This study examines re-entry entrepreneurs’ response to exogenous shakeouts (economic crises). Concretely, we analyse how prior business failure experience contributes to the creation of an entrepreneurial resilience identity, through entrepreneurial persistence, during/after the Global Financial Crisis (GFC). Using data from 24 European countries from 2007 to 2014, our analysis shows that, while experiencing business failure can be challenging both personally and professionally, it also provides a tailored form of learning applicable in these challenging times. If entrepreneurs are confident and persistent, they may take advantage of failure experience, thus leading to entrepreneurial resilience, especially if they are re-entering via high-tech sectors. Our results contribute to the entrepreneurship literature by exposing the factors that increase entrepreneurial resilience and support entrepreneurial persistence. These insights may lead to the development of a resilient economy capable of overcoming the pandemic’s recessionary impact. Several implications for policymakers and entrepreneurs emerged from this study.