Editor’s note: The following is an excerpt from an article originally published by Ritika Puri on Forbes.
Ellie Cachette, vice president of product marketing at web design and development firm Koombea, emphasized that failure is a normal part of the entrepreneurial journey.
“Before Koombea, I was the founder of one major failure called ConsumerBell and several smaller failures,” Cachette said. “I spent three and a half years building more than 16 products and honing in on a product market fit.”
For Cachette, each setback was an invaluable learning opportunity, and her experiences have made her a highly strategic advisor and founder.
“In my couple years of ‘failing,’ I learned more about building a business and product than many of my friends who had the luxury of financing and scaling teams,” she said. “I’ve also learned more about actual value and company packaging from failing a start-up.”
These lessons have been crucial to Cachette’s success with Koombea. “Many of my previous failures save me time and money on a daily basis,” Cachette said. “I would never say that failure fuels my success. But thanks to failure, I find myself on more successful paths faster and more of the time.”