Petcube’s Alex Neskin Embraces Imperfection to Deliver Innovation

When Alex Neskin's neighbors threatened to call the police about his dog's constant barking, the software engineer invented a solution that would eventually help millions of pet parents stay connected with their furry family members.

Alex, founder and CTO of Petcube and YC alumnus, has nearly two decades of experience in building and scaling tech products. His journey from software engineer to hardware innovator spans multiple countries, with teams now distributed across the United States, Ukraine, and China. This global presence has enabled Petcube to serve over a million customers around the world.

The story of Petcube is one of resilience, innovation, and adaptation. From the duct-taped webcam with a laser pointer that inspired the company to its current lineup of sophisticated pet tech products, Petcube's journey offers valuable insights into the challenges of hardware startups. Through manufacturing setbacks, quality control challenges, and continuous product iteration, the company has emerged as a leader in the pet tech industry and demonstrates how persistence and adaptability can transform a simple idea into a global success.

Alex sat down with Anna-Katrina Shedletsky to discuss his approach to hardware leadership. As a leader, Neskin has developed a set of principles that balance curiosity, quality, and resilience.

You can watch the full discussion here:

Lesson 1: Embrace Imperfection and Expect to Iterate

Perfection isn’t the goal—progress is. Neskin emphasizes that products don’t need to be flawless at launch. Instead, hardware teams should focus on optimizing and improving as they go, learning from early mistakes and iterating quickly.

Alex references a famous quote from Reid Hoffman: “If you’re not embarrassed by the product you launched, you launched it too late.”

By releasing imperfect but functional products, companies can gather real-world feedback and refine based on actual customer needs. Hardware development is typically a waterfall process – it takes great restraint to not rush to massive quantities and high complexity before the product has been sufficiently iterated.

Lesson 2: Prioritize Testing and Quality Control

For Alex, rigorous testing is the cornerstone of quality. In addition to rigorous incoming quality control and in-line quality checks, Neskin prioritizes strife testing to ensure designs will work in the real world. While these kinds of approaches are common for larger, well-resourced companies – in hardware startups these are often corners that get cut. Neskin believes that’s a huge mistake.

Neskin also makes sure that no part of the product is overlooked, like testing for radio frequency emissions, camera quality, and RGB diode consistency. He notes that investing in premium suppliers early on can prevent downstream issues and build a solid foundation for quality.

Lesson 3: Build Curious Teams

When it comes to building teams, Neskin prioritizes values over credentials. He advises hiring people who demonstrate:

• Curiosity: A hunger to learn and solve new problems
• Trust and honesty: A foundation for collaboration and integrity
• Professionalism: The ability to approach challenges with focus and reliability

While expertise is important, he believes a strong alignment with company values is what enables teams to adapt and thrive in the unpredictable world of hardware startups.

Lesson 4: Be Prepared for Supply Chain Disruptions

Supply chain challenges are inevitable. Neskin recommends proactive planning to mitigate disruptions. This includes building relationships with multiple suppliers and designing products with flexibility to accommodate alternative hardware components.

Being prepared for supply chain disruptions allows Petcube to source inventory and maintain production, even when unexpected challenges arise.

Lesson 5: If the Feedback Hurts, It’s Working

Neskin believes feedback is one of the most powerful tools for improvement, particularly negative feedback. He suggests streamlining processes so that customer complaints—like negative Amazon reviews—land directly in a leader’s inbox (in this case, his!). This ensures growing issues are surfaced quickly and prioritized for resolution. Normalizing careful discussion and consideration of negative feedback is something Neskin has prioritized in his years working on Petcube. In addition to driving product improvements, it has become a core cultural tenet. While Neskin is personally very focused on negative feedback, he acknowledges it’s really important for teams to also hear about the positive impacts their products have on customers – to keep them motivated to deliver.