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 does someone with a background in engineering, business, and design find themselves shaping entrepreneurship education at Aalto? In this conversation, Lecturer Apurva Ganoo shares how an early move to Finland and a curiosity for learning turned into a full-time calling in academia. He reflects on his evolving path from student to lecturer, the value of critical perspectives in entrepreneurship, and how a part-time student role opened unexpected doors in research and teaching.
I'm Apurva, and I work as a Lecturer in Entrepreneurship. The first time I moved to Finland was when I was seven, to Vaasa on the west coast, because of my parents' work. Both of them are electrical engineers, and my dad got an assignment here. We stayed for five years, then I did my middle and high school in Malaysia. I later came back to Finland to do my bachelor's degree.
Back then, I didn’t know much about Finland apart from the fact that it was going to be cold. I had heard of it because of my dad’s work travels, but I didn’t really know what was here. It was all a bit unknown until we actually arrived.
Even before I started my bachelor's, I was already interested in business and management. My parents encouraged me to study engineering first, saying I could always move to business later. It was also a personal challenge for me. Math used to be my strongest subject in elementary school, but it became tougher in middle and high school. So I wanted to prove to myself that I could still do it.
But during my bachelor’s, I realised I liked technology, just not in the same way as some of my classmates. They’d spend their weekends coding or hacking their smart labs for fun, while I was more interested in how technology connects to business. That’s why I applied to Aalto. I wanted a programme where I could stay close to tech but focus more on the business and design side.
When I started my master’s, the plan was to finish in two years, maybe go on exchange, and then return to the same industry I was working in, hopefully in a managerial role. But within six months at Aalto, I realised there was so much more to explore. I always had this vague idea that maybe one day I’d do a PhD, but it started becoming more real.
In my second year, I got hired part-time as a teaching assistant and community manager. At first, I thought it would just be some extra money and something I already enjoyed doing with the student community. But once I started, I realised how much more I could contribute. I saw gaps I could help fill, especially because our team was small. That’s when I started picking up more responsibility, including some teaching and mentoring.
My interest in research really grew when I started working on my thesis. The courses I took included cutting-edge articles and research that opened my eyes to what was happening in the field. I also had a great working relationship with my thesis supervisor, who encouraged me to consider a PhD.
At the same time, I was enjoying the ecosystem at Aalto and wanted to spend more time in it. I saw the PhD as a way to continue learning and contributing. Eventually, a lecturer position opened up. I applied while still a doctoral student, and luckily it all came together. But honestly, it wasn’t planned. It all happened step by step.
When I was applying for the lecturer position, I had to think more seriously about who I am as a teacher and what really interests me. That process made me realise how much I enjoy being in the educational space.
Something I often tell my friends is that I’ve never had a day where I felt like my work didn’t matter, even if the impact is small. I feel very privileged to be in a role where I can go home every day and feel that what I do makes a difference.
What excites me most is being part of developing new programmes, like the new master’s in Sustainable Entrepreneurship, and getting to come up with ideas and experiment. I’ve come to realise that I enjoy education as a field, even beyond teaching itself. A colleague once told me that being in academia means you get paid to learn, and I do believe that’s true.
When I first heard the name of the new master’s programme, Sustainable Entrepreneurship, I thought, wow, these are two strong buzzwords. But then I realised that was the perfect opportunity to approach them critically and holistically, which is something I try to bring into my teaching.
I really believe in blending theory and practice. Theory gives you that bird’s eye view, helping you see the big picture, while practice lets you test those ideas and apply them. In entrepreneurship, there’s often this narrative that you either study it or do it. But I don’t think it has to be one or the other. They can support each other.
My teaching style is also shaped by my own studies in applied sciences and IDBM (International Design Business Management), where the gap between students and teachers was quite small. That doesn’t mean I act like a student, but instead I try to create a space where students feel they can contribute. I prefer studio-based formats over traditional lectures, and I’m especially interested in how students can take what they learn and apply it immediately, even in small ways, to the world around them.
Even as a student, I could tell that Aalto had a vibrant community, especially around entrepreneurship and innovation. What stood out to me was how empowered the students were. You could really see them being trusted to take initiative and even make decisions. That kind of student agency isn’t always a given.
I also like that Aalto is still relatively new. We’re not bound by century-old traditions, and I think that gives us more room to experiment. Some people really value academic tradition, but in some cases, it can hold things back. I appreciate that Aalto feels a bit more nontraditional.
Within ENTU, the first thing I noticed was the diversity. In a team of about 20–25 people, we have around 18 nationalities, which really shapes the kinds of conversations we have and the perspectives we bring. Everyone is highly driven and holds themselves to a high standard, but they do it in a very positive and inclusive way.
In some high-performance environments, especially in startup culture, there’s this idea that it’s okay to be difficult or rude if you're getting results. But ENTU isn’t like that. You can be ambitious, supportive, and kind at the same time. And while academia can often feel individualistic, I really feel that ENTU has a strong team spirit. People here care about their own goals, but they also care about the success of the unit.
I’m still in the process of defining my exact research area, but broadly speaking, I’m interested in entrepreneurship education. Not so much from a purely pedagogical angle, but in terms of the university’s role in the ecosystem it’s part of.
In Finland, universities are seen as institutions that serve a societal function. Aalto itself was created through a government directive to foster innovation. I came across a quote in a Guardian article that really stuck with me. It said something like: ‘’People criticise the government constantly, and often for very good reason. But fundamentally, they do trust it.’’ I believe that’s true here, and I find that kind of institutional trust really meaningful in the Finnish context.
At the same time, I want to take a critical perspective. Entrepreneurship education is often framed very narrowly, mainly around the idea of producing startup founders. But the reality is more complex. The outcomes aren’t always efficient, and the definitions of entrepreneurship are often too limited. We need to help students understand where these dominant narratives come from. For example, how the Silicon Valley model became so central, and also show them that there are alternative ways of thinking about entrepreneurship.
One of the big takeaways has been perspective. These collaborations helped me realise that there are things we actually do quite well in Finland. You don’t always see that until you can compare it with other contexts. At the same time, they also reveal blind spots and help us recognise where our current ways of thinking are too narrow.
Something I’ve really come to appreciate is how students become the vessels for collaboration. When students work with each other across borders, it’s no longer just about Aalto University collaborating with another institution. It becomes student-to-student learning. That’s where a lot of transformation happens.
These projects have also made me reflect more critically on the frameworks we use in education. Many of them were developed with a very specific user or context in mind. Through global collaboration, we get to challenge that and ask: what assumptions are built into these tools, and how can we expand them to fit more diverse realities?
I think the key is not to fall into the trap of choosing between theory and practice. It’s not one or the other, they actually support each other. If you want to become an entrepreneur, practice might be more important, but theory can help you avoid mistakes and think more critically or holistically about challenges.
On the research side, what makes entrepreneurship exciting is how many different angles you can take. I wasn’t even fully aware of the diversity until I joined the unit. You can approach entrepreneurship through psychology, sociology, geography, philosophy, even politics. It’s such a rich field.
And what I love about entrepreneurship as an applied field is that the gap between theory and practice can be really small. You see research shaping policy, or frameworks like the Business Model Canvas, created by a PhD student and a professor, making a huge impact in the startup world. That’s the beauty of it: you can design something with theory that ends up having real, practical value.
Looking at my CV, it might seem like I carefully planned every step to get this lecturer position. But the reality is quite different. Just six months before I applied, I actually told my supervisor that I love academia, but I was going to focus on my PhD and then leave, because there was no guarantee of a future position. So this all could have turned out very differently. A lot of it came down to doing things I was passionate about, and a series of lucky steps.
On the personal side, something people might not know is that I used to play percussion in an orchestra. I played drums for almost ten years during middle and high school, though I’ve been pretty negligent since then. And a fun Aalto-related story: while I was a student, I once got to meet Katrín Jakobsdóttir, the former Prime Minister of Iceland, when she visited the Aalto Design Factory. It was one of those unexpected but very cool moments.
