Founders Fueled by Pet Love

Inspired by their love for animals, Full-Time MBA students Maya Shaposhnik Cadena and Ashley Brooks have launched Chicago-based Vetted, a preventive health-care company for pets.

For Cadena, who grew up in a family that included plenty of pugs, the vision for the business came into focus when she took her newest family member—her French bulldog, Shor—to his first veterinarian visit. She found the whole experience frustrating.

“It’s a three-hour ordeal. You have anxiety. The pet has anxiety. You don’t even get to see the vet,” she says. “You pay a ridiculous bill, you go home, and you don’t know what you need to do at home. That’s when I knew I wanted to start this company.”

Cadena had cofounded businesses in the past, including an international event planning company and a hotel and spa consulting company in Tel Aviv, Israel. Her husband, Alejandro, got Shor for Maya’s 30th birthday in September 2020, when she had just started her MBA at Booth. She met Brooks, a software development engineer and digital marketing strategist, at a meeting in the Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital Group. They quickly bonded over founder dreams and a fierce love of animals. Brooks had encountered similar frustrations in caring for her cat, a small, all-black beauty named Neko, now 10.

“I’d become a bit of a resident cat expert out of necessity. Pet health was relevant to me and what I care about and what I spend so much energy thinking about,” Brooks says. “When I adopted Neko, she had been taking steroids for a stomach issue (IBD). It turned out that was an extreme step taken by the shelter because it was the easiest way for them to deal with it. She actually just needed better care, better food, and a loving home.”

With the goal of helping pet parents give more consistent at-home care, the two started building Vetted right away. They led a team at Booth through the 2021 Edward L. Kaplan, ’71, New Venture Challenge, one of the top-ranked startup accelerator programs in the nation. They won the People’s Choice award and third place, raising nearly a quarter million dollars in funding and refining their pitch and message. They launched a beta version of the platform in August 2021. In October, they announced $1.5 million in funding from angel investors. Vetted has a team of seven, nearly all Boothies, and an official launch slated for February 2022.