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

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-reluctant-entrepreneur-podcast-7049244/the-dog-days-of-startup-life-how-courtney-honda-and-slava-borisov-built-pupte-episode-81
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-reluctant-entrepreneur-podcast-7049244/the-dog-days-of-startup-life-how-courtney-honda-and-slava-borisov-built-pupte-episode-81.md
Podcast: [The Reluctant Entrepreneur Podcast](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-reluctant-entrepreneur-podcast-7049244)
Published: 2026-05-08T07:00:02+00:00
Episode link: https://www.spreaker.com/episode/the-dog-days-of-startup-life-how-courtney-honda-and-slava-borisov-built-pupte-episode-81--70628874
Audio file: https://api.spreaker.com/download/episode/70628874/re_81_pup_01.mp3
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Duration seconds: 3763

## Resource

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. Puptqe https://puptqe.com

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