Entrepreneur Anupam Kundu creates unique portal to help dogs and businesses.
By Niharika Mookerjee
NEW YORK: In an entrepreneurial market, chock-filled with tech and software firms, Bark Loudly (www.barkloudly.com), a digital exchange technology company, operating from Woodbridge, New Jersey, has carved out the niche elements of a model start-up with a good cause at its heart.
The fledgling business, formed in the Fall of 2012, provides a mutually beneficial virtual platform for shelters and rescues to find new homes for their canine inmates, while, on the other end of the scale, assists dog-lovers to find a pet for fostering or adoption.
With the added incentives of discounts and free gifts to its customers through businesses that have partnered with the firm, it has hit the bull’s eye by venturing out into the booming zone of pet industry and embarking upon a market that has so long been overlooked by other tech firms.
The overall pet business in the US is about $60 billion out of which $40 billion belongs to the dog industry alone. Sixty two percent of American homes have pets and about $11 billion are spent on pet supplies, according to a report brought out by TIME in October 2012.
Additionally, animal shelters in the US are under-staffed and over-burdened with emails, bulk of phone-conversations and minimal technology support. Let alone adoption, to volunteer at a shelter itself, the process comprises five to six steps of lengthy screening with forms and paperwork to be completed, together with procuring a host of other requirements.
Armed with a course in entrepreneurship from Stanford University, Anupam Kundu, co-founder and CEO of Bark Loudly, along with his Seattle-based, chief business partner and CPO, Raj Ray, glimpsed an opportunity in offering tech and internet boost to shelters and rescues by speeding up the processes of volunteering, fostering and adoption of dogs.
“We provide shelters with online tools that are useful in reducing paperwork. One such tool is a dashboard where the shelter supervisors can see all the pledges made by anyone via Bark Loudly – whether it’s a request to volunteer, foster, adopt, donate and what not. They can also initiate the first conversation with the requester, straight from the dashboard to schedule a meeting, appointment etc. Also, we are writing code to allow the shelter administration to send out newsletters to their volunteers and generate reports of their effectiveness for their sponsors and funders,” Kundu elaborated in an interview to The American Bazaar.
This ground-breaking genre provides dog-lovers and shelters to find a common ground of interest while salvaging dogs from untimely deaths through euthanasia at the shelters.
Although most people would abhor killing of animals, the sad truth is, after a given period of time, dogs, if not adopted or fostered, are put to death by shelters, some of which still continue to use horrific techniques such as the gas chamber or the killer injection. With reasons as frivolous as an injury, a disease, a bad set of teeth or simply an absence of funds, 60 percent of dogs are killed every year in US shelters.
Conversely, because of economic downturn or an addition to the family, many households are unable to maintain their dogs because of rising costs of maintenance and are in search of a shelter to give away their pets. Lack of information and knowledge, nonetheless, proves to be a hindrance.
“This process of giving up a pet is called surrendering, and there is no good way of knowing how to surrender. There are non-profit organizations that help, but nobody really knows how to establish those relationships. We, at our end, would like to fill that gap, and act as a conduit to help people find puppies from ethical breeders, good shelters and rescues,” Kundu said.
So what makes the model tick? Leveraging the use of cutting-edge technology that is integrated with live social networking sites and real-time Pet -Finder information through application program interfaces (API), allows the website to provide accurate information on pets at various shelters.
At its core, the model is based on the premise that people volunteer at shelters because they are good souls with no actual expectation of a reward. However, by providing incentives to dog-lovers through the forum of an innovatively designed customer loyalty program, it subtly kindles their interest level to win points for product services. Termed as Paw Perks and Wags, these rewards encourage people to help out more frequently at the shelters, Kundu explained.
The company is founded upon long term goal of maximizing customer value through mutually satisfying interactions and transactions. “The rewards for different services and products are elicited through businesses that have signed up with us. The concept behind it is: the more you do, the more you get. And in this way, you encourage positive change,” said Kundu, who has a day time job at ThoughtWorks in New York.
In short, the young entrepreneurs have struck upon a marketing metaphor game using the classic business strategy of focused advertisement at a targeted audience. In an age of information overload, instead of lambasting impersonal ads through Facebook or Google, the messages at Bark Loudly are beamed at people who need these services.
“We know your age, your gender, the kind of dog you’ve adopted and other parameters that would help businesses to provide specific services to you. It could mean a percentage off pet products or jewelry store or fashion wear according to your interests. For instance, Sweet Potato Pepper, a designer fashion-wear, will give 10 percent off to anyone who signs up with Bark Loudly, 20 percent off to those who want to sponsor a dog and 40 percent off to those who adopt. Although it is a clothes store and has nothing to do with dogs, it still urges dog-lovers into doing further good,” Kundu said.
So far, eight such businesses have set up their contracts with Bark Loudly, including Metropawlitan Art and Photography, Cinnamon’s Canine Cookies, Sweet Potato Pepper, to name a few.
The revenue model is simple and direct. Companies who use its platform to reach out to customers pay a subscription to Bark Loudly. “It is custom designed and a mixed mode model, depending upon whether the companies run an ad on the website or the newsletter or partner with an adoption event that we organize,” Kundu noted.
Kundu and Ray are optimistic about future potential, with 200 subscribers, two shelters and three rescues under their direct charge, and the rest of the data being pulled out from Petfinders.com. Once the model succeeds in the Tri-state area – New York City, New Jersey and Connecticut – they intend to raise it further to the next level in the months ahead.
As far as innovation is concerned, Kundu claims, his company is the only one that integrates services at shelters/rescues with a for-profit model.
“Petfinders.com will help you locate shelters to adopt from, but they have no business model in place for you to return to its site. However, when you come to our website, you see a bunch of other business features that makes it an engaging platform. We are constantly revving up to impact changes in the lives of dogs, households, shelters and rescues,” he expounded.
So far, the feedback from the shelters has been enthusiastic, with plans of expansion underway. “They are eager to get on board and use our surveys. We are now in the process of revamping our website and overhauling the whole experience for them and our advertisers,” he said.
Kundu’s own three and a-half-year old black Labrador, Rani, has been the source of inspiration for the story. He rescued her from being given up to a shelter by her breeder because of a lingering hip ailment. This prompted him to think of ways to ensure that people choose to buy dogs from shelters rather than from stores.
This tenuous desire firmed into a resolution, when his wife earned three college credits by volunteering at a shelter in New Jersey. It occurred to him that the incentive model of rewarding people for their efforts in caring for animals could translate well into a business initiative. And since then there has been no looking back.
Although the promise of safety for all dogs is still a long shot, for Kundu and Ray, there abides the satisfaction of having taken the chance and the responsibility for many.