Female Founders: Terri Rockovich of Jinx On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

Choose courage over comfort. // If you’re into “playing it safe” then being an entrepreneur is not for you. You’ll be required to take great risks which require a tenacity that is uncommon among most people. A brave stature will give your team confidence that you can take on any task, regardless of size or threat.

As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Terri Rockovich, Co-Founder & CEO at Jinx.

Terri is a startup veteran with 14+ years of experience at early-stage companies holding titles across various leadership positions, most impressively as a founding team member of Casper. She co-founded Jinx with the belief that pet food needs to get simpler to get healthier. She works with her team to build a highly immersive, experiential brand geared toward the savvy, wellness-oriented millennial dog parent to offer superfood-powered dog nutrition brand that makes clean-label kibble, treats, meal mixers, and dental chews.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?

As much as I’d like to say that I always knew I’d be an entrepreneur, I definitely didn’t. Did I think it was cool to be the boss? Sure. Did I want to build something that I was proud of? Absolutely. But I never thought that starting my career as a mere associate at a digital agency would lead to co-founding one of the fastest growing direct-to-consumer dog food brands in 2020.

I took the most compelling offer I could find after graduating in 2007, and landed at a digital agency in Pittsburgh, PA. After being assigned to a variety of Fortune 500 accounts, I was well-equipped to architect media plans, implement them across all media types, and grow a business within the guardrails of their business objectives.

Once I was offered the opportunity to work for my first startup, I never looked back. I was immersed in the fast-pace of the entrepreneurial environment and completely addicted to the high-impact potential of taking calculated risks.

I worked for three startups back-to-back (ModCloth, Casper, Outdoor Voices), leveling up to leadership roles and building out large scale, high-performing marketing teams. Eventually, I took on some consulting projects in between gigs, and ended up advising a handful of early-stage companies.

It was serendipity that presented an opportunity to reconnect with my former Casper colleagues and build a pre-product business model in a category that I was OBSESSED with: dog nutrition. I was the consumer that I was solving for and needed to find a better product that was satisfying for my dog to consume, but still presented itself in a pantry-friendly and shelf-stable format to accommodate our busy lifestyles. After all, my dogs join me at work every day and tag along wherever they’re invited.

How was it be possible that a category as large as pet food didn’t have any delicious-tasting, affordable but premium-postured, easy to order and receive options? Why are premium diets only being designed for carnivorous wolves or the most perfect of show dogs? And how as a dog parent do you even begin to understand what to process on the back of a dog food bag? This industry was ripe for disruption via a better experience and a superior product.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?

For starters, we launched our brand into the height of the pandemic. Our formation timeline is short, but dramatic. We raised our SEED round in Q4–2018. We spend the entirety of 2019 conducting R&D, product testing, and building the eCommerce storefront. Then, we soft-launched the brand at the top of 2020.

We had spent a year designing a go-to-market playbook that would activate media across digital and non-digital touchpoints, leverage experiential marketing to host a variety of one-of-a-kind dog-friendly experiences, and announce to dog-lovers everywhere that we finally had a product that was appropriately proportioned for our beloved fur babies. Instead, we battled with a news cycle consumed with coverage of COVID-19 and the impending presidential election, and a rapidly changing consumer landscape as we launched our new subscription commerce brand.

We had to get creative on our approach to a growth strategy and rethink our marketing and retail partnerships, since doors were closing indefinitely across the country. We went back to the drawing board and assembled a new playbook that leaned into brand driven digital-only activations and performance marketing. We were built to be flexible, but it was tough to walk away from a year of planning and pivot to a totally different launch approach.

Uncertain times test absolutely everything about a team and about a business. We were lucky to have each other, and we were fortunate to have the tailwinds of pet adoption rates skyrocketing and pet ownership becoming a positive trend emerging from the pandemic. If I could do it all over again, I wouldn’t change a thing. We locked arms and took on every challenge together. And while our leadership qualities were tested, we made it through the storm.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

Mistakes are commonplace in a startup environment. They range in size, from big to medium to small. Sometimes they are less visible based on the timing or based on the ability to course correct. As a company, we very much embrace failures and chalk losses up to lessons.

Of all of the mistakes that I have to choose from, I think the funniest is probably honoring a future competitor with a friendly non-competitive conversation about how we were trying to disrupt the category as small brands in a big category. I revealed a lot of context around our strategic positioning, and low and behold, this guy launches his company with the exact language that I used to describe our brand messaging and overall tonality. He even went to the parks that I mentioned that I frequented with my pups to shoot content for his website.

While I was shocked at his lack of integrity, it was a major professional lesson that encouraged me to be less naïve and more conservative with what I share.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

There is an endless list of humans that have done everything from small favors to big introductions that have resulted in some form of net positive outcome. I’ve had a lot of people rooting for me my entire life, and I am very grateful for their sincere support.

I have a former colleague, and now dear friend and advisor to my business who has always made himself available to talk through decisions of every size. Neil Parikh was one of the co-founders of Casper, and made a critical introduction to an investor while we were fundraising that resulted in identifying a lead for our SEED round and enabled us to secure financing to launch our business.

In addition to leveraging his network, he’s also leaned in across other aspects of thought partnership as my business partners and I have encountered new things as first time entrepreneurs. He’s always willing to make himself available, advising us with optimism and encouragement. He’s one of the most generous humans I know, and I’m forever grateful for his friendship.

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. According to this EY report, only about 20 percent of funded companies have women founders. This reflects great historical progress, but it also shows that more work still has to be done to empower women to create companies. In your opinion and experience what is currently holding back women from founding companies?

I believe that leadership characteristics between men and women are perceived differently. If a male is emotionally charged, he’s passionate. If a female is the same, she’s considered dramatic or sensitive. If a male dominates a conversation or overrides a decision, he’s powerful. If a female does the same, she’s a bitch.

Our perception of strong females indexes into a territory that is cautious and confining. It’s limiting in that it only promotes women who are persistent and aware of the realities of how they need to show up in order to be heard. If you have any other life priorities, it’s challenging to devote so much time to just proving that you deserve a chance. We have not created enough environments where women are empowered to take risks, become okay with failing, and have the rigor to dust themselves off and keep powering through.

If a woman, regardless of age, is not presented with opportunities or given the support and guidance to navigate the long-road to earning a right to sit in a position of power, then the chances of her getting there are very slim.

Can you help articulate a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society, or by the government, to help overcome those obstacles?

Women supporting women feels like it should be table stakes, but I often find that females can be competitive with each other because they are fighting for the same seat. We need to lock arms and commit to being supportive and creating room for more of our counterparts as we think about building and optimizing leadership teams at organizations.

I try to be supportive by advising female-led early-stage companies, sometimes for equity and sometimes for free, based on the level of engagement. A lot of the challenges that entrepreneurs face are shared, but just framed in a different context. Rolling up my sleeves and working through a problem-solving exercise is rewarding for both parties. There are so many instances where I wish I would’ve just asked for help in order to avoid making expensive decisions.

This might be intuitive to you as a woman founder but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?

From my experience, women make the best leaders. They are naturally passionate while being very conscious of reality. They make honest and considered choices. They have a level of empathy that is unmatched by their male counterparts. They build working cultures that are healthy and fair. And most importantly, they have strong instincts that guide morally-sound decisions.

What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?

There are so many myths to tackle, but I think the most important are: You do not have to be a narcissist or egomaniac to be a founder. You do not need co-founders to be successful. You do not have to have to be a male to raise money. The long and short of it is that if you have a good idea and a great product, it might take you a longer time to build something significant, but successful outcomes come with precise execution.

Is everyone cut out to be a founder? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful founder and what type of person should perhaps seek a “regular job” as an employee? Can you explain what you mean?

My advice would be that if you’re uncomfortable with failure, you’re not equipped to be a founder. If you need structure to thrive, you should not work in a start-up environment. If you can’t build a flexible business strategy that has the ability to pivot when unforeseen circumstances hit, you should not be an entrepreneur.

The most successful founders that I’ve had the pleasure of working with are innovative, intuitive, considered, and surround themselves with smart people. These qualities typically result in thoughtful decision making at intentionally mastered inflection points, and the overall realization that you will not be able to create a unicorn if you don’t have an A+ team helping you build it.

Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. Based on your opinion and experience, What are the “Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder?”

1. Choose courage over comfort. // If you’re into “playing it safe” then being an entrepreneur is not for you. You’ll be required to take great risks which require a tenacity that is uncommon among most people. A brave stature will give your team confidence that you can take on any task, regardless of size or threat.
2. Show, don’t sell. // Being a doer is often more respected than talking about something that never happens. Don’t get me wrong, there is spirit that is required to create a vision. However, you need to lead by example and hire the right operators to execute that vision and make it come to life. Being a female founder comes with some controllable challenges, and showing up is one of the most important of them.
3. How you pivot is how you prosper. // There are so many unforeseen obstacles that you’ll encounter as you build. The pandemic was something that even the most prepared entrepreneurs couldn’t plan for. Creating a business strategy that is postured to be opportunistic when there are tailwinds and stable when there are headwinds will enable you to accommodate any unexpected happenings.
4. Confidence requires competence. // While luck and serendipity do have their place in the entrepreneurial experience, you have to have the muscles to be able to compete at the highest of levels. If you’re unable to exhibit a capability around leading a team, decision-making at every level, taking calculated risks, or out-maneuvering the competition — you’re going to have a long journey to work up the conviction it takes to be an engaged founder.
5. It’s not what you make, it’s what you keep. // It’s so important to build something that you’re proud of and that you can stand behind. Your experience as an entrepreneur should be unforgettable and invaluable in nature. You will never be able to quantify the opportunity, or recreate the memories. What you are exposed to will forever change you and your perspective on life since it’s all-consuming.

How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

Being a co-founder allows me to have more control of my own destiny. After having participated in a charitable giving committee at a prior gig, I always knew that I wanted to create a donation component to any business that I started. At Jinx, we donate a portion of our proceeds to local animal shelters that customers can select during checkout. It’s more than just the right thing to do, it’s personally important to me since I have two rescue pups: Blitz and Shadow. As we continue to scale our business, giving back will continue to be a key initiative as we think about ways to serve our community and do our little part to keep homeless animals cared for until they find their forever home.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

If I were able to encourage people to bring their animals to get spayed and neutered in an effort to avoid the overpopulation issues we’re facing with free clinical services, I would create a mobile hospital that provides the service at no cost to the pet owner in an attempt to get the issue under control. This movement would be in support of making the world a better place for a spectrum of species by getting in front of the problem.

We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.

If I could host a private breakfast with Larry Page, I could die a happy woman. I’m in awe of what Larry and Sergey Brin have built *and maintained* at Alphabet. I am most inspired by innovative thinkers with a forward-thinking mentality, so I would focus our time on digging into how to create something that lives in the white space of outdated categories that are ripe for disruption.

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.