Petya Balogh: “Boredom scares me the most”

He told that he has been building start-ups his whole life. When he had his first successful start-up, he realised that his knowledge and experience were more valuable than the company itself – this is how he decided to become a mentor. While in the USA it takes 3.5 years for a start-up to make it, in Western Europe this time is period is 5-7 years and the process needs 10-15 years in Hungary. Why? Because in Hungary the first 5-10 years of an entrepreneur is about learning the things that their US counterpart knows from the off…

Petya Balogh mentor, angel investor

Mr Balogh and his wife want to make Hungary a better place by helping to establish as many start-ups as possible, because they believe that these successful businesses can form something like a bubble within the country, representing a different culture than the rest of Hungary. The biggest difference between a start-up and a newly established enterprise is that the latter must make well-founded decisions, while the value of a start-up can grow exponentially even if it was founded from small capital, without its costs increasing as much as those of an enterprise while expanding. Start-ups have great potential but represent high risk as well.

Risk-taking and daring to fail

Petya Balogh likes risks because they are exciting. It is boredom that scares him the most and he is really attracted by the possibility of doing something good. He wants more companies that create something that is world-class. He very much believes in the potential that lies in education technology. Education must transform with the digitalisation process. HR technology can also become important in the future, e.g. solutions related to the team building sessions that companies do.

„I want to invest in Hungary”

When Mr Balogh has an idea, he creates something and takes it to the market to see whether anything happens. In the next phase he draws the necessary conclusions and from these new ideas are born. Then he appears in the market with these as well… Throughout the process he keeps learning and creates better things. One can also learn from failures and this is very important, as in the majority of cases ideas aren’t successful. Everything we try leads to either success or a lesson learned; the latter makes the next step better. If we are afraid of making mistakes, we shouldn’t experiment with anything – but then we don’t get anywhere. We must simply learn that most mistakes don’t have real effects. //