Corgi girls, ugly lawsuits, and cute dogs: Inside a wild $5 billion startup

iStock; Tyler Le/BI "If you can't raise a dog, you cannot run an office." That was the message Nico Laqua , cofounder and CEO of buzzy insurance startup Corgi , sent to staff in the New York office about one of the company's short-legged mascots. A vet had told the employees that the puppy, Hamilton, should not be outside because he wasn't fully vaccinated, so they were using pee pads in the office. After Laqua, based in San Francisco, heard that workers were not walking Hamilton, he laid down the law in a July 19 missive. "Buying pee pads of any sort for Hamilton is a fireable office [sic], on the spot," he wrote in the message. Those who refused to take the corgi to the street should book a one-on-one.