From Tech to Tails: Fernando Gomez's Pet Store Passion

In 2021, Fernando Gomez and partners opened Expert Pet when all things pets were in demand because of the pandemic. At the time, Gomez balanced his weekday tech job with weekend duties running the Ocean Avenue shop. But last year, he made the full-time leap.

“It's seeing that you have planted a seed and watched it grow and now you're making sure that the soil is good,” Gomez said. “It's almost like a feeling of parenthood. That’s my favorite part about it.”

Expert Pet, formerly Ocean Paws, has expanded over the years, adding to the mix on-site pet socials, daycare service, grooming and a resort. Gomez has plans to build an app for customers to seamlessly get promotions and make appointments.

“We try to be a one-stop shop for all the customer's needs and we're open seven days a week,” Gomez said. “Our main focus is on great quality food and service.”

There have been bumps along the way. The shop closed its Dogpatch location.

The Ingleside Light caught up with Gomez to see what it takes to run the neighborhood’s pet store.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What inspired the switch from tech to being a pet store owner?

Well, that was the goal initially. I had been in tech for seven to eight years. At that point, I don't know, I was just kind of bored with the same old kind of thing. As a developer your days are pretty similar: you get a bug, a new feature to add or whatever and then you spend time kind of drafting it in your head and implementing it and then testing it and then making sure it works and then having another developer review it and then the testers review it and then something's breaking it goes back to you. They call it the development cycle. It kind of just gets dull after a while.

What does a typical shift look like at the pet shop?

It varies. It's similar but different because I am here seven days a week. I usually come in the afternoon because mornings are not my thing. I’m a night owl. I've always been, since I was a kid. I always slept super late, and then as a developer, I just work whenever I want to work. As long as you finish your work, you're good. That's kind of the mentality I carry over to here.

Today, I came in, reviewed what was going on in retail. I really haven’t been in retail today very much, which is unusual because usually I feel it’s mostly here that I spend my time, but we had a meeting with daycare.

The job is addressing employee concerns and figuring out a way to bridge that gap — and that's really what I feel like I'm doing a lot. At the end of the day, I am kind of an engineer, so when I see a problem, I try to analyze it, figure it out and see how I can resolve it and fix it. If it can't be fixed, then we have to acknowledge why. Thankfully, not a lot of that has happened here.

What’s one piece of advice you have for someone wanting to run their own business?

Make sure that when it comes to a business, if it's not a sole proprietorship, to always make sure that you're always going into business with people that you trust and you all have a goal in mind.