Interview with Andria Beal, founder and CEO of Epipaws

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INTERVIEW WITH ANDRIA BEAL, FOUNDER & CEO OF EPIPAWS

Andria, thanks for speaking with me. Congratulations! I’ve been seeing the headlines about your latest fundraising with New World Angels.

Thank you! Honestly, that was such a long haul. We’ve been working toward this for quite some time, so it feels great to have that support in place now.

You weren’t originally from a business background, you were a scientist. How did EpiPaws come about?

During my PhD I studied epigenetics in sharks and dolphins. My dissertation was on epigenetics, and I ended up creating the first-ever age estimation test for dolphins. I fell in love with the concept - being able to tell an animal’s age from its DNA. From there I knew I wanted to do this for other animals!

At first, my thought was wildlife. With so many species, we don’t actually know how old they are, and that information is crucial for conservation. But I’ve always had pets, and as I thought about it more, I realised no one was doing this for cats and dogs. That was the spark.

Personally, I had four dogs from the time I was 18, and as they grew older, we were constantly blindsided by illness. There weren’t great markers for their health or ageing process. By the time you know something’s wrong, it’s often too late. I thought, “there has to be a better way”. In human health, researchers were already using DNA methylation and epigenetic markers to track biological age. Why not translate that to animal health? That’s what solidified the idea for EpiPaws - and our larger vision of using science to improve pet lifespan and wellbeing.

What was the biggest challenge moving from PhD research to running a company?

My husband and I actually had small businesses before - we own a boat rental company in Fort Lauderdale. But that was bootstrapped, we grew slowly, reinvested our own money. A startup is a whole different world.

With EpiPaws, I did the same thing at first - put in as much of my own money as possible, developed the age test, launched it. But customer acquisition was tough. It’s expensive to educate people and build awareness, especially when you’re creating an entirely new category. I got a small \$25,000 grant, which helped, but it wasn’t enough to scale.

The big shift for me was realising I needed to fundraise. We weren’t at a stage where a business loan was realistic, so equity investment was the only way forward. That was new and very daunting for me.

How did you learn to navigate fundraising?

Accelerators were key. The first one I joined was the Petcare Innovation Prize hosted by Purina. That came right after launch and included a US$25,000 grant. The bootcamp was an incredible crash course in entrepreneurship. I learned about growth, exit potential, how B2B might fit into the business model - it accelerated my learning so much.

Since then, I’ve been through several accelerators, each with different perspectives and benefits. They gave me confidence, a network, and the knowledge that fundraising is part of building something transformative.

You were even on Shark Tank?

Not the TV show - it was a live pitch at a business conference event. There are pros and cons. I didn’t get the national publicity of the show, but I did get strong local publicity, which helped me raise the first half of my pre-seed round.

Kevin O’Leary actually made me an offer on stage, which I accepted so we could move into due diligence. But ultimately, I didn’t take his money because I was able to raise at a higher valuation elsewhere.

Too much equity on the table?

Exactly. He wanted 20%, which was way too much. Anna Skaya from Basepaws had gone through something similar - she advised me to be cautious because deals often change a lot after due diligence. So I went through the process, but in the end, we got a better deal elsewhere.

Let’s talk about the science. You started with age testing for cats and dogs. What’s next?

Biological age testing. Chronological age is just the number of years, but biological age reflects what’s really going on internally. We’ve developed a custom sequencing panel targeting areas of the genome where age-related DNA methylation changes are occurring with diseases.

The goal is to detect early signs of problems - things like kidney disease, diabetes, arthritis - before clinical symptoms appear. It’s about building an individual baseline and tracking changes over time. We’ll recommend quarterly tests in the first year, then biannual or annual tests depending on age and health status.

So essentially personalised medicine for pets?

Yes. We’re building disease-specific panels for cats and dogs - because conditions don’t always present the same way. For example, kidney disease develops differently in cats than in dogs. We’re also planning a study on oral cancers, because our swabs collect oral cells and those cancers often go unnoticed until late stages.

You’re the first company to offer this for cats?

Yes. Other companies are working on dogs, but no one else is doing this for cats. We’ll be the first globally.

When will the biological age test launch?

November. And from there, it will only get better. We’ve been collecting samples for three years now - thousands of them. This dataset doesn’t exist anywhere else. As it grows, we’ll refine the test and add more features.

Beyond consumer sales, what’s the B2B angle?

Vets are key partners. They’ll use this information to guide interventions. Nutrition is another big one - we can show how different diets affect biomarkers and biological age. Food companies could validate their products with real longevity data.

We’re also working on diet-specific age clocks, which could be huge. Imagine proving that a particular diet reduces biological age markers in cats or dogs.

And then there’s pharma. Depending on the drug, we could help with proving efficacy or identifying who should or shouldn’t be on a drug based on methylation markers. Right now, drug dosing in animals is usually just by weight. But biomarkers could enable personalised dosing something we’re starting to see in human  medicine. That’s another long-term opportunity.

Where do you see EpiPaws in five years?

I see us having multiple biological age clocks for specific use cases - diet, drugs, other environmental variables, and then there is diagnostics. Sequencing is relatively affordable with our custom panels, and data sets will grow fast.

I think the future of diagnostics is combining DNA methylation with other biomarkers for maximum sensitivity. For example, adding kidney disease markers from urine samples alongside DNA methylation from oral swabs. That’s where the field is heading.

Do human data sets inform your work?

Absolutely. Age biomarkers are highly conserved across mammals. The exciting part is that by studying these markers in pets, we will not only make pet healthcare better, but because there tends to be less lifestyle variables to account for, we can make tighter associations between the factors and how they really impact health which we can then turn around and provide insights back to human health even though human is a little further ahead than pet at the moment. 

What do your pets mean to you personally?

Everything. That’s why I became a scientist. I was pre-med originally, but switched to conservation because I wanted to work with animals. My pets are family. Losing my four senior dogs was devastating - it reinforced that we need to do better for them.

Right now, I have two dogs: Brody and Jaws. Brody already had his name at the shelter - so of course we named the other Jaws, after the film! She was originally Jewel. Growing up, I had dogs named Dixie Rockstar, Arena, Ogio, and Moto - motocross-inspired names. They’ve always been a huge part of my life.

And what do you keep an eye on in the pet industry?

I follow innovation and trends. The humanisation of pets, fewer children and more pets, the rise of cats - all of that aligns with what we’re building. People increasingly see their pets as true family members. That mindset shift underpins our entire mission.

Andria, this has been fascinating. Thank you so much for sharing your story.

See you next week! 🐾 

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