Can Crowdfunding help a “Pupreneurer” break into the Pet Industry?

LONDON - Jan. 14, 2014 - PRLog -- Well a small startup from London, UK is taking up the challenge with her own Kickstarter campaign. An active member in the pet blogging community with a large social network, she decided to put it to the test. Trina started in the pet industry with a blog called Wag the Dog UK helping dog lovers travel with their dog successfully; from there it grew into a successful hub for dog lovers, covering topics such as food and care. It later grew into a review hub working with some of the pet products in the industry.

During that time based on her own experience traveling with her dog, an 11 kg beagle named Maggie, she started designing a travel bag that would be useful when dogs were away from home. “It’s a travel bag for dogs that carry their essentials, containers for food, a bowl to eat in and most importantly something to sleep on” says Trina Cooper. “it was these things I needed the most to accompany my dog when we were on the road”

Tapping into her social network in the pet industry she was able to find the key components a pet traveller needed for their dog. With her home-grown research and talking directly to people the industry, Trina invested her savings on making a reliable bag for dogs on the go. However making a new product is an expensive and time consuming venture.

“We faced this kind of valley of utter despair that most startup companies face,” Cooper recalls. “You realize that you can’t make products in-house, and you can’t do it at a reasonable price—you have to go overseas.”

She did just that, sending Wag N Go to China to scout contract manufacturers who could help make a practical and reasonably price dog travel bag. Partnering with China 2 West, a western owned and managed manufacturing management, quality control and product development company based in mainland China. Investing her savings in design, prototypes and a finished product she realized that to bring her product to market she would have to turn to the pet industry to help launch her company.

“kickstarter seemed like a natural fit” and it would also give her new company the exposure it needed.

Kickstarter (www.kickstarter.com) is a website that helps people from all over the world pool their money to fund projects of all kinds: documentary films, music albums, theater performances, urban farms and countless iPhone devices, just to name a few. Each project has its own page on Kickstarter’s website that allows contributors (backers) to donate funds to help the project come to fruition in return for receiving a product or experience. Pet products are reality new to the for the Kickstarter funding format .

The test was, is the pet industry ready to help fund one of their own?

This year, APPA estimates total U.S. pet industry expenditures will hit $50.84 BILLION dollars. That’s up from $48.35 billion in 2010.

Products that offer convenience have been selling well, and premium products and discretionary items such as treats, clothing and high-tech gadgets remain surprisingly popular. A big reason for that, according to Euromonitor, is the trend toward humanization of animals, especially in Western Europe. People increasingly see their pets as members of the family, and spend money on them accordingly, said Linthicum. That trend is especially pronounced in the United Kingdom.

Wag N Go  LLC has launched her Kickstarter Crowdfunding Campaign for their brand new travel bag: Wag N Go, a dog travel kit that simplifies the entire traveling experience, eliminating the need to carry a bulky bag with all your doggie essentials while away from home, including most importantly a sleeping blanket big enough for a travelling Labrador. After 6 days the campaign is 11% funded and is looking to see if the pet industry will give her small start up the kick to move forward.

Wag N Go is scheduled to start shipping in March 2014.

Wag N Go can be pre-ordered from Kickstarter by this link: http://kck.st/1gC68Gt