CEO of hot girl insurance startup Corgi threatened to shut down NYC office over puppy, pee pads: report

The 26-year-old CEO of Corgi — a buzzy insurance startup that has become known online for its so-called “hot girl” marketing — reportedly threatened to shut down the company’s New York office during a bizarre dispute over whether employees were properly caring for a puppy.“If you can’t raise a dog, you cannot run an office,” co-founder and CEO Nico Laqua told staff in a July 19 message obtained by Business Insider.The blowup centered on Hamilton, a young corgi stationed at the company’s New York office, where workers had been using pee pads because a vet said the pooch was not fully vaccinated and should stay indoors, according to the report.“Buying pee pads of any sort for Hamilton is a fireable office [sic], on the spot,” Laqua raged, according to Business Insider.Workers who refused to take Hamilton outside should schedule a one-on-one with him, the boss added.“The best case scenario for this meeting will be a PIP,” he wrote, referring to a performance improvement plan.The doggy drama unfolded as Corgi — the fast-growing insurance startup that has gained online notice for its so-called “Corgi girls,” social-media antics and hard-charging workplace culture — ballooned to roughly 400 employees and a reported $5 billion valuation.Earlier in July, Laqua ordered the New York staff to send Hamilton to San Francisco, according to internal Telegram messages reviewed by Business Insider.One employee asked whether the roughly 8-week-old pup could be taken to a vet first to determine whether he was healthy enough to fly.Another staffer urged that the message be deleted, warning: “Nico gona tweak if he hearrs pee pad.”Days later, one worker told colleagues that Laqua had threatened the entire outpost over the puppy’s travel plans.“I just heard Nico say that there will be no NY office if Hamilton isn’t out here by Wednesday morning,” the employee wrote, according to Business Insider.Another staffer reported that Laqua said he was ...