From Cautious PAW-renting to Pet Ecosystems Varun Sadana's Supertails Does It All We had the opportunity to interact with the co-founder, Varun Sadana, who is a fur parent himself and started Supertails.com in 2021 with Aman Tekriwal and Vineet Khanna.
By Kavya Pillai
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Supertails.com is a tech-enabled pet-care startup creating a pet care ecosystem that provides a comprehensive solution for pet parents to manage all aspects of their pet's well-being. We had the opportunity to interact with the co-founder, Varun Sadana, who is a fur parent himself and started Supertails.com.com in 2021 with Aman Tekriwal and Vineet Khanna. Supertails.com.com has served over 100,000 pet parents and raised $10 million in Series A funding from Fireside Ventures in November 2022.
We asked Sadana what problems his company solves for pet owners. He explained, "Unlike the west, in India, gen z were getting into keeping pets more and they were first-time pet parents." "We initially started solving primary needs first. From nutrition, healthcare needs and behaviour training," he said. Sadana elaborated on how over the last two years they got more than a lakh customers on their platform. Interestingly "more than 30,000 of these customers had also done a vet consultation with us". So they understood that this is a very large need.
Virtual Pet- Consultations
Talking about virtual consultations Sadana said that "People want to spend a lot of time and money on getting good resources to do the right kind of parenting." He explained how there has been a reverse migration in the pet systems. Earlier pets were common in tier two or tier three localities and rare in metropolitan cities but now people are welcoming pets to their big city apartments.
In his experience, "The first thing we understood from Gen Z pet parents is that they are willing to do anything for their companion. Second is that the format in which the vet systems are built in are not very conducive for new-age pet parents. It is not just about convenience but also an urge to know a lot." Sadana explained that pet parents solely depend on the vet for guidance. "If you look at the parallel space, and take a human baby. When a human baby does not eat there are a lot of people to inform you on why that may be and what is to be done. But if your dog is not eating or is barking a lot and you want to know why would traditionally visit the vet."
Usually visiting the vet consumes an owner's whole day because there are not many vet clinics which usually means these clinics have too many pets to look after. Even transportation is not easy with all pets. For simple queries like 'my dog is not eating what do I do?' Can be resolved now in a short virtual meeting.
Pet Care Ecosystem
A developed pet care ecosystem has several pet care verticals within the system such as a veterinary set-up, online set up then D to C brands and so much more. In India, there is a thought that a few companies will solve multiple ecosystems, not just one. Yet today, people building companies are looking to solve only one problem. So you'll find a lot of companies providing a dog walking service or a pet grooming service but just that one service. Sadana explained that Supertails.com is one platform that essentially becomes a pet care platform by providing multiple services. Lastly, Sadana shared how in the future they are expecting the country to adopt evolved services like pet insurance and more.