The Wellstreet Ethos Embraces Failure as

(how “failing forward” on the fly is always preferable to stuck in neutral and going nowhere)

Business, much like life, is far too often filled with missed opportunities which lead to endless regrets. As we all understand—whether it be business or life—one of the primary reasons for every missed opportunity is fear. We fear risk, we fear success, and perhaps most of all, we fear failure. And so because of our fear of failure, we never allow ourselves to see its ever-present flip side of success.  

As evolutionary progressive primates we’re naturally pattern-seeking thinkers constantly searching for safety and security. In business we’re often instructed to follow those patterns that most reliably lead to safety and security as well. But while safety and security are admirable, we too often tend to ignore any and every opportunity that doesn’t strictly promise the same. And in business this too often leads to a timid approach to innovation, which then leads to creative stagnation, shrinking sales, and quickly being devoured by the bigger, hungrier beasts of the business jungle.  

In other words- Actual failure.

Ironically, it’s our constant, clinging need for safety and security that so often leads to the unnecessary failures we could’ve otherwise easily avoided by taking risks rather than ignoring them.

Because of their own experience, the Wellstreet Team is determined to engage in a new investment and entrepreneurial culture that feeds on both the fear and the ugly reality of failure, and then turns it into the rocket fuel of success!  

Work Harder, Work Smarter, Create Worthwhile Success  

Cofounders Sïmon Saneback and Mikael Wintzell’s evolutionary business experiences taught them both an invaluable lesson which many cannot see quite so clearly (the forest we can’t see through the trees)- Mistakes are inevitable but failure does not have to mean the end!

The Wellstreet ethos welcomes these inevitable mistakes and—rather than meekly accepting or impotently avoiding our failures—absolutely embraces the lessons we learn as the fuel that will lead us to a more tempered, stronger, and ultimately more successful future. Because this future must be founded on the type of daring innovation that actually changes the entrepreneurial ecosystem.  

At Wellstreet, when it comes to entrepreneurial investment, failure is always an  option, but never a dead end. Indeed a fearless attitude towards failure is what allows the Wellstreet Team to reconfigure the more traditional way of approaching the real problems currently facing entrepreneurial investment.  And this fearless attitude is based on Wellstreet’s Three Simple Investment Questions-

1. Do We Understand How This Company Works? The Wellstreet Team asks this vital question as another way of stating- Do we get their idea, do we approve of it, and do we believe this S**T will work? And would we want to make it happen? If the answer is “Maybe” or “No”, then the Wellstreet wolves don’t bite.
2. Do We Know the Specific Market? Yes, we all want to sell ice cream at the beach in the summertime, but do we actually have a real beach? And where exactly is this beach (hopefully not the arctic circle)? Do we even know if it’s summertime? If the answer is “Maybe” or “No” then the Wellstreet wolves won’t bite.  
3. Do We See a Viable Exit Strategy? Do our investment partners have an endgame that’s feasible? Do we foresee a mutually fruitful future with a plan for if/when the global weather goes bad? If the answer is “Maybe” or “No” then the Wellstreet wolves don’t bite.

Yes, savvy entrepreneurial investment always contains an element of risk (and it should), but it’s never random and it’s not roulette, (nor should it be)!  

Kiss the Risk, Marry the Idea, Kill the Scheme

The Wellstreet goals are clear and straightforward.

• Vigorously build multiple companies along with a global ecosystem
• Create a viable, reliable and inclusive platform that will allow sharp entrepreneurs both the solid support and the creative freedom to explore real, game changing innovation.

Both of these goals require risk centered around investment in new ideas, and both require a necessary break from the more traditional methods of supporting entrepreneurial innovation. The Wellstreet Team understands that it must-

1. Openly embrace the risk
2. Recognize and reward real innovative thinkers
3. Allow those investment teams behind the curve to reach their evolutionary destiny while the Wellstreet wolves work harder to get leaner, smarter, stronger and faster.

Evolutionary investment requires revolutionary thinking, and forward-thinking innovation is always the key to future success. Risk is always on the Wellstreet menu. Mistakes are merely appetizers and failure is only one short course on the way to fueling and then firing up the Wellstreet entrepreneurial engines.

Bon Appetit!