

Lost My Doggie - Service Helps Find Lost Pets - srveit
http://www.lostmydoggie.com/

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srveit
I got a call from this service on behalf of one of my neighbors who lost his
dog. I went to look at the service and though that this was a great idea. It
appears to be a fully automated service that combines a request form, a GEO
database, a telephone number database, and an automatic calling service. I
think this is a great example of startup that a one or two person team could
build by combining several existing web services to satisfy an existing need.

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YCW10
This service seems in line with Magic Jack and WebKinz. Software designed for
lower tech experiences people who value utility, but not a pure pixel based
experience.

This class of startup is really interesting. From what I've read MagicJack
could do $100MM in revenue and WebKinz is a cash factory throwing off $750MM
per year. Both utilize software, but it isn't the lead aspect of the service.

These companies really fly under the radar relative to the other hot startups
of the day. ReadWriteWeb covers them to some degree, but it is an area that
deserves a LOT more coverage.

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angusdavis
This is a great example of a business where the revenue opportunity when sold
as an insurance policy may be much higher than when sold as a per-
incident/per-claim service.

Reposition as lost pet insurance, with differing rates based on type of pet,
age of pet, whether or not pet has a homeagain RFID implant, etc. Perhaps also
offer a standard response or a premium response, where the standard includes
robocalls, craigslist posting, notification to local pet shelters/SPCA/dog
catcher; premium level includes posting 'lost dog' flyers in local area using
craigslist-recruited 'street teams.'

Sell it through vets, a PetCo partnership, dogster.com, etc. $29/year or
something affordable like that. Get a special tag and everything "this pet
protected by Pet Guardian" or whatever. See also AAA, TowBoat/US, Lifelock for
insurance programs that target unlikely bad things like broken down car,
grounded boat, or stolen identity.

"Do you care enough about your doggie to protect him with Pet Guardian?"

Market size is big: 60% of American households own pets. If just 0.50% of
these pet-owning households bought lost pet insurance @ $29/year, that's an
$8mm/yr business. If you got 3% of the market, it's $50 mm/yr.

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hughprime
I don't think many people want to buy insurance whose maximum possible payout
comes down to a couple of hundred bucks. People generally only insure against
risks which they can't afford.

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patio11
Except for health insurance, where people insure against the risk that they're
going to go to the doctor for a routine annual checkup this year. (Other
people have said it better than me: its like submitting a claim against your
car insurance to pay for an oil change.)

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frou
A custom mouse cursor on a website! Haven't seen that in a while.

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snewe
What about the new law about robo-calling? Will they be affected by that?

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nopassrecover
Well something perhaps relevant from the FAQ:

LostMyDoggie.com, LLC is classified and registered as an exempt organization
by the DNC, thus we can phone your neighbors who are on the Do Not Call List.

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wheels
Looks like an amazing opportunity for spammers to hammer a specific
neighborhood ... or for teens to crank call the whole neighborhood.

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nopassrecover
The cost would prohibit teenagers.

How effective would: "Your neighbour "Buy lots of Acme products" has lost
their dog." be?

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wheels
Once I had a job in high school I can say that a fair bit of my friends'
collective budget was directed into the prank fund. $125 to spread
unscrupulous rumors regarding our school principal to 750 homes would not have
deterred us.

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Tichy
I've been wondering, couldn't missing pets be tracked with dogs? Like they
could find them via their smell?

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there
search and rescue dogs (and bomb/drug sniffing dogs) have to have a lot of
training, and i'm sure they are quite pricey to hire out.

also, since a lost pet is probably roaming around quite a bit vs. a missing
person that is lying in a ditch, they are probably quite hard for another dog
to track reliably.

