Sudden entrepreneur

The doggy matchmaker

Borrow my doggy’s Rikke Rosenlund

After falling in love with a neighbour’s dog, Rikke Rosenlund swapped her corporate life for a canine-focused start-up

Inspiration can hit at any time, and for Rikke Rosenlund, her idea of a ‘doggy dating’ site came when she was out walking her friend’s dog. So she ditched the nine-to-five and set up borrowmydoggy.com, where dog lovers can rent a furry friend for a couple of hours or over a weekend. And for spacelimited city folk, it’s proved a hit. Now it boasts over one million users around the UK and counts celebrities like Rita Ora and England cricketer Steven Finn as fans. Here, Rosenlund shares how she pulled it off.

Be ready to act on an idea.

I’d been working in product development at American Express for seven years, and although I enjoyed it, it was just a job, not something I felt passionate about. But in August 2012, my friend Alex – who lived across the street from me in London’s Earl’s Court – asked me to look after his dog, a very cute Labrador called Aston. I took him to my local park and we spent the entire day together. I got so much from the day and started to wonder why people opt for dog walkers, when I (and presumably others like me) would happily take care of one for free.

Start-up workshops are a

good place to start. They’re where future entrepreneurs can try out pitches on one another. I went to a Lean Startup Machine workshop in October 2012, and presented Borrowmydoggy and ended up winning, which meant the entire group of 60 worked on my idea for the next two days. We made a very basic website landing page in four hours and then went around Hampstead Heath putting up posters and asking people to sign up. After three days we had 85 members: joiners pay a subscription for access to either dog lenders or borrowers in their area, along with a vet helpline.

Be prepared to do some

serious legwork. I started by manually matching people and pets myself. I would visit homes in my neighbourhood in order to verify addresses and then introduce the two parties to one another. But I needed to boost numbers, so in November that same year, I went around north London handing out leaflets.

As more members joined, I realised I had to finesse the process, so I downloaded a free privacy policy, along with terms and conditions, and stayed up until 3am one night writing down all the answers to questions people might ask.

Take it one step at a time.

Fundraising is difficult. When I first went out and pitched to investors, we had fewer than a thousand members and I got a lot of rejections. Eventually, though, I raised some Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme funding and we were able to hire a website developer, followed by a marketeer. Seven years on, I now employ 12 full-time staff.

You need a lot of resilience.

I didn’t leave my ‘day job’ until March 2013, so for months I would get up at six in the morning to work on the site, then come home from the office and work again until past midnight. I even moved into my friend’s house to save rent. But when you’re doing something that you’re passionate about, you’ve got to be willing to fight for it. And for me, it’s not just a job. I really care about seeing our members happy.

Charlie the dog

A happy borrower, lender – and dog