One is to open students’ eyes to the world outside Europe. The other is to explore the role markets can play in addressing poverty, sustainability, or other development issues.
We talk a lot about what things look like on the ground and about how markets can be part of the solution. Most students tend to come in thinking about microfinance or maybe multinationals entering new markets, but there is a lot in between. We explore what a market actually is, what kind of infrastructure supports it, and how different actors can intervene depending on what the failure or challenge is. Some solutions are delivered through business activity, while others involve governments or NGOs working to correct market failures or create the conditions for markets to exist, so that people can benefit from exchange.
My part of Canada is not known for having particularly nice weather. It gets very hot and humid in the summer, and very cold in the winter, so Finland’s weather is actually better. That is a small thing, but I do appreciate it. I also like that I can ride my bike to work without worrying about getting hit by a car. Life here is less busy, and that is something I enjoy.
Daycare has been good for our son, and with another baby on the way, it is great to have that kind of support system in place. And I could mention nature. It might be a stereotypical answer, but it is true. It is not just that nature is easily accessible, but also that people genuinely value and appreciate it.
There are probably quite a few things. One time I went winter camping in Canada and got frostbite. Part of my toe fell off. That was fun. It is definitely not something most people know.
I was also an extra in The Incredible Hulk. It was being filmed in the city I lived in at the time, and I somehow ended up being part of it. I think I was there for three or four days. The days were super long, but you only actually do something for about an hour. The rest of the time I mostly sat around and got paid. You can see my shadow and blurry head in the movie.
And I used to row during my PhD. My team won a national championship in Canada. But I have not done much rowing since moving to Finland.
In general, I try not to convince people to do a PhD or go into academia. My role is more about helping them understand what they are getting into. There is often a disconnect between what people expect and what the actual job is. Especially in entrepreneurship and business schools more broadly, people assume it will be practical, but it is actually a very theory-heavy field.
If someone is expecting one thing and gets something else, that mismatch can lead to a lot of tension. So I would rather help them make an informed decision than try to sell them on it. That is probably not the answer one would expect, but I think it is important for people to deeply consider what is a four or five year commitment setting them on an entirely new career path.
