Puppy Sphere was born out of burnout, so a tech festival full of founders and long hours felt like the right place to talk about wellness. In this recap of Francesca’s fireside chat at Nrth Festival, you’ll find her lessons on building a brand by showing up on camera, why spaces for women in tech matter for mental health, and how to bring puppy therapy to your team.

If the name sounds new, it is. Nrth is the new name for Elevate Festival, which rebranded on its opening night this year after nine years of bringing Toronto's tech community together.

A crowd packed in front of the stage for Francesca's session, with people standing along the back to listen.

Long hours and burnout come up a lot in tech, and they're part of Puppy Sphere's story too. Before Puppy Sphere, Francesca and co-founder Lea Burbidge Izquierdo worked demanding corporate jobs that looked successful from the outside but left them feeling overwhelmed and disconnected. During their hardest seasons, the thing that consistently helped was time with their dogs.

Puppy Sphere grew out of that: a way to make the mood-boosting benefits of puppy therapy accessible to people who can't have a dog of their own. You can read the full story on our about page. It's the same reason we brought puppy yoga to the World Mental Health Day Festival in NYC.

Nrth CEO and co-founder Lisa Zarzeczny has said she wants the festival's conversations to reach beyond the tech community, so a wellness brand like Puppy Sphere on the Women+ in Tech stage felt like a natural fit.

Francesca's session on September 24, "How I Built This: A Gen-Z First Wellness Brand with Puppy Sphere," was led by Shania Bhopa, a medical student with a PhD in global health who shares science-backed wellness content with more than 250,000 followers as @wellbyshania. When Shania asked about Puppy Sphere's marketing, Francesca's answer started with a choice she and Lea made early on.

"My co-founder and I were okay to go in front of the camera, and that's how we started the company, really putting ourselves face first," Francesca said. "We're okay being silly. We're okay sharing our ups and downs."

She encouraged other founders to "push yourself to try, especially if you are leading something from scratch," and to lead with whatever edge they bring. "If your background is being a doctor, share more of the science," she said.

Francesca also watches which posts take off and keeps running them. One Instagram video of her pulling a cart of puppies, captioned "I quit my 9 to 5 to start a business bringing puppies to corporate offices," generates over a million views every time she posts it, and one version has more than 15 million views. "Figure out what areas are really working for you, and then just repeat those."

After testing the model across many markets, the team saw room to take Puppy Sphere to hundreds of studios across North America and beyond, and decided it was time to bring in the right investors. "We've tested the model. We've gotten to that proof of concept, and now it's time to blow it up," Francesca said.

The Women+ in Tech stage exists for a reason. Women make up about 22% of tech workers in Canada, and men in tech jobs earn nearly $20,000 more than women in the same roles, according to the Dais at Toronto Metropolitan University.

Burnout is part of that picture too. The 2025 Women in the Workplace report from McKinsey and LeanIn.Org found that, across industries, about 60% of senior-level women had frequently felt burned out at work in recent months, compared with 50% of senior-level men (Business Insider).

Rooms like the one at Nrth give women in tech a place to talk openly about what building a career or a company takes, including the stress that comes with it. Puppy Sphere is founded and led by two women, and making the mental health benefits of puppy therapy more accessible has been the mission from day one. The crowd that showed up for Francesca and Shania tells us people want more of these conversations at work, too.

We see puppy therapy the same way. A regularly booked class at Puppy Sphere carves out a dedicated hour in your weekly routine to prioritize self care by moving your body intentionally through yoga while also relaxing with puppies, all in one space.

Bring your team to one of our studios for a private Puppy Yoga class, a Puppy Social where everyone can cuddle and mingle with a litter of puppies, or a guided Puppy Meditation surrounded by puppies.

We can also bring the puppies to you. A Puppy-Pen Social keeps a litter of puppies in a pen that guests can visit throughout your event, and our Cuddle Zone doubles the space with cushions and cozy seating. For off-site Puppy Yoga, we bring the puppies, instructor, and staff, and you bring the space and your team. We also set up at conferences and tradeshows, where a puppy pen gives attendees a break between sessions and a reason to stop by your booth.

If you'd rather start with a class, our studios across North America host Wellness Puppy Yoga, Simply Puppy Yoga, and Puppy Pilates. Find a puppy therapy class near you.