Meet the Entrepreneur - Jennifer Whaley
- Sep 5, 2014
- 3 min read
By Jamie Damato Migdal, CEO and Pet Industry Entrepreneur
You’ve seen the app. You’ve probably even used the app. Now you can meet the driving force behind Pose a Pet – photographer, advocate, and entrepreneur Jennifer Whaley.
What is your background?
I'm a long time jack-of-all-trades who has done everything from bartending to running a few finance departments at a B2B Telecom company. I grew up around photography and about eight years ago, I could no longer ignore its pull. I combined my love of the lens with my love of dogs, and Fetch Portraits was born!
How did you come up with the idea for Pose a Pet?
Since starting Fetch Portraits, we've photographed over 3,000 rescue dogs. It can be hard to get photos in a distracting shelter environment, and I was using party noisemakers on a ribbon around my neck to get the dog’s attention. We were only photographing about twenty rescue dogs a week, and I started thinking about the millions of others who needed saving, and an app was the next logical step!
What is your goal with Pose a Pet?
We want to reduce the time it takes for shelters and foster networks to effectively market and rehome their animals. We also want to bring new revenue streams to rescuers, which we do through our 50/50 Shelter Share Program – we donate 50% of our app upgrade fees to a different shelter or foster network every week. We also give rescuers a way to support local businesses by attaching ads to the digital fliers of the adoptables. The pets get shared, the shelter gets revenue from the business, the consumer gets a deal for sharing the adoptables, and the business gets exposure. Everybody wins!
Who are your mentors, and who has inspired you the most?
For me, my mentors and my inspiration are two very different things. I am most inspired by the army of people across the country who tirelessly work together to save animals’ lives. When I see what they go through to get the job done, I want to make it easier for them.
We've had an incredible list of mentors who have taken the time to share their experience and critical thoughts. It seems there has been one waiting at every step of this path we've been on. At some point, we stopped pushing and started being pulled through the process. Sometimes it really does feel like we are on a ride! Every single person who has helped us has been a mentor to me, and it's really cool to collect the thoughts and experience from so many people and apply them to your own idea. I'm starting to view everything as crowd-sourced.
Do you consider yourself a tech entrepreneur?
I consider myself an entrepreneur who uses technology to save lives. I understand tech more than the average person, but less than the average tech entrepreneur.
Which skill set has helped the most in the development of this product?
Hands down, the skill set that has helped the most has been the ability to tell our story and share our vision to inspire people to help. We are bootstrappers all the way, and without so many people believing in our mission, we would never have gotten this far!
Who did you rely on the most during the development of this product?
My boyfriend and partner, Jeff Everett. He's not just the techie-er half, he's also my sanity. We’ve also depended so much on our developers, who share our mission to save animals. Without them, none of this would have been possible.
What advice would you give to other people who want to develop their own app?
The advice I have for anyone building an app is to be sure you already have a connection to a network of people who would want it. It's much easier to build and refine a product with easy access to a lot of organic feedback
Do you have pets of your own?
I did, and I miss them so, so much. We lost our two loves in the last two years. Right now we are fostering a beautiful, sweet little Border Collie named Curio. She's got some severe allergies that we are working through and as soon as she’s better, we'll be helping her find her forever home. I just heard a statistic that if only 1% of the Chicago population would open their homes to fostering an animal, we wouldn't have to euthanize one more. Staggering, isn't it?
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