6 ms·

Lost My Doggie - Service Helps Find Lost Pets

18 points by srveit 17y ago

snewe 17y ago
What about the new law about robo-calling? Will they be affected by that?
- jcarpentier 17y ago
  AFAIK the new law applies mainly to robotic sales calls. Businesses like this shouldn't be affected, but I'm not a lawyer or that well versed in the law.
- nopassrecover 17y ago
  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.
Tichy 17y ago
I've been wondering, couldn't missing pets be tracked with dogs? Like they could find them via their smell?
- there 17y ago
  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.
srveit 17y ago
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.
wheels 17y ago
Looks like an amazing opportunity for spammers to hammer a specific neighborhood ... or for teens to crank call the whole neighborhood.
- javaru 17y ago
  Except it costs money, so that would be a big deterrent.
- nopassrecover 17y ago
  The cost would prohibit teenagers. How effective would: "Your neighbour "Buy lots of Acme products" has lost their dog." be?
  - wheels 17y ago
    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.
angusdavis 17y ago
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.
- nopassrecover 17y ago
  In principle you might be onto something but I think the pricing etc. and cost of running this service makes use it when you need it more appropriate. At $29/year you'd have to hope that only 1 in 5 (perhaps even less) owners actually used your service in a year. What about that lady down the road who's dog gets out each week?
  - sokoloff 17y ago
    Take a page from AAA: 4 incidents a year are free, after that you pay. I agree that "insurance" is the way to pitch this for maximum profit. People, including mostly rational people, will pay a [relative] lot to make themselves feel better about the chances of recovering their pet should it ever become lost.
- hughprime 17y ago
  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.
frou 17y ago
A custom mouse cursor on a website! Haven't seen that in a while.
YCW10 17y ago
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.

18 points by srveit 17y ago

snewe 17y ago

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

jcarpentier 17y ago
AFAIK the new law applies mainly to robotic sales calls. Businesses like this shouldn't be affected, but I'm not a lawyer or that well versed in the law.
nopassrecover 17y ago
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.

Tichy 17y ago

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

there 17y ago
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.

srveit 17y ago

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.

wheels 17y ago

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

javaru 17y ago
Except it costs money, so that would be a big deterrent.
nopassrecover 17y ago
The cost would prohibit teenagers. How effective would: "Your neighbour "Buy lots of Acme products" has lost their dog." be?
- wheels 17y ago
  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.

angusdavis 17y ago

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.

nopassrecover 17y ago
In principle you might be onto something but I think the pricing etc. and cost of running this service makes use it when you need it more appropriate. At $29/year you'd have to hope that only 1 in 5 (perhaps even less) owners actually used your service in a year. What about that lady down the road who's dog gets out each week?
- sokoloff 17y ago
  Take a page from AAA: 4 incidents a year are free, after that you pay. I agree that "insurance" is the way to pitch this for maximum profit. People, including mostly rational people, will pay a [relative] lot to make themselves feel better about the chances of recovering their pet should it ever become lost.
hughprime 17y ago
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.

frou 17y ago

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

YCW10 17y ago

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.