Like most cat lovers, DosSantos, a Los Angeles media producer, was using the typical plastic litter box with a rake. He found it disgusting. DosSantos decided to do something about it. About five years ago, he shelled out $545 for a self-cleaning box called Litter-Robot 3. He’s since upgraded to the Litter-Robot 4, which has a list price of a whopping $699. He now has both the old robotic litter box and the new one, each in a different area of his home.
“We’ve grown a hardware business the good, old-fashioned way of turning a profit to fuel the business,” says Whisker CEO Jacob Zuppke, 34, who notes that the company has been profitable since 2005. “We didn’t get ahead of ourselves. We didn’t take big bets that risk the company. Baxter convinced his dad, Jim Baxter, to invest $35,000 for 35% of the company to help launch the first product. The Litter-Robot is a large enough device that the cat steps inside to do its thing. After sensors detect the cat’s departure, the device rotates, sifting the dirty clumps and depositing them in a waste drawer below.