Monday 24 November, 10am-11am, Room 3C, ICC Wales
Please note you must register as a Wales Tech Week attendee to attend.
This session takes a different angle from the usual startup growth themes. Instead of focusing on how to scale, it looks at what most founders quietly face — failure, fear, and how to handle both better.
If most startups fail, it’s something we should be able to discuss more openly. The aim is to create a space where founders can talk honestly about the challenges, lessons, and turning points that have shaped them — without judgement.
Who should attend?
This panel will be an open discussion about failure and resilience in the startup journey, to talk about:
- – What fear of failure stops founders from doing or saying.
- – How to know when to stop, pivot, or push through.
- – What founders have learned from failure and how they’ve used it to move forward.
- – How different cultures — including the Welsh ecosystem — respond to failure.
- – What honest conversations and peer support can do for founder wellbeing.
- – Can you fail to slow sometimes?
Why it matters
This isn’t about celebrating failure – it’s about normalising it. Founders who can talk openly about what didn’t work are better placed to build what does. The more we share, the faster the ecosystem learns and the healthier it becomes.
Like tennis, startups are a game of constant adjustment – a balance between persistence, reflection, and knowing when to reset.
