Nothing fails 100%

Ten years ago, we went all in on The Happy Startup School.

The sensible move?

Minimise overheads.
Stay lean.

Instead, we held onto our huge studio space from our agency with room for 20, but with a team of just 4.

And we created The Happy Startup Clubhouse: a creative hub for purpose-driven founders and freelancers in Brighton.

It was both a success and a failure.

The wins:

• Regular meetups, workshops, and community events

• Serendipitous collaborations that led to lasting friendships

• Tuning into the needs of other creative and purposeful entrepreneurs

Sounds good, right? But in reality:

• We became office managers (hello, coffee machines and dishes)

• The numbers never quite worked

• Our open-door policy meant we barely got our own work done

• We got distracted from our bigger vision: building a global community, not just a local one

The vibe worked. The business model didn't.

After 2 years, Carlos and I made the tough call to close the Clubhouse.

As Robert Brault put it, “We are kept from our goal not by obstacles but by a clear path to a lesser goal.”

Walking away freed us to focus on what we did best: creating life-changing experiences and programs.

Sometimes you need to let go of something good to make room for something better.

Here's to beautiful failures.