Sarah Prevette tells a tale of bouncing back from failure (Video)

After a monthlong hiatus, the Big Omaha 2012 Video Series is back. Sarah Prevette of BetaKit kicks off the last batch of videos from our May conference with a talk about mistakes, missteps and bouncing back. Prevette is less than a year removed from selling her startup, Sprouter, a site that provides founders help with…

Video by Three Pillars Media of Lincoln. Post-production by Evolve of Des Moines.

After a monthlong hiatus, the Big Omaha 2012 Video Series is back. Sarah Prevette of BetaKit kicks off the last batch of videos from our May conference with a talk about mistakes, missteps and bouncing back.

Prevette is less than a year removed from selling her startup, Sprouter, a site that provides founders help with their startups. But the story she shared wasn’t one of glitz, glam and a golden touch on the way to a pie-in-the-sky acquisition. In fact, Prevette decided to shut down Sprouter just before it ended up being bought. “After two years of pouring my life (into Sprouter) … I had to say goodbye to it, my baby — I had to shut it down,” she said. “And there was a series of probably very poor decisions that led to that moment.”

But those decisions served as the basis for lessons Prevette learned and subsequently shared with the Big Omaha crowd. The lessons ranged from motivational — “strive for success but prepare for failure” and “fall in love with the problem” — to more mundane — “documents matter” and “cash flow is everything.”

With every misstep, Prevette was forced to find a different path to her desired end point. “We have little failures every day,” she said. “But you can also have catastrophic, almost life-altering failure and you can bounce back.”

To hear Prevette discuss the startup life cycle and what she learned in launching, shuttering and eventually selling a company, check out the video above, the 13th in the Big Omaha 2012 Video Series presented by Microsoft BizSpark.

Read our recap: Sarah Prevette: ‘Fall in love with the problem’

About Sarah Prevette

Prevette is the Editor-in-Chief at BetaKit, a Sprouter initiative. A serial entrepreneur and vocal evangelist for startups around the world, Sarah is the founder of Sprouter, which was acquired by Postmedia Network Inc. in 2011. She has been featured The Wall Street Journal, Forbes and Wired Magazine and is an active advisor to several emerging companies. Her advice can be found in the Financial Post and on on BNN’s hit entrepreneurship show “The Pitch.”

Find Prevette on Twitter: @SarahPrevette


About Big Omaha & Thinc Iowa, SPN Premier Events

Silicon Prairie News hosts two premier annual events, Big Omaha in May and Thinc Iowa in October. Both events bring together entrepreneurs, innovators, creative individuals, investors and others for a lineup of inspiring speakers, a schedule of unique networking opportunities and a community of support.

To sign-up for alerts regarding Thinc Iowa, which will take place Oct. 10-11 in Des Moines, visit thinciowa.com

 

Credits: Photo of Prevette by Malone & Company/Big Omaha. Headshot of Prevette courtesy of Prevette. 


About our sponsor, Microsoft BizSpark

Microsoft BizSpark is a global program that helps software startups succeed by giving them access to Microsoft software development tools, connecting them with key industry players, including investors, and providing marketing visibility to help entrepreneurs starting a business. BizSpark will fast-track the success of your startup with software, support an visibility.

This story is part of the AIM Archive

This story is part of the AIM Institute Archive on Silicon Prairie News. AIM gifted SPN to the Nebraska Journalism Trust in January 2023. Learn more about SPN’s origin »

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