EPFL : DE LA ROBOTIQUE MÉDICALE AU VENTURE CAPITAL

Background and Motivation

Irvin is an Ivorian student pursuing a master’s in medical robotics at EPFL. Growing up with a disabled mother helped inspire his desire to empower people with reduced mobility and address the everyday barriers they face.

Raised in Abidjan in a family that valued intellectual discussion, he developed strong analytical interests. As a teenager, he spent time coding, editing videos and animation, and experimenting with small projects, including an audiovisual production venture.

After earning his scientific baccalaureate at Lycée Blaise Pascal, he chose engineering. EPFL appealed to him because of its hands-on, student-led projects, such as its Hyperloop competition team. He had also applied to French preparatory classes but was rejected from most of his choices.

Studying at EPFL and École Polytechnique

Irvin describes EPFL’s structure as a broad, intensive first-year core, followed by more specialized bachelor’s studies and then a flexible master’s program. Students can choose courses, specializations, minors, and opportunities to study abroad.

He chose mechanical engineering rather than a more software-focused path because he wanted broad exposure and practical experience with hardware. He later shaped his studies toward medical robotics.

The transition from his high-school education in Côte d’Ivoire to EPFL was difficult. He arrived without some of the mathematical and physics foundations expected by the program and had to adapt quickly to a faster, more specialized curriculum. His first year was a major academic shock, and he had to repeat it.

He also had to change his study habits. Trying to solve everything alone and perfectly was not always effective; reviewing solutions could sometimes help him learn faster. The experience humbled him. Strong grades at school did not automatically mean he would be among the strongest students at EPFL, where classmates came from many backgrounds and had different strengths.

Switzerland offered reliable infrastructure, orderly administration, and a calm environment conducive to demanding studies. However, the cost of living—and especially the financial pressure of tuition and expenses—was a major challenge. Irvin took out a student loan and had to budget carefully, seek work, and consider exchanges that could reduce costs.

He spent an exchange year at École Polytechnique in Paris for several reasons: lower living costs, family nearby, curiosity about another academic system, and the institution’s prestige. He found its teaching style more traditional and theoretical than EPFL’s, with less digital access to course materials and more fast-paced, in-person problem-solving.

He also observed differences in student culture. EPFL associations often focus on technical projects, while many École Polytechnique associations emphasize social life and networking. He found Polytechnique’s strong institutional identity and continuity among alumni striking.

Medical Robotics and Emerging Technology

At École Polytechnique, Irvin worked on a biomechanics project exploring a possible prosthetic knee joint with two degrees of freedom, rather than the more typical one. The project asked whether greater freedom of movement could improve comfort for prosthesis users.

The design goal was a modular, reproducible prosthesis that could be 3D-printed and adapted to different body sizes. The work involved mechanical design, coding, and optimization, as well as practical manufacturing concerns such as material behavior, tolerances, and how parts fit together.

He is especially interested in exoskeletons for people with paraplegia or quadriplegia. During an internship at Wondercraft, he saw the engineering behind devices that help users stand and walk, including hardware strength, heat management, human-like gait, and reliable control.

Irvin is also optimistic about AI in medical imaging. He distinguishes between:

• Segmentation: Identifying structures or possible tumors in an image.
• Characterization: Determining what those structures are, which he considers more difficult.

AI-assisted detection could help radiologists notice small abnormalities and reduce the effects of fatigue, though he sees it as a supporting tool.

Irvin generally views technology as a means of solving problems. He sees Neuralink-like brain-computer interfaces as potentially useful for more natural prosthesis control, while acknowledging that such interventions raise concerns.

He views AI as a productivity aid—an “exobrain”—rather than simply a threat to work. Jobs will change, he argues, and people who know how to use new tools may replace those who do not. He expects AI to become an ordinary tool rather than a special résumé skill.

Entrepreneurship: Lessons from Successes and Failures

Irvin’s first entrepreneurial experience was an audiovisual business he started with a friend. They made videos, gained clients, and learned about deadlines, client management, and the effort required to deliver work.

He later tried to create an events platform for Abidjan. He became focused on building features before sufficiently testing demand and ran into practical barriers, such as payment infrastructure and limited compatibility with the no-code tools he was using. The project stalled, teaching him that enthusiasm for building a product is not the same as proving that customers need it.

Another project aimed to connect hair salons with students seeking lower-priced appointments during quiet periods. The founders approached salons directly, but many owners were not motivated by the proposed business-growth opportunity. Irvin says the team learned from the conversations, but the market fit and pitch were not strong enough.

The startup principles he learned from entrepreneurship material and these experiences include:

• Define the problem before building a solution.
• Test whether the problem and market are real.
• Create a minimum viable product (MVP) rather than overbuilding features.
• Find early customers and learn from their responses.
• Keep spending and development time low.
• Iterate quickly and maintain momentum.
• Develop sales skills by speaking directly with potential customers.
• Build a team whose members are both capable and genuinely committed.

African Startup Opportunities and Challenges

Irvin points to several African ventures that illustrate opportunities in technology and healthcare:

• Zipline, which uses drones to deliver blood and medical supplies.
• Jamo, a financial-services startup adapted to African needs, including mobile-money payments.
• Inxel, which applies AI to medical imaging, including breast-cancer screening.
• Jul, an Ivorian agricultural-drone company.

He identifies South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt, and Kenya as major startup markets, while also noting growing ecosystems in Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, and Rwanda.

He sees a shortage of highly skilled technical talent as a major challenge, particularly in areas such as coding and robotics. He also notes that differing regulations across countries make it harder to scale products and move goods throughout the continent.

In his view, African entrepreneurship is evolving. Earlier founders often came from the diaspora and built companies for African markets from abroad; employees and collaborators from those companies are now increasingly founding ventures within Africa.

Irvin believes investment in African startups is growing, with venture-capital and institutional investors becoming more active. The continent’s young and expanding population represents both a potential talent base and a large market.

The diaspora can contribute by investing, returning with expertise, helping build companies, supporting education, sharing opportunities, and staying connected to the realities of local markets rather than assuming that experience abroad transfers directly.

How Early-Stage Startup Investment Works

Irvin describes the investment process at F Campus. The fund’s name is transcribed inconsistently in the subtitles.

Preparing a Pitch

Founders should prepare a concise pitch that clearly explains:

• The problem being addressed.
• The market and its potential.
• The proposed solution and how it was developed.
• How the company plans to reach customers.
• Likely obstacles and the roadmap.
• The team and why it is suited to the opportunity.

Finding Investors and Understanding Funding Stages

Founders can use their networks, contact funds directly, or apply through fund websites. Investors and student funds also actively look for promising opportunities.

Investment amounts and expectations vary with a company’s maturity. F Campus focuses on very early-stage ventures, sometimes when there is only an idea and a team.

Irvin says F Campus may provide CHF 25,000 without taking an immediate equity stake. Instead, it obtains an option to acquire shares at a reduced price in a later financing round. He contrasts this with more conventional investment, in which a fund buys an equity percentage at a set valuation.

Evaluating a Startup

The fund prefers at least two founders because starting a company is demanding. It looks for relevant skills and commitment, while treating a mismatch between a founder’s education and the startup’s field as a question to investigate—not automatically a reason to reject the project.

Venture capital depends on a small number of companies achieving very large outcomes to compensate for failures elsewhere in a portfolio. Irvin says funds therefore seek startups with the potential to address very large markets.

The problem must genuinely exist, and the product must solve it. He warns that technically oriented founders may overcomplicate products or prioritize features customers do not need. A startup should focus on solving one clear problem at a time.

Challenges, Resilience, and Future Plans

Irvin discusses two particularly difficult periods: financial uncertainty while arranging his master’s studies, and a period of exhaustion, personal difficulty, and imposter syndrome.

Support from friends helped him find a research-assistant position and manage costs. More broadly, he says taking action helped him move through uncertainty: returning to study, taking a job, joining the investment fund, and meeting people gave him forward momentum.

Repeating his first year, though painful at the time, ultimately gave him space to discover entrepreneurship and other interests. He therefore sees setbacks as capable of opening useful paths.

His guiding idea is to hope for good fortune or “miracles” while still doing the work; relying on luck alone is not enough.

After his master’s, he plans to gain professional and international experience in Europe, then return to Africa—possibly Côte d’Ivoire, but not necessarily—to help build the continent’s innovation ecosystem.

His long-term ambition is to launch a startup, preferably in health or medical technology adapted to African needs. He also wants to “pay it forward” by teaching, sharing his experience, supporting founders, and helping people who have had fewer opportunities.

His closing advice is to keep moving despite obstacles, avoid making life harder than necessary, and trust that circumstances can improve over time.

Speakers and Sources Mentioned

Speakers

• Frank Didingar (Franck): Host and interviewer.
• Irvin: Guest; an Ivorian engineering student specializing in medical robotics. His surname is not provided in the subtitles.

People and Organizations Referenced

• Elon Musk: Mentioned in connection with the Hyperloop student competition and Neuralink.
• Ousamaamar: Entrepreneurship videos Irvin watched.
• Stanislas Zé: Cited by the host in a discussion of diaspora investment.
• Leonardo da Vinci: Loosely referenced in a quote about learning from others’ work.
• Educational institutions: EPFL, École Polytechnique, and Lycée Blaise Pascal.
• Companies and institutions: Wondercraft, Zipline, Jamo, Inxel, Jul, M Studio, Wave, Partech Africa, the World Bank, and Bpifrance. These are mentioned as examples in discussions of technology, startups, and investment.