Being a pet owner myself, I have often had a hard time maintaining my pooch’s medical records. Unfortunately, many veterinarians are still on paper work and there is almost no standardization in format. Also, keeping a track of their vaccination due dates and vets appointment can also be an exhausting process.
Well, you no longer have to deal with messy medical records or the guilt of forgetting about that crucial vet appointment as Pawprint takes care of it all. This app is surely a blessing for all pet owners as it finally offers them that much needed platform to get the most up-to-date copy of the pet’s medical records. Also, get notified when it’s time to get your beloved ball of fur vaccinated and when it’s time to see your vet again.
Meet The Woman that Runs The Show!
Pawprint was ideated, conceptualized and founded by Emily Dong.
Emily started her career at a lucrative consulting firm. However, she was drawn to the interesting problems in education and healthcare that she saw many startups working on. This is what nudged her to leave her job and join an education startup as a product manager.
“As an owner of two dogs, I experienced the pain that Pawprint is solving and started building it with a friend. Since then, I’ve become a full-stack engineer and have been lucky to have half a dozen people volunteer their time for everything from engineering to marketing to get this company off the ground. I’m very excited to expand the team in the coming year”, adds Emily.
Know More About Pawprint!
This unique mobile app is here to digitalize pet medical records in order to increase the quality, convenience, and accuracy of pet care for owners and their beloved pooch. Pawprint is here to empower pet owners by giving them 24/7 access to their pets records. That’s not all; they can also use these records to streamline the process of booking appointments with vets, kennels, groomers and more.
There have been a handful of companies making breakthroughs in the pet space, namely DogVacay (AirBnB for dogs), Whistle (health tracker for dogs), Barkbox (monthly pet toys and treats) and VetPronto (on demand vet). Pawprint, along with these apps, is aiming to make pet care easier and more accessible. The aim is to be a data layer that serves consumers and businesses, allowing consumers to manage their interactions with any pet business and keep pet service providers safe by making sure the animals they work with are healthy.
What Problem is the App Solving?
Most of the times, pet owners are not in complete control of their pets’ care. Records are locked up in 9 to 5 veterinary practices and health reminders are still being sent by mail. The main problem is that software in the pet space has been predominantly geared towards businesses.
Thus the team with Pawprint wants to present pet owners with a platform that will give them full access to pet medical records and alerts them when it’s time to take their pet for a checkup, to properly time vaccine boosters, dental work and even grooming. By organizing pet records and putting them in the hands of owners, this app is on a quest to empower them to take proper care of their pets.
The Driving Force!
“I have two dogs, Bowser and Apple – we’ve moved 3 times in the past 4 years and changed providers for grooming, boarding and vet care even more often due to offices closing down or switching owners. Every business is required to check vaccination records and I found myself carrying a large folder with all of the documents and still being surprised by expired vaccines. When I talked to my friends, I found more of the same – it took people 1-2 months to find a provider book an appointment in a new city due to all the time it took to round up documents from old providers. Inspired by all the efforts in human electronic health records, I thought there must be a better way for people to stay up to date with pet care”, says Emily.
On Hurdles Faced
As an entrepreneur, Emily comes across many new hurdles every single day. However, she has had the privilege of having a team of brilliant and experienced mentors backing her up. Together, Emily is convinced that they will be able to further grow the team, raise money and move forward.
The other hurdle seems to be the fact that Pawprint’s mission of giving every pet owner access to their pooch’s record is incredibly ambitious. The team currently is facing the big challenge of dealing with messy records. Many veterinarians are still on paper records and there is almost no standardization in format. Emily and her team are hard at work trying to set the standard.
On Competitors, Expansion Plans & Target Audience
Fortunately there are virtually no direct competitors to Pawprint. There are companies out there that have this type of information. However, they are only serving as small business software for service providers.
“We want to help all pet owners obtain and store all their pet records in a safe, readable, accessible manner. Our growth strategy relies on owners sharing our app with their service providers and pet service businesses promoting our app to their clients. The app has already garnered the interest of a substantial user base and we are starting partnerships with a handful of pet services. Next, we’re aiming to build more partnerships and connect these services with our user base to help them grow while providing easy access to pet care for our users,” says Emily about her plan of expansion.
Presently, Pawprint is mainly target at audience that consists of pet owners and pet service businesses. While pet owners are primarily their users, the team is looking to build more partnerships with pet services (anyone from shelters to boarding facilities) to make pet record management and sharing easier and more secure than ever.
On Plans of Monetizing
At the moment, Emily’s focus is mainly on increasing her user base. Thus the team is mainly focusing on making Pawprint as useful and user friendly as possible.
“In the future, we plan on monetizing by helping pet service businesses grow their clientele by streamlining the discovery and appointment booking process. A huge part of the process now is checking vaccinations to make sure the pet is healthy and we are going to eliminate this pain point”, adds Emily.
Pawprint is free to download. Check them out in the App Store (bit.ly/pawprint-ios) and Google Play (bit.ly/pawprint-android).
Also, to know more about this awesome app, do make it a point to visit: http://www.getpawprint.com/
