Puppy Mama’s Theresa Piasta

A Compassionate Warrior

Theresa Piasta knows the battles women fight. She fought them as an Army captain, leading troops in Iraq. She fought sexual harassment at an investment bank on Wall Street. She’s battled bias against women entrepreneurs. With her new company Puppy Mama, she’s helping to advance the rights of women to bring their dogs into public spaces, and she’s building a community of support where women feel validated. Yes, she’s got a startup — but more importantly, she’s leading a cause.

“Women have too many barriers,” she told us recently, and with Puppy Mama she’s helping to break down obstacles to pet access not only through the app, social media, and on her blog Pawlitico, sharing over 500 stories of how dogs have helped women. “From cancer survival to sexual assault, depression, anxiety, suicide, postpartum depression, infertility, you name it, they share it.” Theresa has emerged as a role model not only for Puppy Mamas around the world, but for professional women and startup founders everywhere.

Leadership came early for Theresa. She was a soccer star and in student body government in high school. She matriculated at Wellesley College while simultaneously studying military science at MIT as an ROTC scholarship recipient, then joined the US Army where she was quickly promoted to captain at age 25, leading a unit of soldiers and earning a Bronze Star Medal for her service in Iraq. Her experience was intense.

“Women who serve in the military fight three battles,” says Theresa. “There’s the battle itself, the battle to defend our bodies, and the battle to gain respect in uniform.”

After four years of active duty, she served another two years in the active reserves while launching a career at an elite Wall Street investment bank, “another male-dominated environment.” New stressors emerged even as she strove to excel in her new career, and she was eventually diagnosed with PTSD. When she finally decided to leave Wall Street to focus on regaining her health, her service dog Waffles came into her life and everything changed.

This week, Theresa told us more about starting her business, advancing women’s rights, and how to crush it on TV.

Can you tell us about the pain points you encountered in the military and on Wall Street, and how they inspired you to start Puppy Mama?

When I left the service, I thought “Hey, I was so passionate about serving my country, now what? Who am I going to advocate for?” I transitioned to a new career and though I found the financial world to be a dynamic and challenging environment in which to build technical skills, learn business development at an institutional level, and develop managerial strategies, I still felt a void. Then, through my personal experience fighting to heal, I found my true passion. Owning that experience led me to start Puppy Mama.

You’re clearly a leader, and a fighter. It strikes me that your company is about fighting for other women to get advantages they wouldn’t otherwise have. What’s it like being a thought leader in this field?

As a combat veteran who was also in the investment banking world, and now tech, where women only earn about 2.6% of the overall venture funding for startups, I’ve seen a lot of hardship. I wanted to focus on empowering women. In three careers, I’ve consistently seen talented women being undermined and/or forced out due to having children. They can push, push, push, push, push but it’s still a battle because of the limitations of male-dominated industries. They’re putting too much energy into fighting bias when that energy should be put towards driving a business forward. There are so few women leaders in business, we need to support and mentor each other. If we don’t treat each other well, guess what? It’s not going to change much for us.

As a solo founder, you have to make good decisions. Who do you listen to make up your mind? When do you tune out or minimize feedback, and when do you say, “bring it on!”?

Be true to yourself. Strongly question anyone who says you can’t do something. But also, be coachable. Be a sponge for new information and as an entrepreneur, always look for friction points. When I started Puppy Mama, my goal was to prove that canine therapy should be considered as a resource for veterans because the VA does yet not offer it. I found canine therapy on my own (and quickly found that it wasn’t an easy experience bringing my service dog into public spaces). Meeting my community in San Francisco, it was clear that there were a lot of women who struggled with the same issues. So, I started by building community through social media. I learned from Instagram influencers. I reached out one by one and manually contacted different dog moms and asked if they were willing to share their stories, and it just became a ripple effect. It’s heartwarming to see such beautiful stories a lot of these women have shared for the first time via our platform, and it’s an honor and a privilege to provide a healing and supportive outlet for them.

You’ve been very successful in getting media placement on morning TV news shows. Tell us about your media strategy. Also, any tips for getting in front of the camera?

First, make sure you have a clear message and vision to pitch. Spend some time figuring out what makes you as a founder unique, what adversity you’ve encountered, why you’re focusing on your business, what impact you’re making, and why you care about your customers. Also, make sure you practice, practice, practice in front of the mirror because whatever your digital media footprint, you want to know that you are going to perform well. You are the face of your business. Building that muscle of being confident in your capabilities to communicate is vital. I want more women to get out there and crush it.

You can catch Theresa at SERENDIPITY at the “Brands Unite” session for small business owners. She’ll cover partnerships, branding, marketing, and of course, how to “get out there and crush it!”