A new Chicago startup is working to simplify how pet owners take care of their furry friends.
Petgud, a mobile app developed by Chandra Vadamodula, is trying to be the one-stop shop for booking grooming, veterinary, pet boarding, pet sitting and dog walking appointments on demand. The app, which just launched into beta mode in June, can be found in both Apple and Google’s app stores.
Petgud, pronounced pet-good, aims to be a digital marketplace that allows users to search for pet care providers using their geo-location and zip code. Vadamodula said prices on Petgud are comparable to what they could find elsewhere and the startup takes a 5 to 10 percent cut of each transaction on the app.
“The pet care industry is technologically underserved,” said Vadamodula, who owns a Maltese named Chin. “Most pet parents are frustrated because they don’t get instant pet care appointments.”
The total amount of money spent on veterinary care in the U.S. alone topped $18 billion in 2018, according to the American Pet Products Association.
To create an app that met all of pet owners’ needs, Vadamodula interviewed not only dozens of owners, but also groomers and veterinarians. Petgud will offer 30 pet care providers by the end of the month and 150 by the end of this year, all of which are only in the Chicagoland area, Vadamodula said.
Petgud gives care providers a new and more direct way to communicate and market to pet owners by advertising their services on the app, Vadamodula says.
“They can focus more on the business and less on … taking phone calls,” Vadamodula said.
Other pet care apps, such as Rover and Wag, have dominated the pet-tech space, but the two companies mainly specialize in dog-walking and boarding. Meanwhile, Petgud aims to address those needs and many others, Vadamodula said.
Vadamodula, who has worked in IT for a number of corporate companies, including Walgreens and UnitedHealth Group, began working on Petgud 10 months ago. So far, he has bootstrapped the company, but plans to raise a seed round of funding later this year.
