In the world of startups, the word "failure" has long been taboo. A group of young Mexican entrepreneurs decided to turn it into a strength by organizing fun, trendy events called "Fuck Up Nights," where startup founders share their mistakes.

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In the business world, talking about failure is considered bad
taste, but the Mexican entrepreneurial community is trying to put an end to this
taboo. Young founders of startups—companies built on new technologies
with modest budgets but ambitious prospects
—meet once a month in México share their
misfortunes in public. They don’t engage in this form of group therapy
out of masochism, but rather because they’re convinced that to succeed, it’s
necessary to stumble several times along the way.

“The first loser of the evening is Alberto Padilla,” announces
Leticia Gasca, one of the founders of Fuck Up Night (The Night of
Failures), on a cold November day. Alberto grabs the microphone and recounts
the three moments in his life that have earned him this title. He learned the
true meaning of the term very early on. In college, he launched a magazine with
a few friends, and one of them promised that his father would finance the first
issue. “The lesson is that we had a verbal agreement, but nothing concrete.
It was all hot air,” he tells the roaring audience.

Far from being discouraged, he joined a consulting firm
specializing in franchises and devoted himself entirely to writing
manuals. He eventually began earning several thousand dollars a day. Motivated,
he opened a branch in Monterrey, in northern Mexico, and began
to expand the market for the company he worked for. Over
time, the boss gradually reduced his commissions and the number of his
projects. “It was difficult, because I lost two years of my life. But I learned to
mwith the right people.” In any case, the worst failure was
yet to come.

“Padilla created a social network called Habitat. It was a really clunky site to use. He had
designed the software and a beautiful homepage, but had made no
investment in advertising. This was before the 1990s, when
visits seemed to fall from the sky when you created a site. The young
entrepreneur lost about a million pesos (56,300 euros).
Some would have spent the rest of their lives with creditors on their heels
for less than that.

Did Alberto Padilla end up wandering through the downtown soup kitchens
with his fly open and reeking of tequila?
No, of course not—otherwise he wouldn’t be holding his life up as an example to the whole
world. He is the co-founder of Aventones, a carpooling site that has been very
successful. The Next Web, a well-known blog in the tech news
sector, awarded him the prize for the country’s best web application.
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Listening to someone's troubles is comforting

LeticiaGasca, the 27-year-old woman who introduces the speakers,
recalls how the idea for these meetings—which are attracting more and
more people—came about: “I was having a drink with four friends, and we were talking
about life as an entrepreneur. We realized that we were all
talking about our failed ventures, but that no one had ever told those stories,
the way we did for three hours while drinking mezcal.” Ultimately, this
—which could have remained a project concocted under the influence of alcohol and abandoned
at sunrise—turned into something serious.

Two weeks later, the first edition of the Fuck Up
Night took place in a courtyard, with 40 people and even more beer.
“The word ‘failure’ doesn’t exist in the business world. In fact, no one
even dares to say it. If you pay attention, you realize that most
people talk about mistakes or missteps,” explains Leticia Gasca, for whom the
battle is also a semantic one. More and more people are coming to listen to
entrepreneurs’ stories, which shows that it may be more
entertaining and comforting to hear someone talk about their misfortunes than their
successes.

In Mexico, 35,000 businesses are created every
month. According to the Ministry of Economy, 6% of young people between the ages of 18 and
24 run their own businesses. The government of Enrique Peña Nieto has
established the Institute of Entrepreneurship: its director, Enrique Jacob, is working
to provide financial support to projects that show promise.
A quick tour of México wealthiest neighborhoods México a look at
the success of young people in Puebla, Monterrey, Hermosillo Tijuana, among
others, is enough to realize that the entrepreneurial spirit is thriving in
Mexico. Mexicans have a reputation for being risk-averse in the
business world, but this stereotype holds less true than it once did.

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“Mexico Thirsts for Success”

For Gustavo Álvarez, the organizer in Mexico of “Startup Weekend”—a three-day event
during which participants must
develop a viable business project—Fuck Up Night attracts
more enthusiastic than depressed people. “We’re removing the stigma
of personal failure. It’s the best way to discover yourself. I participated and
shared my mistakes. It was an excellent exercise to get to know myself better
as an entrepreneur,” summarized Gustavo Álvarez.

The economic figures on which 2013 is set to
conclude are worse than expected—the growth rate has been revised downward three times, from 3.5% to 1.3%—but that hasn’t
stopped some from remaining very enthusiastic. César Salazar, a member of 500 Startups,
an investment firm, moves from group to group during the
launch party for the book *Pequeño
cerdo capitalista* [The Little Capitalist Pig], a bestseller on
saving by Sofía Macías, who is now publishing her second book, dedicated
to investing. “Mexico is hungry for success,” says César Salazar between
a slice of pizza and a beer. In 2012, his company invested in 35
Mexican companies in the new technologies sector.

The Fuckup Nights format Fuckup Nights to catch on:
The first event held outside of México place in San Sebastián, in
Spain. And now, 15 other Mexican cities are organizing their own
versions of these gatherings.

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