Pamela Fusco has seen a lot of technology problems over the years and knows that sometimes the most elegant solution lies in simplicity.
The Orchard Park native and cybersecurity expert leads ZuluTails, a startup that seeks to reunite owners with their lost pets. The company launched last year and now has thousands of subscribers, Fusco said.
How it works:
• People sign up for annual memberships and submit their pet’s information.
• ZuluTails sends them a tag with a QR code.
• Anyone who finds the pet can scan the code with their phone, and then see a profile on the animal and their owner.
Fusco said ZuluTails is safer than reward posters for lost animals and more effective than the fraught micro-chipping industry. She said the goal now is to find as many customers as possible.
“This is a disruptive force in the industry and a better alternative to anything that’s out there,” she said. “But you can’t just flood social media with advertising. You need people to absorb what ZuluTails really is.”
The company has a handful of full-time employees and an office in the Innovation Center on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus. The company is in the Start-Up NY tax breaks program.
Fusco, a chief information security officer for publicly traded Splunk, started her career as a U.S. Navy cryptologist who supported special operations for national intelligence, advising the White House, according to a Splunk biography. She also was head of global information security at Citibank.
