Sonia Couto came to Canada from the Azores when she was ten years old. She did not speak English. She did not know anyone. There was no plan for how to fit into a new country, a new language, a new life.
That was the first lesson. When everything familiar disappears, you adapt or you do not survive. Sonia adapted.
Two decades later, she runs multiple global technology businesses. She has built companies from the ground up after losing founding teams. She went through breast cancer while running three companies at the same time. She has the scars to prove every chapter of that story.
Now she sits across from other founders and asks them to tell her what really happened.
“I wanted to have conversations about what happened before anyone was paying attention,” Sonia says. “The fear. The failures. The moments when you had no idea what you were doing. That is usually the most interesting part of success.”
The podcast she created to have these conversations is called Tenacity with Sonia C. It has grown into something unexpected. More than 135 episodes. Founders from more than 50 countries. 177,000 total downloads. An average of 900 downloads per episode. The show ranks in the top 2 percent of podcasts globally.
These numbers are not the point. But they tell you that people are hungry for what Sonia is offering: real talk about what it actually takes to build something.
The Room Full of Men
One of Sonia’s earliest memories of operating without a safety net happened early in her career. A client project in Europe was going badly. She was sent to help fix it. She was not the obvious choice. She was simply the person available.
“I was terrified,” she admits. “I asked my boss what I should do to prepare. He told me, ‘Do not worry about it. Just wear heels and you will be fine.'”
Sonia showed up in flat shoes. She walked into a room full of men in the mining industry. She presented what she knew was the right approach and the right solution.
“That was the moment I learned something I have carried throughout my career. You do not have to feel ready to be capable. Sometimes courage comes before confidence.”
This is not a metaphor for Sonia. It is an operating principle. She launches before she feels prepared. She tests ideas with real customers. She changes direction when something is not working. She does not wait until all the variables line up because they never line up.
Building After the Fall
Sonia spent a few years in technology before she had the chance to help build a new product. The team went in with big ambitions and a lot of energy. The product did not work. The company dissolved. She lost her founding team.
Most people would have decided that entrepreneurship was not for them. Sonia started over.
“I lost the founding team, so I started from scratch,” she says. “I rebuilt the company. Today it is a global business.”
The second chapter was harder than the first. She had learned things from the failure. She had to unlearn other things. She had to build trust with a new team, a new vision, and a healthy amount of skepticism from everyone who had watched her fail the first time.
The rebuild also required every skill she had developed through harder personal circumstances. Adapting when plans change. Functioning through uncertainty. Continuing forward when you cannot see what comes next.
When she was diagnosed with breast cancer after rebuilding the company, the challenge shifted to something even more fundamental. She went through multiple surgeries. She kept running three companies.
“The biggest lesson I have learned is that tenacity is not stubbornness,” Sonia says. “Sometimes the most tenacious thing you can do is admit something is not working, learn from it, and change direction.”
Why “Tenacity” Matters
Sonia chose the name Tenacity with Sonia C. deliberately. She wanted a word that meant something specific. She had watched other founders get stuck because they confused persistence with progress. They kept pushing on the same plan even after the plan had clearly stopped working.
“Tenacity is about being willing to adapt,” she says. “It is about carrying forward what the last experience taught you while you figure out what comes next.”
The podcast reflects this philosophy. Each episode features a founder talking honestly about the decisions they made, the failures they survived, the pivots they had to accept, and the resilience that got them to wherever they are now.
“I wanted to talk to people who have built, failed, lost, changed, struggled and kept going,” Sonia says. “Not the polished version of success. The real version.”
The numbers tell part of the story. Three seasons. 135 founders featured. Downloads coming in from more than 50 countries every week. An average of 900 listeners per episode and 6,783 downloads every week. The show sits in the top 2 percent of all podcasts globally.
But the numbers are a result of the conversation, not the goal of it.
What Comes Next
Sonia is focused on growing Tenacity with Sonia C. over the next twelve months. She wants to reach more founders who are navigating the realities of building a business. The fear. The uncertainty. The failures. The moments when everything feels like it is falling apart.
She also wants to help entrepreneurs use technology and AI strategically. Bringing an idea to life. Solving a problem. Creating capacity. Finding new opportunities for growth.
“Everything I am building connects to the same goal,” Sonia says. “Helping founders move forward when they do not have all the answers.”
For anyone listening to the podcast or following her work, the message cuts through the noise. Success does not require certainty. It requires a willingness to start before you feel ready, fail without quitting, and keep adapting until you find what works.
That is the lesson Sonia learned when she arrived in Canada at ten years old with nothing but the ability to adapt. Twenty years later, she is still using it.
