Tell us your name and a little about yourself.
My name is Artur Sousa and I am originally from Brazil. I’ve spent time in Sweden, Japan and the U.S. where I am the founder of Adopets – a nationwide pet adoption platform.
Why did you become an entrepreneur in the first place?
I don’t think it was much of a choice as it has been part of my nature. I just consistently tried to do things differently and find ways to change my life from its original context. Over time it becomes a passion and obsession, it feels to me as the most logical path to achieve the dreams I have for me and for my family.
As an entrepreneur, how do you deal with fear or rejection?
It depends, nowadays coaching and working with a community of entrepreneurs (we are part of TechStars) is a good way of dealing and understanding the frustrations we go through. At times, isolation and meditation or even actually making bad decisions like smoking or eating too much.
What’s the name of your company? What exactly does your company do, how do you help people?
We are eliminating the frustration behind the pet adoption experience. We do that through an end-to-end pet adoption system, serving shelters and people alike.
We built a system to facilitate and streamline pet adoption management for Shelters/Rescues and, on the other end, help people to find their next adoptable pet.
What were the biggest challenges you have faced and how did you overcome them?
Oh boy, I built it while having a job and doing consulting – as I am financially responsible for my family it wasn’t about taking the risks, but more about doing it while taking care of a number of people. We are easily perceived as a non-profit because of our field, so overcoming that was a critical piece to unleashing opportunities in the space and much more.
What piece of advice do you wish someone had given you at the start of your career?
To trust, to know that each one of us is enough to fulfill our vision of the world. To not be a terrible manager to yourself, by demanding things from you that you would never place on an employee’s shoulders.
