Today we’d like to introduce you to Anshul Srivastava.
Hi Anshul, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
My name is Anshul, and I never planned on becoming a pet-care entrepreneur — my Shih Tzu ‘Coco’ made that decision for me.
My wife and I grew up in India, where dogs are treated like family members. So when we moved to the United States, our home felt strangely quiet. In 2018, when my wife was five months pregnant with our second daughter, we made a spontaneous decision to bring a dog home before the baby arrived. That’s how Coco entered our lives and completed our family.
In 2023, we visited a pet store ‘to have a look’, and Marshmellow became our second Shih Tzu. Soon after, Coco and Marshmellow became parents, and Milky, our third Shih Tzu, joined the pack.
Sooner or later, we discovered that Coco couldn’t handle staying in traditional kennels. He would stop eating, isolate himself, and sit quietly in a corner, completely stressed. Watching him suffer was heartbreaking, and as we Googled, we realized many pets felt the same way. That was our first turning point.
One evening, after bringing Coco home from yet another stressful kennel stay, my wife and I looked at each other and said, Why don’t we give pets what Coco never received? That conversation became the seed of Paws n Wagging Tales LLC.
It didn’t begin as a business, but it began as a natural extension of who we were as a family. Neighbors saw how lovingly we cared for every dog. They saw how easily dogs bonded with us, our calmness, patient nature, and how safe they felt in our environment. One family trusted us, then another, and soon, we started receiving repeat bookings from all over Mason and nearby cities.
Today, our boarding calendar often fills through word of mouth. At Paws n Wagging Tales, we take only a limited number of dogs, so every dog receives personal attention, family interaction, and a peaceful environment. No crates. No isolation. No loud kennels. We always say: “Your dog’s home away from home.”
As our pet-care business grew, another insight became clear: I realized small pet businesses everywhere, struggling with managing bookings, payments, communication, tracking pet history, and customer follow-ups. With more than 12 years of experience as a software engineer and architect, I began building PAWT, a digital platform designed specifically for pet-service owners like us. PAWT includes AI-based scheduling, automated reminders, secure payment processing, detailed pet profiles, and a branded mini-website for each business.
What makes PAWT unique is that it wasn’t built from theory — it was built from our lived experience. We understood the gaps, the challenges, and the everyday frustrations. Early feedback from beta users and local pet businesses has been incredibly encouraging, and my long-term vision is to grow PAWT into the go-to operating system for pet entrepreneurs across the country.
Of course, the journey hasn’t been easy. As an immigrant, starting anything new came with uncertainty, financial limits, and the constant fear of “Will this work?” Balancing a young family, dogs, clients, and a developing tech platform often meant long nights and tough choices. But every wagging tail, every relieved pet parent, and every breakthrough with PAWT reminded us why we started.
Living in Mason, Ohio, has been a blessing. The warmth, trust, and support from our local community have shaped our entire journey. Everything we’ve built is because this community believed in us.
This journey has taught me something powerful: purpose doesn’t always arrive loudly. Sometimes it arrives quietly, in the form of a dog who just needs family, and in guiding him, you discover the path you were always meant to take.
Our story continues to evolve, but one promise remains unchanged: “Every dog who walks through our door becomes part of our family”.
“Family isn’t just who you’re born with; sometimes it walks into your life on four paws”.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The honest answer is no, it hasn’t been a smooth road. In fact, nothing about this journey has been easy. But every challenge shaped who we are as a family and as a business.
One of the first hurdles was simply starting something new as an immigrant. There was a feeling of uncertainty that most people never see. Every step felt heavier because one wrong move could set us back completely. You don’t just build a business in that situation; you try to build some confidence, a sense of identity, and a feeling of “home” in a new country.
When we began watching dogs in our home, we faced a lot of internal questions: Will anyone trust us? Can we really manage this with young kids? Are we doing the right thing? Those thoughts were always at the back of our minds.
I still remember one of the earliest dogs we boarded. He cried nonstop the whole first night being in a new place. My wife and I took turns holding him, walking him around, and comforting him. At one point, our daughter woke up, and we were all with him until he calmed down. I looked at them and thought, “This is why we’re doing this.” Moments like that were emotional, exhausting, and strangely beautiful at the same time.
Balancing everything under one roof was another big challenge. There were days when we were completely drained, waking up early to feed and walk dogs, getting the kids ready, keeping the house running, and then staying up late again when some anxious dogs needed comfort. We don’t have a big team. It’s just us — a normal family trying our best.
Meanwhile, on the tech side, developing PAWT sometimes feels like climbing a Mt Everest alone. After the kids and the dogs were settled for the night, I would sit down at my computer and code late at night. Development is still underway. Some nights I felt proud; other nights I felt completely defeated. Bugs, failed builds, complicated features — all of it on top of running the boarding business. There were many moments where I questioned myself: Can I handle this? Am I stretching myself too thin? But then I would receive a message from a pet parent saying how much their dog loved staying with us (our Google reviews speak about our hard work), or I’d finish solving a hard problem in the app, and suddenly, the motivation came back.
And honestly, starting small sometimes makes you compare yourself to bigger facilities. But the families in Mason changed that feeling for us. They trusted us wholeheartedly. They recommended us. They believed in us even when we didn’t fully believe in ourselves. That support from families in our own community made all the difference.
Looking back, none of the obstacles were roadblocks. They taught us lessons of patience, gentleness, consistency, humility, and, most importantly, they taught us to create a space where every dog truly feels at home.
The journey was not smooth, but it was meaningful, and today, when I see a dog curl up peacefully in our living room or run happily in the backyard with our kids, I realize something very personal.
The hard days weren’t signs to stop — they were signs that we were building something worth fighting for.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
My work has always been about building things that make people’s lives easier, whether it’s through technology or through the pet-care world we’ve created as a family.
Professionally, I’m a Software Engineer Manager with more than 12 years of experience building enterprise web applications across banking, healthcare, and government domains. I specialize in .NET, AWS, creating serverless architecture, and designing clean, scalable systems.
Over the years, I’ve become known for being the person who can take a complicated problem, break it down, and deliver a solution that works.
One of the achievements I’m most proud of was replacing an expensive external API with an internal .NET library for a financial client. Instead of purchasing costly licenses, I engineered the file-generation feature entirely in-house. This saved the company substantial licensing fees on every file produced. It reminded me why I love engineering and solving problems smarter, not costlier.
But what sets me apart is not just the technical skills. It’s the way I approach my work. I’ve always believed that technology should feel human; it should simplify life, not complicate it. That philosophy drives everything I build. I’m calm, methodical, and deeply focused on understanding the “user experience” behind what I’m creating. That mindset has helped me earn the trust of teams, clients, and colleagues throughout my career.
I also take pride in mentoring newer engineers. I’ve always enjoyed sitting down with a teammate, breaking down a concept, or helping them see a cleaner architectural path. Helping others grow is one of the most fulfilling parts of my work.
That same mindset is what inspired me to build PAWT, the digital platform I’m creating for pet-service businesses. Running our own boarding service showed me how difficult it is for small pet entrepreneurs to manage bookings, communication, payments, and customer relationships. Most tools out there weren’t built for pet owners at all — they were generic, expensive, or complicated. PAWT is different because it was born inside a real home full of dogs, not a conference room. It will offer AI-assisted scheduling, automated reminders, secure payments, pet history profiles, and even a branded mini-website.
Living and working in Mason, Ohio, has been a big part of my journey. The community here has supported our dog-boarding business, trusted us with their pets.
At this stage in my career, what I’m most proud of isn’t just the systems I’ve built or the technical skills I have; it’s the trust people place in me, whether it’s families trusting me with their pets or teams trusting me with mission-critical systems.
In the end, I see my work as the place where technology and purpose meet. “I don’t just build software — I build solutions that make people’s lives better.”
What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
I think the quality that has helped me the most is my ability to stay calm and think clearly when things get complicated. I’m not the loudest or the fastest person in the room, but I’ve always been the one who pauses, looks at the situation, and figures out the next step without panicking.
This has helped me a lot in my tech career. There were times when production issues came out of nowhere, and everyone felt the pressure. In those moments, I naturally slow down, break things apart, and focus on the root cause. That steady approach has helped me solve problems quickly and earn trust from teams I’ve worked with.
The same thing happens in our dog-boarding life. Some dogs come in scared or unsettled. Instead of reacting, I sit with them quietly or walk around with them until they feel safe. It takes patience, but that calm energy helps them relax and slowly open up. It’s one of the most rewarding parts of what we do.
Over time, I’ve realized that this quality doesn’t just help me, it helps the people and pets around me. It creates a sense of stability in situations that feel stressful.
For me, staying calm, thinking clearly, and taking things one step at a time has been the key to moving forward in both my work and my life.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.pawsnwaggingtales.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pawsnwaggingtales?igsh=M2Z6eTFpd2Ixb3E4
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61574005561888
