Ep. 100: To Define Your Business Model, Follow the Money—with Emily Dong of Snout

A lot of founders are focused on making their solution accessible to everyone, so they offer it for free. But you’ve got to make money if you want to build and sustain a successful business. So, how do you identify who sees the most value from your product or service and design a business model accordingly?

Emily Dong is the Founder and CEO of SnoutID, a company working to improve the patient experience at veterinary practices through the centralization of data. Prior to Snout, she built and sold Pawprint Inc., a pet health app designed to digitize pet medical records. Emily earned her BS in Accounting Information Systems, Entrepreneurship and Math Finance from USC.

On this episode of the podcast, Emily joins us to share the personal experiences that inspired her to found first Pawprint and then Snout, discussing the need for preventative veterinary care and the rising popularity of pet insurance in the US market. She walks us through the three phases of a startup, explaining how her role evolved as buy-in for her company grew. Listen in for Emily’s insight on balancing idealism with sustainability as a startup founder and learn her follow-the-money approach to creating a business model around the value you provide.

Topics Covered

The experience that inspired Emily to start Pawprint

• Needed vaccination records to board dog
• Vet asked for fax number to send records

The need for preventative veterinary care in the pet market

• Only 2% to 5% of pets insured in US
• 30% of pets have never been to vet

The rising popularity of pet insurance

• Growing 20% year over year
• Already common in Europe

What factors influence the cost of pet insurance

• Zip code
• Breed (e.g.: retrievers more prone to cancer)

Emily’s take on the biggest challenges of entrepreneurship

• Finding business model
• Balance idealism with sustainability

How Emily’s startup evolved from B2C to B2B

• App popular with consumers but couldn’t make $
• ‘Follow the money’ to B2B (identify value to vets)

How Emily dealt with burnout as a startup founder

• Track quality of sleep
• Consistent workouts

Emily’s insight on the three phases of a startup

1. Existential crisis (Am I working on the right thing?)
2. Leverage personal conviction to generate buy-in
3. People and org problems

Emily’s definition of success

• Availability of resources (money, network, etc.)
• Solve any problem passionate about

Connect with Emily

SnoutID https://snoutid.com/

SnoutID on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/snoutid

SnoutID on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/snout

Emily on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/dongemily

Emily on Twitter https://twitter.com/emiidee

Resources

Pawprint https://www.getpawprint.com/

Chewy https://www.chewy.com/

Trupanion https://trupanion.com/

Healthy Paws https://www.healthypawspetinsurance.com/

Petplan https://www.gopetplan.com/

Pet Insurance by Nationwide https://www.petinsurance.com/

Adam’s MONEY IS GOOD Post https://adamdraper.substack.com/p/money-is-good

Amplitude https://amplitude.com/

Oura Ring https://ouraring.com/

Threes http://play.threesgame.com/

2048 https://play2048.co/

Tetris https://tetris.com/

Spenser Skates on Boost VC Podcast EP98 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUsIryDX8cI

JK Rowling https://www.jkrowling.com/

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card https://www.amazon.com/Enders-Ender-Quintet-Orson-Scott/dp/0812550706

Ender’s Shadow by Orson Scott Card https://www.amazon.com/Enders-Shadow-Orson-Scott-Card/dp/0812575717

Bill Gates https://www.gatesnotes.com/

Connect with Boost VC

Boost VC Website https://www.boost.vc/

Boost VC on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/boostvc/

Boost VC on Twitter https://twitter.com/BoostVC

Boost VC on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/boost_vc/