Meggie is the Founder & CEO of Skiptown, the spot for pups and their people. A UNC-Chapel Hill graduate, Meggie previously worked in corporate New York City where she started a Manhattan-based dog walking business before moving back to Charlotte to grow one of the most successful start-ups in the city. The all-in-one ecosystem for bar, park, and pet care services, Skiptown is the first tech-enabled dog social club.
What is Skiptown all about?
Skiptown brings dog owners a fully integrated pet parenting lifestyle. Offering daycare, boarding, and a dog bar and park in Charlotte’s South End, Skiptown makes it easier, and even more fun, for pets and their people to live their best lives.
Tell us a little bit about your background and how you started your company?
This all began back in 2016 when my husband and I started looking for a dog walker for our two pups, Stinson and Khumbu.
We wanted a reliable pet care service we could trust to come into our home and take care of our pups during the work day. Our busy schedules would often change last-minute, so being able to easily book visits same-day was really important to us. Come to find out… convenience, reliability, and love that matched our own love for our pups would be impossible to find.
We’d run out of options, and I decided if I could’t find what I was looking for… a pet care service that could accommodate our modern lifestyle… then I’d build it myself. Skipper was born, and, since then, I’ve made it my life mission to bring trust, adventure, and peace of mind to other pet parents like us.
What started as a one-person dog walking business has expanded to the first tech-enabled social play venture built for pups and their people. A personal frustration turned into a passion for building the highest end pet care and social experience. A place where trust and transparency guide the client experience. Where the ease of cutting-edge technology, and a clean and safe place to give you peace of mind and a chance for you and your pup to get your wiggles out. At Skiptown, we’re not just dog-friendly…. we’re dog-focused.
What are your plans for the future, how do you plan to grow this company?
Expansion has always been the goal. The pandemic “supercharged” those plans. Because of our large footprint and spacious outdoor area, we’ve become a sort of refuge for people looking for a safe place to hang out where their dog can play and run around. We were able to pivot from our former dog-walking model to the Skiptown model in 2020 and expand fast with private and venture capital backing. New locations should be opening up later this year across the country.
How do you separate yourself from your competitors?
- Our technology: We build tech that makes it easy for you to do pet parent things like schedule visits and read their pup’s report.
- Our people: We hire and train experts in feline and canine behavior who share our values and a love for their job.
- Our process: We run our operations scalably using good business practices that respect and support all our staff.
How have the pandemic and Lockdown affected you or your new business?
We started as a dog-walking company. When the pandemic hit and schools were closed and people were working from home, we lost 90% of our traditional dog-walking clients in a single week. We already had plans to pivot to our new model, a tech-enabled dog bar, park, and pet care facility. When the pandemic hit, we were in the middle of a round of funding. And enough investors pulled out that we lost about half of our funding. I brought my leadership team together and we knew we had to prepare for change. We were able to modify our budget and value-engineer and keep only what was most essential — and it took more time and work than we anticipated, but we did eventually get all of the funding we needed.
What was your first business idea and what did you do with it?
I realized in 2016 that there was a universal need for reliable on-demand dog-walking services, and my original business idea was born. Originally called The Waggle Company, the company began with me as the only dog walker, riding my scooter from client to client, and heading to breweries to hand out flyers. It grew very quickly and my husband and I were able to raise funding to hire and build the technology to make Skipper one of the most successful start-ups in Charlotte.
What is your definition of success?
As a business, I think success is gaining the momentum of finding the right product market fit, seeing the demand for it, and earning the trust of the people you want to serve.
As an entrepreneur, my goal for success is to create formative, meaningful relationships quickly, build the business, and surround myself with people who share the same values.
What would you say are the top 3 skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur, and why?
- The ability to sell trust. You have to have the integrity to become worth the trust you’re seeking and
- The ability to pivot and change. Because if you’re not changing, you’re dying.
- The ability to hire the right people. At the end of the day, you’re only as good as your team.
What are the top 3 online tools and resources you’re currently using to grow your company?
- Asana: Project management software. It’s great for both high-level project views and in-the-weeds task management.
- CoStar: Commercial real estate information and analytics provider. TONS of useful information for anyone with brick and mortar locations, especially those looking to expand.
- Google. For real, just Google it.
Can you recommend one book, one podcast, and one online course for entrepreneurs?
- Atomic Habits by James Clear focuses on habits, decision making, and continuous improvement
- Oren Klaff’s Professional Sales & Deal Making course is all about how to close deals using repeatable frameworks
- EntreLeadership podcast features inspiring entrepreneurs and lessons in business
What is your favorite quote?
“Risk is the tariff you pay to leave the shores of predictable mediocrity.”
How can readers get in touch with you?
Check out Skiptown on Instagram (@skiptown.clt) to follow our growth and adventures!
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