(from left to right) Ana Afonso, Priscila Rusa and Margarida Constantino.
“Dogs are men’s best friends” – so the saying goes. However, for a lot of people not just dogs, but pets in general, become lifelong companions, friends – family members even. In societies in which people get married much later, career aspirations are high and fewer babies are being born, pets often occupy a special role in someone’s heart. Nevertheless, oftentimes the necessary attention that could be spend with these special family members has to be sacrificed for work or is lost in the realms of infoxication when surfing the web along quasi infinite varieties of products and places that only fit until the first “click.”
So what to do about that? What do people need to make their pets’ lives better when time is scarce and information becomes a commodity that cannot offer customized answers?
Maybe this is exactly what Margarida Constantino thought when she had the idea which she will present with two other team members during the Semi Finals of this year’s Venture Lab in a couple of days. Always having had a vain for entrepreneurship, Margarida used her Entrepreneur-Management Class during her IMBA program to craft a business model that would give birth to a company idea that will be competing for the IE Venture Lab crown.
“PetmyPet” is an online social platform that hosts a closed community of pet lovers who see their pets as part of their families and are looking for ways to improve their pets’ lives efficiently. The target segment consists of people that live in big cities, that are internet users and that lack time based on frenetic lifestyles and on the infoxication phenomenon of today’s internet community. PetmyPet sets out to help by offering a free service to manage one’s pet’s life efficiently through customized information alongside publicizing products and services from other providers that are made to help YOUR pet(s).
After having registered and created a pet profile, community members will also be able to share their accounts with other members. This way valuable information can be exchanged in terms of best practices and experiences as well as evaluations and opinions about products, doctors, food and other aspects. The goal: to provide sources of information that benefit one’s pet 100% while saving the owner’s time.
The objective is to launch the platform internationally as contacts have already been established in countries such as Portugal, Spain, Netherlands, Brazil and Argentina. This is partly due to the great team behind the idea. Besides Margarida, Priscila Rusa – an expert in sales with knowledge of the pet consumer product industry – and Ana Afonso – a veterinarian with additional experience in the pharmaceutical industry – are the brains behind PetmyPet.
A prototype is under development, but an already existing micro-site offers a video that explains what PetmyPet has to offer in greater detail.
Furthermore, to help Margarida and her fellow IE students with this great idea, check out their facebook page and “like” it – the more likes PetmyPet collects before the Semi Finals, the better the chances to convince the judges about the potential of this great idea in the market place.
So, why are you still reading – pet your pet!
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