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Meet Sean Downey of My Buddy’s Place and Marketplace in Pasadena, CA

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Sean Downey.

Sean, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Our story really started with my first rescue animal, an Australian Shepherd named Rook. I had first met him at a Lucky Baldwin’s in Pasadena with his trainer and thought he was the most amazing dog I had ever meant. Smart, sensitive, and just loved people. About a month later, his trainer called me to say that Rook was at the shelter and his new pet parents just couldn’t handle his “energy” with a new baby on the way. He became part of my life and I soon realized that Rook was a personality that needed to be shared. He was certified as a therapy dog helping both senior and kids with special needs, and somehow knew what each needed. That’s what got me interested in animal welfare. I spent my career in both marketing and technology, and at some point, I decided to see if I could apply my experience to helping rescue animals.

After working with several rescue organizations, I noticed that these tremendously dedicated groups needed help with technology and business process. Most managed 10-50 new dogs or cats and month and needed to maintain a ton of photos, short records, vet records, behavioral reports, volunteers, etc. all most using paper. I developed a cloud-based system to help them manage all that in the cloud and gave it to the rescues for free. There were other solutions out there, but they were hard to use and relatively expensive. We signed up over a hundred rescues in the first year. They helped me enhance the product and add features like “paperless adoptions”. Instead of lugging a milk crate of paperwork to adoption events we did everything on tablets, including signing the adoption contract. At our first event, our partner Dogs Without Borders was able to adopt more animals than anyone else, simply because the process was faster. We transferred all the animal’s records to the new pet parent via an easy to use app called Hydrant. First it was just a place to store photos, vaccinations, providers, etc. on their phone but then we added games, places to take your dogs, and other resources to make being a pet parent more engaging.

In January 2018, we launched My Buddy’s Marketplace. It’s an online store 100% dedicated to rescue animals, we give back 6% of sales whatever animal welfare 501(3)(c) our customers designate, and the remaining proceeds support our other software and business development activities. American’s spend $66B on their pets every year, and yet 6.5 Million enter shelters and rescues and 1.5 million are euthanized. We think we can do better for the animals. We offer thousands of independent premium food and products chosen by pet pros and our rescue partners – really great brands that are dedicated to safe, natural, high quality products that will make a difference in your pet’s life. And every time you shop, you’re making a difference for animal welfare too. The online pet market is growing and there are a lot of big players, that do a lot of good. But we think we have a unique model that allows people to channel their purchasing power toward a cause they obviously care about. We give 6% of sales, that’s 12X Amazon Smile. Think about it, if you buy a $40 bag of dog food every month we’ll give back $28.80 to your favorite shelter or rescue every year. Amazon Smile will give back $2.40, and I think their profit may be a little higher than ours! 🙂 We trying to do a lot on social media so our cost of acquisition is lower, and people really seem to get what we are trying to do.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Doing a start-up is never a smooth road and never will be, you’re trying to do something different. There have been lots of struggles and victories along the way. At first, I must admit I had no idea what I was getting myself into. At first, I thought I was helping dogs, but I quickly realized I was building a software development company. I had a tech background but not in development. I used offshore developers in Pakistan which in addition to working nights, imagine the concept of explaining software requirements to people that really do not have the same concept of dog ownership at all. When we explained requirements in terms of their children, it made a little more sense. But we often had to just laugh, they thought I was completely CRAZY!

The rescues have been great but explaining technology and business process to them was also hard. They are doing what they do because they are passionate about saving more animals, not necessarily about being more efficient or promoting an online store (even if it benefits them). We hired Alexis from one of our rescue partners and she made a huge difference in helping us to understand what matters most to them and working with them every step of the way. From that standpoint implementing a new system, or a new process is just a change management exercise like any other business.

A crazy thing happened one day to bring it all home. My fiancé was out walking Rook and saw a little dog literally in front of the house. She thought it was a neighbor’s dog and came to get me. Upon close look, I realized the dog was in trouble. She was a toy poodle, blind, and had a huge tumor covering her underside. We took her to the Pasadena Animal Shelter and they recommended euthanasia given her condition. She was so sweet, so we brought her to our vet, Dr. Watanabe in San Marino, who is a cancer expert. He thought he could save her and did the surgery that day at a reduced fee. Clearly, she had been a puppy mill mom dumped because she couldn’t breed anymore. We named her Beyoncé (mostly because she sang or howled a lot!) and today she is one happy rescue dog. How that little blind dog, literally found My Buddy’s Place we’ll never know but she made us really respect what our rescue clients do every day!

And of course, your personal life never seems to care that you are running a start-up. I depend a great deal on my fiancé and business partner, and it’s a huge sacrifice and hard on our relationship at times. Last year my Dad died after having a stroke while visiting us at Christmas time. We were planning on launching our app at that time, and that of course just was forgotten in a moment. When you work for a company you can get time-off, and your paycheck still comes, projects continue…but when you’re on your own you just must accept that some things are far more important than your business.

So yeah, it’s hard. You succeed, you fail, you pivot, and we’ve done plenty of that. No regrets there, it all makes you stronger. And I am not sure we would have ended up where we are now any other way.

My Buddy’s Place and My Buddy’s Marketplace – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
What I am most proud of is that we have the first complete platform for the care of rescue animals and the people that care about them throughout their lives. We start with the software for rescues that tracks them from intake through adoption; we have great resources for pet parents; we are starting a network of rescue-loving service providers too (independent walkers, groomers, vets, etc.), and now a store that continues to give back to rescue animals every time you shop. You can also search for rescue animals on our site if you are thinking of adopting and we have guides, applications, etc. We have spent so much time building, now is the time to focus on marketing and getting word out…which is a lot more fun!

We have a long way to go but the building blocks are there now. I think it is our holistic vision that really sets us apart – we are really thinking about changing the business of rescue…and don’t kid yourself it is a business. There are a lot of margins in the pet business, and that’s not to say that these big corporations are not giving back, they are. But we think there is room for another model that does more for the animals and bends the curve a little more in their favor.

What is “success” or “successful” for you?
I define success by how much we can give back to rescue, and how many animals can be saved. Our goal is to be donating $300,000 to animal welfare within 5 years. That’s aspirational but there is no reason we can’t achieve that goal. Also of course, I want us all to be having fun too. Sometimes we must remind ourselves of that. You don’t get into the dog business if you don’t love dogs and it’s a lot more fun that selling enterprise software or consulting services. And, I know my dogs love getting great food, treats, and toys so they are happy with my career change for sure!.

Pricing:

  • We offer thousands of food and products for dogs and cats at competitive prices
  • We give 6% of sales back to the animal welfare organizations of your choice
  • All of our products are natural, healthy, and safe selected by pet pros and our rescue partners
  • Free shipping on orders over $49.95; delivered to anywhere in the US generally in 2-3 days

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Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.

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