Fuckup Nights and UTRGV create a space to learn from failures and strengthen the entrepreneurial community at RGV Startup Week.
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For the fourth consecutive year, the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley teamed up with Fuckup Nights to host the Failure Institute Nights, branded under our corporate sublabel, The Failure Institute.
A series of events that has already become a fundamental pillar within the Rio Grande Valley Startup Week, it continues to be a space that breaks with the usual entrepreneurial world, and focuses on encouraging entrepreneurs and the university community to learn by overcoming failures.
This event is part of the AdvanceUp Accelerator Program, designed to create a no-filter space where entrepreneurs and founders openly share, without filters, the lessons they have learned from their hardest mistakes: from ideas that were reinvented at the last minute to risky resignations.
When the organizers approached Fuckup Nights, they had a clear idea in mind:
"We want an event that goes beyond pitch decks and product validations. We need a space where our alumni and entrepreneurial community can talk about the real challenges behind entrepreneurship." - Amy De la Hoz, moderator of the edition and Global Supply Chain Management student at UTRGV.
Their goal? Shift the conversation at RGV Startup Week by placing humanity and vulnerability at the center of every entrepreneurial story.
Together, we co-created an experience designed to connect deeply with the audience and reinforce a message we live by: failure is an essential driver of innovation and growth.
This year's event, hosted at the eBridge Center for Business & Commercialization in Brownsville, brought together 50 alumni, students and members of the local community to hear the stories of:
If there’s one message that resonated with the audience, it was this: Failure is not just inevitable—it’s necessary.
“If you knew you had to fail 100 times before reaching success, wouldn’t you want to start failing now?”
Some of the most powerful takeaways from the night included:
Each year, Rio Grande Valley Startup Week offers a full lineup of interactive sessions, keynotes, and special events.
What Fuckup Nights brings to the table is different—and essential: humanizing entrepreneurship.
We build resilient founders and authentic businesses.
"This event allowed our community of alumni and entrepreneurs to feel that their real challenges are a natural part of the process" - commented the UTRGV organizing team.
What started four years ago as a disruptive experiment is now a tradition for University of Texas entrepreneurial community.
The ongoing partnership between Fuckup Nights and UTRGV continues to show that talking openly about the real challenges of entrepreneurship not only strengthens startup culture—but also builds more united and genuine communities.
Find out how to co-create a custom Fuckup Nights event for your company here.
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Rodrigo Burberg Founder of CarInspector.io and VINHx.com, Rodrigo is a specialist in scalable technology and practical solutions that solve real problems, recognized at Startup Texas Emerging Industries.
Daniel Gonzalez With over 20 years in the restaurant industry, Daniel leads Chirina's Fish Tacos with a vision to bring his concept to 100 locations in the southern border of the U.S. in the next 20 years.
Sebastian Melendez Young entrepreneur and founder of Shape Cards, he combines his international background and his passion for innovation and automation to drive creative projects from UTRGV.
Edited by
Karla Ferreira
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Let's transform our perception of failure and use it as a catalyst for growth.
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