PetLovers + The Lean Startup
- yli12313
- Nov 12, 2021
- 2 min read
Updated: Dec 6, 2021
For the PetLovers founding team, the most important thing to all four founders is knowing that the pet products PetLovers is selling (birthday baskets, goody bags, hats, matching pajamas, etc.) are going to add value to the customers. The customer is what we aim to satisfy and we want them and their pets to feel special. We want them to feel as if someone cares for them on the special days in life, birthdays, where owners can truly appreciate their best friend, whether cat or dog. The team is spending a lot of time, energy, and resources to bring these products to customers based on leap of faith assumptions characterized best in the value hypothesis and the growth hypothesis.
The Value Hypothesis: Customers will find that PetLovers is delivering a truly customized experience for their pets and a personal touch from the founders. By customizing and personalizing each item (personal thank you notes, personally delivering the products for local customers, etc.) starting with friends and family and then expanding to others, brand loyalty will be built. Once brand loyalty is built, then that will feed into the growth hypothesis.
The Growth Hypothesis: The PetLovers growth hypothesis is that our high quality products and great user experience will drive the growth. We are targeting a niche market first and starting small: friends and family of the founders who are in the middle class / upper middle class income bracket, and have the resources to spend money for their pets. Then to accelerate growth, the team is going to go beyond the niche market and targeting people in our local communities here in Virginia, Maryland and the DC area, targeting people of the same socio-economic class. Finally once the growth engine is started, the team is going to expand nationally and have products at different price points for all customers.
Through validated learning and the build-measure-learn cycle, the team is going to get a lot of analytics and customer data and insights that will greatly tell us how we should improve. The team is going to think about scaling and automation from the start. The team is going to use the best technology out there so that processes can be automated as quickly as possible. Whenever the team needs to test something whether it’s technology or operations, the team will do so in small batches first and then see what needs to be done to scale larger. This way, the team will not accumulate technical debt that needs to be dealt with later down the line.
Lastly as a Lean Startup and moving fast with 4 dedicated founders, the team focus on establishing a culture at the beginning. The culture is really defined by the people on the team and once a culture is defined already, it’s very hard to change later. The team culture must be a culture of collaboration, mutual respect, innovation and willingness to learn and fail. By embracing a unique culture from the beginning, the founders can be aligned with one vision and each founder feeling like they have a stake in the game, and this will ultimately attract talent and the best people to work for the team.
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