Startup Failure Isn't the End! UNM Encourages Students to Rise and Build Stronger Businesses

Failure in building a startup is not the end of everything. For many students, failure becomes a turning point for learning, developing, and creating more mature businesses. Amid the increasing interest in entrepreneurship among the younger generation, the ability to rise from failure is a key to success. The phenomenon of student startups failing in the early stages still frequently occurs. The causes are varied, from a lack of market validation, weak team management, to funding limitations. However, young founders who succeed generally share one commonality: they do not stop when facing failure. As a Digital Business Campus, Universitas Nusa Mandiri (UNM) continues to encourage students to build resilient entrepreneurial mentalities through ongoing startup coaching. Head of the Nusa Mandiri Startup Center (NSC), Siti Nurlela, emphasised that failure is a normal phase in the journey of building a startup. “Failure is a very normal phase in the journey of building a startup. The most important thing is not how often one fails, but how students are able to rise, learn, and create better innovations,” she stated, quoted on Tuesday (5/5/2026). According to her, the first step in rising from failure is conducting a thorough evaluation of the business model being run, from the product, marketing strategy, to team structure. Students are also encouraged to be open to input from mentors, lecturers, or fellow founders to identify blind spots that have previously been overlooked. In addition to evaluation, self-resilience becomes the main foundation for young prospective entrepreneurs. Because the startup world is full of pressure, uncertainty, and rapid market changes. “Startups are not just about good ideas, but about the ability to adapt, mental resilience, and the courage to improve strategies when facing failure,” Siti added. In supporting this process, NSC serves as a hub for student startup coaching within the UNM environment. NSC provides mentoring, training, and access to industry networks and investors to help students develop competitive startups. Through various coaching programmes, students are guided to restructure more measured business strategies, including deeper market research, product testing using the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) method, and strengthening team structures. With this approach, UNM as a Digital Business Campus continues to strengthen its commitment to producing tough, adaptive young founders ready to face the dynamics of the startup world. For students, failure is no longer the end of the journey, but an important part of the process towards stronger and sustainable businesses.