Startup Spotlight: Paw Print Genetics Founder and CEO Lisa Shaffer

(as reported in the Startup Spokane Insights and Events e-newsletter; to subscribe go to http://startupspokane.com/contact-us/)

Having successfully co-founded, sold, and transitioned out of Signature Genomics by early 2012, Lisa Shaffer was looking for the next opportunity. Not ready for retirement, she was driven to investigate the market around two of her passions: animals and genetics. What she saw excited her. "I saw a huge gap in what most clinics were offering in terms of their products and customer service" Lisa says. The idea of Paw Print Genetics, which seeks to achieve optimal canine genetic health through diagnostic testing and screening, was born and came to full fruition when the company conducted its first test in April, 2013.

For the company's quick success, Lisa cites a few sources. First, thanks to the sale of her previous company, she was able to fund the startup of Paw Print Genetics on her own, a rare feat for most startups. Second, she is deeply thankful to the McKinstry Innovation Center for quickly fabricating a quality lab space from which the company could operate. Finally, she credits her team of skilled yet compassionate employees for helping establish the company's reputation for combining cutting-edge technology with quality customer service. "We frequently have customers come to us after trying other clinics. Once they come to us, they rarely go anywhere else."

Though Paw Print Genetics has grown substantially in the past four years, its success hasn't come without some course corrections. "We made some expensive mistakes using the wrong methods. We didn't understand our customer base as well as we should have." Lisa and her team believed early on that their products would appeal primarily to individual dog owners. However, breeders have become their most popular demographic. Additionally, Lisa credits many of the changes on the website to customer feedback and their drive to provide the best service in the industry.

To aspiring business owners and entrepreneurs, Lisa has one predominant message: "keep your eye on the ball because it's a lot of hard work." As someone who solves problems in her sleep (literally), she says it's crucial to figure out what can be done now and what can be done later, to tackle issues as efficiently as possible. Wanting to end with a word of encouragement, Lisa shared that "after all of the hard work and problem solving, the end result can be so rewarding."