
An Airbnb for Dogs Gets $3.4 Million in Funding - jordhy
http://allthingsd.com/20120409/woof-rover-com-fetches-3-4-million-to-be-airbnb-for-dogs/?mod=tweet
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tptacek
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 out of
town.

~~~
slantyyz
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 overpay someone we trust than use a service just to save money.

~~~
djb_hackernews
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.

~~~
slantyyz
The people I'd trust with my pets probably represent a tiny subset of the
people on rover.com. And I am not interested in a trial and error process that
risks my dogs' well being to find out who is as good as they represent
themselves to be.

It's not like your dogs can talk and rat out the bad people on rover.com,
which makes it very hard to trust the reviews. Think about the review
criteria. It's based on a subjective "well, my dog seems ok" assessment from
an absentee dog owner who has no proof their dog was treated well or exercised
while they were away.

~~~
slantyyz
>>Fair enough. Could you provide some sort of criteria or anecdote describing
how you found your current dog sitter?

I'm spoiled and lucky. My breeders (who are also my friends) board our dogs
when we need them boarded. It just happens that my breeder is the director of
the breed organization for my region, and his wife is the director of the
rescue organization for the same breed in my region.

They are basically what all the books/guides tell you what to look for in a
good breeder. I'm not sure many people are fortunate to have that type of
resource available to them.

I myself would be uncomfortable boarding a stranger's dogs, and that's
counting the fact that both my wife and I have certifications in pet first
aid. Not all dogs are alike, and things like how well a dog is going to
integrate into a boarder's home with existing dog(s). Not all people are
equipped to handle manifestations of aggression or dominance from a boarding
dog towards other dogs and/or humans. Not all people are careful about what
food they leave lying around within reach of a dog. Not all people are careful
about how escape-proof their back yards are. Some of the people could use your
unaltered dog for unethical breeding while you're gone. Lots of stuff can go
wrong. You get the picture.

All I can say is that if you're really attached to your dog(s) like I am, then
you should be very discriminating about who you choose to care for your dog.
Finding a caregiver online is totally different from other types of services,
and should require careful consideration. It's nothing at all like selling a
good, meeting people or dating. You're leaving a live being in the hands of
someone based on some relatively anonymous and not necessarily informed
reviews.

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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.

~~~
enjo
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.

~~~
justincormack
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.

~~~
Retric
I am willing to be many Dog kenneling businesses started with a business plan
and a loan from a bank. When you get down to it 3.4 million is not that far
above what it would cost to open a mid sized dog kennel and operate it for a
while until you can build up a decent customer base in many parts of the
country.

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biot
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.

~~~
mechanical_fish
Do you come from a society where people don't use day care?

This sounds like a potentially great idea for a Facebook app, actually:
Install the app, and it searches your social network for local friends-of-
friends who have advertised baby-sitting services and have been hired at least
once by one of your friends. Then the app helps you to direct-message the
sitter, as well as some of the sitter's customers that it knows about.

Surely something like this already exists…?

~~~
biot
There's a huge difference between someone operating a daycare and "Airbnb for
Babies". What you propose could be fairly decent and avoids the "handing your
baby over to a stranger" problem, which is something that "Airbnb for Dogs"
would need to overcome as well.

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smokey_the_bear
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.

~~~
polyfractal
I'm inclined to agree. Growing up, we always had to find hotels that would
accommodate our dogs since my parents didn't feel right leaving them in
kennels, and trustworthy friends were not always available to come over and
take care of the dogs in our house.

I imagine this will be a pretty awesome service for those who need it.

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JVIDEL
Yes I have a dog, I know getting where to leave my pet during trips can be a
pain, BUT I also know how DANGEROUS it can be to leave it with ANYONE.

This is not a room that can get trashed, and my dog can't tell if the guy or
girl is an ass and just leave. My neighbor once left his dog with a woman he
thought he could trust, and when he came back from vacation his dog was
starved to death and covered in hundreds of ticks.

It had to be put down...

Airbnb horrors stories are too many to risk your dog becoming a cautionary
tale in some blog.

~~~
antihero
Exactly. Dogs are something that you should have a much deeper connection to
than an apartment, there's no way I'd let mine stay with some random person.

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jaredsohn
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.

~~~
aaronblohowiak
> 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."

~~~
melarobi
I agree this is a risk in the business model. However, given how annoying it
can be to coordinate schedules, an online scheduling feature could be useful
enough to bring them back to the site. (And if your preferred sitter isn't
available... you'd need the site for a new one.) I guess it depends on the
extra perks of the site vs the cost of use ie. the percentage of revenue Rover
keeps for themselves. I'd pay $2 just to avoid a chain of emails asking what
day/time works best for any calendar event.

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kurtvarner
Spotwag is in the same space. They're differentiated by leveraging your
Facebook friends and friends of friends in order to find care takers. Pets are
like children. Do you really want to trust them with anyone?

<http://spotwag.com/>

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justinsb
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?)

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briggsly
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).

~~~
buu700
_a box not much bigger than my CPU_

Somehow, I don't think any dog would survive in such a box...

~~~
Danieru
I'm sure you could do it. The trick would be finding the right frequncy to
push them in at so they don't get stuck. I think I read somewhere that the
resonating frequency of the average dog was ~2GB.

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philipkimmey
We're definitely excited about this and ready to shake up a giant market. And
we're looking for more solid developers.

If you love dogs and want to talk about software (We're all on a Django stack)
send us a quick introduction to tech-jobs@rover.com.

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jaredsohn
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>)

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

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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!

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jnt8686
This looks silly, but it is actually a really solid concept in my view. It may
even be better than the airbnb for humans.

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cgag
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.

~~~
philipkimmey
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.)

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tbod
Great concept - as a dog owner (and father of 2 young kids) always hard to
solve both sides of the equation (babysitter + dogsitter, often they are
mutually exclusive)... when will it come to the uk... or maybe I will just..

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Sujan
Non-native speaker here: It took me quite too long to figure out that the
boarding you are all talking about has nothing to with planes *doh

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rabidsnail
And spends all of it on their domain name.

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akoumjian
I've met a couple of the developers and they seem knowledgeable and excited.

~~~
parsnips
I can echo this enthusiastically.

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philipkimmey
Excited? Definitely. Not sure about knowledgeable. ;)

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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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georgemcbay
"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."

Unfortunately this is the first thing I thought when reading about this.

The story of the Airbnb-using lady whose apartment was trashed by a bunch of
meth-cooks is likely to look absolutely quaint when compared to the first
Rover.com horror story.

~~~
melarobi
I love this idea. Yet, if I were the founders, this is the issue that would
keep me up in the night, not just for what could happen to the pets, but for
what could happen if a dog bites a child. I don't think the site is for every
pet owner, but with a $4 billion US market in pet services and plenty of pet
owners who hate kennels, I think there is sufficient demand to make this a
success. It will be interesting to see how they offset the risks.

