Tenacity with Sonia C.
A top 2% globally ranked podcast about what it takes to build in business, leadership, and life. Tenacity is the discipline to keep building when the path is unclear, refusing to let fear, pressure, or uncertainty make your decisions for you. Every conversation digs into the pivots, failures, restarts, and the growth that came from them. Guests share what happened when things fell apart, what they did next, and what they learned the hard way, with actionable takeaways founders can apply to shape long-term success. Our guests are founders and leaders who have built and rebuilt after failure, started over after major life disruption, or built success in rooms not built for them. Hosted by Sonia Couto, a Toronto-based tech founder who has been starting over her whole life, rebuilding failed products, leading three companies through a breast cancer diagnosis, and turning every restart into something stronger. New episodes weekly. Learn more at soniacouto.com
Episodes
Making better founder decisions requires intentionally designing the process to include cognitive diversity and counteract common biases. In this episode, Sonia C. speaks with Kylee Ingram, a former international television producer who is now the CEO and co-founder of Wiser, a technology company focused on decision science. Kylee shares what she has learned about the science of group decision making from her work with clients like...
Your brand's authentic story is its most powerful sales asset because it builds human-to-human trust before the first sales call. In this episode, video strategist Graham Kuhn explains how founders can use strategic video, specifically a "brand story video," to shorten the sales cycle, escape the noise of AI-generated content, and connect with customers on a deeper level.
Graham and Sonia discuss why so many founders struggle with v...
At some point, being scrappy stops being a strength.
You have customers. You have a team. Maybe you've raised capital. Revenue is coming in. But you're still making every decision, solving every problem, chasing every task, and holding the company together yourself.
So when does your startup actually become a company?
In this episode of Tenacity with Sonia C., Sonia sits down with entrepreneur, investor, author, and business operator ...
Every founder loves talking about the win. Very few talk about what it actually cost to get there.
In this episode of Tenacity with Sonia C, entrepreneur, investor, and bestselling author Ari Rastegar shares the stories most founders never tell. From borrowing $3,500 while still in law school to believing he'd become a millionaire overnight, only to wake up $800,000 in debt, Ari opens up about the failures that shaped how he builds ...
Every founder starts with a vision. Very few end up building the company they originally imagined.
In this episode of Tenacity with Sonia C, Sonia sits down with Nick DAmbrosio, Founder and CEO of NOMADICS, to unpack what it really takes to keep a business alive through nearly two decades of change.
Nick shares how his company unexpectedly evolved from an environmental consulting firm into a defence engineering and digital intelligen...
Burnout isn't the real problem. The real problem is the kind of ambition that's driving you.
In this episode of Tenacity with Sonia C, Sonia sits down with entrepreneur and agency founder Bianca B. King to unpack the difference between toxic ambition and joyful ambition, and why so many founders unknowingly build businesses from a place of survival instead of purpose.
Bianca's journey began long before entrepreneurship. After leaving...
Enterprise AI is moving faster than most companies can keep up. But according to Larissa Schneider, the biggest challenge isn't the technology. It's execution.
In this episode of Tenacity with Sonia C, I sit down with Larissa Schneider, Co-Founder and COO of Unframe, to discuss what it really takes to build an enterprise AI company, earn the trust of Fortune 500 customers, and scale a startup in one of the most competitive markets i...
What happens when your business grows faster than your systems, leadership, and life can handle?
In this episode of Tenacity with Sonia C, Sonia sits down with Lauren Cockerell, founder of Kaidar & Co, to unpack the scaling mistake that nearly cost her everything.
After being laid off while 8 months pregnant, Lauren built her company from the ground up. But years later, rapid growth, hiring pressure, operational chaos, and leader...
What happens when your business growth is no longer limited by strategy, but by your leadership?
In this episode, Sonia sits down with Eric Dingler to unpack the leadership lessons that emerge as businesses scale. Eric shares the moment he realized his team kept having the same conversations because leadership systems and communication clarity were missing.
Together, they explore:
- Why growing teams require different leadership sty...
What does it really take to build something new when there’s no blueprint, no certainty, and no external validation?
In this episode of Tenacity with Sonia C., Sonia sits down with Sam Berman, founder of LARC, to talk about the internal war of entrepreneurship, the emotional cost of building, and the mindset required to keep going when doubt, isolation, and pressure hit hard.
Sam shares how LARC grew from a napkin sketch into a...
Most founders think fundraising is about pitch decks, introductions, and traction.
But investors are evaluating more than just that; they are also looking for credibility.
In this episode of Tenacity with Sonia C, we explore a new fundraising strategy more founders are starting to use: visibility as leverage.
PR is no longer just about press coverage. It’s about positioning yourself as a credible, trustworthy founder that invest...
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 spac...
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.
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 card...
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 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 th...
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.
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 unconven...
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.
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 wh...
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.
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...
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.
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 W...
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.
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 ...
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.
Being busy feels productive until your revenue stalls, your calendar is full, and nothing meaningful is actually moving.
In this episode of Tenacity with Sonia C., Sonia unpacks why busyness...
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