Today we’d like to introduce you to Alex Han and David Choi.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Alex and David. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
My Co-Founder, David, and I are Atlanta natives and have actually known each other since 4th grade. We grew up together, made it through our teenage angst years together, and eventually ended up at Georgia Tech (go Jackets!). Ever since our junior year at Georgia Tech, we knew that we wanted to start a company of our own. It was the only path to success that we saw that would fulfill our desires to be innovative, drive our own lives, and build something that can truly make an impact. We ultimately decided to work “big boy” jobs first, so we could develop more professional skills. David started working as a business analyst/B2B biz dev/operations & management Swiss Army knife, and I started working as an Investment Banking Analyst. We got an apartment together, and oh, we also decided to adopt two retired racing greyhounds, Wolfman and Kerry, who later became the inspirations for PupWalkr!
Fast forward a year and a half. We were working our (very) long hour jobs, had dogs, and needed a way to let them out that fit around our dynamic work/life schedules. Have you ever seen what an apartment looks like after two 70-lb. dogs have been stuck inside all day? None of the dog walking or pet sitting services that we found felt like they were built for modern, working professionals. We saw our opportunity, spent some time planning, and eventually took the leap! PupWalkr was born with a website, a free scheduling software, it’s first two “Walkrs” (David and I), and a lot of hustle.
Fast forward another 2 and a half years. PupWalkr has grown tremendously and now services over 1,600 appointments every month in Atlanta! We’ve met a lot of amazing people who have helped us along the way and have gotten infinitely smarter about leveraging technology to grow our business. Our never-ending hustle, drive to succeed, and honestly, good luck, has been the backbone of our business and success so far!
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Our business itself has had a pretty smooth road! We are 100% bootstrapped and have been able to overcome just about every challenge so far. There have certainly been the ups and downs, but nothing ever seems to slow us down for long. We work extremely hard to grow the business and the brand, and because of that, we have a lot of new opportunities that present themselves almost every month. Now don’t get me wrong – some days it feels like all we’re doing is putting out fires. Big fires. Small fires. Just fires everywhere. But we learn from our mistakes, adapt, and improve.
I will say that one of the hardest parts about running a startup for me has been learning how to take a step back to consider the bigger picture. I’m so passionate about what we’re doing that often I get “stuck in the weeds” and forget to appreciate what we’ve accomplished or think about next steps for both the company and my personal life. Having some separation is a good thing – as they say, the highs and high, but the lows are low.
I also think that a lot of our larger struggles will be in the days to come. Our business has grown to the point where we need to think about expansion and taking PupWalkr to the next level (think: nation-wide service). With this comes a whole host of new problems that we’ll have to figure out, but that’s part of what keeps the startup life so interesting and fulfilling!
We’d love to hear more about your business.
PupWalkr is an on-demand pet services platform that connects pet owners to pet care providers who we’ve vetted and trained to deliver an engaging experience. Our customers are able to schedule or cancel appointments just 60 minutes ahead of time, and they are also able to choose who their Walkr will be. All of this is handled with a few clicks on our website, pupwalkr.com!
We really take pride in our team of Walkrs. They are all amazing people and go through great lengths every day, braving Atlanta’s traffic, to ensure that our customers’ pups are taken care of. You can recognize our Walkrs by the bright blue t-shirts they wear with our PupWalkr logo on them!
Personally, I’m extremely proud to have built a platform that truly make an impact in our customers’ lives. Whether we are the steady service that takes their dog out every week, or we are the last minute life saver that swoops in, getting the thanks and amazing feedback from our customers is very rewarding (check out our Yelp page).
I think what really sets us apart is that while we are trying to grow as fast as possible, we maintain an extremely customer-centric approach. For example, there are customer service/support tasks that we don’t automate simply because we want to make sure the experience is genuine and personable, and there are parts of our actual service that we could automate as well, but we believe that having a human connection with your PupWalkr provider is one of our core value props.
What were you like growing up?
Oh man, I feel like there were two sides of me growing up. With my parents (my mom especially), I was quite unruly, and I’m sure I caused my mom to get a couple of grey hairs in my younger years (sorry mom). With my teachers and friends, I was pretty much a model student and friend. I was studious, very friendly, generous, and always smiling. It wasn’t until high school that I finally matured a bit and acted like that at home. College more so.
Growing up, my mom kept me very busy, and I was a part of a lot of activities. With music, I took piano lessons for 11 years and violin lessons for 4, playing in the orchestra at my school. With sports, I played tennis, swam, played basketball, and hockey. With academics, I took Kumon (it’s a math/reading program), Chinese school on the weekends, and I was in SAT-prep since elementary school.
Looking back, I’m extremely thankful that I had so many opportunities growing up and that my mom was so on top of me to try new things. It certainly fueled my general curiosity about how things worked and gave me a diverse background. Luckily, my general curiosity later focused on knowing how businesses run and how they succeed which certainly plays into my love for running PupWalkr.
Pricing:
- Walks: 30 minute walks range from $20/walk down to $13/walk.
- Sittings: 30 minute visits are $25/visit
- Overnights: $60/night
Contact Info:
- Address: 390 Stovall Street SE, Atlanta, GA 30316
- Website: www.pupwalkr.com
- Phone: 678-567-6956
- Email: contact_us@pupwalkr.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/pupwalkr
- Facebook: facebook.com/pupwalkr
- Twitter: twitter.com/pupwalkr
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/pupwalkr-atlanta-3
Image Credit:
@shelbyraephotographs
@sheepish_addie
PupWalkr
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