The app took its cut.
Then it left us to figure out the pet.
Last fall, one of us boarded a sweet older poodle for a family going on a far-away trip. By the time he arrived at our door, we knew three things: his name, his weight, and the dates his family was away.
We didn't know why he took medication. We didn't know what would happen if he didn't take it. His family knew all of that. The app just didn't ask.
Three nights in, the poodle got sick. 2am. The family was on a plane. Our regular vet was closed. The platform that took a lot of money to put us in this position? Nothing. No phone number, no chat, no checklist. We sat on the bathroom floor with a shaking dog and Googled symptoms.
"The platforms take a lot of money to connect us. The least they could do is be there when something goes sideways at 2am. They aren't. And it's the sitter who pays for it."
— One of us, the morning after
That's one example. We experienced it over and over — I am sure you have too. The platforms all treat the booking as a transaction and leave the relationship for the sitter to build alone.
Every sitter we know does the same thing. You use the app to get the first booking. Then, the second the meet-and-greet is done, you book the next stay off-platform — text, Venmo, handshake. Because what is the app actually doing for the money it takes? An introduction. That's it. The relationship, the trust, the repeat business, the late-night questions — all of that lives outside the app, where the platform can't help and doesn't try to. Everyone knows it. Sitters do it. Owners go along with it. And the platform just keeps charging for the introduction.
But imagine an app that actually got smarter every time you used it. One that remembered the poodle's meds from last visit so you didn't have to ask again. One that knew which of your repeat clients you'd be seeing next week and prepped you for the stay. One that learned the dog — not just the booking — so by the third or fourth visit, you walk in already knowing what's going to make this stay easier than the last one. A tool that actually earned its keep, past the introduction. That's the app we wished existed. So we built it.
That same app is there at 2am — something built in, free, that reads what you're seeing and tells you whether to wait until morning or move now. No sitter alone on the bathroom floor.
It launches June 30th in Florida and Georgia. Sitters on this list become Founding Sitters — a permanent badge, a seat at the table while we build, and first crack at every owner we onboard. A year from now, "Founding Sitter" is going to mean something. It starts here.
