Dare to fail and grow together: Lessons from Failure Friday
Entrepreneuring in biotech holds great promise, but also persistent challenges. At hollandbio’s Failure Friday event, two seasoned biotech leaders shared their most valued lessons – not from successes, but from setbacks. In an open atmosphere, they offered the room full of peers not just honest anecdotes, but practical wisdom for anyone navigating the realities of biotech.
Between ambition and reality
Hollandbio’s Annemiek opened with a familiar contradiction: while biotech features prominently in political ambitions in The Hague and Brussels, companies still struggle with financing, slow regulation and limited reimbursement. Through member benefits, sharp monitoring, and long-term lobbying – such as our recent contributions to the Plan Wennink – hollandbio continues to push for a business climate where biotech can truly thrive. The speakers of the day, Erik van den Berg, CEO of MemoTherapeutics, and Tom van Aken, CEO of Avantium, didn’t shy away from sharing what went wrong along their journeys.
When great plans fail
Tom reflected on his company’s joint venture that once seemed promising but ultimately failed due to a cultural mismatch: “Whenever I met with our joint venture partner, they said: we’re paid to avoid risk. Well, that was the real difference.” Ending the partnership was painful, especially for a publicly listed company, but it was the right decision. Fortunately, a pre-agreed ‘divorce clause’ made the process manageable. From the audience came a helpful question executives should always ask themselves: “Can you handle the worst outcome?”
Boards, investors and tough choices
Governance challenges resonated strongly. Erik underlined the difficulty of managing investor-driven boards and the importance of transparency. Tom agreed and pointed out that as CEO, you must learn to let go of the details when your company grows: “Don’t be afraid to not know something, it’s fine to not know everything.” He stressed that boards must understand the business, not micromanage it. And that managing the board as CEO requires constant calibration of trust. When discussing tough financial decisions, Tom introduced a pragmatic mindset difficult to forget: “If dilution is the solution, you just do it.”
Failure as fuel for growth
Both speakers highlighted how their leadership evolved through the experience they shared. Erik learned to step back from solving every issue himself and move into a more coaching role, while Tom learned to trust his intuition in hiring and team building. With these wise lessons, Failure Friday once again demonstrated: setbacks are not endpoints, but valuable data points. A very special thank you to Erik van den Berg and Tom van Aken for their openness, and to all participants for contributing to an atmosphere where lessons from failure strengthen the entire biotech community. See you at our next event: The Hollandbio Year Event taking place on January 29th!
