Marco & Fernando featured on Republic's Superheroes Journal
Beyond willpower: the business of empowering people
Every startup has a unique story. The founders are the human-side to every venture and endeavor. Sometimes, the founder's story is overlooked beyond all the hype. Today, we're proud to share our story with you - featured on Republic's Superheroes Journal. The editor's interview is a great opportunity for you to know the personal and human side of Sunu. Here are some quick excerpts from our full interview.
Where did the name “Sunu” come from?
The name Sunu is derived from a Mayan word that means ‘colibri’ or hummingbird. The logo represents the hummingbird and our colors represent positivity, willpower and determination. Our branding is inspired on our mission to empower independence, freedom of mobility and harnessing and enhancing human willpower and determination through technology.
What is your superpower?
Fernando: My superpower is empathy. I’m naturally empathetic and have found ways to apply my empathy in product design, user experience, user research and sales/business development.
Marco: My superpower is willpower. Many times along my personal and entrepreneurial journey, I’ve faced challenges that seemed impossible at a glance, but one way or the other, I managed to get through. In these moments, my logic, knowledge or emotions didn’t provide a solution.
What's the team culture like?
Marco: Sunu’s core values are courage, empathy and gratitude. These values drive all aspects of our culture towards our ultimate shared goal: that people with disabilities are truly embraced and fully integrated in our society. Some examples of how we create this culture is by setting goals with deep learnings (stretch quarterly goals, massive action sprints, learning debriefs and team retrospectives), maintaining transparent communication at all levels (work dynamics feedback, company progress, personal performance), caring about individual well-being (well-being monitoring, open discussions/keynotes, perks for personal development), empathy development (volunteering visits to centers, conversations with customers, sensibilization activities), and more.