The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Andrea Nerep, Founder/CEO of Petzbe – The Free Social App Just for Pets!

Episode Date: June 21, 2021

Andrea Nerep, Founder/CEO of Petzbe - The Free Social App Just for Pets! Petzbe.com Petzbe is the TOP social networking app created by pets FOR pets! Whether you’re snuggling, sniffing, snoozing, snacking, scratching, snorting or just being incredibly SMOL… we are all about sharing your very own PET pawspective. Petzbe has been featured in WIRED, People Magazine, Good Morning America, The Wall St. Journal, and other major media outlets that our goofy hoomans like to read! With just the tap of your paw/hoof/beak/talon/fin/claw you can: • Creatively share your unique pet lifestyle! • Pawwticipate in monthly #LendAPaw campaign where we raise money for pets in need! With the help of community, Petzbe has donated over $120k to helping fellow pets. • Sniff around and make best furrrends with fellow pets! • Access tons of adorable stickers & frames TAILor made for YOU. Have a blast decorating all of your original content! • Plan & host virtual celebrations & events with your favorite PetzbePals because everyone loves a great pawwty! • Join weekly creative challenges & contests so you can interact & learn more about all of your *Sniffers!* It is playtime all the time! • Use Discussion Boards to post your thoughts, stories, recommendations, questions & comments so you can chat & connect with other users! After all, there’s nothing like a great conFURsation!

You wanted the best. You've got the best podcast, the hottest podcast in the world. The Chris Voss Show, the preeminent podcast with guests so smart you may experience serious brain bleed. Get ready, get ready, strap yourself in. Keep your hands, arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times. Because you're about to go on a monster education roller coaster with your brain. Now, here's your host, Chris Voss. Hi, folks. Chris Voss here from thechrisvossshow.com. The Chris Voss Show.com.

Hey, we're coming to you with another great podcast. We certainly appreciate you guys tuning in. Guys, be sure to refer the show to your friends, neighbors, relatives. Get them involved in the show. Get them watching. Get them listening. Get them, just make their lives better. Be nice to your friends.

Care about them. Say, subscribe to the Chris Voss Show now or else. No, it ought to be that way. Anyway, guys, go to goodreads.com for John's Chris Voss. See all the books we're reading and reviewing over there. You can also go to all of our groups on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, all these different groups that we have out there, Instagram, where you can follow the show. You can see the different people that are on the show and all that good stuff. Today, we have an amazing CEO on the show with us. She is the CEO of an app called Petsby. I think I'm pronouncing

that correctly. Andrea Nurup is the founder and CEO of Petspeed. It's a social media network where pet owners share their pets' daily lives from the perspective of the pet. Before Petspeed, she worked in various early-stage startups. She has a BSc in communications and an MSc in, I think it's a BS and an MS in public relations and corporate communications. She built Petsby from scratch through her passion for pets, psychology, business, and community building. And she's originally from Stockholm, Sweden. She moved to New York City in 2014 and still living there. In addition to Sweden and New York City, she's lived in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Buenos Aires, Argentina, as well as the south of Spain.

Welcome to the show, Andrea. How are you? I'm good. Thank you so much for having me. Good. And it's the Petsby is the name of the app? Yes, that is correct. There you go.

And you can download on both iTunes and Android. Is that correct? Yes. There you go. I know that because I downloaded it on Android. Welcome to the show. Congratulations on the app that you've got launched. I've gotten a chance to play with it for a bit.

Give us your plug so people can find you and the app on the interwebs. So if you go to Google Play, you can just search for Petspeed. Same for iTunes or Apple Store. And you can also find us on our website, which is www.petspeed.com there you go so this is pretty cool what made you finally decide to launch this and and really get involved we covered a little bit in the bio but what was the real motivator for you and what brought you to that point of wanting to make this your app? For me, it was very simple inspiration behind it because it all started when I adopted my dog, Angus. And he's a little Brussels griffon.

He's the co-CEO of Petsby. He's a cute monkey, very peculiar personality and looks. And when I adopted him, I experienced this kind of new love I never experienced before. And I obviously, and I still am, I experienced this kind of new love I never experienced before. And I obviously, and I still am, completely obsessed with him. I wouldn't engage in social activities unless he would join me. If we were walking on the streets, I would pick him up to kiss him and hug him all the time because he was so cute. And then, of course, there are the photos and videos.

And you're not talking about 10 videos videos or photos of David about 100 and I would even go so far that I got into the perspective of if he spoke to me I wonder what voice he would have and what would he say and which profession he would have and as I started connect with other dog owners in New York City, I realized that this was actually a quite common thing. People have very defined voices and personas for their pets. And Angus, he would be like this little snooty British man always looking at me like, I'm not a dog when I would tell him to do things. And he's very regal. and so this thing really inspired me to create Petspeed because I wanted a community where we become our pets and this is the only thing that we see there we're not

exposed to any drama on traditional social media and we don't see anything that has to do with humans but it's just a little pretend world where we get to communicate from the perspective of their pets. And a lot of people live out their alter egos and they become this really magnificent persona on the app. And it's really loving and cute community. And I love everyone there. They're amazing. And you talk about the relationship people that have dogs have with their dogs i have two siberian huskies so they each have their own voice when i voice them i think it was about 10 or 12 years into owning two siberian huskies that i realized that i'd been

talking to them for 12 years but they'd never talk back i've been i'd imagine they'd talk back in my head but i don't know there's like a whole level of maybe I should be committed at this point. When people hear me talk to my dogs, they're just like, are you okay, man? Like, you seem like you might be losing it. Yeah. And then if you don't, when you start talking to other people, you're like, oh, thank God I'm not alone in doing it. And like you say, I take 50 trillion pictures and videos. I must take more pictures. There are more pictures of my dogs than there are of me i have no pictures of me

or my part or any vacations or anything yeah yeah all my friends know they're like we all we know is he's some guy who owns a couple of beautiful huskies like we don't know so you created a social network where people can go on an app and they don't have to see all the other crap that's on social media they can just see beautiful dogs and share and interact with each other can they set it's probably a great way for networking with people in your area they can set play dates or meet at the dog park and stuff we wanted to keep it really as behind the pets so you have been contemplating whether playdates and stuff would make sense. But I think it's really that you are your pets that creates the community.

And then I know a lot of people have become friends as humans outside the community. And we have a Facebook group where humans of the pets can connect. Ah, there we go. So there you can do the playdates. But so basically you post a picture and you say it's theirs.

You act as like your dog when you're posting the pictures and saying what you think? Yeah. It's very specific personalities and they talk about things that are like, oh, my human is so silly.

Like I'm on a diet or someone stole my toy today, I'm so upset, or it's really just if you imagine what a pet would speak about to other pets, and they're always very loving and open with each other very supportive. And my dog Angus, he thinks he's like the most handsome dog in the whole world he always uses i'm like james dean but more handsome and then he has a hashtag oh so handsome he's really quite bizarre persona on it where he just it's a little bit obnoxious yeah the these dogs are fun so what are some of the other aspects of the app that you can tell us about? So we have a lot of pet-centric features.

If you want to share how you feel for the day, like feeling snuggly, like tail wag, purry, all of the pet-centric language. You can choose from our stickers and frames. If you go on the app, you sniff someone that is a follow. If you lick, then you're liking a photo you add stickers on it like sniff me or like grumpy or like silly human and you you can also dress up with hats and wigs for the stickers which are very popular jewelry and then we have themes every week so now it's flower power with a power and it's a little hippie inspired flower bands and a van and music and vinyl records and it's a lot of features to

live in this world of the pets and it's really amazing because i think it's a quite basic human need to be able to be creative and pets be allows you to get creative with photos and videos for your pet but it without pressure because often when you share something to other humans or from a human perspective and you kind of get the pressure of what how other people think about the content but when you go in as a pet and share like no one is going to judge you yeah compare other pets also yeah i am looking at the app now i'm going down through my feed i'd follow the pets be press community but you can go in you can see you can search for other users different species different breeds that you may like i always like looking at other siberian huskies i'm big

i've had four so i love my siberian huskies so you can search for those you can search for topics so can use hashtags on here and stuff to search you can use hashtags they're quite popular we have some that always running like how i met your human, for instance. Then there are very cute stories of their first encounter with a human, whether they got rescued from a shelter or maybe the excitement of meeting them for the first time. So it's like pets sharing the stories. We have Lend a Paw, which is from our monthly charity campaign. Because every third Sunday of the month, Petsby has this campaign called Lend a Paw, which is from our monthly charity campaign. Because every third Sunday of the month, Petspeed has this campaign called Lend a Paw. And for each photo shared this day with the hashtag, we donate a dollar to an animal cost that shows for that month.

And so far, we donated over $120,000 to different causes. And so that's a very popular one too. Everyone gets ready for Lend-A-Paw in advance. And then you also have, you can create a question on different categories and get people's responses and stuff. And it looks like you got quite a few people using the app too, from all the likes and follows I'm seeing.

And people are pretty, they're pretty, they're talking a lot on here, especially in the questions section. Yeah. People are obsessed with their animals and they are. I am. I love mine. But so this is much better than being on Facebook too, because Facebook,

you got to deal with all sorts of riffraff and over here, you just play with your animals. Yeah. And it's also great space for younger people to be in. It's very innocent in a sense. And our age group is very wide. It's anything from 10 to 65 of people using, but all connecting over their pets. And we don't allow human selfies or people are not allowed to talk about politics or anything.

There you go. Yeah. talk about politics or anything all of them yeah it's kind of beautiful in the way that two people can sit in a community and tell each other that they love each other and they're so nice to each other but if they met as humans they might have been separated because of political views or anything or social standing or whatever but here you come along together for just one common passion and that's their pet i think this is funny a new post please lick the lick in the sniff that's cute and so you can see there's my notifications you can take a picture smile for the camera or upload a photo

and video you can flip around for selfies although you want a dog selfie but this is pretty cool you've got different subjects in here like health and wellness behavior and training people just talking about making games does your owner take 50 photos from you every day yeah i i used to do that when they were puppies. I just, just film them extensively, just constantly film them when they're puppies. Cause they, the puppy disappears so quick, like two weeks, it's gone. You're like, what happened to the puppy? Suddenly it goes from something that fits in your hand and then it's five hours long. And you're like, that was over quick. That escalated quickly. Any, what other aspects of the app can we talk about let's see you can search

topics you there's categories this is really cute there's a lot of these a lot of these folks have their have crowns and stuff on there they've added stuff to their animals actually they you know added stickers and frames onto it yeah here's one with hearts. These are really cute. Yeah. And people get really creative when they describe their thing, when they describe their animal and stuff. So that's really cute. It's funny how we just have this love affair with our animals. They love us unconditionally.

Why not? They do, and they're amazing in that way. And it's a very, how can you say, it's a simple love between a human and their pets there's not it's not that complex yeah it could be between two humans i have to bribe mine constantly the i they get lots of doggy treats big what is it called best bully sticks or something i think i buy them all the time they get chicken at night. So mine are pretty spoiled, but I do that so that I can make up for them putting up with me. They're like, oh, this guy again, seriously, this guy with his whole get in here and do things. What are you doing here? And who are you?

Quit digging in the yard. I'm trying to, he's always trying to tell us what to do. What a jerk, but no, this is really great. And you've got an iPhone and Android. What do you see the future of the app becoming? It looks like you have quite a few users on here. Do you have any visions for the future and what your plans are? Yes, definitely. So currently when you go on the app, it's very much, it's there for an emotional peer. You get to share and be creative and connect with other pet owners. But we also want to add an element of becoming more practical, rewarding as well as in monetary or discounts on products and services.

What we're going to do is to create certain in-app actions, let's say like positivity post of the day. And if you do one, you get a point. Or if you share something positive with someone else using a hashtag, you get a point. And these points can, by the end of the month, be transferred as discounts on products and services. So it's like a gamification where they get rewarded for certain actions. And we are also now doing the same thing where we have opened up exclusive partnerships for pet companies. So we will have daily pop-up quizzes that they can sponsor in order for them to interact with

our audience in a fun and engaging way instead of just showing ads. It's a way for them to through quizzes like silly little questions. True or false, is a warm nose, an indicator of that a pet is sick. And they can select, and if they get it right, it could also be a point leading to discounts on their products and services. So I believe in rewarding users somehow monetary through discounts, and that's the next step that we're moving to. Now on your guys' website you also have a store and people can invest in the company. Tell us about both of them. At the store it's our product Salmon Breath Mints and that is the pet's version of what a breath mint would be. They're made of 100% salmon, wild Alaskan salmon, and they come in little vintage style tin boxes. So exactly what a human mint is, but it's a salmon mint. They smell really

distinguished smell of salmon. It's like you open it like, oh, but the pets love it. And if you shake the tin, both cats and dogs come running. They think it's delicious because it's so natural. And so that's the first product we started off with. And what was yours? Oh, yeah. And then we are also allowing the public to invest in our company through a service called Start Engine. So basically, you can go in and invest. It's a minimum amount of around $200 and you become a part of our community and you become an investor. Wow. And you guys are doing

quite well with this. You've raised $56,000. You have a 14 million valuation and there's even a price per share. So the value of if you invest can go up based upon the shares. Yeah. Wow. That's pretty freaking awesome. And wow. Yeah.

I didn't even know they had this start engine stuff. I'd heard they were doing different stuff, but yeah, this is pretty amazing. So congratulations that way. Yeah, it is really cool because it gives people an opportunity to, and you don't have to have a huge amount of money but you can smart put a smaller amount of money into something that has might be like has huge growth potential and i think pets fee has shown very fast growth and you know when in a year we

increase our user base with 10x we and we have so many you know plans for the future and being constantly being innovative because we're so close contact with our community and sometimes we do service with them and we get tons of responses of what they want so i think it's always listen very closely to your audiences, take the concept from there. That's really cool. I like how people can invest in it and get a part of it. It makes it feel like they're more part of the community. You also have a,

it looks like a mobile game app called Petsbyville. Tell us a little bit about that. Oh yeah. That's a wonderful world. Basically it's a mini mobile app game or it's a mobile app game that has mini games in it. And it's called Pets Beville. And you can explore this huge world. There's a big forest that has a lot of different tasks that you can get from the animals in the forest. You can go and visit the tree house, you go into the cool city and you can play little minigames and visit the

Rad Rat bar. And there's so many different parts of this world where you go and play minigame, but also interact with other players. And this is something that we're hoping to launch by late summer. And it's also a great opportunity for companies to collaborate with us because if they want to go in and have a minigame, for instance, that is correlated with their products, then they get to be a part of this world. We believe in building interactive experiences for companies where they give our audience something fun and a fun experience. And that's the way you build top of mind awareness for your brand. Yeah, I really like that approach.

You can call it advertising, but it's more engaging with a community in a fun way. Yeah, that's pretty awesome. So you can do social media, you can play the game. You totally unplug from all these toxic social media networks and just have fun with your dogs and stuff. Yeah, truly. Yeah, truly. Yeah, yeah.

So anything more we need to cover on the app and what it does? For me, we're constantly adding new features and stickers, et cetera. But what the app really is the community. And I think that's the key point. You can have a lot of fancy features and fun feature, but for us is really how tight the community is, how active they are and how nice they are with each other. And that's something that I will continue to stress.

But in terms of app features, I don't have anything to add. Okay. That sounds awesome, man. I downloaded the app i'm playing with it now so i guess i gotta make two different profiles one for me and one for one for my two i have two dogs so i gotta make one for each dog and they have their own thing and i have to remember which profile or maybe they can share one too because soon we're releasing oh really you can have multiple accounts in one account so you can just switch between them.

Ah, that'll be good. So if you start with a pairing, then you'll soon be able to switch. I think this is cool. There's a lot of people using the app from what I can see and everything else, so this would be really nice. Give us the dot coms where people can go to download it and find out more about what you guys are doing. So it's petspeed.com. You can check out the website, and from there, if you're on phone, you can also directly download the app.

Check it out, guys. My dogs will be on there, Freya and Rocky. I've got Freya up. I just need to go put Rocky and add her in now. And then we'll be having some fun with it because we do social media. Half my social media is my dogs. I've had people actually say, I can't stand Chris and all the stupid stuff he says on social media. But I follow him for his

dogs so there's that so anyway thank you very much andrea for being on the show and sharing us the wonderful thing people will be able to check it out on the chris voss show there'll be a link you can download the iphone app or android app or go to their website and all that good stuff so thank you very much for coming on and spending the time with us thank you so much for having me it was really great thank you to my audience be sure to spending the time with us. Thank you so much for having me. It was really great. Thank you. To my audience, be sure to see this video on youtube.com, 4chesschrisvoss.

Go to goodreads.com, 4chesschrisvoss. Go to all our groups on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, all those different places. You can see everything we're doing. You can even see us now on Petspeed. Freya and Rocky will be over there. So watch for those guys. Make sure you give them a lick.

Is that what I'm supposed to say? I will definitely sniff. Thank So watch for those guys. Make sure you give them a lick. I will definitely sniff. Thank you very much, guys. Thank you, Andrea, for being here. We certainly appreciate it. And we'll see you guys next time. Awesome. Thank you so much. Thank you.