The Dog Days of Startup Life: How Courtney Honda and Slava Borisov Built Pupte - Episode 81

You know, sometimes the best business ideas don’t start with spreadsheets, market research, or a carefully written business plan. Sometimes they start with something much simpler. A passion. A community. Or in today’s case… a love of dogs.Now the pet industry is enormous. In the United States alone it’s well over a hundred billion dollars a year. But despite that massive market, many pet businesses still look pretty much the same. Retail shelves, products on hooks, and a checkout counter.But what if a pet business wasn’t just a place to buy things for your dog? What if it was a place designed around the relationship between dogs and their humans? A place built around community, experiences, and connection.That’s exactly the idea behind Puptqe.Today I’m joined by Courtney Honda and Slava Borisov, the founders of Puptqe, a fast-growing brand that’s rethinking what a pet business can be. Instead of focusing only on products, they’ve created a space where dog lovers gather, socialize, attend events, and celebrate the bond we share with our four-legged companions.But like most entrepreneurial stories, the road from idea to reality wasn’t perfectly straight. It required risk, creativity, and a willingness to build something new in a very competitive industry.So today we’re going to talk about how Puptqe came to life, what it takes to build a brand around community, and what Courtney and Slava have learned along the way as founders.Puptqehttps://puptqe.com