Sonya Petcavich is the founder and CEO of Meowtel.com, an ‘Uber for cat sitting’ service where a vetted cat sitter will come to your house and look after your kitties for as long as you need them to.

Full disclosure: I am an angel investor in Meowtel and Sonya via the Jason Calacanis syndicate.

When I first had the opportunity to invest in Meowtel I was immediately a yes because I love cats and would use a cat sitting service straight away since I travel as a digital nomad (assuming I had a cat again – I haven’t since I left Australia in 2015).

I also couldn’t believe this service wasn’t already widely available under one dominant brand because I’ve heard of similar services for dogs, for example Rover, which recently announced an IPO via a SPAC.

Sonya is a great founder, who keeps us investors updated with regular reports on the progress of Meowtel.

Unfortunately, shortly after I invested Covid hit, which hurt Meowtel big time. Thanks to Sonya’s decisive action downsizing her company, they survived the worst of Covid and in 2021 have been growing like crazy as people head out to travel again.

During this podcast Sonya shares the origin story of Meowtel, including how she ‘wasted a lot of money’ to build the first version of her platform, and also covers how she dealt with Covid, her strategy for growing a two-sided marketplace business and what the future holds for Meowtel.

Sonya is a first time venture-backed founder, so it was interesting to hear her thoughts on what it’s like raising capital, and why if possible, she will avoid doing so in the future if Meowtel can continue to grow organically having just recently turned profitable for the first time.

Enjoy the episode.

Yaro