
Ask HN: Pet lovers review my startup - cjwake
Spotwag launched publicly two weeks ago with v1. It is still very much a minimum viable product - functional, but with lots still on our plate. It is bootstrapped by my cofounder and I with the current design based on Twitter bootstrap, and Kim (my cofounder) handling development.<p>Coordinate help for your pet from people you already trust, quickly and easily with Spotwag. And never again feel pressure to leave your pet with a stranger. Spotwag makes asking for help, or offering it easy for everyone.<p>Spotwag was built using Facebook Connect, because we wanted to start with each pet owner's core group of trusted friends, and Facebook seemed a natural place to start. We collect very limited data from users, but use Facebook to make inviting friends easiest. We've already started to receive feedback on integrating signup via email, and it is something we plan to integrate in the near future.<p>We envision this being a single online source to manage your pet's needs, whether with friends or professionals. We started with this problem of finding help for your pet while you are away, because it's common to every pet owner, and the needs are real. It began as an "Airbnb for dogs," but after talking to a LOT of pet owners, we settled on this as a starting point. We learned that pet owners prefer to entrust their pets to friends, family and those they already know and trust, rather than strangers, whenever possible.<p>And we heard over and over from non-pet-owners that they really want to watch other's pets - many cannot have a pet of their own for whatever reason, and this gives them a chance to enjoy pet ownership without the same commitment. We exist to make those connections happen, and to remove the 'awkwardness' in asking for help, because as dog owners we know that it is NEVER easy or enjoyable to ask your friends for help with your pet.<p>We've already had several people make successful requests on Spotwag in preparation for SXSW next week. http://spotwag.com
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tonywebster
I would totally use this, and I think it's an excellent product name. The most
painful thing for me and my dog has been finding reputable dog boarding, doggy
daycare, vets, etc.

I just moved across the country, so there's not many people I know locally who
would help out — so I think it would be a really good idea to partner with
companies and individuals offering services like walking, sitting, boarding,
etc. Yelp sucks. It would probably be the only realistic revenue stream too.

In terms of social connections, I'm not clear as to how the entire process
would work on first glance.

Awesome job for an MVP.

~~~
cjwake
Thanks so much for the note, Tony!

We built this first version to make it easier for pet owners to go directly to
their existing friends/ connections for help (boarding, for instance) when
they are away. Like you said, pet owners find it difficult to locate
trustworthy sources for this sort of thing, and many we talked with would
prefer to go direct to friends, family, etc., but asking for help in those
cases sucks. Non-pet-owners we talked with said they really want to help/
hangout with cool pets, but they simply don't get asked. We want to fix that
issue first, so we make those connections easier to make by having
coordination in one place, and helping to remove the "awkward" in asking for
help. We want asking for help from friends to be as easy or easier than
picking up the phone to call a kennel.

I mentioned in another comment here, but we're definitely thinking about ways
we can grow each user's graph beyond direct friends, including some elements
similar to LinkedIn (e.g. your direct friends giving an endorsement to their
friends, so when you see a friend of friend come up as an option for help, you
see 5 other direct friends have vouched for that person and their love/
ability to watch dogs). We envision something similar for professionals as
well.

We're really excited about the possibilities here! Don't hesitate to drop a
note with any other feedback or comments as you dive in.

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LukeRB
My girlfriend and I are absolutely love dogs, but don't own one (yet). We love
to dog-sit for friends and would even consider doing it for strangers. With
that, I have two ideas that may improve overall engagement and successful
matches:

1) Allow non-owners to create more robust profiles. I'd imagine if some of our
friends saw that we really like dog-sitting, they'd consider asking us and/or
reaching out to us if they were looking for a sitter. As it currently stands,
all I can do is provide name, email and phone number.

2) Allow owners to post to friends of friends or perhaps consider making it
the default if people seem open to it -- I would imagine that owners would be
okay with others dog-sitting if they had a mutual friend who they trusted.
Because people have an average of 200 friends, that means that potential
sitters go from 200 to 40,000. Also, consider allowing the non-owners to reach
out to friends of friends who need a sitter.

Great idea and nice MVP. I hope those ideas helped and I hope you all succeed!

Best, Luke -- LukeRB.com

~~~
cjwake
It's like you've been reading our emails... Completely agree with both of your
points here! We're already talking about ways to allow non-owners to create a
more robust profile, and are thinking about how to grow each user's graph
beyond direct friends, including some elements similar to LinkedIn (e.g. your
direct friends giving an endorsement to their friends, so when you see a
friend of friend come up as an option, you see 5 other direct friends have
vouched for that person and their love/ ability to watch dogs).

Thanks so much for the input, and would love to hear more as you continue
diving into the current release! =)

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7klBo4t8
It would be great if your homepage and fb app page included more detail on the
UI. A think a walk through of a typical scenario including screenshots would
be awesome.

And a genuine question here but I don't understand what this problem solves if
it's connecting me to people I would already ask (and for which the barriers
to ask are pretty low). If they are a facebook friend wouldn't it make sense
for me to just post asking for help from my friends? All that said I have a
large breed dog that I would love to have help with (more in the long term
boarding dept. though).

~~~
kimsterv_again
Thanks so much for the note! We are working on a redesign to the homepage/
site that will do better both in highlighting the site benefits/ features
before you decide to login, and then in onboarding new users. We've also
crafted some scenario stories for the How it Works page that we'll add soon.

On your question - the problem is a bit different for different people, but
basically we found through talking to pet owners that while they prefer asking
friends/ family for help, they don't usually. Asking for help is awkward,
intimidating, and coordination with said friends/ family is often difficult.
On the other hand, we found the non-pet-owners actually want to help more -
they want to be asked for help, so we try to make that whole affair less
'awkward,' and simplify the coordination bit. We believe asking for help
should be as easy as picking up the phone to call a kennel.

We want you to be covered for all situations, but for now, we started with
your direct friends because you already trust them, and if we can make going
to them as easy as going to a professional, we feel it's a win-win for all.

------
revorad
We have two cats for whom we currently hire a local professional caretaker
when we go away. We used to ask friends, but we didn't want to keep asking
them again and again. A couple of them like doing it, but we still felt like
we shouldn't take them for granted.

Assuming we want to ask friends for help, my first reaction on seeing this was
that it's useful, but on second thoughts, I'm not so sure.

You probably get this question a lot, but if you're just using Facebook, why
can't I post the message myself on Facebook instead of going via you? Or as we
used to do, just call or email them?

If the value you are adding is management of the arrangement info, then I'm
not sure how useful that is. Facebook messaging or email is good enough for
doing that and fits in with everyone's usual mode of communication.

I know this is an MVP and I'm sure you will add more useful features, but you
really need to start with the most useful feature, otherwise it will be hard
to get people onboard.

Helping people find good professional caretakers would probably be much more
useful and will give you a direct way to make money via referrals.

If you are really seeing a lot of interest on the part of non-pet-owners to
take care of pets, then this could indeed be an AirBNB-type opportunity -
empowering non-professionals to become sellers on a new marketplace. Then,
trust would be an issue and there may be other legal hurdles, but those are
signals for opportunity.

Edit: One way to establish trust is to enlist people who live in my
neighbourhood. The person we currently hire lives on our street, which has
increased my trust for them a huge amount. When I can literally walk past
their door every time I go out, I feel more comfortable hiring them. You could
use online local forums to gauge interest and get people to sign up.

~~~
kimsterv_again
Thanks for the feedback. A few things:

"We used to ask friends, but we didn't want to keep asking them again and
again. A couple of them like doing it, but we still felt like we shouldn't
take them for granted." This is exactly the first problem we aimed to solve.
Spotwag is a way for your friends to opt-in to help and removes that
awkwardness for you feeling like you're taking them for granted. If they're
not up for helping, they can simply ignore your request. I mentioned in
another comment you'll often be surprised by friends that do want to help toom
friends that you wouldn't expect.

You're right about MVP. We have a lot of ideas for making Spotwag more
awesome. We want to make it easier to schedule help on Spotwag than it is to
call/email/text a bunch of people.

One of our short term priorities is to bring professionals on board and 2nd
degree connections. After speaking of hundreds of pet owners, we feel strongly
that finding someone you trust is key and a straight airbnb model wasn't going
to work.

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yapsie
I'm one of the founders of Yapsie (sorta like pet Yelp) and think this is a
neat project and it looks really well executed! We considered this problem as
well, but decided to go in a slightly different direction. How do you plan to
monetize and keep people on the site and using the product? Hope you guys do
well!

~~~
cjwake
Nice! Thanks so much for the note! Would love to talk some time, maybe we
could connect offline? Can reach me directly at chris (at) spotwag (dot) com.

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benrequena
Looks good and is a useful app I could see myself using. I created an account
and attempted to add a pet (dog). I ran into my first hiccup when the form
asked if my dog was small/medium/large, I assume my lab is a large breed, but
adding weights as a guide text could have helped me come to a quicker
decision.

Second roadblock came when I clicked the save button. I was given an error at
the top of the page, but the page didn't scroll up so I didn't know the
submission failed. Also the error message was generic and didn't give me an
reason why there was an error. I assumed I didn't fill in a required field but
opted to close the tab and write this comment instead of guessing.

~~~
kimsterv_again
Awesome and thanks! Right now only name and photo are required. Good feedback
on the form though. I'll add it to my list.

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girlvinyl
I think this is a great idea. I subscribe to r/dogs on reddit and you cannot
imagine the amount of people who ask "should I get a dog?". The answer is
generally "yes," but I advise them to make friends so they'll have a list of
people to call on if they get stuck at work, etc. You're so right, there ARE a
lot of people who can't have pets but would love to care for a dog for a
weekend or take one out during the week for a quick walk. Many people enjoy
dogs so much that they wouldn't mind doing this for free.

~~~
cjwake
Thanks for the note, you're absolutely right! I actually used Spotwag last
week and ended up connecting with a friend that recently lost their dog of
20-years. They aren't ready for a new dog just yet, but having my dog
(Jackson) around for a few days certainly helped them, and got them one step
closer to bringing another dog into their family.

I know another woman that actually volunteers at the Humane Society once per
month for 8-hours just to be around dogs, because she would love to have one
of her own, but cannot given her work schedule as a consultant.

------
drzaiusapelord
I think you should remove that photo of a puppy playing with a can. You might
get some pet owners angry at that as it could potentially hurt the animal.
Chew instincts + metal = bad things.

~~~
leeskye
I'm not sure if I agree 100% with that but I would definitely invest in higher
quality pictures. Also include pictures of owners, preferably smiling, with
their pets. If you have loyal users, maybe you can get some of them to submit
pictures with their furry loved ones.

~~~
kimsterv_again
We are in the process of completely redesigning the site and it will look a
lot different soon, so we haven't spent time trying to improve the current
design. These pics will be going away. Beer and cans are bad for dogs, we
don't encourage this. I did get some flack that it's a can of Yuengling and
not PBR, the preferred beer of choice for hipsters in San Francisco.

~~~
tjr
If you ever need new pictures, offer my photos of the most adorable border
collie on the planet :-)

<http://www.flickr.com/photos/trothwell/tags/samantha/>

~~~
cjwake
Very cute pics! We definitely want to feature more user's pets on the
homepage. =)

------
kimsterv_again
Link: <http://spotwag.com>

We're currently working on redesigning the entire site with real designers,
but would love feedback on the idea, functionality etc.

------
kimsterv_again
This is why you should ask your friends for help with your dog:
<http://vimeo.com/37123607> (podman in irc, thanks for the link)

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leebossio
Love it! My fiancé signed up this morning and spread the word on FB. I've been
thinking about this for awhile now, but in a marketplace form.

Have you decided how to monotize it? One thought I've had would be the Airbnb
model, but given that it's way more niche than finding a place to stay for
vacation, I think this would have to be tested with an audience who is in dire
need of this. Maybe find a way to target the "babysitter" audience?

Looking forward to seeing how this progresses nonetheless! Best of luck.

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caixa
I'd absolutely use this product.

As much as I'm sure it improves the listings, I'd recommend not making the
photo required. First of all, other non-required info (such as pet type) seems
more important, and second of all it requires digging through my photos. I'd
be likely to add a photo when I'm looking for someone to catsit, but it was a
deterrent for me to add the cat in the first place.

~~~
kimsterv_again
Good feedback. We've heard this before as well. I'm just stubborn and like
looking at the photos. When we roll out the redesign, we'll add a silhouette
and not make it required.

~~~
jesseendahl
I do think you should have email reminders that nudge people who haven't yet
added a photo to do so. Maybe once every 2 or 3 weeks or something.

~~~
cjwake
Definitely, we're thinking about small nudges to help people through the
process, both in completing the profile and in setting your first request or
remembering us the next time you do need help.

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luksus
Great idea, keeping your pet with someone you trust is essential. Requiring a
picture of the pet is good, great visuals always entice people. You could use
'featured pets' (using pics from users) in your home page, people love to
promote how 'unique' their pet is. Let me know if you want some hi-res
pictures of cats for your site.

~~~
cjwake
Totally agree! We're working on a redesign now that will feature some user
pets in the mix on a rotating basis. =)

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sjsjsj
Brilliant! I've been a beta tester for a while, and my first "broadcast"
request on Facebook got me several leads! People really DO want to help out,
and putting out a general request is such an easy way to get people almost
asking YOU if they can care for your pet! Go Spotwag. Can't wait to see where
this'll go!

~~~
cjwake
Excited too! And thanks so much for helping us work out the bugs and start to
improve the experience! ;)

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japanesejay
Hey there!

I was at a little sandwich shop called Ike's Place in San Francisco today and
saw your business card!!

<http://www.flickr.com/photos/bitsprout/6819992324/>

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TomGullen
Looks like a good idea although I'm not your market. I don't think your
monetising it as far as I can see at the moment, do you have plans for this in
the future?

~~~
cjwake
Thanks for the note! No monetization right now - we wanted to make connections
easy for people first, but we envision processing transactions. It can be
weird passing money between friends, so we've thought about gifting, as well
as credit card payments to remove the cash barrier for people. Eventually
you'll be able to connect with friends of friends and professionals too, in
which case we would handle the transaction between the pet owner and their
choice caregiver.

~~~
caixa
I always find it awkward to ask for money when I petsit, and my friends who
petsit for me often feel the same way.

I do like to give something back, and usually end up buying a bottle of wine
or a gift card in return. There could be some interesting opportunities for
selling gifts (pet-related or not) in addition to processing cash payments.

~~~
cjwake
Haha, yes! We've actually seen some trades for beer, wine or even dinner. So
definitely some fun opportunities to integrate gifts. We've also talked to
BarkBox about the potential for something pet related in the future, and are
looking at some similar pet and non-pet-related gifts. :)

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bbaker
I think it's great. Obviously it'll iterate as you work with more users, but
it's already quite clean, and and serves a real but until now hidden need.

~~~
cjwake
Absolutely correct, room for iteration, and lots of opportunity yet to be
unearthed. :)

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thealoof
I don't have much to add and am not a pet owner, but just want to say that I
think it's a great idea and that the design is nice and clean. Great job.

~~~
cjwake
Thanks so much, appreciate the words of encouragement! Though you're not a pet
owner, I'd encourage checking it out further if you want to checkout or hang
with a pet at any point - I have a few friends that started pimping themselves
on Facebook, asking all pet owner friends to signup so they could watch their
pets. One is already angling to spend time with a few puppies. :)

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mperozzo
Brilliant! I'm currently petless, but have hoped for a service like this in
the past with my Shetland Collies!

~~~
cjwake
Nice! Thanks so much for the note - definitely encourage you to hit up your
pet owning friends, as it is awkward/ difficult for them to ask for help, but
I'm sure they'd love to know you're willing and able if that's the case.
Signup and pimp yourself to friends. ;)

