WOTSO Pyrmont – Get To Know The Team At Mad Paws!
In the lead up to ‘Take Your Dog To Work Day’ (every day at WOTSO, but officially celebrated this Friday the 21st of June), we chatted with Thomas Derricott, Community Manager at Mad Paws about all things pets and pet sitting. The Mad Paws team is a growing group of pet enthusiasts and excitingly for all the animal lovers at WOTSO, they are also WOTSO Pyrmont members. Lucky us! We took five with Thomas to find out exactly why the media can’t get enough of Mad Paws, why pet owners don’t look anywhere else for all their pet sitting needs and why WOTSO is the perfect environment for this fast growing Australian business.
In a snapshot, can you tell us about Mad Paws and how the business came to be?
Mad Paws is Australia’s largest Pet Sitting community. With over 20,000 Pet Sitters on our platform, we connect Pet Owners with quality pet care across Australia. When we launched in 2014, our Founders wanted to provide a reliable, affordable pet care option for Pet Owners when they travel. Since then, Mad Paws has expanded to offer a range of pet care services, including On-Demand Dog Walking, Dog Training, and Pet Day Care.
What is it that makes Mad Paws such a trusted and successful service? What makes Mad Paws unique?
Trust is such a crucial part of what we do. After all, we’re asking people to leave their furbabies with someone they’ve never met before. This why we thoroughly vet every Pet Sitting candidate before we allow them to offer their services via Mad Paws. In fact, we only accept one in four Pet Sitting applicants onto our platform. Beyond that, we require each Pet Owner to leave a review of their Sitter at the end of each booking. That way, clients can read feedback from other Pet Owners before booking a Sitter. We also cover every Mad Paws booking with Premium Public Liability Insurance, and require our Sitters to send regular text and photo updates to the Owner during the booking. As a result, we now have a dedicated group of Pet Sitters who have become like an enormous family. While we’re not the world’s only online Pet Sitting community, we like to define ourselves by our madness. We’re crazy about animals, and we’re crazy about what we do every day. If we lose sight of that, then it’s all for naught.
What has been one of the biggest learning curves during the businesses growth?
Our biggest learning curve has been the importance of listening to feedback from our Pet Sitters. These people devote their time to offering quality pet care, and they’re as invested in Mad Paws as we are. In other words, we couldn’t ask for more engaged users! By responding to their insights, we’re able to benefit from market research that money can’t buy.
What is one piece of advice you would give to other startup businesses?
Be honest with yourself about what you don’t know. Launching and growing a startup is a never-ending learning experience. By remaining open to new knowledge, you’ll equip yourself with the skills you need to excel.
How have you seen Mad Paws successfully grow in the WOTSO environment?
WOTSO has been the perfect environment for Mad Paws to grow! Between the cutting-edge facilities, the constant community events, and the delightful staff, we have everything we need to grow. And the icing on the cake? It’s a dog-friendly workplace!
What does the rest of 2019 look like for Mad Paws?
For the rest of 2019, we’ll be doing what we love most: connecting pets with the Sitters who love them. However, our area of focus will be Fetch, our new On-Demand Dog Walking service. Well, that, and Take Your Dog to Work Day on Friday 21 June!
