In a story about a new Harvard Business School paper concerning venture-backed entrepreneurship in the New York Times, MDV Founding Partner Bill Davidow shared his perspective on  failure and what it can teach:

“Not all failures are equal, explains William H. Davidow, a founding partner in the venture capital firm Mohr Davidow Ventures. A company might fail because its timing was bad or because the entrepreneur was a poor manager. Mr. Davidow, who says he would have expected ‘a higher follow-on success rate for the failed entrepreneurs,’ says that an entrepreneur who has failed in a previous venture ‘would get in the door to talk to me’ about a new idea. But, he adds, ‘I would want to know why that last deal failed, and what the person learned from it.”

Among others who voiced opinions in the story was  Gordon Moore.

“No less an authority than Gordon Moore, a co-founder of Intel, says that in the Valley, ‘You’re more valuable because of the experiences you’ve been through under failures.’

The basic idea behind the embrace of failure is this:  Entrepreneurs who have built and then tried to save a company have seen what does and doesn’t work. This experience is viewed as excellent preparation for tough situations that might arise in a new venture.”