Work at PetSmart could be a frustrating and grueling experience at times, but it paid the bills. And so, while she did return to school, by night and over the weekends she would return to the place that helped her decide education was her only path forward. There were, of course, some aspects of the job that were particularly agonizing. The most so was unfortunately the customers. While some were beaming paragons of understanding, eager to learn and eager to grow, others were stubborn as mules, convinced they knew best and unwilling to so much as consider otherwise. Then, of course, there were the most upsetting kind, those who wanted the best for their animals, but found themselves falling financially short. As Rebecca pursued her degree, she also nursed a different ambition: Someday, she would find a way to persuade the stubborn, educate the eager, and assist the strapped for cash in their pursuit of pet ownership. Three years came and went in the blink of an eye. Study at a university level wasn’t easy, and the closer that graduation loomed, the patience Rebecca held for the average PetSmart customer continued to wane. That idea of hers, though, hadn’t left her head: It seemed a natural, obvious choice for the topic of her senior project. From that choice, there was only forward growth and momentum: Research, interviews, and a renewed focus on a goal laid out for her by her own past failures and frustrations. Research in some aspects wasn’t difficult. If anything, detailed insight into the minds and motivations of her audience found her. There were other angles that needed consideration as well however: How did other employees like herself feel? How did pet owners and aspiring pet owners see themselves? What were their experiences in buying nontraditional pets so far, and how did they feel about the employees selling them? What about the companies those employees worked for? What had at first been a nebulous and undefined idea started to take the shape of an app, with a few simple, powerful ideas at its core, and thus Skitter was born: An applicatoin that provides reliable, easy to access information about the care and keeping of ‘exotic’ pets like reptiles, fish, and small animals, and the opportunity to earn savings on pet supplies by learning about those animals. 11
12 Publizr Home