#87 Uber for Pets

Pet Mobility

Aparna Srinivasan, founder of SpotOn, addresses the challenges pet owners face when traveling with their pets. Traditional ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft often leave pet owners in a bind, as drivers can refuse service due to allergies or personal preferences. SpotOn offers a pet-specific solution with features like harnesses, carriers, and seat liners, ensuring a comfortable ride for pets and their owners. Aparna highlights the innovation of unaccompanied pet rides, allowing pets to travel without their owners, which is currently being piloted.

We're actually revolutionizing pet mobility. We have unaccompanied pet rides, which we're piloting.

--- Aparna Srinivasan

The service is not yet on-demand, requiring a two-hour booking window, but this has not deterred users who appreciate the scheduling flexibility 1 2.

   

Service Edge

SpotOn differentiates itself from other ride-hailing services by focusing on the pet market, which remains largely untapped. Aparna explains that their business model avoids the pricing competition typical of services like UberX by adopting a strategy similar to Uber Black, targeting a niche market willing to pay for specialized services. Partnerships with companies like Google, WeWork, and Petco help reduce customer acquisition costs and increase repeat usage, which is currently around 45%.

If you look at the pet landscape, there's nobody that's in pet mobility right now. We can harness the power of the pet market.

--- Aparna Srinivasan

The investors are intrigued by the potential of SpotOn to become a significant player in the pet transportation sector, especially with its unique service offerings 3 4.