West~bourne’s Camilla Marcus on Failure to Launch

Inspired by 1960s Los Angeles, west~bourne is an accidentally vegetarian, all-day café with a social mission. A portion of every purchase made at its SoHo location benefits the poverty-fighting Robin Hood Foundation to fund hospitality training for youth in its community through its neighboring nonprofit, The Door, where the restaurant hires from to build its team. Its founder Camilla Marcus joined us at our Fail Friday this past June to share her stories of failure and lessons learned.

Camilla was formerly the Director of Business Development for Union Square Hospitality Group and worked in real estate investing for Colony Capital and CIM Group. With her background in business development, law and investing, Camilla initially felt confident going into her first independent venture as a restauranteur. She scouted her first location right away, and quickly learned of the legal barriers that would carry on with her through her search for a home for west~bourne.

The process ended up taking a year, and with two failed locations and painful legal costs behind her, Camilla learned her biggest lesson as an entrepreneur: Failure is the point when you have to decide — is this really what I want to do? Getting over that hurdle is what continues to push you forward.

Check out more Fail Friday videos here.

Huge thanks to our Fail Friday partners Force Brands and Kickstarter.