Tenacity with Sonia C is a podcast for founders building real companies. Each episode explores how founders decide what to build, how they prioritize, and how they navigate uncertainty as they move from idea to product and from product to growth.

Most technical founders believe the hardest part is building the technology.

It isn’t.

In this episode, Sonia sits down with a neurotechnology founder building in the mental health space to unpack what actually makes or breaks a startup, and it’s rarely the science.

They explore:

• The transition from builder to CEO

• Why failure is a required phase of building

• How to validate before overbuilding

• Why the wrong cofounder can destroy momentum

• The tension between scientific credibility and startup speed

• How founders get in their own way

• Why revenue is the strongest signal of product value

• How deep tech companies build trust in regulated markets

This episode is for founders navigating:

Early traction challenges, product validation questions, cofounder decisions, or credibility hurdles in complex industries.

If you’re building in AI, medtech, neurotech, SaaS, or any technical vertical, this episode will help you see what investors, customers, and operators actually look for.

What happens when a childhood obsession becomes a real business?

In this episode of Tenacity with Sonia C, Sonia talks with Rui Couto about how he turned collecting comic books, Pokémon cards, and rare manga into a business built on sourcing, consulting, product design, and deep trust in a niche market.

Rui shares how he went from passionate collector to recognized expert, why he moved to Japan, how he built a network without relying on a traditional website, and what founders can learn from solving their own problem before the market catches up. He also breaks down the real work behind niche credibility, the cultural lessons of doing business in Japan, and why product innovation often starts with frustration.

This episode is for founders, collectors, niche builders, and anyone trying to turn expertise into a business without following the standard playbook.

Practical takeaways include: how to spot hidden market opportunities, why trust can outperform scale, how to build authority in a niche, and what it takes to turn passion into real revenue.

Most startups don’t fail because founders lack ambition.

They fail because founders build in a vacuum, avoid the real problem, and keep operating at the wrong level for the stage of the company.

In this episode of Tenacity with Sonia C, Sonia sits down with startup founder, investor, and author Andrew Ackerman, who has built multiple companies and invested in more than 70 early-stage startups.

Andrew shares the patterns he sees repeatedly across founders, the mistakes that quietly kill startups, and the habits that separate companies that survive from those that disappear.

One of the biggest misconceptions founders have is that building a startup is about big ideas and innovation. In reality, most founders spend the majority of their time doing whatever needs to be done just to keep the business moving forward.

Throughout the conversation, Andrew breaks down the practical lessons founders usually learn the hard way, including why startups should test ideas before building, how to identify real customer problems, and the signals investors look for when deciding whether to back a founder.

Sonia and Andrew also explore the realities of scaling a company, the pressure founders face as teams grow, and how leaders must evolve their skills at every stage of the startup journey.

This episode is a reminder that building a company isn't about avoiding mistakes, it's about recognizing signals early, learning quickly, and adapting before time and capital run out.

If you're building a startup, launching a product, or trying to turn an idea into a real business, this conversation offers insights that could save founders months, or even years, of costly mistakes.

• Why founders should test ideas before building products

• The most common mistakes first-time founders make

• How investors evaluate startup founders

• Why coachability is one of the biggest signals of success

• The importance of customer discovery in startup growth

• How founders transition from operator to CEO

• Why founders must constantly learn new skills as companies scale

• How to identify real problems vs surface-level startup challenges

Subscribe to Tenacity with Sonia C for conversations with founders and leaders building real companies and sharing the lessons they learned along the way.

Many founders don’t start from nothing, they start from expectation.

In this episode of Tenacity with Sonia C, Sonia sits down with entrepreneur Jason Vanderveer, who made the unconventional decision to walk away from taking over his family’s multi-million dollar auto dealership business in order to build something of his own.

Instead of stepping into a guaranteed leadership role, Jason started from scratch with an idea he developed in his basement, a productivity planner designed around how high performers actually set and track goals. That experiment eventually grew into a seven-figure product business, a community of more than 40,000 customers, and a 35-unit real estate portfolio.

But the real conversation isn’t about planners or productivity.

It’s about the moment founders face when the safe path starts to feel heavy, and the cost of staying aligned with expectations outweighs the risk of leaving.

In this episode, Sonia and Jason discuss:

• Why some founders inherit opportunity but still feel misaligned

• The internal pressure of turning down a family legacy business

• The painful focus group that almost killed Jason’s first product

• Why most entrepreneurs chase “easy money” instead of meaningful work

• The Triple L Framework Jason uses to evaluate business ideas

• Why clarity about the life you want matters more than the business you build

• How founders accidentally recreate the same burnout they tried to escape

• The role dreaming, discipline, and boundaries play in sustainable entrepreneurship

This conversation is for entrepreneurs, founders, CEOs, and operators who are navigating difficult decisions about career direction, business alignment, and long-term leadership.

If you’ve ever questioned whether the path you’re on is actually yours, this episode will resonate.

If you’re building something worth attention, you need to be ready for the spike.

In this episode of Tenacity with Sonia C., Sonia sits down with Michael Dodsworth, a product leader who has spent two decades operating in high-pressure launch environments at companies like Salesforce and Optimizely, as well as in live event ticketing, where millions show up at once.

This conversation isn’t about tickets.

It’s about what happens when:

• Your product goes viral
• 3 million people hit your site at once
• Bots flood your checkout
• You oversell
• Your team panics
• And social media is watching

Michael breaks down what actually fails first during a launch meltdown, why most companies are underprepared for spiky demand, and the systems founders should build before scaling attention.

Sonia brings it back to what matters most: leadership under pressure, resilience when things break, and why calm founders win.

If you’re planning:

• A product drop
• A Black Friday launch
• An influencer collaboration
• A waitlist release
• Or your first viral campaign

This episode is your pre-flight checklist.

Because going viral isn’t the goal. Staying up is.

When Success Stops Feeling Like Success: The Burnout, the Exit, and the Freedom Play

What happens when you scale a business… and realize you’re no longer happy inside it?

In this episode of Tenacity with Sonia C., Sonia sits down with Ian Noble, a former operator of a 16-location family dry cleaning business in Austin, Texas, who grew the company, modernized operations, survived COVID, and still found himself burned out.

Ian shares the story behind scaling a service-based business: becoming the bottleneck, managing 90+ employees, navigating low margins, and pivoting the brand as customer demand shifted toward convenience and delivery. On the outside, the business was successful. Revenue was strong. The footprint was solid.

But internally? The drive started fading.

Ian opens up about the moment he realized he was physically present at home but mentally somewhere else, and how that became the signal that it was time to exit. He explains what founders often misunderstand about growth and success, why money doesn’t automatically create happiness, and how redefining “freedom” reshaped his next chapter.

After the sale, Ian leaned into real estate investing, building both active and passive income streams, not as a hype play, but as a strategic way to create time flexibility and long-term wealth outside of one primary business.

This episode is for founders who:

• Are scaling but secretly exhausted
• Feel like they’ve become the bottleneck
• Are questioning whether success still feels aligned
• Are thinking about exiting a business
• Want to build wealth outside their main company
• Are navigating founder burnout and identity shifts

Sonia brings the conversation back to what Tenacity is about: resilience, rebuilding, and defining success on your own terms, not the market’s.

Because sometimes the bravest move isn’t scaling harder. It’s stepping back.

Listen or watch full episodes: https://soniacouto.com/

AI can generate content in seconds.

Polished videos are everywhere.

Websites all sound the same.

So what actually wins in 2026?

In this episode of Tenacity with Sonia C., Sonia sits down with Wes Towers, founder of Uplift360, to unpack why real, imperfect, human content is becoming the ultimate competitive advantage.

Wes shares:

• The costly mistake that taught him to stay in his niche
• Why trust is eroding in trades, and how to rebuild it
• Why a less-than-perfect Google rating can increase credibility
• How founders can stand out in an AI-saturated world
• And the personal resilience required when life hits hard, but business doesn’t stop

This conversation isn’t about algorithms.

It’s about authenticity, discipline, and building a reputation that scales.

If you’re a founder wondering how to compete when AI can do “everything,” this episode will show you why being human is your moat.

Listen or watch full episodes: https://soniacouto.com/

Legacy brands aren’t failing because their products are bad; they’re struggling because their systems, habits, and leadership decisions move more slowly than the market.

In this episode of Tenacity with Sonia C., Sonia sits down with Joshua Lee, an e-commerce operator who helps legacy manufacturers and multi-generational brand owners modernize for today’s marketplaces without losing the heritage and soul that made the business work in the first place.

They get real about what actually blocks transformation (hint: it’s not tech, it’s fear), why manufacturers hesitate to sell on Amazon or Walmart Marketplace, and what happens when offline-first brands suddenly have to learn B2C, paid ads, fees, customer service, and channel strategy, all at once.

If you’re a founder building in e-commerce, retail, manufacturing, or B2B, this episode breaks down the mindset shift and practical first moves that set brands that adapt apart from those that stall.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

-Why legacy brands delay digital moves for years, until a “life event” forces action

-The #1 fear founders have about Amazon: conflict with wholesale distributors

-Why strong offline brands struggle online: fees, ads, competition, and a new business model

-How to think about marketplaces like Amazon vs Walmart (and why inventory = power)

-The biggest mistake brands make when launching on Amazon: not taking the channel seriously

-A smart “first step” for founders who feel behind: a leadership readiness assessment

-Joshua’s definition of success: building a business with integrity, peace, and long-term vision

If you’re rebuilding, pivoting, or preparing a company for the next generation, this one will sharpen your thinking.

Listen or watch full episodes: https://soniacouto.com/