NOVEMBER 9 • 2023 | 37
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“The company has evolved so drastically
over the last eight-and-a-half years,
” Zuppke
explains. “It’s been a dream for me as a mar-
keter and as an entrepreneur.
”
In just one year of working at Whisker,
Zuppke helped grow the then-15-year-old
company by 80%. “It was a wake-up call for
everybody on the team of what opportunity
was in front of us,
” he explains.
Having Zuppke originally join as the
25th employee, Whisker now employs 485
individuals, as well as an additional 100 full-
time contract-to-hire employees. Although
the company doesn’t publicly share its rev-
enue, Zuppkle says it’s grown by more than
30 times since his start.
As for what fuels Whisker’s continuous
growth, Zuppke says the answer is simple.
“We are the first ones to invent a grav-
ity-driven self-cleaning litter box,
” he
explains, “and the reason that’s a better solu-
tion than a rake-driven litter box is because
it separates the waste better from the dirty
litter to keep a clean bed of litter each time.
”
REAL-LIFE IMPACT
The WiFi-enabled Litter-Robot also comes
with an intuitive smartphone app that
Zuppke says helped save the life of his cat,
Lexie, in 2018. “Our cat got a UTI, and the
only reason we knew about it is because of
the Litter-Robot notifications,” he recalls.
For female cats in particular, UTIs can
quickly turn life-threatening. “We rushed
our cat to the vet, and we were able to get
the UTI unblocked proactively,” he says.
Zuppke isn’t alone in experiencing
the benefits of pairing technology with
pet care. Whisker has seen hundreds of
similar cases from customers who were
notified by the Litter-Robot app that their
cat’s litter habits had changed, including
weight loss or going to the bathroom too
little or too much — all of which can be
signs of illness or distress.
So far, Whisker has more than a
half-million users of its smartphone
app with more than 800,000 connected
robots.
“Building digital features that help with
your pet’s health is really exciting for me
as somebody with both a cat and a dog at
home, and somebody who is a true user
of that product,” Zuppke says.
Now, Whisker, which partners with big
box retailers such as PetSmart and Best
Buy, is gearing up for the next phase of its
evolution.
This fall, Whisker will begin the pro-
cess of adding a new 10,000-square-foot
engineering lab at its 50,000-square-foot
Auburn Hills headquarters, with plans to
hire an additional 50 engineers. It also has
an additional 222,000-square-foot facility
in Juneau, Wisconsin.
Zuppke says it’s important to him per-
sonally and the vision of the company
to remain in Michigan, as well as retain
domestic production.
“Building in Detroit allows us to attract
world-class talent in engineering,” he says.
“It’s a really unique opportunity for Metro
Detroit.”
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10.23.23