Starting with any relevant education, walk me through the twists and turns of your career to date? How did one opportunity lead to the next + what was the key takeaway/ experience in each role + how did this lead you to where you are now)
My journey has been a fascinating exploration of diverse frontiers. After co-founding STUDIO BANANA, a design-driven transformation company working with Fortune 500 companies, I delved into creating innovative lifestyle solutions as the co-founder of Ostrichpillow. The success of Ostrichpillow, celebrated globally in renowned spots like the Museum of Modern Art and Tokyo Design Week, emphasized the impact of design on our daily lives.
Each step in my career, from working with global corporations like EY and WWF to receiving accolades such as the Bauwelt Preis and Saloni Interior Architecture Award, has been a valuable learning experience and I’ve developed a deep appreciation for collaboration and adaptability. My work has always aimed to create spaces that explore engaging ways of making a positive impact. The key takeaway from my journey is the ability to motivate and inspire others to seize the opportunities to co-create better future. My passion for pushing boundaries has led me to build our latest venture – Moggie.
What was the pivotal moment that put you on your current founder path?
If I had to choose one thing, it would be realizing how important it is to nurture creative curiosity. This is what urged me to ask myself important questions such as “How might we bring together pets and technology enable unique relationships in a meaningful way” Our pets are such a significant part of our family, but while we have the privilege to communicate with our human family members, we can’t say the same about our pets. This is how we started building a product that’s meant to connect these dots.
We’ve created the first cat-only health wearable that uses machine learning technology to translate cats' actions and behaviors into simple health insights.
Can you provide a quick summary of the technology/ area of innovation and its potential application?
We’ve created the first cat-only health wearable that uses machine learning technology to translate cats' actions and behaviors into simple health insights. This is important because a vast number of serious conditions (like arthritis, liver disease, UTIs etc.) manifest in subtle behavioral changes but are difficult to notice as cats are masters at disguising if something is wrong (and this risk is compounded by not going to the vets as often as dogs). We want to help pet parents catch illnesses earlier and promote a better quality of life and enable veterinarians to more quickly uncover up to 80% of illnesses that can be detected through subtle changes in activity. Beyond the data, Moggie is the first to humanize health data into simple fun chat where cat parents receive personalized messages based on daily activities and chosen “cattitude,” a unique personality type.
What stage are you at?
We're currently in pre-production mode and launching with our early community members Q2 2024. Our primary focus at the moment is product testing and making any necessary adjustments.
Discuss the biggest challenges of getting to this point? With the benefit of hindsight, what would you have done differently if anything?
The biggest hurdles we've encountered revolve around striking a balance—juggling the demands of scientific research while developing an accessible and inclusive product that fosters meaningful user engagement. In the realm of pet care, where pet parents grapple with numerous decisions, there exists a widespread quest to enhance relationships with their companions. Moggie is pioneering in this arena, providing pet owners with health insights and fostering a heightened emotional connection—an unexplored domain in the often neglected cat space. Delivering such clarity to pet parents has proven to be a complex and challenging endeavor. Looking back, we would have understood that building a hardware and data company, it's a long term process - we would have structured the team and set objectives in alignment with that mid and long-term vision.
How have you approached funding?
It’s mostly been family and friends to date along with investment from Leap Venture Studio (Mars Petcare, Michelson Found Animals, RGA Ventures). We’re really looking for the right partners and cat-lovers as co-creators who can help shape the future of feline health by sharing their unique needs and experiences across the globe. Later this year we’ll look to raise a seed round.
Have there been any pivot points in the company’s lifetime? What triggered these? Has the value proposition changed?
Yes, we initially started out as quite a scientific product, but transitioned our attention to focusing on a user-centric approach with the cat and its owner at the forefront so that we can create something deeply emotional, and reflect the relationship we have with our pets. Another pivotal point was understanding the essence of our business’s value - we extend beyond being a hardware company; it's really about harnessing the potential of the data we’re building and extracting meaningful insights for cat parents and the industry.
What has been the greatest source of help/ guidance along the way?
Staying true to our mission of enhancing cats’ lives and enabling unique relationships, as well as nurturing the connection with our community have been the two key ingredients in our journey so far.
...build something you deeply believe in - your belief will inspire others to join your journey.
Best advice you’d pass on to other founders?
First and foremost, build something you deeply believe in - your belief will inspire others to join your journey. Be constantly open to evolving because the wrong answer might be the right answer in search of a different question so find ways to connect the unconnected dots. Create a team who shares your vision and is resilient and adaptable because you want people who embrace the inevitable challenges as opportunities to learn. And finally, practice unwavering patience because building something new takes time.
What do you think are broadly the biggest needs and opportunities in the Animal Health and Petcare markets?
Contrary to the innovation and resources directed toward dog care in recent years, the cat space, while growing, has been heavily underserved. At the same time, we’ve seen the increasing need from cat parents looking for solutions to better understand their cat’s health and detect issues sooner. This growing demand for advanced healthcare solutions for our feline friends, including preventative care, diagnostics and treatments for various ailments requires a combination of innovation, technology integration, and a deep understanding of evolving consumer preferences. We need to be connecting the dots so the industry can offer better remote monitoring, behaviour tracking and early detection of health issues. We see a future where pet parents have product and service experiences that work to better the pet and pet parent relationship with deeper understanding and options.
What’s going to have the single biggest impact on change in your area of the market?
I think the crux is in fostering collaboration between cat parents, veterinarians, and the industry (both new innovators as well as the big players). There are pockets of data in every cat segment and without a willingness to bridge complimentary data together, innovation in feline health will not accelerate as needed. We’re eager to help bring to life partnered innovation across the pet ecosystem from personalized food, drug discovery, clinical diagnostics and beyond. A stronger relationship between cat parents and vet teams through this evolution of change will be key.
What do the next two years have in store for you?
Launching and expanding our direct-to-consumer engagement is the focus. Over the next two years we plan to really put our growing community of cat lovers at the center of everything we do to improve our product offering. As we capture never before data, we have the opportunity to improve products & services to cater to the needs of cat parents - we want to provide data driven solutions that improve the cat parent experience and allow us to build a stronger bond with our feline friends.
