In our last issue, I spoke with Beverly Chew, CMO and Co-Founder of frankie, where we discussed her mission of breaking down the mental health stigma and addressing a key issue with todayās mental health apps: retention. Check it out here.
Iām excited about this weekās issue. The pandemic has upended our lives, with many of us investing much of our time and money into our favorite furry animals š¶.
Janeās Upbringing
If youāre an owner of a good boy or girl, itās never been a better time to become a pet influencer.
Depending on the level of engagement and quality of content, U.S. influencers can earn at least 2-3% of their follower count, while Singapore influencers can earn at least 0.5-1%. The income stream varies by market and number of followers; nevertheless, these figures are a testament to the rise of the creator.
Pet owners in the US spend around $1,380 for dogs and $908 for cats annually. Comparatively speaking, Singaporean pet owners can spend more than $2,500 for dogs and $1,300 for cats annually. In 2020, pet spending exceeded $100 billion, with global pet supplements valued at more than $600 million. The industry is poised to grow to $275 billion by 2030.
This week, I speak with Jane Peh, Co-Founder and CEO of Pawjourr, who discussed her journey of building the next generation of pet influencers and entrepreneurs.
Getting to Know Jane
Prior to Pawjourr, Jane spent time working in advertising agencies like Ogilvy and Dentsu Singapore. Part of her job included working as an account manager for major brands like Tiffany & Co. and Qantas Airways. Upon starting off her career, she always thought that it was her calling to work in corporate. After all, it ensured career stability and financial security.
Working in corporate as an account manager had its advantages; yet, the fast-paced environment wasnāt conducive towards maintaining a proper work-life balance. After working in the industry for the first 2 years, she decided to take an indefinite break from corporate marketing and pursue a freelancing job at a consultancy firm, working as a project manager. At this phase of her career, personal health and relationships came first.
Little did she know, pets would be on that list. Like any rational pet lover, Jane would often come across dog videos over Instagram and send them to her partner. They would spend their free time exchanging videos of good boys being good boys, up until the point she became emotionally invested in learning more about their everyday lives. In real life, she didnāt know these pets nor their owners. They couldāve been on the other side of the world, for all she knew.
That was when she had her first light bulb moment. Social media is omnipresent. People love pets. People love engaging with pet videos over social media. With the virality of social media, there is potential to drive even more engagements (and advertising dollars) from your cats and dogs. In January 2019, her then-boyfriend (now-husband) and she built Pawjourr as a side hustle to jumpstart this mission of finding ājobsā for your pets.
Overcoming Self
The first barrier Jane had to overcome in her entrepreneurial journey was herself.
Jane was vulnerable in discussing her humble upbringing. She grew up struggling with emotional insecurity and low self-esteem and remained careful when it came to money. Working in advertising provided her with a strong sense of financial security, something she prized after growing up frugal.
When she ultimately decided to make the jump into venture, it was anything but smooth. Although pursuing an entrepreneur-oriented path was scary, she realized the support she had from her family and partner was invaluable. It gave her the confidence needed to persevere and build resilience in the face of adversity.
During the startupās inception, Jane continued to work as a freelancer for her previous consultancy firm. After finding product-market fit and building initial traction for their marketplace, she made the leap to go full-time into Pawjourr.
Building Pawjourr
With the rise of pet influencer marketing, brands are channeling social media as a means to connect with customers. However, speaking with each influencer tends to be a tedious process. Plus, pet owners themselves are not media enterprises and lack the expertise to negotiate on formalities like usage rights and content review with brands. Seeing the disconnect on both sides, Jane created Pawjourr to streamline, manage and facilitate all communications for brands and pet owners.
With a primary focus on cats and dogs, Pawjourr serves to connect brands and advertisers with pet content creators to work on paid projects. Pet owners/content creators have access to a plethora of jobs, all of which are posted by the brands themselves. Pawjourrās business model is premised on two types of pricing strategies:
Enterprise Plan: This is designed for brands that need further support with ad campaigns, accounts, and project management (think HubSpot and Salesforce meet Upwork). Larger brands can leverage this solution to create and manage their own projects without any heavy uplifting.Ā Ā
Pay-per-successful match: Pawjourr can be leveraged as a self-management site. Through a tiered pricing strategy, brands can tap into basic and advanced features, ranging from influencer marketing campaigns to recruiting pet talents for commercial shoots. For example, the basic (free) model allows brands to create job postings every month and work with up to 5 influencers per month. The advanced models allow for further collaborations with influencers and engagement with the platform.
A key value differentiator for Pawjourr lies within its marketplace model. As pet influencers become more mainstream, weāll start to find more pet entrepreneurs build out their own homegrown brands. However, these brands are typically limited in reach and budget, and todayās solutions, being traditional agencies, donāt cater towards these types of entrepreneurs. Jane aims to democratize this process by leveling the playing field for all brands and allow smaller players to compete fairly with incumbents.
Jane also realized that pet brands, regardless of size, are diversifying their digital strategy towards marketing. Instead of putting all their eggs in one influencer or celebrity, they want to work with a variety of pet owners and see which content works best. Itās a win-win for both brands and emerging pet owners trying to find new revenue streams.
Many pet owners have a hard time converting from usual pet brands due to lack of nutritional knowledge or actual distaste from their pets. Once you purchase the product, itās a sunk cost. To reduce friction in the purchasing process, Pawjourr created a program that allows brands to provide free samples, which would then get distributed by Pawjourr to interested pet owners willing to try other products. Although Pawjourr takes care of distribution for Singaporean brands, they donāt incur the logistical cost of delivery - it gets passed down to pet owners. Upon delivery, pet owners need to leave a review on the sampled product before further purchasing, incentivizing other owners to try or purchase the product.
Traction
Pawjourr hasnāt incurred any marketing cost and has been entirely bootstrapped the past few months. Majority of brand awareness and revenue has come from organic discovery via word of mouth or network effect. When pet influencers execute a successful project, they would promote the platform through their social media posts. Other brands that follow these pet influencers then take notice.
In regard to business development, Pawjourr closed a 6-figure deal earlier this year with a Hong Kong brand that wanted to work with 2,000 pet influencers based in Singapore. Although itās currently based in Singapore, Pawjourr is ramping up its operations overseas in the US and UK, leveraging Google Ads and building partnerships via free trial campaigns to raise brand awareness in these target geographies. Jane aims to flush out her vision of creating the LinkedIn for pets.
Impact
Pets have become an integral part of a family structure. 90% of pet owners view their cats and dogs to be key members of the household ā meaning they are willing to go to great lengths to take care of them. The increased humanization of pets is a net positive for pet tech; however, with the surge in pet adoption amid COVID-19, many pet owners donāt realize the long-term responsibilities and sacrifices that come with taking care of them. Those who donāt realize this tend to give up their dog or cat.
Jane knew from personal experience the difficulty of raising pets. Her second pet was a husky and she cried during the first week of taking care and training her dog ā the dog was pooping everywhere! At times, she felt as if it was harder to raise a dog than to run a startup. Puppy blues is real.Ā
Although it isnāt correlated to Pawjourrās business, Jane wants to leverage this platform to bring awareness towards responsible pet ownership and animal welfare. Through advancements in pet tech, dogs can live up to 10-15 years, while cats might live even longer. She wants to educate owners on what it means to own a pet and how to properly take care of them. Within the general discourse of animal welfare, illegal wildlife trade continues to be a thematic issue in Asia, and her team is working with non-profit organizations like Animal Asia or local shelters to educate people about the implications of visiting a circus or zoo.
Janeās Takeaways
From working as an account manager for an ad agency to pursuing entrepreneurship, Jane had a few takeaways from her startup journey:
Believe in what youāre building. While itās important to take in critical feedback and iterate, take naysayers with a grain of salt. Thereās a difference between good and bad feedback. Many people believed she was crazy and that it was nonsensical to think that your pet could be generating income for your family.
Continue to learn. Every iteration is a process that comes with feedback. Learn from past mistakes and fix quickly. Pawjourr is Janeās first business ever, and she never held a leadership position before. She realized that the entrepreneurship journey would also be a learning journey.
For founders: take care of yourself. Donāt be a morning person if you arenāt one. Find your own internal rhythm and follow it. Thereās no ideal routine for a founder.
For creators: think about your brand image and relate to your audience. To succeed as a creator and become a valuable asset to brands, create a story that resonates with other pet owners. Showcasing a food product from Brand X through a āshotgunā approach wonāt cut it; the best performing pet influencers are the ones who think about the story and values behind the product and infuse it into their overall lifestyle.
job postings
For this weekās job postings (internships & full-time), please check out our Notion page here!
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