Our last interview featured ridesharing startup Tripda’s founder Eduardo Prota. This one features Aaron Easterly, founder and CEO of pet sitting startup, Rover.com which is making pet ownership easier and more practical for people.
Would a fancy bottle of wine be enough or should I take them out to dinner at a fancy restaurant? Dog owners are constantly in this dilemma of figuring out how to thank their friends or family for taking care of their dog when they’re on that three day work trip or week long vacation. Finding a home for your pet while you travel is nothing less than an ordeal. Aaron, a former academic, realised that he wasn’t part of the minority that would be forced to ask favours from friends and family when travelling. At the same time, he noticed that there was a wealth of dog lovers out there who would be happy to take care of another dog for a short period of time, and even happier if they were paid for it.
The Birth of Rover
So he built Rover, a marketplace that connected dog owners to dog sitters. Using Rover, dog owners who are going away can find dog sitters in the area who think they think would be suitable for their dog. They can drop off their dog at the dog sitters before leaving and pay the dog sitter for taking care of their dog. For dog lovers who are seeking extra income and more dogs to love in their life, becoming a dog sitter on Rover is an attractive option.
Unique Challenges of Building a Pet Sitting Marketplace
Building Rover was different from building just any other marketplace.
Firstly, it was pushing for a behavioural change in their customers. People would usually leave their dogs with friends or family and then try to return the favour by taking them out for dinner or getting them bottles of wine. Rover called for a behavioural change where customers would start paying for dog sitters. This was different from marketplaces like Uber and Airbnb which offered services people were already used to paying for, like taxis and accommodation.
Secondly, building trust was crucial for Rover since pet owners won’t leave their dogs with just anyone. Aaron and his team took a variety of measures to deal with this problem. They put forth strong admission requirements for dog sitters where a questionnaire would filter out the good dog sitters from the bad ones. Everybody had to submit references and only 20-30% applications were approved. They set up customer service early on which included 24/7 vet consultation services for dog sitters in case anything went wrong. Another unique challenge for the Rover team was finding critical mass within a specific geographical area since proximity between the paired dog owner and sitter was important for their users.
On the bright side, matching demand and supply wasn’t as big a problem for Rover as it is for most marketplaces. Dog sitters on Rover weren’t as reliant on Rover for their income as an Uber driver would be on Uber, so a listed dog sitter on Rover not getting any requests wasn’t as bad.
Milestones
Over the past 4 years, Rover has made 40,000 connections between pet owners and pet sitters across 10,000 US cities. Aaron considers the change of fundamental behaviour one of Rover’s biggest achievements. “70% of our customers are those who would formerly leave their pets with friends or family. Now, they are willing to pay for dog sitting.” Another big achievement is Rover’s high retention rate. Rover customers are becoming increasingly loyal with the majority of bookings coming from repeat users each month.
Benchmarks
While Aaron strongly believes in keeping Rover’s culture and growth unique from that of other marketplaces, he admires Yelp for the way they have created a community of trusted reviewers. He also applauds Airbnb for community building and Uber for being able to standardise offerings while still being a p2p marketplace.
Road Ahead
Going forward, Aaron expects to see Rover becoming profitable by the end of the year. Moreover, Rover will soon start expanding their services to pets other than dogs. International expansion to other developed as well as developing nations is also around the corner.
Aaron’s larger vision is it to make it possible and practical for everyone who’d be a great dog owner to own a dog. Often, logistics of life, such as travelling and long working hours keeps people from getting pets. Rover wants to make pet parenting more practical. According to Aaron, owning a dog increases people’s happiness levels way more than most other things! He’s determined to increase pet parenting with Rover.
We agree with Aaron and hope to see Rover make people’s lives happier in the coming years!
eRated loves dogs too! CEO Boaz Cohen with Fistook.
eRated helps peer to peer marketplaces increase transactions between buyers and sellers using a widget that enhances sellers’ profiles. To partner with us and allow your sellers to install our free widget, reach out to me at [email protected].
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