We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sheryl Joyce a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Sheryl, thanks for joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

Through my active social media presence, I discovered an existing ecosystem whereby animal lovers are sharing dogs & cats at shelters that are destined or already on a ‘euthanasia’ list.

Shelters are in infinite crisis mode – continually need to make room for constant influx of animals, many are terminated for space. In an effort to avoid this sad outcome, animal advocates use social networks to get the animal adopted or saved by a rescue organization. However, there is a low success rate as it is impossible to track the conversations about a specific animal over multiple social networks.

After being an active member in the ecosystem I soon noticed a void in the animal care space: no platform exists that connects all of the conversations about the ‘at-risk’ animals in real time.

I examined the underlying problems and, having 20+ years’ experience in marketing/pr of technology companies, and my extensive knowledge in the animal welfare space. I felt I had the right experience and resources to bring this endeavor to life. There are many platforms strictly dedicated to get shelter animals adopted. However, after conducting some research. I couldn’t find any technology or solution that focused on helping shelter animals get ‘seen and saved’.

Animal rescue is a challenging space – as there are many parts that need to come together to rescue just one dog; long-term, committed fosters are needed to attract a rescue. Rescues are needed to pull a dog and money is needed as the rescue pays for ongoing costs.

My approach is unique as I created the Pet Pardon app; the only technology of its’ kind that makes it easier and quicker to share and pledge to animal organizations on a single platform, helping shelters and rescue groups better manage the animals and track and collect donations being pledged.

Sheryl, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I grew up in a small rural town a couple of hours north of Toronto, Ontario Canada. I went to University in Windsor, Ontario, where I studied Criminology and Psychology. With the hope of working as a probation officer or as a lawyer. Instead, I worked my way up through the corporate world, first as a consultant for publicly-listed companies. Transitioning into Senior Roles at various technology startups.

Throughout my entire life I’ve always been an animal lover. As a child, we always had dogs and cats – many of which we rescued. I never set out to have a Pet Tech Company. But in hindsight I may have subconsciously manifested Pet Pardon. Now using my experience at tech startups and my pre-existing love of animals.

Pet Pardon was formed to raise awareness of the millions of animals — many perfectly healthy, that are being euthanized every day at shelters in North America. More animals are coming in then can be responsibly housed — this has been an ongoing issue for quite some time.

There are six personas involved in animal rescue: rescues, shelters, networkers, fosters, adopters and pledgers. I don’t really see them as clients per se. But they are our target audience. As I want them to see Pet Pardon as a valuable tool (for animal advocates) to collaborate. As there are a lot of moving parts to save just one dog: a solid plan that involves a long-term committed foster, or an interested adopter, a reputable rescue, as well as pledges (or donations to help fund).

While we can’t save every single shelter animal at risk of euthanasia. We know that creating a community of like-minded individuals makes a difference. To date:

⁃ Several thousand people use the Pet Pardon App to donate, rescue, foster or adopt a shelter dog;
⁃ Over a third of our users pledge for dogs to help get them rescued;
⁃ More than half of the dogs listed on our App were rescued or adopted;
⁃ Thousands of dollars have been pledged through the App.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Pet Pardon’s reputation was built as being an active member of the rescue community.

Animal shelters in the U.S. are full – we know this firsthand because we share hundreds of shelter animals a month on social media (mainly on Instagram).

The goal is to attract an adopter or foster. But in a lot of the cases, dogs (and cats) are being labeled ‘rescue only’, which means that due to a ‘behavioral’ or ‘medical’ issue they aren’t available to be adopted by someone in the general public. Instead, they must leave under the care of an approved 501c3 rescue organization.

Every dog we share on Instagram. Gets listed on our app. When a dog is rescued, anyone that has pledged* for that dog, gets notified by email where to honor their pledge once the dog has been confirmed safe with a reputable rescue.

As previously mentioned, there are many moving parts to rescue. We can’t physically be on the ground to rescue or foster a dog. So our contribution is networking the dogs to our 13,000 (and growing) followers on Instagram. As well as tracking pledges on the Pet Pardon App.

We will also get foster and adoption interest on our page. So we connect those interested parties with rescues and other advocates, such as volunteers.

Based on our active presence and consistency on social media, Pet Pardon is a respected and valuable asset within the rescue community.

*pledges are a promise to pay an amount of money if a dog is rescued. They don’t go to the shelter or private adopter.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

Thinking back, I never thought I would have been fortunate to have someone approach me to invest. Before I even had a product in the market. I received an email from a Hotmail address. The person had said that they had discovered Pet Pardon on Instagram.

They were asking if I could send my investor presentation. After a google search, I was dumbfounded to find out this person was a hedge fund manager who loved animals and regularly donated to rescue organizations.

After several conversations and meeting in person. He provided an initial investment to get the App into development. In tandem, I also did a crowdfunder.

The entire experience gave me the confidence to keep moving forward. To this day, I am very grateful for this initial investment!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://pet-pardon.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/petpardon/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PetPardonApp/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sheryljoy/
• Twitter: @pet_pardon