Does anyone else find this very hard to believe? I tried to track down the source [0, 1, 2] but I'm unsure how reliable "American Pet Products Association". It's describes itself as "The leading not-for-profit trade association serving the interests of pet product manufacturers and importers"
[0] https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2018/9/12/17831948/rover-wag-d...
[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2016/09/13/m...
[2] https://americanpetproducts.org/Uploads/MemServices/GPE2017_...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2016/09/13/m...
I assume vaccinations could make a reliable sanity check for pet ownership, but I am having trouble getting annual numbers.
They can't keep the good housecleaners because they quickly arrange better side deals. Eventually my ex did the same to get a consistent cleaner.
Some people have this idea that all human processes need to be mirrored in software. This type of gig work is best left to ad-hoc job boards like craigslist or kajiji or facebook marketplace. Why do we continue to try to force this into software?
I think part of it is that the dumber VCs out there are in such a rush to get in on the ground floor of "Uber for X", that they don't bother checking whether Uber's business model is valid for X. Uber doesn't have to worry about getting shut out by drivers and passengers making deals directly with each other, because people need rides at random and going directly to the driver means basically hiring them full-time. But that logic doesn't apply for someone coming on a fixed schedule to walk your dog or clean your house: middlemen provide no value beyond initial contact.
It's investing by fad and it's all going to come unraveled soon enough.
And some of the sitters and walkers who use these apps already had established sitting and walking businesses.
As someone who loathes the startup tendency to misclassify employees in order to shift costs onto them, I do savor the schadenfreude when it backfires like this.
To walk a dog for money in Vancouver, you are required to have a $2 million insurance policy.
https://i.imgur.com/ZEVBBuD.png
Saner cities covered this liability with the $10 dog muzzle.
If you didn't think we were in the dot com bubble 2.0 and the re-emergence of the Pets.com strategy won't show you, I don't know what will. I wonder which one will get the superbowl ad.
This is a silly, meaningless analogy. Every grown adult on earth was not walking around with a computer connected to broadband internet in their pocket in 1999. There were less than 500 million internet users total.
I also find the recent notion of "pet parents" rather offensive. My dog is my property. I have a responsibility to take good care of her, but ultimately I am her owner not her parent.
There are all kinds of reasons one may employ the services of a dog walker: reduced mobility of a previously healthy owner, impaired functioning of an elderly dog's bladder necessitating more frequent bathroom visits, travel, the arrival of a new child allowing less freedom to walk the dog, and about fifty more that spring to mind without even putting much effort into it.
All that said, there is not a chance in hell that I would ever trust a dog to a "valley" startup employing (effectively) randoms vs a local company with prior approved knowledge of who will be performing the service.
I find your second statement a little bizarre. People are going to feel varying degrees of attachment to their pets. Why would you care? You can think it's silly or weird, but who are you to take offense at something like that?
Every once in a while, the Bay Area picks a new phrase that it enters into the public lexicon. "Pet owner" was said to invoke slavery, so "pet guardian" was the new thing you had to say, otherwise face consequence.
To each their own. Of probably equal or greater offense to me is the idea that one treat living, sentient beings to be owned and treated as property.
As to your other point, I have no idea other than changing circumstances. I find that having a dog saves me from being a lazy slob and forces me to drag my arse out the door for an hour when I otherwise wouldn't.
That's exactly how the law treats animals. They are property of their owner.
Parents have children, and then send them to daycare. Is this significantly different?
Hell, I’m out of town right now and needed a sitter for my dog. Opened the wag app and within 10 min had someone scheduled (and insured) to watch my dog for 5 days.
