Kyle
If you’re a pet lover you’re going to love this new innovative idea called TextaPet .It’s like a cross-breed (ya see what we did there) between Instagram, and Facebook for your pet.
TextaPet co-founder Matt Clevenger told Nibletz: “TextaPet is a fun, easy photo-sharing app for animal lovers. We created TextaPet to help make people’s relationship with the animals in their life even more meaningful and enjoyable. We also hope to use the technology to better connect new pet seekers with adoptable shelter pets! We see TextaPet saving thousands of precious lives each year.”
Sure there are plenty of ways to share your pet pics already but TexaPet is it’s own unique app and environment and it’s sure to be a huge hit with pet lovers. Although they haven’t released their user numbers, they’ve already created a good following on social media networks. They’ve amassed a following of 22,000 followers on Twitter already. Most of their reviews in the iTunes store echo the same thoughts, people have been waiting for an app like textapet.
Textapet’s other co-founder is Daniel Carpenter. The two met in their home town of Santa Cruz but they are in the process of relocating the company to San Diego. Both co-founders have entrepreneurial spirit in their blood and they both had started clothing lines in college.
More after the break
To see what all the buzz is about we got a chance to talk with Clevenger.
Textapet is awesome for pet lovers, is this your first “start up”?
No, but this is the first startup that we’ve joined forces on! Apples & Bandaids clothing was my first startup I founded, and since then I’ve worked on several other tech startups. Daniel’s first startup, Fonetic Design, also happened to be a clothing company which he created and ran in college. He is also currently involved in another tech startup, Dealzinger [http://www.dealzinger.com/], which is set for a beta launch in Q4 2012.
Who is your target user?
The target user for our iPhone app is anyone who enjoys taking pictures of their pets and sharing them with loved-ones.
What is your monetization strategy?
Our app is freemium, meaning it’s free to download and create an account to follow pet profiles and see the latest pics of your favorite pets, and it is $0.99 to create a profile for your own pet. So, right off the bat we are able to cover a majority of our operating expenses. As far as future monetization plans, we have several great ideas that would not only give our business sustainable growth but also bring huge value to our app users. We look forward to seeing our community grow and evolve on its own first before deciding which monetization idea(s) will bring the most meaningful value to them. We’ll keep these ideas secret for now, but I can share that we see the app being a huge marketing avenue for the growing pet products & services industry.
Share one lesson you’ve learned in the startup process.
We have learned a ton in the last year. I would say if you want to launch a start up things always take more time than you think but to keep pushing and pursuing your dream!
What’s the next thing on your plate for TextaPet?
Right now there are developers are working overtime on the next few app updates for speed, scalability and flexibility on a cutting-edge platform which will be setting the stage for expansion onto our website. We are also editing some video spots which we had a blast filming down in Hollywood and can’t wait to show everyone! We’ll also be continuing to grow our community on Twitter [@TextaPet] and looking to extend our reach on the web (blog.textapet.com coming soon) and mobile (Instagram @TextaPet). It’s been great with how much love and feedback we have been getting on Twitter. Having 20k followers in the first 4 weeks of existence tells us we’re doing something right and that there’s a highly engaged market for what we are creating. We are really excited about the future of TextaPet.
Linkage:
Find out more about Textapet at textapet.com
Here’s the Textapet link in the iTunes Store
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