Federico Richardson shares his failure story.
Those that happen when things are apparently "going well". That happened to Federico Richardson, who told his story in one of our private one of our private events and we bring it to you exclusively.
How did expanding a business to another country almost destroy everything? Let's hear it from Federico himself.
- Eric, General Manager of Fuckup Nights Global
Federico Richardson Alborná, is a lawyer and the founder of Lexidy, an international firm created with the mission of making law more straightforward, more accessible, and more human for everyone. His purpose has always been to transform traditional legal practice into a modern, approachable service built on trust and collaboration.
Federico: Failure is blindly trusting that passion and good intentions are enough to sustain a company. It's forgetting that trust—without structure and protected values—can turn against you. In my case, failure was giving too much power without enough clarity.
Federico: It was 2019, and everything at Lexidy was growing. It felt like the early days of something we now seem to have mastered, but back then, we honestly had no idea what we were doing.
We had consolidated our office in Barcelona and started expanding into Portugal. We thought that if we had the same demand there, we could simply copy and paste the model and replicate it.
Because we were a young team with limited experience, we were negligent in how we handled cases. On paper, everything looked good, but the truth was completely different. People always say you can't replicate culture, and this was proof of that.
The expansion into Portugal was born out of optimism. We found Gabriel, a young entrepreneur full of hunger and energy, and we trusted him with opening the office. The vision was clear: replicate what we had achieved in Spain, build a local team, and grow the brand. At the time, it seemed like the right decision.
What happened was that Portugal began developing its own values and operational system. They say you tend to hire people like yourself, and that's precisely what happened: Gabriel was Brazilian, and eventually 80% of the office ended up being Brazilian too.
And there's nothing wrong with that in itself, but the reality was that, by having an office in Portugal, we were impacting the Portuguese market without being fully committed to the same level of quality or the knowledge required to deliver the service expected.
At some point, he seemed more like the owner of his own firm, with only a few voices from headquarters behind him.
I ignored it, thinking it was just a phase and things would gradually stabilize. But the truth is… they didn't. Spoiler alert: after three years working together, we ended up hiring practically his entire team, just as he wanted. At one point, we even hired his brother-in-law.
And because everything had been so chaotic, issues persisted even two years later: the police showed up because some clients we had onboarded at the time were apparently being investigated for money laundering. Since no proper verification processes (KYC) were followed, that became another major mistake. (Please, make sure you always do this.)
One day, I received an unexpected call: Gabriel was resigning… and half of the team was leaving with him.
The immigration, real estate, and corporate leaders (all part of his inner circle) were also leaving.
I was left staring at a massive void. Clients unattended, operations frozen, and the very real possibility of closing the office. It was a punch in the gut. For the first time, I felt that everything I had worked so hard to build could disappear in a matter of days.
We lost people, we lost clients, we lost money… but I think we also lost a bit of our innocence and that naïve belief that everyone who joins truly shares your vision.
I had to look the team in the eye and assure them Lexidy wouldn't collapse. We also had to give more guarantees to those who stayed, prove to them that there was a long-term project and that we needed them to step up, especially the younger talent.
So what was the real mistake here? I think I trusted too much without having a structure. I built a company with values, but not the right ones, and on top of that, we didn't protect them through operations. When someone has power but isn't fully aligned with the mission, their place is always limited.
We decided not to give up. We gathered the remaining team, reinforced our processes, and rebuilt trust step by step.
We had to take control of the narrative regarding what alignment would truly look like moving forward. Today, Portugal is one of our strongest offices. It's performing well and has solid leadership aligned with our vision.
In short, looking back, I learned that trust is powerful… but it's not a business model.
I would give freedom with clear boundaries. Autonomy is powerful, but without accountability, it becomes a risk. And above all, I would prioritize culture before growth.
Connect with Federico!
Remember, our channels are open for questions, complaints, feedback or collaborations at: rich@fuckupnights.com.
Edited by
Ricardo Guerrero
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Let's transform our perception of failure and use it as a catalyst for growth.
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