Jonathan Nichele
Founder & Chief Buddy Officer
Jonathan has always been a dreamer, full of ideas, an entrepreneur at heart. That’s how his friends and family would describe him if you asked them.
Jonathan was born in Brazil and at the age of 20 he dropped out of college and moved to the United States. He didn’t speak any English at the time, so he taught himself by watching Hollywood movies with subtitles.
For the next few years, living in New York City, he worked a few jobs as a waiter and as an Observatory Guide at the Empire State Building, until one day when one of his friends asked if he was interested in a two week job making calls for Inc. Magazine to invite companies to one of their events. Once he started talking to Entrepreneurs, he knew immediately he wanted to stay there, and he did for almost 5 years, until he moved to California.
He describes working for Inc. as one of the most profound experiences of his life, where he was able to work alongside very smart and fantastic people while learning the stories of failures and successes of many brilliant entrepreneurs.
He was empowered and determined to start his own business, and after moving to California, for the next few years he tried to bring to life some of his ideas but nothing really felt like the right fit. He was looking for something meaningful that would make a social impact, not just another company selling a product. After some failures, he finally had a breakthrough, and inspired by his niece Nicolle’s incredible journey fighting Thyroid cancer, he had the idea for Super Duper Buddy, and he knew that this time, it was going to be different.
Jonathan lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his partner Matt. He enjoys traveling, spending the weekends in Napa and Sonoma and visiting his family and friends in Brazil whenever he has a chance.
