In the environment of technological entrepreneurship it is well known that the vast majority of start-ups fail. The number is quite high: 3 out of 4. The reasons can range from the initial funding running out, losing a founder or determining that there is no market for the product or service in question. Even so, failing in Silicon Valley isn't one of the worst things that can happen.
When starting a business, the fear of failing miserably can be paralyzing. We imagine how terrible it would be to lose our savings, telling our friends and family that we did didn't work and the idea of being listed as failures overwhelms us. However, in the startup culture, its clear that the failure of a company is not saying that the founders are failures. In fact, it is often just the opposite, there are some advantages to being very vocal about mistakes.
One important thing to remember is that you are not your start-up and the possibility that you will eventually start another project is high. Learning from previous experiences, you build a trajectory that has more value than just one of your endeavors. In the Bay Area, given the large number of projects in development, it is common to hear stories of founders, that thanks to the mistakes of their past projects they learned what to do differently for their new start-ups.
Failing is synonymous with learning. As part of the new culture of entrepreneurship, failing fast and sharing your failure is better than keeping it to yourself. Clearly, it is better to determine that a project has no future before investing great amounts of time and money than to postpone the closing of a business after investing time and money that is destined to die. Being proud and pretending that all is going well or closing the company in secret can be more counterproductive to the entrepreneur than it appears, because it seems as though he or she did not learn from what happened.
To learn and share what you’ve learned is a cornerstone of the Silicon Valley culture. In Latin America our perception towards failure is very different, socially it is hard to be open about our mistakes, but we are gradually shedding conventions and nurturing new entrepreneurs with their experiences. In Mexico, for example, Fuckup nights are performed monthly, a networking event to share stories of failures and learning experiences in a relaxed manner.
Are there opportunities for discussing failures in your city?
