
Show HN: Wagstarter – just launched after 6 wks dev, feedback needed - hornbaker
https://wagstarter.org
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hornbaker
My cofounder and I were vet school classmates. Wagstarter is a labor of love
that I've always wanted to build, so in August I finally got busy on it.

I would appreciate any and all feedback, no matter how harsh, especially on
design, copy, and overall feeling you get from the site.

It's really hard getting initial traction on something like this, so if you
like Wagstarter, I would appreciate you sharing it with your friends.

~~~
smt88
I think that donations could be much better spent buying insurance for low-
income pet owners than for covering the costs of treatment.

For $40, I could cover a single exam fee for a single pet, or I could cover
one month of premiums for the Healthy Paws plan with the lowest deductible.
That's how I pay for my own pet's care, and my net savings are in the range of
several thousand dollars.

With insurance, you're also able to save pets with time-sensitive (or even
emergency) problems.

If that were combined with proper preventative care (similar to the Banfield
plans, where people essentially pre-pay for checksup/vaccines/etc.), then
you'd have comprehensive coverage for a pet at around $80/month.

Going one step further, if you raised enough money, you could pay for these
things using the interest without touching the principal. Each ~$15k raised
would cover one additional pet (assuming, let's say, high-dividend index
funds).

I understand that your business model is to inspire people to donate by seeing
sick pets, but I'm not sure many people go out looking for that kind of thing.

~~~
hornbaker
Thank you for your feedback, I really appreciate you taking the time.

Pet insurance is certainly an option for low-income pet owners, but for
whatever reason it hasn't taken hold in the US, where less than 1% of pets are
covered. Vets have a somewhat negative impression of it, as it tends to be
overly restrictive and, of course, doesn't cover pre-existing conditions.

Crowdfunding healthcare for pets is a fairly popular thing on GoFundMe (50M
monthly users, only slightly lower traffic than Kickstarter), Indiegogo, and
YouCaring. We think it's a unique and active enough niche to deserve its own,
dedicated site, where the funds go directly to vets so as to better avoid
scammers who just "claim" their pet is sick.

As with any crowdfunding model, most of our marketing is done by the pet
owners (to their friends and family) and the vets providing the care (to their
other clientele), so we're not dependent on inspiring strangers to donate.

~~~
smt88
> _tends to be overly restrictive and, of course, doesn 't cover pre-existing
> conditions_

Shitty companies like VPI have those problems. I have Healthy Paws, and it's
excellent. They cover everything without argument. They seem to have no
problem paying out on the things their policy is supposed to cover. I've heard
similar things about Trupanion. My friend is a vet and raves about both
companies.

Charity is great, and I'm sure it could impact thousands of pets a year, but I
have a hard time believing it's going to fix pet care in a meaningful way.

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detaro
I don't know anything about the space, so I won't comment on the concept, but
on a very superficial level: too much text, not enough images above the fold!
I can't exactly pinpoint what i don't like about the texts, but they somehow
seem a bit complicated to me.

~~~
reitanqild
As an HN reader I'm obviously not representative for the majority of the
population but I liked it the way it was: text, short and to the point (I
looked at the mobile edition.)

~~~
hornbaker
Thank you as well.

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vardelda
A structure that targets 100% payout directly to Vets/pets in need seems a lot
more efficient than other options. I expect there's lots of animal lovers out
there who appreciate an opportunity to 'share the love'. I like it.

