Episode 003 - Persisting Through Failure

Persisting Through Failure with Stuart Ahlum '13, Vaidhy Murti '15 and Pilar Castro-Kiltz '10

SHOW NOTES:

Check out Thousand Fell's circular and sustainable sneakers at thousandfell.com. Early mailing list subscribers will have access to Thousand Fell's first 1000 pairs!

Check out Friendsy at friendsyapp.com and Wit at getwit.app.

Check out Princeton Arts Alumni at ptonartsalumni.org and More Canvas Consulting at morecanvas.com.

CREDITS:

Produced by the Princeton Entrepreneurship Council. Music by Wright Seneres. Theme music by the Treadmills (Wright Seneres, electric guitar and electric bass; John Damond, Jr., drums). Engineered by Dan Kearns and Dan Quiyu at the Princeton Broadcast Center. Edited and mixed by Wright Seneres. Promotional readings by Megan Donahey '20.

TRANSCRIPT:

From the Princeton Entrepreneurship Council, this is the Princeton Spark. I’m Wright Seneres. 

The various people that make up the Princeton entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystem have long been at work, taking risks to bring transformational ideas and companies to the world, in the Nation’s Service and the Service of Humanity. These are the stories of Entrepreneurship the Princeton Way. 

At PEC, we support Princeton-connected startups and help to build the regional entrepreneurial ecosystem in New Jersey and beyond. 

In our series-opening three episodes, we are exploring three important aspects of entrepreneurship. If you haven’t heard the first episode on taking risks, or the second episode on thriving under uncertainty, they are available now at princetonspark.com or wherever you get your podcasts, so please check them out. 

It’s a widely held notion that most startups fail. Depending on whom you ask, it’s somewhere between 50 to 90 percent. That’s a lot. 

But it’s also a common phrase that investors like to back the jockey, not the horse. That is to say, the person and team executing the idea can be more important than the idea itself.

In this episode of the Princeton Spark, we will talk to entrepreneurs who quote-unquote failed in their first startups. They got back on the entrepreneurial horse, and now are on to their next startups and endeavors. We’ll explore how they persisted through failure, on their way to success.

Our first one today is Stuart Ahlum. 

My name is Stuart Ahlum, I’m Princeton class of 2013. I’m an entrepreneur, and I run a company called Thousand Fell. 

Stuart is the co-founder of Thousand Fell, a completely circular and sustainable sneaker company. His first startup, a sneaker company called House of Future, received an investment from the Princeton Alumni Entrepreneurs Fund in 2017. Normally, after funding from Princeton in the form of AEF, a company would be on their way.  

Fast forward a year, and Stuart wound up leaving House of Future. During our interview, he wasn’t able to get into the specifics of why he left. But more importantly, he could talk about what he learned from the process. 

I think when you're in it, and when things aren't going well, it feels like an epic failure. And it's hard to separate yourself, you're so close to these projects, you're pouring all of your time and energy into it. And it's hard to take a step back. I think what I've learned is when I've kind of cleared those hurdles, and finished with projects, we've finished with companies, and had an opportunity to sort of really decompress and figure out what I've learned. It's just fantastic learning opportunities. And you're able to