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When Campbell resident and entrepreneur Leena Chitnis tried to find a multifunctional travel bed for her dog, her fruitless search turned into a five-year project that ended with her founding her own company, called Timberdog, in 2018.
Timberdog’s website went live just a few months ago and prominently features the RuffRest, Chitnis’ labor of love for her rescue dog Kashi. Kashi had been left in a cardboard box with her littermates in an abandoned lot in Fresno.
“Kashi is the first pet I’ve ever owned,” says Chitnis. “Everyone thinks she’s a terrier, but she’s 100% not. She’s a super mutt and is part German shepherd mix and small poodle mix. She’s, like, eight other things as well.”
Both human and pet were suffering at the time. Chitnis was in poor health and unemployed, and Kashi was traumatized. They both sought escape in the great outdoors, with road trips to the redwoods, the ocean and the mountains. Travel and adventuring helped both of them heal.
Timberdog’s website goes into a lot of detail about Kashi and what Chitnis was looking for in a travel pet bed before creating the RuffRest. Chitnis was determined to find something comparable to her own travel gear.
“I had the best of multifunctional gear when it came to road trips, flights, hotels and camping,” Chitnis says, “so why didn’t dogs have similar items?”
Chitnis grew frustrated because there wasn’t one dog bag that could handle each kind of trip they made, and she had to lug around Kashi’s large dog bed. The RuffRest carries like a duffle bag with a strap and contains the dog’s bed, toys, food, water, blanket and leash, among other things.
“Leena knew what she wanted to build,” says Karen Steele, chief marketing adviser for corporate gifting platform Sendoso and an early RuffRest adopter. “I have a prototype of the dog bed, and my two dogs and my nephew’s dog tested it and gave feedback. We love this product. I am so excited for Timberdog and Leena.”
It was a struggle to actually get the RuffRest made, Chitnis says, due to a high learning curve for her in the manufacturing industry. Chitnis, a Fullbright Scholar with an MBA from Syracuse, says her product was rejected by “every manufacturer in the Bay Area,” and that that was only one of many barriers to entry.
“Language barriers, technology barriers, massive time difference, cultural differences, varied business practices—so many barriers,” she says.
Creating a prototype of the RuffRest would have cost $10,000 per iteration, Chitnis says, which wasn’t feasible for her at that time, so she took her project overseas and handled everything remotely.
“I essentially started my business during a deepening recession,” Chitnis says. “I did this entirely remote. Talk about insanity.”
The worst, Chitnis adds, is that she “did not know the complicated lexicon of manufacturing.”
“That was a steep and highly technical learning curve. It took me one year to learn just the basics to move forward.”
Over 20 prototypes were made before the RuffRest became a reality. RuffRest is now patent pending and has three trademarks.
“I feel privileged to be a sounding board as she built this truly great product, brand and company,” says Steele.
Chitnis has a nonprofit arm attached to Timberdog, called Trees & Tails, which aspires to eventually plant two trees for every RuffRest sold. Chitnis also has plans for worn-out RuffRests.
“I’m seeking ways to create closed loop manufacturing in the future when I have the financing to do so,” she says. “This means that used RuffRests can be returned and repurposed into other things. No waste.”
For more information, visit https://timberdog.com.
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