At IIIT Hyderabad’s flagship E-Cell event, entrepreneurs, academics, and changemakers redefined failure—not as an ending, but as the fuel for resilience, innovation, and growth.

In a world relentlessly focused on polished success stories and flawless victories, IIIT Hyderabad‘s Entrepreneurship Cell (E-Cell) dared to ask a different question: what if our greatest moments of growth aren’t found on the podium, but in the ashes of our setbacks? On 7 September 2025, this question drew a packed audience of over 200 students, faculty, and aspiring entrepreneurs to FAIL?, the institute’s flagship event dedicated to the unfiltered, often untold, stories of failure.

This year’s theme, “Ashes to Ascent,” set a powerful and introspective tone for the evening. The message was clear: true strength and innovation don’t emerge from an unbroken chain of successes, but from the courage to face adversity, learn from it, and rise again.

The goal was to dismantle the stigma surrounding failure and foster an environment of psychological safety, where missteps are not seen as endings but as crucial data points on the path to success. In the high-stakes world of technology and entrepreneurship, where the pressure to succeed is immense, FAIL? provided a rare and vital space for vulnerability, honesty, and a collective redefinition of what it truly means to build a successful life and career.

A Stage of Honesty
Opening the evening, Professor Sandeep Kumar Shukla, Director of IIIT Hyderabad, set the tone with a striking reminder: “In academia and innovation, the courage to risk failure is inseparable from the drive to create something new and impactful.” His words struck a chord, preparing the audience for an evening of candour.

The stage then became a confessional for five diverse voices, each sharing journeys marked not by flawless success but by resilience.

Stories that Stuck

Rama Devi Lanka, former Director of Emerging Technologies for the Government of Telangana, spoke about professional hurdles that became unexpected turning points. Her message was simple yet powerful: growth doesn’t stop with age; it accelerates when you’re willing to pivot.

For Kishan Panpalia, Co-founder of Pepper Content, startup life was anything but linear. “Every misstep felt like the end of the road,” he admitted, “but looking back, those wrong turns were the best teachers.” His story was a crash course in adaptability, resonating deeply with the students in the crowd.

The atmosphere shifted when Pradeep Lokhande, fondly called the “Postcard Man of India,” recounted how he connected with rural India through handwritten postcards. His journey proved that groundbreaking ideas often demand defying convention—and persisting against doubt.

Adding a scientific perspective, Dr. Vishnu Sreekumar, Assistant Professor at IIIT Hyderabad, reflected on his shift from physics at IIT Kanpur to cognitive psychology. “In science,” he said, “unexpected results are not failures—they’re discoveries in disguise.”

Finally, Thangminlal “Lalcha” Haokip, a Litigation Associate at the Centre for Law & Policy Research, offered a deeply moving account of overcoming systemic barriers. His story of resilience in the pursuit of justice drew perhaps the strongest applause of the night.

More Than an Event
By the time the networking session began, the room felt transformed. Conversations spilled over into the corridors—students sharing their own struggles, entrepreneurs exchanging lessons, and everyone carrying away the same message: failure isn’t a full stop, but a comma in a longer story.

FAIL? ’25 was more than an event—it was a collective reimagining of what success truly means. By creating a safe space for vulnerability, E-Cell, IIIT Hyderabad reminded the community that the path to innovation is not a straight line of wins, but a winding journey of setbacks, resilience, and the courage to rise again.