Mark Smith
Our mission is to ensure that all pets can get the best care possible and so that no pet owner ever needs to choose between the care that their pet needs and the treatment that they can afford.
Tell us about yourself?
I have a background in startups, specifically in digital marketplaces and I’m a very passionate dog dad.
If you could go back in time a year or two, what piece of advice would you give yourself?
Just start on it, whatever it is. You will only regret opportunities that you don’t try to seize.
What problem does your business solve?
The problem that many people cannot afford the veterinary bills for their dogs and cats.
What is the inspiration behind your business?
I had to euthanize my puppy growing up because she sustained an injury where surgery was the only option and my family couldn’t afford to provide this. I don’t want anyone to deal with that scenario.
What is your magic sauce?
We come from a background in customer acquisition and performance marketing, rather than insurance.
So we understand how to connect with our customers, we understand how confusing insurance is and we’re here to help, working for the customer as an advisor.
What is the plan for the next 5 years? What do you want to achieve?
We want to save 1 Million pets by helping their humans get insurance for them. As we do this we will save these people from making economic decisions about their pet’s care and help provide peace of mind.
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?
Working with big incumbent insurance companies really tough… getting them to give you any dedicated attention, IT resources for integrations and even just the initial challenge of finding the right person to talk to within these massive organizations.
It requires a lot of creativity and persistence.
How do people get involved/buy into your vision?
We want to talk to anyone who’s also in the pet industry and would like to explore how offering pet insurance to their customers could help them monetize their users, but also just to have a more general discussion about how we can help each other.
We work with hundreds of thousands of pet parents and want to provide as much assistance and value to them as possible.
