Business plan: PetBrief 0.1.0 beta
Status: Working beta; demand unproven. Every number below is a hypothesis unless marked MEASURED. See ECONOMICS.md for the model and RESEARCH.md for the evidence. Kill tests are in §7 — run them before spending anything.
1. Buyer
Independent pet sitters and dog walkers — solo or two-person operations. Not boarding facilities (they already run PetExec, Gingr, or PawLoyalty). The buyer is still on paper forms, phone calls, and scattered text threads for intake. They lose evenings to chasing vaccination records and re-asking the same questions every new client brings.
2. Offer
Done-for-you digital intake, one branded link per sitter:
- Every new client answers the same questions once, on the sitter's own link.
- The sitter gets a printable meet-and-greet brief per client.
- Vaccination follow-ups are tracked in a monthly CSV export, sent by the
operator (manual — not automatic).
- No app for the sitter's clients to install; works offline in a browser.
Price hypothesis (UNPROVEN): $199 one-time setup per sitter, $29/month retainer ("intake just works": reminders monitored). Test with three free pilots first — see START-HERE.md step 4.
3. Comparison
| Alternative | What it costs the sitter | What PetBrief does differently |
|---|---|---|
| Paper intake bundles (Etsy, ~$9) | Cheap, but still paper; nothing is tracked | Digital link + monthly reminder tracking |
| Rover / Wag built-in profiles | Free, but clients leave profiles blank; sitter still chases | Sitter-owned link, same questions every time, printable brief |
| Kennel software (PetExec, Gingr) | $50–150/mo, built for facilities | Built for solo sitters; no monthly software to learn |
| Generic form tools (Google Forms, Jotform) | Free–cheap, but dumb forms; no brief, no reminder workflow | Intake + brief + reminder tracking as one ritual |
Swipe the table sideways to see every column →
The wedge is not the form — it is the monthly reminder ritual the sitter stops doing themselves.
4. Fulfillment
Per sitter (operator = the kit buyer):
- Setup (1.5–2 h first time): brand the intake link (BRAND.md), configure
the sitter's fields, test with the sample data.
- Client onboarding (~5 min each): send the link; client answers once.
- Meet-and-greet: print the sitter brief from the sample flow.
- Monthly (~20 min per sitter): run the vaccination CSV export, text or
email owners with upcoming expiries, log send dates. That is the retainer — see AI-OPERATOR.md §4.
Tooling cost: $0/month (static HTML, free tiers only). The cost is the operator's labor — value at $50/h for planning.
5. Unit economics (hypothesis)
From ECONOMICS.md, 10-sitter sketch: month-1 revenue $2,280 (10 × $199 + 10 × $29) against ~23 h labor (~$1,165 at $50/h). Ongoing: $290/mo revenue vs ~$167/mo labor ≈ $123/mo margin on a labor-valued basis. Every sitter past the tenth adds ~$12/mo margin plus the setup fee. If pilots won't pay $199 + $29, lower the price or re-scope before claiming anything.
6. Acquisition
FIRST-TEN-CUSTOMERS.md: local Facebook groups (highest intent), Rover/Wag community forums (helpful-first, never spam), Etsy-review mining (reviewers of $9 paper intake bundles already pay for intake), groomer/vet waiting-room flyers with QR to the live demo. First three sitters are free pilots; their payment is a testimonial and one referral each.
7. Kill tests
Stop or re-scope if any of these fail:
- 10 conversations → 0 pilots. The wedge is wrong; try RESEARCH-BRIEF.md
candidates B/C instead of pushing harder.
- 3 pilots → 0 conversions after the free month. Price or offer is wrong.
- Reminder workflow takes >45 min/sitter/month in practice. The retainer
economics break; automate more or raise the price.
- Sitters won't share the link with clients. Distribution assumption dead.
8. What this plan does not claim
No revenue, no customers, no conversion rate, no trademark, no existing company. This is a plan to test, not a business that exists.