Micromanaged, Underpaid, and Overcaffeinated: A Startup Love Story
From the Unleashing Snout Series: This Wasn’t in the Pitch Deck - Lessons from early-stage trenches.
What’s it really like to build a PetTech startup from scratch?
The long nights, the little wins that feel huge, the unexpected hurdles, and the moments that make it all worth it—we’re pulling back the curtain to share it all.
Hi, I’m Emma Suarez-Berumen, founder of Snout, a PetTech startup on a mission to make dog training smarter, more accessible, and rooted in real-life moments between dogs and their humans. At Snout, we’re building a milestone-based training platform that blends science-backed techniques with adaptive technology—so pet parents can train with clarity, confidence, and compassion.
Our vision is bold but simple: to help every dog owner build a stronger bond with their pup using better tools, better guidance, and better outcomes.
In our new blog series, Unleashing Snout, I’ll be sharing the behind-the-scenes journey of starting this company—from the messy beginnings to the aha moments. Whether you’re a fellow founder, a dog lover, or just curious about what it takes to start something new—we’re so glad you’re here.
Let’s get into it.
A while ago, I was recruited by a person in marketing who used to work in BIC (the pen company).
She saw an opportunity in medical tourism for bariatrics and plastic surgery between the states of Texas, Nevada, New Mexico, and, of course, California.
She needed a co-founder in charge of the financials and administrative logistics. This was my first startup, and I was quite young and eager to be a part of something from the beginning.
Our team consisted of 2 sales representatives, 1 video editor, 1 IT, a marketing intern, me in the financial/accounting department, and her as the leader.
I was really excited because someone was taking a chance on me, and I was not going to let it go by.
Little did I know the ride I was going to be in.
Chaos! Chaos all around!
The more we moved forward, the messier it got.
Our office space was no bigger than a broom closet. I wish I were kidding. I think my bathroom was bigger than our “great office space.”
Since the space was so tight and I had to handle cash, I suggested my desk be at a corner so I could set my briefcase and my body as a barrier, mind you, I’m a 5’4” 110lbs woman, so you can imagine how much space I covered.
Everything started fine, we were all sharing ideas and figuring out ways to try and find our voice, our secret sauce.
As time went on, our CEO started feeling pressure from other investors, so in turn, she pressured us and started micromanaging.
There was a point where she asked me to bring the Income Statement, Balance Sheet, and Cash Flow to her during an investor meeting. Little did I know that something was brewing underneath that simple ask.
When I brought the statements, she asked to change the margin width and the color. So I did.
The second time I brought it to her, she asked to change the color and the printing format.
The third time I brought it to her… I don’t even remember what she asked me to change; all I remember was that I was frustrated because the changes were irrelevant, the content was right, and she kept on changing nuances, mind you, this was in front of the investors and other leaders.
I later realized that she was just making a “demonstration of her leadership” skills to them, and showing how we, as a team, follow her direction without question. The thing is, I am not one to stay silent when I don’t understand the purpose behind a decision. So in front of everyone, I dared to ask…
“Do you have any concerns regarding the numbers?”
“No,” she said.
“The format I’m using is standard. Do you wish me to switch to another format so it's easier for you to read?”
“No, I don’t think so. The format looks good and I can read the numbers just fine, actually,” she said.
“Awesome! Thank you for telling me that! And the colors are fine, or do you still wish me to change to another set of colors?” I said.
She responded, “You know what, for the sake of time, let’s leave it like that. We’ll talk about the format later.”
“Alrighty! Let me know when. Have a nice day, everyone.” I said to the whole table.
That ‘later’ never came, and she just acted like nothing happened. Water under the bridge, I thought.
Instances like these kept on repeating more often, and it wasn’t just with me; it was with all of the team. She would make us redo small things that weren’t to her liking. Her excuse? She has the eye of the marketer, so she must know what it should look like and sound like. Because the eye of the marketer is more important than our customers, got it!
The one that made me go over the edge was when she would micromanage how I worked the numbers on the Excel sheet (even though I was using standard formatting). She insisted I use the format she was familiar with, even though the method was archaic and needed the stars and the moon to align.
Her argument? “I need to be able to read them so I can take over in any case you get sick or cannot proceed with the work.”
Huh?
I came up with the brilliant idea of using an accounting software such as QuickBooks or Fresh to handle our finances more efficiently, easy to read, and a lot less likely to commit an error on Excel (if you’ve ever used Excel as a large database, you know exactly what I’m referring to). Excel is great for explaining numbers, not so great with handling large data; one error can mess up months of work!
She denied my request and moved forward with the arcane way.
Yours truly is not so easily beaten, so I made a campaign to push for an SQL database to easily handle data.
The campaign consisted of showing the cost analysis of myself and the whole team. The work, time, and money it would take the whole team to document their data with the current method vs. the method I was trying to implement. I showed her how much it could initially cost us, how the learning curve would take place, and the money saved after implementation. I led the campaign for about 3-4 months, I sounded like a broken record, and the progress was minimal. It wasn’t until I very, VERY, discreetly mentioned it in front of an investor. As soon as I got the investor on board, SUCCESS!
Putting our differences aside, we were doing quite well, and the company was truly taking off.
One day, our CEO gathered all of us for an all-hands-on meeting. She told us that we all did an amazing job and had caught the attention of a plastic surgeon who owned a hospital in Tijuana. He was going to buy our company and merge us with his hospital! She said she was able to negotiate terms that would benefit all of us, whether we wanted to stay or leave. We were all so excited!
After the meeting, she pulled me aside and told me she wished to buy my share. She pointed out that I can now have the time and freedom to do whatever I want.
Again, huh?
I told her I needed time to think about it. We agreed on two months.
Then the pandemic came.
We went into remote work, and I started perceiving a little more hostility towards my work, my time, my ethics, etc…
So I decided to leave.
I wasn’t going to work in a hostile environment, much less be in a place where I was not wanted.
I could argue that I could’ve stayed, but it wasn’t like my long hours and headbutting with the CEO were all for nought.
We had an exit, and I was compensated for it! Also perfect time with the pandemic and all.
From this experience, I gathered a couple of lessons:
Start-ups are brutal, horrible, you have no idea which way is up, and sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel seems foggy.
Due to the uncertainty and the need to wear many hats, this can make you and the team feel frustrated, and tensions may run high. Especially if the Happy Hour is just another regular meeting, with just a different title.
The stress of being in charge of a whole company can allow anxiety to creep in, and the lack of control over the future can push a person to become a micromanager, attempting to control whatever they can.
And the truth is, I loved every single moment of it.
Shortly after, I was recruited by an investor in California who wanted to start a senior referral agency and wanted me to take the lead!
I said YES!
Now, I’m not trying to romanticize this at all! If you take anything from this, it is that nothing in life is easy. You can trade one experience for another.
You have to decide if the good completely outweighs the bad at the end of the day. Sure, there was days were I wished I could be anywhere but here and sometimes I felt like, excuse my french, shit and a complete loser becasue I was stuck and could not find a way forward no matter how much I worked. But for me, this is enough, and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else but here.
The story is not over yet! We’re in the prequel of how we came to the idea of starting Snout, our PetTech Startup.
We will post once a month about the state of our start-up and how it grows.
You can check our previous blog about who inspired me to create our PetTech start-up, Snout.
Let me know if you want to know more about any story!
Perk up your ears for our next blogs:
July 21st - My experience at a healthcare startup and how it was to be the CEO and feel the pressure of Investors
July 28th - When I decided to join a pre-seed accelerator program, and the whirlwind I was in for.
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