Woof – Pet Safety App
NO DEAL
EPISODE SUMMARY
🕓 Air Date: March 10, 2023
Asking For:
$100,000 for 10%
Investor:
No Deal
Deal:
No Deal
PRODUCT SUMMARY
Woof is a smartphone app that ensures the safety and well-being of pets by initiating a rescue process if their owner is unexpectedly unable to return home.
WATCH HERE
IN A RUSH?
Click these to jump to the section you want to read.
Background Story
Woof is a safety app founded by Arsy, who lives in New York City with his three dogs. The idea for Woof came to him when he almost got into a car accident, and he realized that he didn’t have a local support system for his pets, given that his family lived in another state.
Concerned about the well-being of his dogs in case of an emergency, he decided to create an app that could provide pet parents with peace of mind. Arsy’s personal experience and the realization of the anxiety that many pet owners feel when they are away from their pets led to the development of Woof.
The Product
Woof is a smartphone app that operates through a geolocation timer linked to the user’s home address. The app starts when the user leaves home and stops when they return. If the timer expires before the user returns home, Woof’s support structure is activated.
The app first contacts the user, then their emergency contacts. If the pet’s safety cannot be confirmed, a wellness check is initiated, which involves contacting local authorities to check on the pet’s well-being.
Woof is designed to work in the background, providing a set-it-and-forget-it model. It is available for a subscription fee of $2.99 per month or $29.99 per year and can be used for any type of pet, not just dogs.
How It Went
The company’s position before Shark Tank
At the time of the pitch, Woof had been on the market for three months, with four instances of support cases, none of which had escalated to the point of rescuing the pets. The app had 317 downloads and 102 paid subscriptions. Arsy had spent $2,400 on marketing, and the rest of the funding came from his own resources. The company was operated solely by Arsy, and he mentioned plans to scale the service when reaching 5,000-plus users.
The Negotiations:
None of the Sharks made an offer to invest in Woof. Reasons for not investing included concerns about scalability and the need for a larger subscriber base to make it a profitable venture. There were also concerns about the commonality of the name “Woof” and its potential legal challenges. Arsy did not secure a deal on “Shark Tank,” but he expressed his determination to continue pushing forward with his app, believing that pet owners genuinely worry about their pets’ safety and that the Sharks may regret not investing.
