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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

#31

Post by enjo »

justincormack wrote: post #20

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 o…

I disagree with almost all of that.

It's not a technology business? Is airbnb? You need a way to connect folks who are willing to board dogs with those who need boarding. How do you do that without technology? The bulletin board at your supermarket isn't going to make it happen.

It may not be particularly novel technology, but that sure as hell doesn't matter.

first mover advantage: I personally have no idea if any other options exist for this. I have no idea if they are a first mover in crowd-source kenneling options. It certainly doesn't matter. We've beat this topic to death in the startup community, first mover advantage is rarely an advantage in the first place.

without a bubble it would not get $3 million: Says who? Since I see no real signs of a bubble (in the traditional sense), I certainly don't agree. It's a relatively small amount of money for a business that is taking on a big market opportunity.

A bubble is not the presence of investment in the first place. It's not even the presence of a lot of investment. Bubbles form when investments (on a large scale) are shoved into increasingly irrational businesses or investment vehicles in order to cash-in on the perceived momentum of a space. When you're investing just because "startups are the place to be right now" then you're looking at a bubble.

Here we're talking about a company with a solid (proven) idea, in a big space, taking on a modest amount of money. I don't see the problem.

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

#32

Post by djb_hackernews »

earl wrote: post #10
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…

Our corgi broke his spine 18 months ago [1] (enormous incision [2]), and was fully paralyzed from the midsection down. We had an operation performed and he's now kind of ok, but permanently restricted from going up or down stairs or any kind of high impact activities. He, of course, is not willingly restricted. Boarding for special needs dogs starts at $120/night and often costs $150+/night, and is very hard to find.…

So maybe there is an opportunity for folks like you. You bring your dog with you, and We pick up your dog at your hotel in the morning, care for it while you are sight seeing, and drop it back off in the evening.

Contract out with hotels that allow pets, mostly dealing with small breed dogs, no overnight hassle.

I bet you could use the service from the OP for such a thing, maybe.

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

#33

Post by aaronblohowiak »

jaredsohn wrote: post #30

One thing that differentiates this from AirBnB (besides being for dogs) is that they are booking locally. This means that once owners find a place that they like, they are likely to try to book the same place multiple times, assuming availability. Also, it makes it more likely that people might try to make future transactions directly without using the site, unless booking through them provides value beyond discovery…

> it makes it more likely that people might try to make future transactions directly without using the site

If they make life better for the host, this shouldn't be a problem -- "oh hey sally, glad to hear you and spot are doing well, we'd love to have him stay with us. just go online and you can find all our availability and we'll see your reservation right away. call us back if you have any problems."

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

#34

Post by djb_hackernews »

slantyyz wrote: post #28
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…

Dog boarding is indeed expensive, but I can't imagine using such a service for my dogs. It's one thing to get an apartment trashed with a service like AirBnB - that stuff is usually replaceable, but the last thing I need is for one of my dogs to get sick/injured/lost/worse from some stranger I found on a dog sitting site. My wife and I are crazy dog owners who treat our dogs like family, but I think we'd rather overp…

This is like the argument of "I'd never meet people from the internet in real life". Guess what? Those are real people.

The people you trust with your pets are the same people on rover.com.

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

#35

Post by philipkimmey »

cgag wrote: post #14

I remember seeing that there was a project pitched as airbnb for dogs at startup weekend st louis last year, and I thought it was an amazing idea. I guess this isn't those guys, but It's still cool to see the idea taking off.

Nope - it's not that, though we did come out of a Startup Weekend! (It was the June 2011 one hosted at Amazon's new buildings in South Lake Union.)

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

#37

Post by sbov »

briggsly wrote: post #25
justinsb wrote: post #9

This is brilliant; both sides of the market exist and are eager to find the other one. Rover's biggest problem could be that people will happily watch dogs for free / even pay to do so. This is an unusual problem for a market maker (are there any other examples?)

Que? I would love to find some sweet old lady to watch my dogs for free rather than pay $25-50/night to board my dog in a box not much bigger than my CPU. I would pay a nice commission to the site to connect me with such a benevolent, non-crazy old lady such as this (if it does in fact exist).

Probably depends upon your network of friends.

I never would have thought it a problem because in my circle of friends there are multiple dog owners, and when one wants to go out of town the other just takes in their dog for the time.

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

#38

Post by justincormack »

enjo wrote: post #31
justincormack wrote: post #20

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 o…

I disagree with almost all of that. It's not a technology business? Is airbnb? You need a way to connect folks who are willing to board dogs with those who need boarding. How do you do that without technology? The bulletin board at your supermarket isn't going to make it happen. It may not be particularly novel technology, but that sure as hell doesn't matter. first mover advantage: I personally have no idea if any o…

Airbnb is not a technology business. The internet is simply one of the major marketing and communications channels we have now, that does not mean that all businessess that use it are tech companies.

Dog kenneling businesses did not get millions of pounds in equity investment based on very small revenues and the idea in the past. They self funded and grew. This is a less capital intensive way of providing the same service, so it has even less need for external capital. But it is taking it because the bubble means that its valuation is vastly inflated, because there is so much money chasing startups.

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

#39

Post by rprasad »

I can totally see them getting their a$$e$ sued off for skirting kennel licensing laws. There's a reason that kennels are expensive: they have to take steps to make sure their pet hotels are safe for pets, and more importantly, that they have taken appropriate measures to prevent the transmission of diseases.

Describing this as AirBnB for dogs is very accurate, as it has many of the same problems. It's only a matter of time before someone's dog dies and the first thing the mainstream public hears about this site is a horror story.

This site has some merit, but not $3.4 million worth. Maybe in SV people might be willing to leave their dog with unlicensed strangers. In the rest of America, people will leave their dogs with family, friends, people recommended by their family or friends, or a kennel (in that order).

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