Lessons from entrepreneurs who’ve failed and survived

FuckUp Nights is a global movement where stories of failed businesses and projects are told, questioned and celebrated! In each FuckUp Night 3 or 4 fuckupreneurs share their stories of failure including:

• What was their project?
• What did they do wrong?
• What did they learn?
• What would they do differently?

At the end of each story the audience asks questions. All accompanied by beer and good friends.

The event will be facilitated by Robert Fenton, founder of ‘Hipsters, Hackers & Hustlers’ which is Europe’s largest community of tech startups and whose purpose is to help startups grow and become successful in their own rights, but do it in the most fun way possible! 😉

THE SPEAKERS

Amit Rai

Amit is fast becoming a serial failure (err.. entrepreneur). Over the years he has tried his luck at four Startups. In his last start-up, he tried to revolutionise fashion e-commerce for women, despite the fact that he is neither fashionable nor a woman. Having learnt his lesson, he has now founded a start-up that aims to simplify parenting.

Amit gathered an engineering and a business degree (from Harvard) and worked for 15 years at well-known companies like McKinsey, Microsoft and Nokia across US, Europe and UK to prepare for entrepreneurship. However, he has learnt the hard way that the only way of learning entrepreneurship is by doing it.

Andrew Grenfell

Andrew has had wonderful opportunities to do things and make mistakes in multiple settings, most recently as Operations Manager at UnLtd’s Global Social Entrepreneurship Network (GSEN), a network for organisations supporting early-stage social entrepreneurs. Before that, he was a social entrepreneur based in Russia, where he co-founded Impact Hub Moscow, a social innovations coworking and events space; launched a US-Russian community organic farm for refugees; and set up a real-estate business. Previously he worked as cabinet advisor at Essex County Council, covering Children’s and Adults’ Services, Finance, and HR.  He has a Master’s in Political Theory from the University of Oxford, speaks fluent English and Russian, and enjoys marathon-running, psychoanalysis and urban gardening.

Andrew’s proudest moment is also his biggest fuck up, when he arrived in Russia and tried to set up a catering social enterprise, which went nowhere but taught him more than anything else about making things happen.

Nikky Norton Shafau

Nikky Norton Shafau is a bit strange…she wants to become a storybook. She has been trying and failing to become an avergae human being for many years and has seriously failed. Through her many experimentations within the arts she has experienced so many fuck ups she now stands proud to say she schedules it into her process – fucking up with purpose

After 10 years of Poetic Chaos (Poetry stages at Latitude and Big Chill festivals), Theatre Shaking (playwrighting for National Youth Theatre & Royal Exchange) and Soul Breaking (theatre-making for Contact Theatre and MC Theater Amsterdam), she is now embarking on a journey of transformation like no other; weaving her narratives within the digital space and the hidden worlds within your city. Look out for clues: www.becomingstorybook.com

Janis Janovskis

Janis Janovskis has pursued many opportunities and it seems he has worked in every possible profession – from a truck service interim to a sales project and promotion agent, then a marketing project manager and sales director of a concrete slab factory. Inspired by all these experiences, he started his own construction business which eventually failed dramatically.

Janis learned the hard way, and the many lessons from this failure helped him to kick pff an association to promote zero emission vehicles (two laws were affected because of their team’s actions), teach himself web development and programming and start up an IT consultancy company passive management, which is growing well.

Janis speaks fluent English, Russian and Latvian, loves to travel with his family, occasionally run long distances, make delicious food and brew home made wine.

We are looking for SPEAKERS to share a brief story on failure at the sixth edition of the “Fuck Up Night” in London, if you’d like to speak or know someone who might please contact us at [email protected]