I spoke at the Elevate Small Business event hosted by the San Diego & Imperial SBDC Network, on a panel titled: “Fail Forward: How Failure Shapes Stronger Founders and Companies.”

I almost didn’t say yes.

At the time of the invitation, I was deep in high-anxiety mode, working through a fresh challenge at Hydrostasis. When you’re in the middle of solving something hard, the last thing you feel like doing is stepping onto a stage to talk about resilience.

But after sitting with it, I realized that was exactly the point.

Building Hydrostasis has come with real failures — product missteps, delays, hard pivots, moments where the outcome didn’t match the effort. Sharing those experiences openly felt important. Not because failure is glamorous, but because it’s unavoidable if you’re actually trying to build something new.

Failure isn’t the opposite of success. It’s part of the process of earning it.

If you’re not failing, you’re probably not stretching. Not experimenting. Not innovating. Each setback carries information. Each one forces clarity. Each one strengthens the next decision.

Grateful to my co-panelists Twyla Garrett and Ravi Chawla, PhD, and to moderator Silvia Mah, PhD, MBA, for sharing your stories with honesty and depth. These conversations matter — especially for founders who think they’re the only ones navigating uncertainty.

Thank you to Briana Weisinger, Daniel Fitzgerald, Benton Moore, and the entire SBDC team for creating space for these discussions and for the work you do supporting small businesses.

And congratulations to all the pitch competition winners. The courage to get up there and present? That’s the work.

Failure doesn’t mean you’re off track. It means you’re in motion.