Key Takeaways

Joe Spector, 45, is the CEO of Dutch, an online veterinary care service.

In a new interview, Spector shares how he went from living on food stamps to becoming CEO of his own startup.

Spector also co-founded $9.3 billion telehealth startup Hims & Hers.

Joe Spector and his family immigrated to the United States from the former Soviet Union, now Uzbekistan, in 1990, when Spector was 10 years old. When they arrived in Fremont, California, the family lived in low-income housing and relied heavily on welfare and food stamps as they adjusted to their new life.

“Coming to America was like going to Mars,” Spector tells Entrepreneur . “It’s really a different planet.”

Basic things like culture and clothing were different, but Spector also noticed a difference in the classroom

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