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An Airbnb for Dogs Gets $3.4 Million in Funding

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Re: An Airbnb for Dogs Gets $3.4 Million in Funding

#11

Post by jaredsohn »

biot wrote: post #3

Next up: Baby.com. When you go on vacation and don't want to take your infant child, just check out a few profiles, pick one, and drop your baby off at the stranger's house. All members are community vetted to ensure quality care. Was your experience less than satisfactory? Simply "thumbs down" the user's profile and write a review to let other members know.

My first thought in seeing this post was to make a site for finding babysitters but a quick search at google shows that many such sites already exist (although maybe there is a way to do it better.)

Re: An Airbnb for Dogs Gets $3.4 Million in Funding

#16

Post by cjy »

jaredsohn wrote: post #8

Another company in the space is dogvacay ( http://dogvacay.com/ ) which recently got a million dollars in funding ( http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/3/prweb9299700.htm )

Pretty cool. Example: "2 inground pools, one for people and one for dogs" -$15 night

Re: An Airbnb for Dogs Gets $3.4 Million in Funding

#17

Post by DIVx0 »

Wow, this is awesome. We have two large dogs that we always have trouble finding affordable boarding for when we can't take them with us.

A quick search on this site turned up several options that look superior to the boarding we have been using and at half the price.

Solid business!

Re: An Airbnb for Dogs Gets $3.4 Million in Funding

#18

Post by ktizo »

smokey_the_bear wrote: post #2

I'm really excited about this. I've had a really hard time finding boarders for my dogs. The going rate seems to be around 60/night per dog here, but tends to include things like aromatherapy, which I'm not particularly interested in. I just want someone to feed, walk, and pet them.

Aromatherapy for dogs?

Does this involve extract of bin juice, with just a whiff of fox droppings and dead pigeon?

Re: An Airbnb for Dogs Gets $3.4 Million in Funding

#19

Post by Maro »

tptacek wrote: post #4

To preempt an impending flood of "bubble!" babble: It may surprise you how sensible this business idea is. As someone who has had to alter vacation plans due to (reluctant) dog ownership: dog boarding is very expensive, and commercial dog boarding facilities are not great, requiring careful reviewing and inspection before selecting; even then, your preferred venues are likely to book up exactly when you want to be ou…

Bubble was my first thought, but then I read the article and this actually sounds pretty sensible. In cases like this one must keep in mind that $3.4M for a company isn't that much, you can spend that easily on salaries and marketing.

Re: An Airbnb for Dogs Gets $3.4 Million in Funding

#20

Post by justincormack »

Despite all the people saying this is not a bubble, it is. Small businesses like this would not have got money a while back. This is not a technology business, it has no first mover advantage, it does not require large amounts of capital to make stuff, maybe it will take off as a product category, but without a bubble it would not get $3 million, or indeed want that amount, being the sort of business you would grow organically. The bubble is people throwing cash around, not a bubble in startups, which have always been created.
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