Vitoria Okuyama

Vitoria OkuyamaSep 29, 2026

$22,000. That's how much money I made in my first full year of entrepreneurship. When I left banking after 3 years, I thought I'd be making $1M within 6 months. It wasn't quite like that. Here's what actually happened: 1) It took me 8 months to offer anything to anyone - I was overthinking what to offer instead of doing something 2) Every experiment took 1 to 3 months - Figuring out what to launch, launching it, marketing it, selling it all takes time 3) Most of them were not what I wanted to do long term - Each experiment gave me a clue about what kind of business I could like I was embarrassed by how slow things were moving for me. Until I realized entrepreneurship is just a skill like any other. Nobody is born great at it. You get better by doing it, fixing your holes and trying again. Year 1 is the price of learning how to build. P.S.: I told Tennessee Watt the whole story for her newsletter this week. Check it out here: https://lnkd.in/gSy_UfjT

Vitoria OkuyamaSep 30, 2026

I was the first analyst in my class to burn out. Month 9, I was dying. Everyone else survived the 4am nights. Former athlete who never quit. Suddenly the weak one. So I hid it. “All good” in meetings. Panic attacks between pitch decks. Then a founder told me: “Burnout isn’t from overwork. It’s from misalignment.” He was right. My body wasn’t failing. It was protecting me from a life that was killing me. Now I see burnout differently. Not as weakness. But as your body rejecting what doesn’t fit your life. Your body knows before your mind admits it. What is your body trying to tell you right now?

Vitoria OkuyamaOct 1, 2026

I stayed 3 years in banking. Made $485K. But no one around me talked about what to do with that money. On Wall Street, everyone compared bonuses. In less than 2 hours on bonus day, we knew who got top bucket, who got f*cked over and who was giving their 2-weeks notice. Then the conversation shifted to how to spend it. Rolexes, Prada bags and the Mercedes people would buy. But investments? Never heard a conversation about it. Coming from the countryside of Brazil, I had no idea what to do with my money. But I always wondered what the people around me were doing with theirs. 4 years after my first banking paycheck, I can actually see it. On Upside Invest, real people share their portfolios and what's actually performing. This week, the top 25% of investors on Upside picked up those 3 stocks: 1) Microsoft 2) Apple 3) Google No guessing where the top people are putting their money. Upside’s top investors portfolio beat the S&P 500 by +50% in the last year. All portfolios at the platform are verified and anonymous. And Upside Invest is free. Information shouldn't be available only for people who already have information. Create your account here: https://lnkd.in/d6N4hy9j