Lisbon · 2026 · Women in Tech

Failing
Forward

A curated evening for women in tech — real stories, honest lessons, and the people worth knowing. Built on truth over performance.

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Mission

Why we built
this room

You walk in curious. You leave with perspective, connections, and something real.
— The Failing Forward Promise

The most useful stories are the honest ones.

Our founding belief

Failing Forward is a monthly evening in Lisbon where remarkable women in tech take the stage — not to perform success, but to share the full picture. The pivots, the wrong bets, the things that broke before they worked.

This is not a networking event with a speaker bolted on. It's a deliberately designed space: one strong story, a room full of curious people, and enough time to actually talk. We keep it small so everyone leaves having had at least one real conversation.

Whether you're a founder, engineer, product manager, or researcher — if you build things with technology and you're curious about how others do it, this is your room.

💬

Honest Talk

No hero narratives. Just real journeys, real failures, real lessons.

🎯

High-Signal Room

Invite-only, curated audience. Everyone there has a reason to be.

🔗

Real Opportunities

Jobs, collaborations, introductions — born in the room, not on a job board.

⚡

Interactive by Design

Live polls, roundtables, speed connections. Nobody hides in the corner.

What to Expect

An evening
designed to matter

Every edition follows the same core format — tight enough to feel intentional, loose enough to breathe. Maximum two hours. High signal only.

★ 🎤

Raw Talks

One woman. One story. Real, specific, and unfiltered. What she built, what broke, and what she'd do differently. No polish — just truth.

30 minutes Live Q&A No slides required
02 ⚡

Interactive Layer

Live polls, lightning insights, roundtables. What people really think, in real time.

03 🧑‍💼

Mystery Recruiter

A surprise drop — jobs, gigs, and opportunities. No pitch. No pressure.

04 😊

Speed Connections

Five-minute rounds. Three to five connections you actually wanted to make.

05 ☕

Micro Networking

Guided prompts, small groups. No "so what do you do?" Conversations that actually matter.

✕
No polished storytelling Leave the TED-talk script at home. We want the messy version.
→
What actually went wrong The pivots, the wrong bets, the things that broke before they worked.
✕
No success journeys We're not here to celebrate the highlight reel.
→
What you're still figuring out The honest answer to where you are right now.
Events

Upcoming
Editions

Get notified of new editions
#01
Details Coming Soon
📅 2026 📍 Lisbon, Portugal 🎟 Free · ~60 people
The First Edition

Details will be announced soon. Subscribe to the newsletter or join the community to be the first to know — date, speaker, and location revealed to registrants.

Details announced to community first Get notified
The People

Built by two women who
wanted this event to exist

Melissa Carvalho
Melissa Carvalho
Legal Director · AI Governance

EU Attorney and certified AI Governance Professional. Melissa translates complex regulation into human language — and brings that same clarity to the conversations she curates.

AI Governance Legal EU Policy
Arpi Antonyan
Arpi Antonyan
Lead of PMO & Strategy

Strategy and PMO lead with six years across startups and corporates in Europe. Arpi brings the structure that makes things actually happen — and the international perspective that makes them interesting.

PMO & Strategy PMP · PSM I Multilingual
Get Involved

Join us in
building this

Failing Forward runs on community energy. Whether you want to speak, sponsor, suggest someone, or simply show up — there's a meaningful role for you.

We're deliberately lean: no ad spend, no agency, no corporate gloss. Everything that works here works because real people made it work.

🎤

Speak at an Edition

You don't need to have made it to belong on stage. You need a real story — something you built, broke, or learned the hard way. No keynote experience required.

🤝

Become a Partner

We work with one sponsor per event — the Mystery Recruiter Partner. Exclusive access, real conversations, and genuine talent connections rather than a logo on a slide deck.

🌱

Suggest a Speaker

We rely on community recommendations to find speakers who wouldn't normally put themselves forward. Know someone with a real story? Send them our way.

📍

Host an Edition

Have a space in Lisbon that could host 40–60 people for an evening? We'd love to hear from you. Venues become part of the experience — always a good one.

Let's make
something happen

Fill in the form and one of the organizers will get back to you personally. We read everything.