Pet Tech

Martin Diamond, CEO of Pawport, creates functional smart technology for furry friends

By Kaylor Jones / Photos by Claudia Johnstone

It’s often said that the best products are a solution to a common problem. Martin Diamond’s problem? Constantly opening the door for his dog, who wanted to go between inside and outside all day every day.

In theory, a regular dog door should do the trick but Diamond already had two, which were permanently covered to keep out scorpions, rattlesnakes and other dangerous Arizona critters. Plus, the vinyl flaps were just plain ugly.

As an entrepreneur with over 30 years of experience launching startups, Diamond took matters into his own hands and started Pawport (www.pawport.com).

“It’s a smart pet door system designed to give pets the freedom to move in and out while helping homeowners maintain security, comfort and peace of mind,” he says.

It opens with a lightweight smart tag on a pet’s collar, with an app owners can use to set customized curfews and track pet activity throughout the day. The system can even be installed on existing pet doors – whether retrofitting or installing from scratch, it’s tightly sealed to increase energy efficiency while keeping the outdoors out.

Diamond knew the tech market is oversaturated with products that look cool but aren’t exactly useful, so it was his goal from day one to create something that adds real value to people’s lives. Since its debut, Pawport has been named a Time Best Invention of 2025 and received a CES Innovation Award.

“That recognition stems from how Pawport combines aesthetics, functionality, security and technology in a way people haven’t seen before in a smart home product. It’s built from aircraft-grade aluminum and steel – it’s so strong it stops bullets, sledgehammers, and pretty much anything else we throw at it – but it hides that strength behind a sleek, beautiful exterior.”

Diamond says he’ll never forget the feeling of seeing his product on countless best-of lists at CES. “It was surreal, but also extremely validating. Having people recognize my work at that level was incredibly fulfilling, and I felt both humbled and grateful.”

Startup Stories

Before he found his passion as a tech entrepreneur, Diamond got his start as a lawyer. He opened his own practice fresh out of law school in 1993 before founding Meridian CondoResorts, a golf-centric accommodations business in Scottsdale.

“I soon realized that the challenges of marketing and servicing customers were much more exciting to me than practicing law,” he says. “I’ve always been a positive person with a strong creative streak, and I love to innovate and solve problems, so the mundane nature of law just wasn’t a good fit for me.”

After exiting both businesses in 2001, Diamond made his first foray into tech entrepreneurship with Vuria, a creative design and development firm for web and mobile apps that he grew for 20 years before it was acquired.

In the meantime, he was also hard at work on Kindli, which debuted in 2018 as a social media platform aimed at societal good. “I saw the writing on the wall – social media was fueling hate, division and misinformation, bringing out the worst in us. I decided to create a platform focused entirely on positivity and kindness, and engineered a unique digital ‘pay-it-forward’ system with the goal of creating a global movement that eliminated the typical problems of social media.”

A Job Well Done

Whether law, hospitality or technology, each of these experiences proved vital when it came to launching Pawport. Among Diamond’s biggest keys to success, he says, is pride – not working for money or growth, but for the sense of accomplishment of a job well done. “If you do truly great work, people will notice. It shows in everything you touch and impact, and the money and success will flow from that. For pride’s sake, and so you can sleep well at night, don’t settle for anything less than your best.”

Just as important is valuing all of the people who help make it happen – it’s one of his biggest tips for entrepreneurs both new and established.

“Find and keep good people at all costs. One person who works hard and shares your desire for personal excellence is more valuable than 10 who don’t. You cannot replace talent, attitude and pride, and those qualities can’t be faked.”

At the end of the day, the most enriching part of his journey with Pawport has been the chance to reinvent the ordinary, to see things for what they could be rather than just what they are.

“Most people tend to follow a business model they’re familiar with, and many achieve great success doing that, but for me, the act of creating is the reward. It’s the process itself that really excites me.”

When not working, Diamond can most often be found spending time with his three adult kids or making music, a fascination since age 5 when he first encountered his older brother’s drum set. Over the years, he’s played hundreds of shows around the Valley; now he writes, produces and records music in his home studio with his son.

“It goes back to that creative process again,” he says. “Songwriting is the ultimate outlet for me, and I put the same level of detail and nuance into a song as I do with any work project. Like I said, it’s all about pride in one’s work.”