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| Ugly Talks: Failure Is Key To Success
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| With Ben McKean (Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Hungryroot), Stephen McKinney (Founder & CEO, Bizbe), Dmitry Koltunov (Founder and CEO, Arbor), Gwendolyn von Rahn (Founder and CEO, Sweetling Health), Victoria Yampolsky (President, The Startup Station). |
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Nov 02 (Mon) @ 06:00 PM
FREE
| | Venue, To Be Announced
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| Register |
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Failure gets talked about like it is part of the journey. That is the lie.
The real thing is messier. Missed bets. Wrong hires. Near-breakdowns. The week you stop sleeping & start doing math at 3:00 AM.
Founders are expected to eat it quietly & keep moving. No language for what happened. No playbook for what to do next.
Ugly Talk is a founder room for the part nobody posts. No fluff. No consultants. Just builders with scars, talking about the call that cost them.
Why you should be in this room.
Hear what failure cost them. Then hear what they did next.
Learn how experienced founders separate self-worth from outcomes when things go sideways.
Spot the patterns behind repeat mistakes. And the early signals you should not ignore.
Leave with a few concrete moves for the next hard week. Not inspiration.
Meet other founders in the thick of it. The ones who are still building.
What's on the table.
Dare to suck: how permission to fail unlocks real progress
The moment things broke: missed opportunities, wrong turns, near-breakdowns, & what changed afterward
Failure vs identity: separating self-worth from outcomes
Treating setbacks as data: what to measure, what to ignore, & how to decide fast
Rejection as redirection: how founders find the signal in the no
Habits for staying focused & resilient when everything feels uncertain
Run of show
6:00 - 6:30 PM: Reception (check-in & light drinks)
6:30 - 6:40 PM: Welcome remarks
6:40 - 6:50 PM: Keynote Speech by Ben McKean
6:50 - 7:30 PM: Panel Discussion
7:30 - 7:45 PM: Audience Q&A
7:45 - 8:00 PM: Mixer + snacks & drinks
Featured speakers.
Ben McKean - Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Hungryroot
Ben McKean is the Founder & CEO of Hungryroot, a personalized healthy eating assistant that uses AI to make meal planning, food shopping, & nutrition effortless & enjoyable. Prior to Hungryroot, Ben was a Vice President & General Manager at Groupon, overseeing their food & beverage business. Ben came to Groupon through the acquisition of Savored, which he founded in 2009. Savored was the nation's leading provider of yield management technology to the restaurant industry, used by over two thousand restaurants nationwide & nearly one million diners. Prior to Savored, Ben worked in Merrill Lynch's technology investment banking group. Ben is a graduate of Georgetown University & currently lives in North Carolina with his wife & kids.
Stephen McKinney - Founder & CEO, Bizbe
Stephen McKinney is a serial entrepreneur with over a decade of experience across tech, marketing, & logistics. He's the founder & CEO of Bizbe.com, an AI-native business brokerage & lower middle market M&A firm based in New York & Miami. A former contestant on ABC's Shark Tank, Steve previously founded & led Retty Logistics, a seven-figure last-mile delivery company acquired by DXP Logistics & Webster Logistics.
Dmitry Koltunov - Founder & CEO, Arbor
Dmitry Koltunov is a serial entrepreneur, technologist, educator, & storyteller. He is the founder & CEO of Arbor, an AI-powered content engine that helps enterprises scale their communications with video & beyond. Previously, he co-founded & served as CTO of ALICE, a hospitality technology company that grew into a global industry leader before being acquired by Expedia Group.
Dmitry also leads the New York City chapter of the Startup Leadership Program, New York's oldest startup fellowship, whose 500+ alumni have collectively raised more than $1 billion in funding across every industry imaginable. He is passionate about helping founders navigate the challenges of building & scaling companies.
Outside of technology, Dmitry is an award-winning songwriter & theater producer currently developing a new musical for Broadway. He holds degrees in Computer Science & Economics from the University of Pennsylvania & is a CFA charterholder.
Gwendolyn von Rahn - Co-Founder & CEO, Sweetling Health
Gwendolyn von Rahn is the Co-Founder & CEO of Sweetling Health, an postpartum intelligence platform built for at-risk & hard-to-reach populations. She's a second-time exited founder, an award-winning marketer with over a decade of experience building consumer brands for women, Gwen led creative & brand teams at Vogue, InStyle, & POPSUGAR before founding & scaling a mission-driven consumer brand into Nordstrom distribution that raised over $1M for melanoma research through the Melanoma Research Foundation. She holds a Cornell Johnson MBA & founded Sweetling from her own lived experience with the postpartum care gap.
Who's hosting it.
Victoria Yampolsky - President, The Startup Station
Victoria Yampolsky is the Founder & President of The Startup Station, a strategic CFO advisory firm & financial education platform for startups. She partners with founders on financial strategy, modeling, & fundraising, having supported over 150 companies across 15 industries in raising more than $50M in venture capital. Victoria is also an advocate for female founders & access to capital, & has taught finance to more than 20,000 entrepreneurs through programs including the Bank of America Institute for Women's Entrepreneurship at Cornell. She began her career at Deutsche Bank & Capgemini, & holds a BS in Computer Science from Cornell University & an MBA from Columbia Business School.
Who's getting in.
Early-stage tech founders & operators navigating uncertainty, setbacks, or the emotional weight of building a company. Expected roles may include:
Founders & co-founders (pre-seed to Series A)
Operators (COO, Head of Ops, Chief of Staff)
Product & Engineering leads building through ambiguity
Growth & GTM leads working through missed targets & pivots
Finance & strategy leaders supporting founder decision-making
Who's backing this.
The Startup Station
The Startup Station - is a CFO advisory & financial education platform for early-stage startups. We help early-stage founders build investor-ready financials & tell their funding story with confidence. In the past decade, we've helped 150+ founders raise over $50M & educated 20,000+ entrepreneurs worldwide. The Startup Station also runs Speed Pitch, an exclusive investor-founder matchmaking event series for early-stage startups where founders are matched with 3 investors by sector, stage, & check size.
Mind Your Business
Every attendee will receive a free copy of keynote speaker Ben McKean's Mind Your Business.
Mind Your Business is a practical parable for people rethinking work as AI advances. Set over a four-day retreat, it follows six participants competing for funding to bring one vision to life. As they evaluate six competing proposals, they begin to confront deeper questions about what gives them energy, who they serve, & what they uniquely contribute. Those patterns form what the book calls their Soulcode-the way purpose, belonging, imagination, & courage shape how they work. Told with humor & warmth, the story turns familiar workplace tensions into practical lessons for contributing more deeply, seeing new possibilities, & acting with greater conviction. At its core, the book argues that the opportunity of the AI era isn't doing more work-it's knowing what work is worth doing.
GREY Journal
GREY Journal - Media partner spotlighting modern entrepreneurs (featured on Apple News + Google News).
About Ugly Talk
Started in 2019, Ugly Talk has been transforming business setbacks into breakthrough "aha!" moments by hosting unfiltered, no-nonsense events where battle-tested entrepreneurs share their raw lessons & insights.
With a growing presence in cities like New York, Chicago, San Francisco, & Miami, we've built a vibrant community of thousands of founders & industry leaders making a profound impact on the entrepreneurial landscape.
Official Website: UglyTalk.com
Important Notice for Ugly Talk Attendees
Admission & Confirmation
Attendance is by approval only. Approved guests will receive a confirmation email along with a calendar invite. Invitations are non-transferable. Additional event details will be shared as the event approaches.
Code of Conduct
By attending, you agree to:
Maintain respect & professionalism, adhering to all venue rules, policies, & applicable laws.
Refrain from harassment, discrimination, unwelcome sexual advances (verbal or physical), intimidation, or inappropriate photography/recording.
Report any violations to the event hosts immediately.
Violations may result in immediate removal from the event & exclusion from future invitations.
Liability & Risk
Participation is voluntary & at your own risk. The event organizers, hosts, sponsors, & venue are not liable for personal injury, lost or stolen belongings, or any other damages incurred during the event.
Media Consent
By attending, you grant the event organizers & affiliated entities the right to capture, use, & distribute photos, videos, & audio recordings of you for promotional, marketing, & other lawful purposes, including digital & print media, advertising, & social media. You waive any right to inspect or approve the final materials & release all claims related to their use.
Communications
By registering, you agree to receive marketing & promotional communications from Ugly Talk & its co-hosts, partners, & sponsors. You may unsubscribe at any time.
Agreement
If you do not agree to this Code of Conduct, please refrain from attending the event.
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