Journey of a start-up: Aquacycl’s Sofia Babanova on the importance of making mistakes

Following Aquacycl’s sponsorship of the Aquatech Innovation Forum ‘F**K Up nights’, co-founder Sofia Babanova discusses why making mistakes is a fundamental part of the innovation process. She talks about the company’s journey in scaling a solution for industrial, tough-to-treat wastewater.

Starting to talk about mistakes in scaling water technologies 

The journey of a water start-up is riddled with challenges. From building, proofing, and validating new technologies through to recruiting talent, navigating the regulatory landscape and articulating your value proposition to the market – there’s never a dull moment.

While making mistakes and failure is an inevitable part of the process, it’s not often talked about, especially in the water market.

However, a new development and part of the Aquatech Innovation Forum was a partnership with the F**K Up Nights organisation, a global movement celebrating mistakes and giving founders a platform to speak openly about their journeys.

Following Aquacycl’s sponsorship of the Aquatech Innovation Forum ‘F**K Up nights’, co-founder Sofia Babanova discusses why making mistakes is a fundamental part of the innovation process. 

She talks about the company’s journey in scaling a solution for industrial, tough-to-treat wastewater.

The full video interview can be seen below:

After talking through the company’s innovation journey, including multiple versions of the treatment solution that did not work out, Babanova said: “You should not be discouraged by the failures.” 

“You should be actually building up your knowledge based on failures. If we didn't fail multiple times, we wouldn't be here - we wouldn't be successful…we are going to continue failing along the way.”