At a startup hackathon in 2011, Philip Kimmey overheard someone pitch an idea: Build an Airbnb for pets. He walked up to the local Seattle venture capitalist who had thrown out the plan, Greg Gottesman, and introduced himself. “I like dogs—I think I can build this thing,” he said. For the past six years, Kimmey has led Rover’s engineering efforts as it became top dog in the pet-care space. Its site and app connect owners to sitters and walkers, and more than 140,000 of these caretakers have signed up. Every four seconds, someone books a service on Rover, and the company charges pet owners roughly $20 for a walk and about $35 per night for an overnight stay, typically taking about 27% for itself. With almost $160 million in funding, Rover acquired its main competitor, DogVacay, in an all-stock deal in March for an undisclosed sum. “The opportunity here is actually massive,” says Kimmey, the father of a 10-monthold apricot-colored toy poodle. “On Rover, somebody’s going to treat your dog just like you do. You know they’re going to love them.”

Technology, Innovation, Startup, Animals & Wildlife