In this episode, we talk with Sonya Petcavich, founder of Meowtel, to unpack how a deeply personal loss led to building the leading cat-sitting marketplace in the U.S.
Sonya shares how her childhood cat, Miss Lily, inspired the founding of Meowtel—a platform born out of grief, guilt, and a bold desire to create a better life for cats everywhere. They dive into how Sonya bootstrapped the company, raised minimal VC funding, and still scaled Meowtel to eight-figure annual revenues—all while navigating a fundraising landscape dominated by dog people.
In this episode we explore:
- From Grief to Grit: The Birth of Meowtel
- Bootstrapping a PetTech Business with $0 in Funding
- Why VC Fundraising Was Harder as a Cat-First Startup
- Educating Investors: The Misunderstood Needs of Cat Parents
- 99.7% Customer Satisfaction: What It Takes
- Scaling Sustainably with Less than $1M in Venture Capital
- Lessons on Grit, Customer Obsession, and Going Against the Grain
Learn more about Meowtel at www.meowtel.com
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