#SummerSeries: 5 questions for Bertrand Piccard—explorer, visionary, inspioneer

21.08.2020 07:30, Isabelle Mitchell

During the summer months, we ask people who inspire the Swiss startup ecosystem to provide the Venturelab community with food for thought, inspiration, and recommendations for summer 2020—and beyond. We are concluding our summer series with Dr. Bertrand Piccard, one of two pilots who alternated flying Solar Impulse around the world. Driven by curiosity, the avid balloonist and aviator, doctor and psychiatrist, entrepreneur and humanitarian leverages his pioneering spirit for progress and sustainability.

Most people know Bertrand Piccard as the initiator and chairman behind Solar Impulse, the first airplane capable of flying perpetually without fuel. Piloted by André Borschberg and Bertrand Piccard, Solar Impulse completed the round-the-world journey in 2015. Since then, Bertrand—who is a medical doctor specialized in psychiatry; an explorer; and an aeronaut, who made the first non-stop round-the-world balloon flight—has been combining his many interests and talents to focus on different challenges: The "inspioneer" inspires and pioneers solutions to tackle urgent problems such as sustainable development, the fight against poverty, and environmental protection. 



Bertrand, how will you spend your summer this year?
A few months ago, I saw a picture of a marvelous place in a travel magazine. An absolute heaven, where I dreamt of spending my holidays: a crystal blue lake, surrounded by magnificent mountains, some of which were still covered with snow, and vineyard terraces. I could have traveled thousands of kilometers to discover this paradise. But guess what? That is actually Lake Leman, the Alps, and the Lavaux region, just a few meters away from where I live. So that is precisely where I am spending my summer this year. Sometimes, you do not have to go very far to discover the wonders of our world.
 
Reflecting on the year so far, what do you see as the most critical challenges and opportunities for entrepreneurs?
Of course, these times are challenging—for entrepreneurs as much as anyone else—as we are facing a major economic crisis, the amplitude of which is still unclear. But there are also immense opportunities coming out of this crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed many weaknesses of our world: a fragile and inefficient economy, creating inequalities and a huge amount of pollution. This means there are thousands of opportunities for entrepreneurs to build new business models, new ways of producing and consuming, new systems, technologies, and processes. All of which must combine financial viability and protection of the environment.
That is exactly what we are doing with the Solar Impulse Foundation through the Solar Impulse Efficient Solution Label: We are selecting and highlighting 1,000 solutions that protect the environment in a profitable way to show to the world, and in particular to decision-makers, that a new way is possible and that the solutions exist. 
There is a paradigm shift: It is now becoming more profitable to protect the environment than to destroy it. And I believe this is an incredible opportunity for entrepreneurs.
 
What is the essential principle for mastering challenges as an entrepreneur? 
I believe challenges are here to wake us up from our old habits. When there is a moment of shock that wakes us up, we must be honest enough to see which paradigms, habits, certainties, and dogmas we have been stuck with until now and find what we need to do differently and how to do better. A crisis, such as the one we are going through right now, is not the time to regret the world we had before or to lament on what we have lost, but rather to ask ourselves what are the tools, talents, abilities, that we have to develop in order to emerge from the crisis better after than before.
 
What book would you recommend founders and entrepreneurs to read this summer – and why?
Or noir - La grande histoire du pétrole [Oil, Power, and War: A Dark History] by Matthieu Auzanneau is a brilliant book that I definitely recommend because it perfectly explains how our world developed thanks to this resource in the past, but also why it cannot be the case in the future.

What can startup founders learn from you when they follow you on social media? 
First, they will discover many clean and profitable solutions that reconcile ecology and economy, as I often share innovations that have received the Solar Impulse Efficient Solution Label. But they will also see how to put into practice a pioneering spirit in new ways of doing things and new ways of thinking.

Learn more about Dr. Bertrand Piccard on his website, and follow him on Twitter and LinkedIn. 

Got inspired? Follow us on social media to stay informed of the latest Swiss startups news:
 
                

#SummerSeries