Why Entrepreneurship Feels Like Chasing the Wrong Tram

As part of the LaunchX 2025 Summer Fellowship, Franco Fontana joined a five-day startup intensive at the Unknown University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands. A missed tram, a sprint to the airport, and a series of unexpected detours quickly turned into a lesson in uncertainty, improvisation, and keeping pace with the unexpected - the same skills that define entrepreneurship. Franco reflects on how moments like these, both inside and outside the classroom, shaped his understanding of what it really means to build in the unknown.

"Forty minutes before our train to the airport, Iván and I decided we couldn’t leave The Hague without seeing the Peace Palace. Just forty minutes. A side-quest to close the summer school. Simple, right?

Wrong. Very wrong.

We hopped on the tram - confident, cameras ready. The palace loomed large, and the photo could make a fine living room portrait. But that’s the romantic side of the story…

On our way back, it wasn't until the tram was about to stop that we realized we were heading straight for the beach, not any close to the hotel, the train station, or our schedule. No trams in Argentina, so I had no way of predicting this… Side-quest: failed.

A little panic and a lot of laughter as we scrambled back, sprinting through paths we trusted Google Maps blindly on, jumped onto another tram (hoping the little Dutch we learned that week was on our side), dashed into our rooms to grab our bags, and out through the hotel exit. The palace didn’t bring any peace.

Carmen, our other Spanish friend waiting for us, had to take that train or lose her flight. We lost it - took the next. Iván and I ran through the airport up to his gate like Tom and Jerry, only to discover his flight was delayed. All that chaos for nothing. And yet, we felt alive (barely).​

That madness? Those pivots? The adrenaline? That’s entrepreneurship. You plan meticulously. You think you know the route, your problem, your product. Then the tram goes the wrong way, customers don’t find the value, the airport queues move too slowly, and that perfect schedule collapses. But you improvise. You iterate. You find another path. You laugh at the mistakes. You keep going.

My LaunchX, Ann Arbor 2024 experience immersed me into that. It was a wonderful month of learning that solving a problem comes before a product, that feedback is your most valuable asset - but also a sprint through the unknown, surrounded by people who push you to think bigger, act faster, and question everything. Cross-cultural connections inspired new perspectives, new paths to the train station. It gave me the confidence to get lost, knowing that I could make it to the airport on time. And showed me that there’s no time to waste running after destinations that don’t carry our essence.

The Unknown Summer School in the Netherlands reinforced those lessons: five intense days, more cross-cultural connections, young minds asking the sharp, necessary questions for building meaning; immersive leadership training with marines, crafting a pitch in a few hours, and adventuring into the European culture - all forcing us to move, adapt, and create.

Walking my entrepreneurial journey, I’ve had some takeaways: first, the hardest moments are the most significant. And although these usually come as surprises, the lesson is to embrace them when they do - because the chaos is where growth hides. The missed trains, the improvisation, the pressure - they become the proof you need to handle the next challenge. Second, I’ve confirmed that education doesn’t have to follow centuries-old rules to rewrite them. And third, that young isn’t “too soon to start”, it’s the best time: fewer liabilities (not any kids to account for, for starters), family and friends that have our backs, and people’s surprise for such a young drive (trust me, that one pays off).

The world will throw trams, delays, and detours at us - but if we keep running, keep sprinting toward what matters, we’ll get there. Maybe not on the first train. Maybe not the second. But we will - laughing, adapting, and enjoying the chaos along the way."