Hector Ocasio’s dog almost died because he could not find an animal hospital while visiting Ohio.
Even though there were hospital near him, none had any online presence making them functionally invisible.
“We could have lost him because the hospital didn't even have a website,” Ocasio said.
Ocasio knew he could figure out a solution to make it easier for pet businesses to build an online presence. He started Pet Connect Business in 2020 to provide custom mobile applications and websites to facilitate e-commerce and marketing for pet businesses from hospitals to dog day cares.
The five-person company, which is based at the Maryland Innovation Center in Columbia, has received $110,000 from the Maryland Technology Development Corp.'s Builder Fund and its Rural and Underserved Business Recovery from Impact of COVID-19 (RUBRIC) fund as well as $250,000 from the Maryland Department of Commerce. Going forward, Ocasio is adding several new feature to provide more tools to businesses so they can stay in touch with customers and facilitate e-commerce.
The pet industry has grown massively since the Covid-19 pandemic, leading to an increase in the demand for pet services. In 2016, 38.4% of American households had dogs, but in 2022 that number jumped to 44.5%.
Pet Connect originally began as a marketplace app where dozens of businesses were listed in the same place like a dog version of OpenTable. To monetize the marketplace app, he offered businesses promotional listings, but quickly ran into issues retaining customers.
“Businesses said if we bring our customers to this marketplace, they're gonna leave us for somebody else,” Ocasio said.
Ocasio pivoted to building custom applications for pet businesses that preserve a company's unique brand. The application can show customers examples of the work being done or a pet trainer could keep track of milestones with videos or documents to send to a pet owner.
Most small businesses do not know how to operate the necessary e-commerce invoicing services like Stripe. Ocasio uses a simple integration method to limit the amount of legwork businesses need to build e-commerce.
Many companies tailored to businesses looking to create a web presence, like Squarespace, focus solely on website development, not mobile applications. But the majority of Pet Connect Business’s customers are interested in mobile apps. Although smart phones are ubiquitous creating a custom mobile application can cost between $40,000 to $100,000 for a business according to freelancing website UpWork. Ocasio provides a cheaper option through using a similar template for each company, that can be customized by adding or removing features. The business provides content but does not need to format the specific app layout.
“They groom dogs for a living, they trained dogs for a living, they don't know how to go build a website,” Ocasio said.
In addition to the state funding, Ocasio has received support from three local angel investors as well as Inicio Ventures, which focuses on Hispanic businesses. But Ocasio said it is hard for Hispanic founders like himself to raise capital since they often do not have access to the angel investing networks or the money from friends and family members that are typically necessary for a business to survive before it is able to get revenue or the backing of institutional funders.
While state organizations like TEDCO often focus on investing in early stage minority businesses with initiatives like the Builder Fund, private venture capitalists don't have a similar mandate, which means Hispanic founders like Ocasio can often go under the radar.
“If I'm a rich white guy living in Virginia, how do I even find that Hispanic founder who's building something cool,” Ocasio said. “He or she is not even a part of my network. So I don't even know that they exist.”
