COGITO Talks… Youth entrepreneurs uncovered: Joni Rakipi, in his own words

Blurb

Even though 40% of young people would prefer to be self-employed, the reality does not match their aspirations. If young people were as active in entrepreneurship as 30- to 49-year-old men, there would be an additional 3.6 million more young entrepreneurs across OECD countries. This episode of OECD podcast features Joni Rakipi from ETH Zürich and is hosted by Shayne MacLachlan from the CFE. Joni, originally from Albania and now based in Zürich, explains deeptech as solving complex problems through scientific breakthroughs, emphasising its long-term impact. He highlights barriers young entrepreneurs face, such as limited access for foreign nationals and regulatory hurdles, advocating for open doors and deregulation to foster innovation. The episode encourages young entrepreneurs and policymakers to engage with these insights. Tune in to hear from a young entrepreneur, in his own words.

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Transcript

Host

Welcome to OECD Podcasts, where policy meets people.

Alix

The appetite for entrepreneurship is real. Nearly one in four young people across the EU would prefer to be self-employed than an employee. But fewer turn this dream into a reality. Only 5% of youth in the EU and 9% of youth across OECD countries are working on a startup. In early October 2025, the OECD was in Brussels for the YEPA Summit, which is the Youth Entrepreneurship Policy Academy. YEPA allowed us to go a step further: to co-design policy for young people, with young people. While we were there, Shane MacLachlan, our Communications and Public Relations Manager at the OECD, caught up with Joni Rakipi from ETH Zürich for a chat about deeptech, the challenges young entrepreneurs face, and how feedback loops can drive innovation. We recorded their live conversation and turned it into an OECD podcast as part of our series called ‘The Missing 11%: Young Entrepreneurs Uncovered’. Whether you’re a young entrepreneur, a policymaker, or just interested in entrepreneurship, we hope Joni’s story and insights inspire you.

Shayne

I’m not alone. I’m only going to talk for two seconds before I introduce Joni. Joni, come up, please. ETH Zürich is the enterprise that Joni is a part of. Joni, you live in Zürich, but you’re not Swiss. Is that correct?

Joni

Hi everyone, so correct, I am not Swiss. I’ve been in many countries in Europe in my life. I was born in Italy, but to Albanian parents, so I grew up in Albania, in Tiranë. When I was 17, I left my home country for a brighter future, so I went to Germany to do my bachelor’s in mechanical engineering in Karlsruhe, and then five years ago, when I graduated from bachelor’s, I moved to Switzerland for my master’s at ETH Zürich, where I fell in love with everything about Zürich and the university. So, I stayed there where I currently am also employed.

Shayne

Speaking to Joni, he’s definitely a fan of Zürich and Switzerland – so that’s a good thing. I mean, what’s your journey? You’re in deeptech as it were, maybe you can give an explanation of what deeptech is, but tell us a few things about how you got there, what’s been your journey on the way to getting into deeptech?

Joni

Absolutely, and thank you for the question. I think it’s really important to distinguish between deeptech and the typical tech startups that we see nowadays. So while the typical tech startups are offering a product built on top of existing tools such as softwares, or maybe they’re innovating a business model trying to tackle the same market in a different way, deeptech startups are solving a very complex problem through science; through a science breakthrough, technological innovation or research. And this is very important. Why? Because science is the foundation of prosperity. Think ahead, right? Like what have we had in our lives that were very impactful? The steam engine, fridges in our house where we could store food and keep it cool. We’ve had electricity, we’ve had transistors, computers, all of these came from science. That’s why it’s extremely important to keep that in mind and keep innovating through science.

Shayne

Okay, so your elevator pitch, what is deeptech? Just very, very quickly, like, how would you define that in a sentence or two?

Joni

So, when you solve a very complex problem through science.

Shayne

Okay.

Joni

So, anything that requires probably a longer time to develop, longer time to market, longer time to be adopted, but when it’s out there, it’s worth it and it has an impact, so, yeah.

Shayne

And Yoni, what would you say the problem that you’re trying to solve through science is in your particular activity?

Joni

So that’s a very interesting question because I, so my journey has taken me, currently I work at the tech transfer office of ETH Zürich. We see a lot of deeptech startups that come there and that’s why I love my job. So I’m always introduced to new problems and new solutions that certain startups are solving. I’m currently in the process of founding a startup of my own in the field of robotics. I cannot speak a lot to it currently, but probably at another edition in the later years, I would love to tell more. But my vision is that every one of us has a personal robot at home. So, we want to bring this technology to people. I know it’s a moonshot, but I believe that it will be there very soon. So, we’re tackling that.

Shayne

Very good. At the OECD, we have a report, one of my favorite reports. I see a lot of things go over my desk, basically release one output for every day of the year at the OECD. But the ‘Missing Entrepreneurs Report’ is a really interesting one. In that report, we talk a lot about barriers and incentives to entrepreneurship. What are some of the barriers and incentives that you’ve kind of encountered in your time as a young entrepreneur?

Joni

So we’ll talk there are many barriers always being and we’ve heard them also yesterday in the panels being young sometimes you don’t have all the doors open and usually you have to kind of knock those doors down And that’s also what entrepreneurship is about. But I would love to say something about talent. So, something that Europe is really a champion in is that it’s a talent magnet. A lot of universities in Europe are very high quality and very affordable. And what does this do? This brings a lot of people into Europe. Like, if we’re going to solve this complex problem, we need global effort. So, all of these people come to Europe and they don’t face the barriers that they do in their countries by trying to join a company or by trying to work here because of how smooth this process is by staying here. I don’t know if you’re seeing currently in the US there are some of these barriers that are being raised. For example, the H-1B visa, where it doesn’t allow foreign individuals to build a startup on their own and innovate. So, yeah, that’s a number one barrier, I would say, that you need to open doors for the youth to solve problems.

Shayne

Yep. And in terms of governments and the link between yourself, young entrepreneur, and young entrepreneurs in the room and policy makers, what would you say are some of those steps and measures that governments can take to help incentivise young entrepreneurs such as yourself?

Joni

So one is, yes, please open doors, allow even foreign national individuals to be able to be employed, even not in large-scale corporations only, but also in startups. I think that’s extremely important. And one thing that policymakers can also do is deregulate. I think we hear that word a lot – it’s like a buzzword, especially in Europe. There is regulation before a technology even comes to market. So, I would love to first see a technology be out there, then to try to regulate it.

Shayne

Yeah, very good. And I mean, you’re an expert in something, but as a young entrepreneur, as someone who’s had to learn a lot as well on the job, what are some of those other skills that you’ve had to acquaint yourself with and become an expert at?

Joni

So I always hear a lot of my idols also talking panels and saying the most important skill for young professionals is they all have to learn how to code, right? Like about tech. I’m here today trying to say something else and I’ve seen this firsthand. If you want to be a founder, the most important skill that you need is you need to be able to sell. You’re selling to customers, you’re selling to investors, you’re selling to talent, right? You’re trying to recruit. So, you’re trying to sell your vision and bring people on board to work on that vision together with you. And without having that ability to communicate what your vision is, you will not go far. So, focus on that.

Shayne

That’s my advice. Okay, I’m going to chuck in a doozy. So selling is about a good pitch, having a good pitch. Are there any good pitches you’ve ever heard that really struck you? And what was that pitch and why did it make an impact?

Joni

That’s really a doozy. So when you make a pitch, right, like we hear a lot of people that try to focus a lot on, I will generalise it, I will not single out a single pitch, but like I hear a lot of pitches, and there’s a common mistake that founders do: they fall in love with their solution that they’ve made. They fall in love with the product, and they make all the time that they have in the pitch about the product and the way that they solved the problem, rather than the problem itself. And what this limits us is that the world gives us something very valuable for free which is feedback, right? So, if I love the product and I keep talking about the product not the problem, the audience will not be able to tell me any feedback about the problem because I will always be defensive. And when I hear people pitch that always talk about the problem and how they came about to the product that they’re currently using to solve that problem. That always strikes me, okay, this team really knows what they’re doing because they’ve considered every possible approach to solve the problem and probably, they’ve stumbled upon this one, which is the best.

Shayne

Okay, yeah. Good. Well, we’re nearly there. Second last question. Obviously, as someone young and going into a bold enterprise or area of work, you’ve made errors. What’s the biggest mistake you’ve made and how did you learn from that?

Joni

I’m the number one champion of being defensive. Always when I was pitching a certain… like, I had an idea and I was always trying to pitch that to potential investors or recruits and they were giving me feedback. I was not listening. I was like, oh, but this works this way, etc. When I started to change that approach, a lot of new ideas came, better opportunities, and then that’s also how you get people on board because they say, “This person can listen, right? So, I can work with such a person.” Not everyone knows everything, so it requires a team effort, and you need to always be receptive of other people’s opinions. So yeah, that’s the number one mistake and I would advise anyone who’s founding or soon to found a company to listen more. You have two ears and one mouth. So please, yeah.

Shayne

Brilliant. Well, I think there’s lots of great advice there and some real insights into your journey and what you’ve learnt, certainly. But I’m just asking you to put yourself in the shoes of Mr. or Mrs. Moneybag, and you’ve got a million euros. What technology are you going to invest in in Europe?

Joni

So, we discussed this question earlier and I promise you I would answer that since I’m founding a startup of my own, I would put this money on my own startup, of course, obviously. But yeah, I think we need a lot of funding in science, as I mentioned earlier, so in fields such as robotics. Compute is very important. Currently, the current solutions require lots of energy in order for us to sustain the kind of compute that is currently being used and that requires innovation in terms of algorithm, in terms of hardware physics. We need new physics for the chips that are being produced so, I would put more money in those areas because this is the future. Some people have reservations towards other, that they have other ideas that probably robots should not be, like physical AI should not be living together with us. But I think with the current breakthroughs that are being done, this technology is coming. So, we just, I think we should focus our efforts into how to smoothen the way for it to come and coexist together with us rather than block it. So, I’ll invest any money in those fields.

Shayne

Very good. Well, maybe in the spirit of Chris’s crowd participation, we could have one very short question from the audience for Joni, if you have one.

Audience Member #1

So, it’s basically, what do you need to learn in school to make it and be a real entrepreneur?

Joni

This is a very personal question to me because I did high school in Albania and when I moved abroad I faced many peers in my bachelor and master studies that had done their high school or abitur in Germany and they had much more experience and they’ve spent much more time with newer technologies than what we had. So, I mean, we did have a computer class, but, like, I was seeing students in Germany or Switzerland that have done thesis in their high school about, like, they’ve built robots, they’ve built really high-tech stuff that I never had access to in Albania. So, I would really, I mean, one advice for the Albanian or other education systems would be to integrate newer tech into their programs.

Chris

I don’t know if there’s one. I know we’ve already over time, but it’s very quick.

Audience Member #2

Actually, it’s very simple. I just kind of wanted to ask your take on the EU legislation on AI.

Joni

Good question. I think we could sit here all day and discuss that. I unfortunately have not read the whole AI Act. I know that there are certain levels, and I know there are a lot of voices that are trying to put the AI Act down so that it enables newer startups to innovate in the field. So, I don’t know. I don’t have a comment particularly on that. I would play it like Switzerland and be neutral.

Shayne

Maybe discuss it over coffee later on because that one could get a little bit political. So, we’re moving on. Thanks so much to Joni. Let’s hear it for Joni.

Alix

Thank you again. And thank you to all of our listeners. For more on this topic, you can visit our website, oecd.org/CFE, as well as the YEPA hub, yepa-hub.org. Until next time, I’m Alix Philouz, and this has been an OECD podcast.

Host

To listen to other OECD podcasts, find us on iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and soundcloud.com/OECD.

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To learn more, visit the YEPA hub. Find out about the OECD’s work on inclusive entrepreneurship and the Missing Entrepreneurs 2023 Report. Find out more about Joni Rakipi by following him on LinkedIn and find out about the work of ETH Zürich.