.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........

Most experienced entrepreneurs know what failure is all about, because it usually takes lots of fumbling and stumbling before success strikes.

In fact, Albuquerque’s best and brightest know that failure isn’t really about failing – it’s about taking risks, hitting walls and being willing to learn from those experiences to keep plowing forward.

Of course, a stout brew can help drown the bitter feelings, and all the better if shared with friends and colleagues who want to learn from each other’s mistakes and support one another.

Now, aspiring entrepreneurs can find that camaraderie the first Thursday of every month at Tractor Brewing Co. in Nob Hill. Starting this Thursday, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., Albuquerque’s startup community will celebrate “Fail Night” – a new “entrepreneurial happy hour” where everyone can belly up to the bar in a beer-laced failure fest that encourages sharing, networking, and social support, said Carlos Contreras, Tractor Brewing’s events and liaison manager.

“We’re framing it as an ‘entrepreneurial happy hour,’ where anyone interested in the sustainability of creative startups in Albuquerque can come together, share ideas, talk shop and have fun,” Contreras said. “It’s about coming together in an informal setting after the day is done to hang out and appreciate one another.”

ADVERTISEMENTSkip

................................................................

Alongside the toasting and commiserating, participants will hear from speakers who will share their experiences with both failure and success.

“We’ll look at a different theme each month,” said Eric Renz-Whitmore, an economic development consultant for the city who has helped build Albuquerque’s emerging startup ecosystem. “We’ll provide some content to draw people into the event with exciting and engaging topics.”

That could include two or three experienced or aspiring entrepreneurs who will share their “failures” to generate discussion and provide shared learning opportunities.

It will also include inspirational topics, such as a Passion Night, where instead of discussing failures, speakers will talk about projects that they’re passionate about.

The new monthly event is, in part, an offshoot of 1 Million Cups, a weekly networking event Downtown that brings aspiring and veteran businesspeople together to discuss startup initiatives. That event, which was created by the Kansas City-based Kauffman Foundation and is held each week in some 70 cities across the country, facilitates networking and mutual support to help build and sustain local entrepreneurialism.

Albuquerque’s 1 Million Cups has grown into a highly popular event since it launched in summer 2014, with an average of about 70 people participating in the morning, coffee-laced meeting every week. That event, alongside the city’s growing array of entrepreneurial workshops and programs, has helped build a dynamic and interactive environment for people to network and gain access to support and resources.

But the city’s emerging startup ecosystem also needs a venue where people can kick back in a more informal environment, said Dara Ambriz, a local entrepreneur and co-organizer of 1 Million Cups. In addition, entrepreneurs need a forum where they can learn from each other’s mistakes as part of the process of building successful businesses.

“The idea for ‘Fail Night’ came out of a 1 Million Cups national summit that the Kauffman Foundation hosted in October for organizers from cities across the nation to share ideas,” Ambriz said. “We thought of it as a venue for people to go when things don’t go their way – a place to look back and gain more understanding of their experiences to help better plan for the future.”

And with so many events now available in the city for entrepreneurs, 1 Million Cups organizers wanted to create a more relaxed social event.

“We want it to be a social forum where both the people who have ‘been there/done that’ can mingle and network informally with up-and-coming entrepreneurs for everyone to learn from one another,” Ambriz said.

The focus on failure is a key component of building a successful entrepreneurial ecosystem, said Gary Oppedahl, the city’s economic development director.

“Failure is a critical part of success,” Oppedahl said. “Entrepreneurs need to embrace their failures as a necessary part of a process where we make lots of little mistakes and grow from them. We want to celebrate failure to show that it’s OK, and that it’s really about taking calculated risks that lead to real innovation, because not every idea we have will succeed.”

By sharing and analyzing failures, entrepreneurs learn to pivot and adjust their strategies to do better in future endeavors, said Lawrence Espinoza, another co-organizer of 1 Million Cups.

“Much success comes out of learning from failures,” Espinoza said. “Businesses don’t just sprout up and take off. We have many people who are now involved in their fourth or fifth business after failing on their first ones, but they learned from those experiences and moved on.”

In the end, it’s also about some good ale and conversation.

“Fail Night won’t be down and heavy,” Ambriz said. “It’s more of a post-mortem thing where, after letting the emotions go, you sit down and look at all you’ve learned from your experiences, and you do that over beers in a fun setting.”