Written by Jack Shaffer
When Brad Baxter left Ford Motor Company in the ’90s, he didn’t just walk away from a stable career, he walked toward a future he couldn’t have predicted: one filled with cats, molds, plastic parts, circuit boards, late-night design work, and a game-changing invention that would transform pet care forever.
Today, Brad is best known as the inventor of Litter-Robot, one of the first commercially successful self-cleaning litter boxes. But the journey from corporate engineer to pioneering pet-tech entrepreneur wasn’t a straight line. It was built on perseverance, engineering ingenuity, and a belief that a better solution was possible.
From cars to cats: Brad’s engineering origins
Brad’s passion for design started young. He spent his teen years sketching and fixing cars, eventually earning a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Wisconsin (Madison). That led to a job at Ford, where he worked on plastic components for electronic enclosures, which would end up coming in handy down the road.
But the corporate world wasn’t his finish line. Brad left Ford to work for a decorative plastics supplier and later started an agency consulting and working for European automotive suppliers that needed engineering and logistics support. He worked with major players in the automotive industry while moonlighting as an inventor.
Among his early ideas was a clever hexagonal stand that stabilized baby bottles while pushing air out of the bag liners. It solved a niche problem in parenting, but there was an idea much closer to home, and much messier, that would define his legacy.
The “aha” moment in the litter box aisle
Brad loved his cats. What didn’t he love? Cleaning their litter box every other day and still finding puddles outside the box. He tried an “automatic” raking-style litter box, but it jammed and made a bigger mess than it solved.
So, like any good engineer, Brad asked: How can I make this better?
Rather than raking, he imagined a gravity-based sifting system akin to a cement mixer… As it turned out, another inventor named Don Reitz had patented a similar idea but hadn’t commercialized it. The two connected and worked out a license agreement, and Brad acquired some of Don’s early prototypes, bringing them home to tinker.
In April of 2000, Brad assembled the very first globe-like self-cleaning litter box in his basement. By 2001, he worked with Don Reitz to file a 2nd patent that included new features that Brad invented, such as the flexible weighted liner and simple cat sensor switch.
Scrappy, smart, and self-funded
Getting the first Litter-Robot off the ground wasn’t easy. Injection molding was too expensive and not ideal for a product that might need several iterations, so Brad used vacuum molding for short production runs. To finance the effort, his parents helped out and invested in Brad’s vision in exchange for a stake in the business.
Brad hired his first assembler and the first production runs came out of a repurposed automotive factory in Pontiac, Michigan. Every unit was built by hand.
During all this, Brad continued to run his consulting business from the same location, had two young kids at home, and a startup running on fumes. But he stuck with it.
From basement project to industry leader
In 2000, Brad officially launched Automated Pet Care Products, Inc. (AutoPets), selling the Litter-Robot automatic litter box directly to consumers online. It wasn’t an overnight success, but the product quietly gained traction. By 2005, Litter-Robot 2 launched with improved design and performance based on injection mold tooling.
Brad ran the company with discipline, patience, and humility. In the early days, he paid himself little (or sometimes, not at all), but the foundation he built was solid. In 2015, he hired Jacob Zuppke to lead marketing and help scale the brand.
That same year, Litter-Robot gained momentum with the launch of Litter-Robot 3, with Jacob’s branding and growth strategies helping fuel its rapid expansion.
In 2019, Pondera Holdings invested $31 million, bringing capital and strategic support to help Whisker (as the company would soon be known) grow even faster. By 2021, the company officially rebranded as Whisker, expanding the product line to include the Feeder-Robot, launching retail partnerships, and becoming a household name among cat owners.
Today, Whisker has sold over one million Litter-Robots, employs more than 600 people, and generates over $300 million in annual revenue.
Transitioning leadership, continuing impact
In January 2022, after more than two decades at the helm, Brad transitioned into a Chairman and Chief Inventor role to leverage his superpowers of invention full time. He appointed longtime executive Jacob Zuppke as his successor for the role of CEO. Brad trusted Jacob to take Whisker’s mission even further.
Today, Brad continues to guide product innovation and strategy (in office), playing an active role in the company he built from the ground up. His invention didn’t just solve a problem, it redefined an industry, proving that automation, engineering, and empathy could coexist in pet care.
Legacy
Brad Baxter isn’t just the inventor of Litter-Robot; he’s a symbol of what happens when quiet persistence meets bold vision. His story reminds us that innovation can start anywhere, get built on sacrifice, and sometimes end up changing how the world takes care of its pets.
