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