A Cincinnati startup that’s developed a smartphone-focused dog training app has gotten a major nod from one of the nation’s largest pet food companies.
Harper, headquartered in Over-the-Rhine, was selected to join Purina's invite-only pet care innovation network of emerging pet care startups. Harper was one of eight companies chosen for the 2021 class out of over 100 applicants, Purina, a St. Louis-based manufacturer of some of the world’s most popular pet care products, said in a recent release.
Membership includes access to Purina executives and industry experts, invitations to member-only events and promotional support through paid marketing campaigns highlighting network members.
Harper co-founder Brennan Knotts said the invitation has already opened an “unbelievable” amount of doors for the company. The pet care industry is valued at around $99 billion, Purina said, and the innovation network’s efforts are aimed at helping companies and entrepreneurs scale.
“There's instant validation that comes with an organization like Purina essentially saying ‘we think what you've built is really interesting,’” Knotts told me.
Harper is an iPhone dog training app for the smartphone age, Knotts said. Prior the company’s launch, he said dog training hadn’t evolved in decades. When he first got his puppy Zelda, a giant schnauzer, in 2018, for example, he had to buy a cheap DVD player in order to watch a training course. Harper’s key features include:
- organized training plans. Knotts said YouTube has lots of free dog training content, but it doesn't tell you exactly what to do every day
- content delivered in short videos, modeled after Instagram stories
- the ability to track your progress, which makes it easier to stick with a training plan
- and a way to share your training wins with the app’s built-in community
The company charges an annual membership fee. It’s also available without cost for shelters, adoption agencies and dog foster parents.
Harper, to date, has been self funded. It’s based at Spaces, a coworking office in OTR. Of its three-member team, all have been part of previous startups with exits: Knotts was co-founder and COO of Salt Lake City-based Kindertown, an educational iPad app acquired by Demme Learning in 2013; Cramer, a Brandery alum, served as GM and head of product at Roadtrippers, acquired in 2018 by vehicle maker Thor Industries (NYSE: THO). Cramer and Daugherty also worked at Ahalogy, which celebrated its own $50 million exit to Quotient (NYSE: QUOT). The trio launched the Harper in 2019 and went full-time with the company in April 2020.
“We were excited about the idea of starting Harper was because it has a clear business model,” Knotts said. “People are used to paying for quality dog training, and they're increasingly more comfortable paying for app subscriptions.”
While Knotts couldn’t put a dollar figure on the value of the Purina network, its access is already proving fruitful. Harper has partnered with PupPod, a Seattle-based pet tech company, to develop new training content and is working on a collaboration with Chicago-based PupJoy, an online pet product retailer. The team was invited to be on the Pet Lover Geek podcast hosted by PetHub, and has met virtually with other successful founders in the industry.
“It helps build immediate credibility with potential partners and investors, if we do ever fundraise. But the biggest benefit is really the network,” he said. “They've already done stuff that we're trying to do, like market to veterinarians, or because we can partner with them on marketing and product features. Even if 2020 wasn't a strange year, it would've been really hard to meet this many high-quality companies in the space on our own or to get them to take us seriously when we're so new.”
