SPEAKER: Heidi Ganahl

Founder, President and CEO of Camp Bow Wow

Heidi Ganahl is the founder, President and CEO of Camp Bow Wow, the largest pet care franchise in North America and the author of TALES FROM THE BARK SIDE:  My Journey from Wayward Stray to Top Dog. 

Through her personal and professional tragedies, from the loss of her young husband to losing a million dollar insurance settlement, Ganahl has faced extraordinary adversity. She responded by turning her life-long passion for dogs into Camp Bow Wow, the nation’s largest pet care franchise company, and created the Bow Wow Buddies Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the lives and health of dogs.

Through her experiences, she has gleaned personal wisdom and business acumen she shares in her new book, TALES FROM THE BARK SIDE. 

Ganahl and her first husband Bion conceived the idea of starting a doggy day and overnight care business born out of their love for dogs and the need for a market alternative to the bleak conditions of the traditional kennel environment. With this motive, Camp Bow Wow was born. The concept was completely novel and in many areas of the country remains so to this day - the philosophy is simple, Camp Bow Wow is a place where a dog can be a dog, or where a pet can be a pet in the case of Home Buddies, Camp Bow Wow’s new in home pet care alternative.

Unfortunately, shortly after Heidi and Bion finished developing the Camp Bow Wow business plan, Heidi’s family treated Bion to a surprise private flight in an open cockpit stunt plane for his 25th birthday.  While doing a fly by, the plane sudden dove into the ground killing Bion and the pilot on impact.

The untimely death had a paralyzing effect on Heidi and sent her into a downward spiral – albeit temporary.  In an effort to jump-start her life, she hastily got remarried to a man she later found out had severe addiction problems and became pregnant with her first daughter.  She then lost almost the entire $1 million settlement from Bion’s crash in a complicated custody battle for her daughter, unreturned loans to friends and family, a series of bad investments, and the failure of two start-up businesses.

Finally, in 2000, as a single mom with only $83,000 of the dwindling settlement left, Heidi was encouraged by her brother to take a leap of faith and start Camp Bow Wow. She invested the last of her savings -- $83,000 -- and opened the first camp in Denver in the Fall of 2000. 

In 2003 Ganahl started franchising the concept and by 2007 sold over 200 franchise businesses. Today, Camp Bow Wow is the largest women owned franchise and pet industry business, the largest doggy day care company in the world and a $50 million leader in the $47 billion United States pet sector.

MODERATOR: Steve Baker

Senior Fellow, Business Advisor and Author

Steve Baker is a small business advocate with a passion for business and a drive for success. As a founder of successful companies, a corporate executive and business advisor, he has over 25 years of experience developing and launching new businesses. He has led companies in every phase of business cycle from startup to exit in both private and public sectors. He guided one of his startup companies through a successful public offering of stock (IPO) and achieved revenues of $500 million.

Steve directs business development and strategic marketing, and has taken companies from startup to millions of dollars in revenues in such diverse industries as international travel, financial software, franchising, manufacturing, ergonomics, medical devices, migraine headache treatment, and an international medical wellness resort.

As a small business advocate, Steve thrives on the challenge of solving problems that impede business growth and success. As a Senior Fellow at the DaVinci Institute, a futurist think-tank, he enjoys helping entrepreneurs succeed. He is the author of the award winning book Pushing Water Uphill With A Rake and is a frequent public speaker to business groups and university students, discussing entrepreneurship and ethics.

PANELIST: Carol Frank

Author and Investment Banker

Carol Frank is a rare bird.

Having developed three multi-million dollar companies, Carol Frank combines her insider’s expertise in all aspects of businesses to help entrepreneurs, business owners and executives shorten the learning curve and increase profits, while reducing headaches.

Carol is passionate about business, networking, animals and the intersection of the three. As a one-time auditor for a large CPA firm, she gained an inside-out understanding of how companies operate. Her first business was a pet shop in Dallas called The Animal Kingdom. Through this retail endeavor, she discovered her passion for the pet industry, which fueled her next business: Avian Kingdom Supply, Inc. From 1990 to 1998, Carol owned and operated what grew to be a multimillion distributor of 2,100-plus pet products. In 1996, she launched Avian Adventures, one of the world’s largest designers and importers of exclusive birdcages and accessories, which she operated for 11 years before selling to Midwest Homes for Pets in 2007.

She then leveraged her significant experience and passion for entrepreneurship to start BirdsEye Consulting. BEC helps companies develop business plans, connect with the right people, launch new products, identify key market opportunities, and better utilize their resources so they can reach their highest profit potential.

She recently formed a strategic alliance with SDR Ventures, a boutique investment bank, as the managing director in charge of their pet industry vertical. 

Carol is the author of the highly-acclaimed book, Do As I Say, Not As I Did!  Gaining Wisdom in Business Through The Mistakes of Highly Successful People ( translated into four languages ).  The success of her book, combined with her extensive experience as an entrepreneur, has made Carol a sought-after speaker and interview subject.  Her television appearances include Oprah, MSNBC, Good Morning Texas, NBC News and she has co-hosted the nationally syndicated television show “Great Pets”.

Her professional blog “Business Savvy” appears every other week on www.petproductnews.com 

She has been featured in numerous publications including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Entrepreneur, USA Today, Business Week, The Dallas Morning News, among others.

Carol began her career as a CPA with Ernst & Young and also spent three years as an executive recruiter for Robert Half International. She has a BBA in accounting from The University of Texas at Austin and an MBA from Southern Methodist University.

PANELIST: Sara Sutton Fell

CEO of FlexJobs

Sara Sutton Fell is the CEO of FlexJobs, the leading website for telecommuting and online job listings. As CEO, Sara is responsible for managing all aspects of the company. 

Sara is a specialist in telecommuting and flexible work arrangements. She is frequently quoted in the media and has appeared on CNN, NPR’s Marketplace Money, AOL, Forbes.com, and Yahoo! to discuss telecommuting and employment trends. In addition, she is a passionate advocate for work life balance and environmental responsibility.

Prior to starting FlexJobs in 2007, Sara spent 12 years in management and entrepreneurial roles. She also co-founded another employment-focused company in 1995, JobDirect, which was acquired by Korn/Ferry International in 2000.

Sara holds a BA in Society, Technology, and the Environment from the University of California at Berkeley.  She resides in Boulder, Colorado with her husband, two young sons, and chocolate lab.

HOST: Brian Tsuchiya

Founder of Startup Guru

Brian Tsuchiya is an authority on crowdfunding, after spending the last 8 years researching a variety of methods he has unique experiences with crowds. Including having a company entirely funded with "sweat equity" from over one hundred people. Managing that many shareholders is unique for a privately held startup. Brian also has raised over $2M of private equity.

Brian is the founder of StartUp Guru and started his entrepreneurial journey 18 years ago and has since launched ten startups. Startup Guru is the culmination of this extraordinary journey. He has openly shared for the first 40 years of his life he primarily served himself and lived a life without purpose.  Then in June of 2006 he read a book that would change his life forever.  He embarked on a journey that connected his life purpose with his entrepreneurial career.  Through this work he understood his patterns and defined his life in a way that revealed his purpose.  Forged in him was the way of the entrepreneur.