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This week’s VentureFuel Visionary is Rachel Sheppard, Director of Ventures at Mars Petcare & Co-Lead of the Leap Venture Studio & Academy.
Leap is a partnership between Mars Petcare and the nonprofit Michelson Found Animals Foundation, designed to support the future of pet care through their seed stage accelerator program.
In this episode, we discuss the future of pet care, exciting startups, and new technologies, as well as how to find adjacent and emerging opportunities. We also look at the value of holding frameworks lightly in the fast-moving world of innovation.
In addition, the episode delves into the statistics that 7 out of 10 US households have a pet, with 97% considering the pet a part of the family. This explains the $320+ billion dollar global pet care market (predicted to reach $500bn by 2030).
Plus, if you're a pet care startup, don’t miss this exciting opportunity! Leap Venture Studio & Academy has opened applications for their 9th cohort. Benefits include funding, customized programming, services projects, & more! Apply by September 15th at midnight PT here.
VentureFuel builds and accelerates innovation programs for industry leaders by helping them unlock the power of External Innovation via startup collaborations.