#16: Ontario-based businesses and the innovation born as a result of COVID-19
The story behind Pawzy.
Kerri-Lynn McAllister, founder and CEO: Launched in October 2019, our vision was to be the trusted health and wellness advisor for pet parents by connecting them to the best advice and services. I experienced some challenges in my personal life that ultimately inspired my business. My experience finding a breeder to adopt my dogs was unnecessarily difficult. I didn’t feel confident that I was being connected to trusted adoption resources and spent a lot of time digging for that information to make a safe and responsible choice. Over the years, I’ve had to find specialized healthcare for my dogs and found drastic price differences depending on the vet, or have had to spend time calling around because there was no central place to compare procedures, hours, prices, etc. After a decade building online marketplaces, I sought out to address the lack of accessible resources when it came to essential things like regular care and veterinary procedures.
We’re also building the Pawzy Vet Finder, a search tool that will allow pet parents to search for a vet with more robust service comparison capabilities than currently possible through Google Business or Yelp.
On business pre-pandemic.
Prior to March 2020, we were expanding our tools and content to include new pet types, starting with cats, and continuing to aggregate trusted and verified care information online for pet parents to access easily.
The pivot.
Pawzy was less than six months old when COVID-19 lockdown measures went into place. I was thinking carefully about how the needs of my community changed because of the pandemic, and how I could use my skills and my business to help. Pet parents’ needs changed drastically when it came to connecting to veterinarians. Pawzy recently surveyed Canadian pet owners and found that nearly 40 percent said COVID has impacted healthcare for their pet. Across the country, vets were considered essential services, but their hours were drastically reduced and most clinics were only open for emergency and essential visits. Many clinics were not set up with telemedicine, and the technology was not even fully endorsed at that point by veterinarians’ regulatory associations. Clinics were triaging patients over busy phone lines and email, and pets that did require in-person care were dropped off at the clinic door while pet parents waited outside. This was the situation as we saw record rates of pet adoptions as Canadians sought companionship through isolation. Within three weeks of COVID-19 lockdown measures going into place, Pawzy partnered with a US-based human telemedicine platform to offer a clinic-focused teleconferencing tool for vets. We built a tool that could be implemented seamlessly into a vet practice to ensure quality healthcare could continue, while alleviating the extra administrative burden on clinic staff and keeping everyone safe.
Lessons learned.
After Pawzy Telehealth launched, it became clear for us very quickly that telehealth needed to be focused on pet parents first. We could help bridge the gap between supply and demand for telehealth. We’re also building the Pawzy Vet Finder, a search tool that will allow pet parents to search for a vet with more robust service comparison capabilities than currently possible through Google Business or Yelp. Pet parents will be able to search by clinic type and desired service, compare ratings and reviews (Google and Yelp combined in one place), and book in-clinic, mobile or telehealth appointments directly online.
Connect with Spark
Twitter: @spark_centre
Instagram: @spark_centre
Linkedin: https://ca.linkedin.com/company/spark-centre
sparkcentre.org
