Fear of failure in entrepreneurship: insights from Karolina Pelc at SiGMA Central Europe
During day 2 of the conference at SiGMA Central Europe 2025, which took place at Fiera Roma in Rome on stage 2, Karolina Pelc, the founder of BeyondPlay, presented a keynote address on how leaders can face their fears, make smarter decisions, and take action despite uncertainties. She shared practical strategies that transform rejection into drive and risk into calculated opportunities. Drawing on her experiences from working on casino floors to achieving a swift exit with FanDuel, she provided a comprehensive mindset and methodology for founders dealing with leadership challenges, fundraising, exits, and pivots.
Karolina Pelc is the founder of BeyondPlay, an engagement SaaS company acquired by FanDuel in under three years, and a former senior leader at LeoVegas, William Hill and Betsson, with two decades across real-money gaming and product strategy. Her new HerPlay framework, distilled into a forthcoming book, sets seven elements and seven “plays” designed to spark a practical shift in how founders approach risk and reinvention.
“Luck isn’t passive, luck is participatory. You need to create space for luck to land.”
Reframing fear of failure
Pelc opened by challenging the myth of randomness: “I don’t believe in luck, at least not as commonly defined,” she said, arguing that leaders can “engineer serendipity” by creating conditions where preparation meets opportunity. She added, “Luck isn’t passive, luck is participatory. You need to create space for luck to land,” a stance that underpins her approach to team building, capital raising and timing exits.
From idea to exit
Setting context for the acquisition, Pelc noted that what looked like a three‑year success was “20 years leading up to it,” pointing to sustained credibility, platform thinking and visible product advocacy before founding BeyondPlay. “For two years before founding, I was on every panel, talking about multiplayer as the future,” she said, explaining how consistent public positioning helped convert a PowerPoint‑only raise into early backing and speed to market.
Pelc’s investor story with Mark Blandford captured her rejection‑handling ethos: “He said, I only invest under the EIS scheme and only post‑revenue, which to him meant no. To me, it meant not yet,” she recalled. Persistence, multi‑channel follow‑ups, and an advice‑first meeting at ICE turned a near‑certain pass into “I’ll take it all,” with Blandford committing the remaining £800,000 because “you didn’t give up” and addressed objections with clarity and composure.
A practical model: FAIL
Pelc highlighted two decisive moves that de‑risked the venture and accelerated outcomes, starting with a seven‑figure trademark sale that “changed our trajectory,” funding senior hires and a second product line. The shift to a jackpot management product filled a market gap left by an acquisition elsewhere, onboarded customers within eight months, and ultimately “closed the jackpot gap” for FanDuel, aligning precisely with the buyer’s vision board from day one.
Pelc offered a simple tool for founders facing daily uncertainty: “Feel it, analyse it, integrate it, launch,” a sequence that moves teams from amygdala‑driven panic to data‑driven iteration. Drawing from skydiving, she noted, “Look down and you trigger fear, look out to the horizon and you trigger possibility,” using the horizon cue to switch from threat response to problem‑solving.
Key takeaways
- Treat “luck” as a system, not a shrug: prepare in public, position with intent, and create surface area for opportunity.
- Rejection is data: “not yet” thinking preserves optionality and compounds credibility with investors and partners.
- Pivots should bank revenue and reduce risk while staying close to core product advantages and customer demand.
- Protect early assets, including trademarks, when they create leverage and optionality at inflection points.
- Use FAIL to reset after setbacks and return to execution with clarity and pace.
Next steps
Pelc closed with a line she carries on her wrist, “What if you fly?”, inviting founders to place attention on possibility rather than on the drop beneath their feet.
SiGMA Central Europe may be over, but the momentum continues at SiGMA South Asia from 30 November to 02 December 2025 at the Lumina Ballroom, Colombo, uniting leaders across iGaming, emerging tech, and digital innovation for three days of keynotes, panels, awards, and high-level networking. Delegates can carry conversations into the evening around Colombo’s acclaimed dining scene, offering a relaxed backdrop to deepen connections and wind down after the day’s programme.
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