Travel Website For Dogs? | Dragons' Den

Summary

Nadia Legwell, a former Open Table sales director, pitches Wag It, the UK's first dog-friendly online booking platform, on a business show. Seeking £50,000 for 5.5% equity, she aims to solve the problem of limited options for dog owners to dine out with their pets. Despite her impressive background and market need, the dragons express concerns about the business model, technical expertise within the team, and the competitive landscape, ultimately deciding not to invest.

Takeaways

• 🐾 Nadia Legwell, the entrepreneur, seeks £50,000 for her business Wag It in exchange for 5.5% equity.
• 🔍 Wag It is designed as the first dog-friendly online booking platform in the UK, aiming to simplify finding pet-friendly establishments.
• 📈 Nadia's background includes significant experience in online reservations, with prior roles at Open Table and TripAdvisor.
• 🏠 The platform addresses a gap in the market, as Nadia found it difficult to find suitable places to take her dog, Lola, and groomers with online booking options.
• 📊 Over 12 million dog owners in the UK and 98% of dog-friendly pub owners believe that customers with dogs improve business.
• 📱 The Wag It website allows users to search for groomers, pubs, bars, restaurants, or taxis that are dog-friendly and make bookings.
• 💼 The business model involves charging a monthly subscription fee to operators, with tiers based on marketing needs.
• 📈 Nadia has already secured 39 restaurants, but the Dragons express concern about the slow pace of scaling.
• 🚫 The Dragons are skeptical about the subscription model, suggesting a freemium model would be more effective for rapid growth.
• 💡 The lack of technical expertise within the team is highlighted as a potential risk for the business's future success.
• ❌ Despite the unique concept and market demand, Nadia leaves without a deal due to concerns over scalability and the team's expertise.

Q & A

What is the name of Nadia's startup company?

Nadia's startup company is called Wag It.

What is the primary function of Wag It?

Wag It is an online booking platform that helps dog owners discover, find, and book dog-friendly places such as groomers, pubs, bars, restaurants, and taxis.

How much investment is Nadia seeking from the dragons?

Nadia is seeking an investment of fifty thousand pounds for five and a half percent of her business.

What was Nadia's background before starting Wag It?

Nadia's background is in online reservations; she was the first salesperson in Europe for Open Table and later became the director of sales at Booker Table, which is now TripAdvisor Business.

What is the business model of Wag It?

The business model of Wag It involves charging operators, such as restaurants, groomers, and other businesses, a monthly subscription fee. The fee is tiered based on how much they want to market with Wag It.

How many dog-friendly businesses are currently signed up with Wag It?

At the time of the pitch, 39 dog-friendly businesses were signed up with Wag It.

What is the concern raised by the dragons about Wag It's business model?

The dragons expressed concern about the business model because it charges every restaurant to list on the platform, which they believe creates resistance and slows down the scaling process.

Why did some dragons decide not to invest in Wag It?

Some dragons decided not to invest due to concerns about the business model, the lack of technical expertise within the team, and the belief that the idea might be too easily replicated by larger companies, leading to competition that Wag It might not be able to handle.

What is the main challenge identified by the dragons for Wag It's success?

The main challenges identified by the dragons for Wag It's success include getting the technology right, attracting enough dog owners to use the platform, signing up enough dog-friendly businesses, and effectively marketing the platform.

What is the potential issue with Wag It's current approach according to the dragons?

The potential issue with Wag It's current approach is that by charging businesses to list, it may limit the platform's growth and make it easier for larger, more established companies to enter the market and overshadow Wag It.

What is the Kennel Club's statistic regarding dog-friendly businesses and their customers?

According to the Kennel Club, 98% of dog-friendly publicans say that customers with dogs bring them better business.

Outlines

00:00

🐾 Wag It: A Dog-Friendly Online Booking Platform

Nadia Legwell introduces Wag It, the first dog-friendly online booking platform in the UK, aimed at making it easier for dog owners to find and book places to take their dogs. She seeks an investment of £50,000 for 5.5% of her business. Nadia's background in online reservations and her experience with Open Table and TripAdvisor Business are highlighted. Wag It addresses the difficulty dog owners face in finding and booking dog-friendly places, such as pubs, restaurants, groomers, and taxis. The platform allows users to search and book based on location, time, and preferences, with features like doggy menus. The business model involves charging operators a monthly subscription fee tiered according to their marketing needs. At the time of the pitch, 39 restaurants are signed up, and there's a focus on promoting the service through word-of-mouth and the appeal of dog-friendly establishments.

05:02

📈 Scaling Challenges and Monetization Strategies

The dragons question Nadia on her strategy for scaling Wag It and how she plans to monetize the platform. Nadia explains that the business model includes a loyalty scheme to encourage user registration and that the platform can be used as a search engine without registration. She discusses the tiered subscription model for operators and the current count of signed-up restaurants. The dragons express concerns about the barriers to scale due to the subscription fee requirement for listings, which contrasts with other platforms that offer free listings to grow their network quickly. Nadia defends her model by mentioning the promotional value for restaurants and the potential for community building among dog owners. The conversation also touches on the need for technical expertise within the team to support the platform's growth and development.

10:03

🚀 Addressing Competition and Investor Concerns

As the dragons continue their interrogation, they express concerns about the lack of technical expertise within Nadia's team and the potential for larger platforms to easily incorporate dog-friendly features, overshadowing Wag It's unique selling point. Nadia acknowledges these concerns but remains confident in her ability to grow the business. The dragons also discuss the potential market size and the number of restaurants needed to make Wag It a credible proposition. Nadia shares her current growth rate and the steps she plans to take to accelerate the business, including marketing and technical improvements. However, the dragons remain skeptical about the business's scalability and the team's ability to compete effectively in the market without significant investment and technical expertise.

15:04

🏆 Departure Without a Deal

Despite Nadia's best efforts to convince the dragons of Wag It's potential, they ultimately decide not to invest. The dragons cite concerns about the need for substantial resources, technical expertise, and the competitive landscape as reasons for their decision. Nadia leaves the den without a deal but remains optimistic about the future of Wag It. She expresses her intention to continue adding businesses to the platform and improving it, with the hope of revisiting the dragons in the future when the business is in a stronger position.

Keywords

💡Dog friendly

The term 'dog friendly' refers to establishments or services that are welcoming and accommodating to dogs. In the context of the video, it is central to the business model of Wag It, a platform that aims to connect dog owners with venues that allow pets. The script mentions that the founder, Nadia, realized the difficulty in finding dog-friendly places and decided to create a solution, highlighting the growing demand for such services.

💡Online booking platform

An 'online booking platform' is a digital service that allows users to make reservations for various services or venues through the internet. In the video, Wag It is described as the first dog-friendly online booking platform in the UK, which enables users to discover, find, and book places to take their dogs, such as pubs, restaurants, and grooming services.

💡Investment pitch

An 'investment pitch' is a presentation made by an entrepreneur to potential investors, aiming to secure funding for their business. In the script, Nadia presents Wag It to the dragons (investors), seeking £50,000 for 5.5% of her business, explaining the problem she's addressing and how her platform offers a solution.

💡Market demand

Market demand refers to the quantity of a product or service that consumers are willing and able to purchase. The video script mentions the market demand for dog-friendly services, with over 12 million dog owners in the UK and 98% of dog-friendly pub earners saying that customers with dogs bring better business.

💡Business model

A 'business model' outlines how a company creates, delivers, and captures value. In the video, Wag It's business model involves charging a monthly subscription fee to operators like restaurants and groomers, with different tiers based on the extent of their marketing with the platform.

💡Loyalty scheme

A 'loyalty scheme' is a marketing strategy where customers earn rewards for continued patronage. Nadia mentions a loyalty scheme in the script as a way to encourage users to register on Wag It, suggesting that users can earn points for actions like booking a groomer or visiting a restaurant.

💡Monetization

Monetization is the process of turning a product or service into income. In the context of the video, Wag It plans to monetize by charging a subscription fee to businesses that want to be listed on the platform, with the potential for additional revenue through advertising and promotions.

💡Scale

In business, 'scale' refers to the ability to grow and expand operations. The dragons in the video discuss the importance of scaling the business, with concerns raised about the current model's resistance to rapid growth due to the subscription fee barrier for restaurants.

💡Technical expertise

Technical expertise refers to the specialized knowledge and skills in a technical field, often necessary for developing and maintaining a tech-based business. The dragons express concern about the lack of technical expertise within Wag It's team, which could impact the platform's ability to adapt and innovate.

💡Market competition

Market competition refers to the rivalry among similar businesses for market share. The dragons in the video script express concerns about the potential for other, larger platforms to easily add dog-friendly features, outcompeting Wag It by leveraging their existing scale and resources.

Highlights

Taking pets into the den is a risky business, as they can be unpredictable.

Nadia's dog Lola has transferred her affections, showing dogs can be fickle.

Pets can sometimes be too vocal, disrupting the business environment.

Some pets are very calm, even in stressful situations.

Pets can steal the show, overshadowing their owners.

Nadia hopes for her dog Lola to behave well during the pitch.

Nadia's startup aims to connect dog owners with dog-friendly services.

Wag It is the first dog-friendly online booking platform in the UK.

Nadia seeks £50,000 for 5.5% of her business.

Nadia's background in online reservations gives her an edge.

Wag It addresses the difficulty of finding dog-friendly places to go.

The platform allows users to book dog-friendly groomers, pubs, bars, and restaurants.

Nadia's business model includes a tiered subscription fee for service providers.

Currently, 39 restaurants are signed up on Wag It.

Nadia's lack of technical expertise is a concern for the investors.

The potential for other platforms to add dog-friendly filters is seen as a risk.

Nadia's team lacks technical co-founders, which is a red flag for investors.

Investors are concerned about the scalability of Wag It's business model.

Nadia leaves the den without securing an investment deal.

Transcripts

taking something with fur or even

feathers in one case

into the den can be a risky business

[Music]

sometimes they can just get a bit too

friendly with the dragons bye-bye she's

not the most loyal dog is she she's

completely transferred her affections

[Music]

occasionally they can get a bit too

vocal oh he's giving me the financials

and sometimes they can be just a tad too

chilled I wish I was as calm she was I

can tell you

and then there are the times when they

completely steal the show

okay do you just want my money yes

please

[Music]

hoping her King Charles Spaniel Lola

will be on doggy best behavior tonight

is Italian Nadia legwell I adore dogs

and I think they're the best companion

any person can have we'll get you loads

of treats off but

growing up in Italy we always had dogs

in our family when I moved to UK I had

the first opportunity I got Lola

Nadia startup aims to Wed going walkies

with the web

as a dog owner I definitely noticed

there was something missing on the

market so I decided to build a service

that all dog parents could use

the pooch friendly proposition has

already sparked speculation in the den

run a dog to have dinner with you

dinnerdogs.com we could call it doggy

date

50 50.

I mean

the dragons appear to be in a playful

mood so can Nadia bring them to heal

come on Lola before parting them from

their cash

hello dragons this is Lola and I'm Nadia

and we're the co-founders of Wag It

waget is the first dog friendly online

booking platform in the UK we're here to

seek fifty thousand pounds for five and

a half percent of our business

my background is in online reservations

I was the first salesperson in Europe

for open table and then I was director

of sales at Booker table which is now

TripAdvisor business

when Lola came into my life I realized

how difficult it was to book places to

go with your dog when you looked online

the options were limited and even when

you found somewhere dog friendly you

turn up and you'd be sat at the back

next to the bins or ask to sit outside

even if it was raining

and when it came to groomers there was

actually no way to book online you'd

have to call and they never answered

because they were grooming

so I thought there has to be a better

way

there are now over 12 million uh dog

owners in the UK and according to the

Kennel Club 98 of dog friendly Pub

earners say that customers with dogs

bring them better business that's where

wag it comes in

our website enables people to discover

find and book places to take their dog

so let me show you how it works

you can select groomers pubs and bars

restaurants or taxis

you then put the time and area

and then you click submit

after that you get a selection of what's

available your preferences you can

select one and look at the description

if they have a doggy menu for example

and all that information you select the

time and then you put in your details if

they're not already in there

that's how simple it is

looking for a dog friendly dragon and we

know you all are

to join the waged pack

[Music]

a canine compatible online platform for

restaurant booking is the offering from

Nadia legwell

who's seeking a 50 000 pound investment

in return for a five and a half percent

share in her business

I don't think she wants to take any

questions I think we should let Lola go

if she doesn't want to be in the desk

okay

Lola's work may be done but Nadia's has

only just begun

Pizza Jones is first with the questions

and he's clearly intrigued by this

entrepreneur CV

Nadia yes your experience in the past

it's really interesting congratulations

thank you what do you believe in terms

of scale with your experience how are

you going to achieve

sort of growth for the business the

business model is interesting because

having come from Open Table the

for reservation

like that is transactional so they

charge for a cover but with us it's more

a benefit it's a marketing channel for

the restaurants to Market to dog owners

so it will be promotions and so on and

there's so much we can do to a business

you know offering offering them more um

opportunity to to Market to dogs there's

I mean there's so many events

restaurants can fill the quieter times

at lunchtime with dog owners and then

the other side to monetize is once

everyone falls in love and looks through

Agate the community side of it so the

consumers yeah I get the advertising

piece on there as you grow but so how

many people do you have to register on

this site or can I just use this as a

search engine you can just use it as

surge engine how does that help you grab

a subscriber or build your data

how do you do that you mean if you don't

register yeah if I can go on there and

use similar to a Google search the idea

is the Loyalty scheme will encourage

people to register what I'd like to do

with wag it is you can get points if you

go near a restaurant if you book your

groomer okay so you haven't got any

registered users at the moment no I have

you have about 400

Nadia's website is already gaining

traction

but the Den's newest pet owner wants to

discover exactly how she intends to

convert dog friendly days out into

Financial clout

puppies

I I've just got one I know exactly where

you're coming from okay so the business

model you've now told us that how will

you make an income out of it

we will charge operators so restaurants

groomers and so on a monthly

subscription fee it will be tiered so

tier one two two three depending on how

much they want to Market with us I'm a

restaurant sir so what will I have to

pay on your subscription to enroll so 10

pounds is the tier one subscription 10

pounds a month yeah

how many restaurants have you got signed

up at the moment

39 and the only way a restaurant can

sign up is if they pay yes so if I'm a

visitor and I want to go for a

restaurant there's only 39 options I

have in the United Kingdom at the moment

at the moment yes that's because you've

put this huge barrier in the way of you

achieving scale which is you're charging

every single restaurant to list

the reason why Open Table Yelp and all

these other websites have huge scale

from day one is there's no resistance

for a restaurant to join

you've created resistance which means

you have to now go around and knock on

every restaurant's door to sign them up

one by one but I offered anyone who

would joined three month free you must

be the only person in the industry

that's charging people to list Beyond 90

days there are a couple of other scale

and also Open Table

um was charged a monthly fee as well

that's an add-on they have a freemium

model with the the premium upside if you

want it as a restaurant which lists you

higher you get featured etc etc yeah

right if you want to get Scaled quickly

have a freemium model where every dog

friendly restaurant in the land can sign

up and then charge them for better

placement

or else you're gonna have to knock on

every restaurant's door so I think

that's an existential risk to your model

it fears that

long tree with current business model

so will Sarah Davies see greater

potential in her plans to harness the

pooch owning pound

honestly I think you've done a brilliant

job getting to this point there's

clearly demand in the market I think

you've you've come into the market at

the exact right time when you've got all

of these dog owners now flooding into

the market and things are opening up

people are desperate to get out there

and obviously you've got the The Proven

track record you've made this work for a

couple of huge companies so you know all

of that together suggests it could be a

recipe for success thank you how big

does this have to be for this to become

a credible proposition

600 700 restaurants

how many a day are you signing up at the

moment so we get about five or six a day

a week sorry five or six a week yeah but

what we want to do is really accelerate

the business now and we need marketing

to push a bit more and we need the

developers to improve a few things I

build the website really quickly and to

get it up and and see how much interest

it would get you built it well I had it

built unfortunately I don't know how to

do coding and you don't think you can

get from the place you're at at the

moment to that six seven hundred without

having investment to improve the tech

platform

I can get there but it'll take me a lot

longer

you're building a tech company here you

said that there's no one in your team

that has built a tech company before

well I I my business partner and one of

the investors is a friend of mine and

he's a product manager and helped build

Tech business and then exited so he's

the one who's helping me build the

product

I would feel from my experience building

tech companies that you'd need someone

in-house to have technical expertise and

if you're if you are going to go out to

Market and get investors the first thing

they're going to want to know is where's

your technical co-founder who's the CTO

yes and that's what I want

with a background in Hospitality this

entrepreneur knows her Gourmet Bites but

when it comes to megabytes her lack of

expertise is giving cause for concern

now the Den's most Ardent dog lover with

four canine companions of her own wants

to discover more about the businesses

competition

Nadia what was your actual role at Open

Table oh it's sales

so what does that website do to tell

consumers about dogs Open Table Open

Table Open Table doesn't even have a

tick box at the moment for for dog

friendly ones so where would I go now if

I was looking for pet friendly stuff I

mean the way I used to do it is you put

it in Google and just hope and that it's

always the same three or four that come

up in my area

but I guess I'm trying to understand

what your added value is and I have a

little bit of a worry for you I think it

is going to become a tick box

any other site that just sells

restaurants is just going to add that

symbol and have a filter that brings it

Forward whenever you put a search in

which I think is a great shame because

you know you kind of spotted it first

you know but I'm afraid I I worry about

that for you and you know going into an

investment with a worry for somebody is

not a good idea so I'm really sorry an

idea I won't be investing I'm out

thank you Deborah

disappointment for Nadia who has lost

her first dragon

will a tech savvy Peter Jones prove any

more receptive to this entrepreneur's

attempt to computerize Canine

hospitality

I like it I think it's a really good

idea

I'm slightly disappointed though with

your background that you haven't come in

with a much bigger number of customers

on there already 39

I would have expected you to have said

I've got several hundred reference

already on board and I'm predicting by

the end of this month I'll have a

thousand restaurants 1500 next month I'd

expect much more of a pipeline of where

it's going

so for that reason I'm out but good luck

thank you

no idea hi

so My worry is that you're just going to

shine such a big light on this that

these other companies are going to go ah

look what we've been missing guys

there's this huge business opportunity

over here if we just make our website a

little bit more dog friendly stick a

couple of pictures of dogs on get some

testimonials write a few blogs Bob's

your uncle Moross artist okay you're

going to raise awareness for then

someone else to eat your dinner

so as sad as I am to say it because you

seem lovely

I can't invest today and I'm out

I travel everywhere with my dog and I

felt the pain that you're trying to

resolve completely get that my issue is

about the technical expertise within the

team

and so with this type of business I

would want to have seen technical

expertise in the core team to give me

peace of mind that this team will

iterate through all of the problems that

I know they're going to encounter

and I haven't seen that today

so for that reason I'm out

more dragons have now bowed out

only fast Tycoon 2 K Suleiman remains

is he prepared to trade the world of the

catwalk for that of the dog walk

I think the idea is great

the way I see it is that you've got sort

of three big challenges

first challenge really is to get your

Tech right and have good technical

support

the Second Challenge is to get enough

dog owners to use it and the third

challenge is to get enough restaurants

there's your free challenges and on top

of that the main here is is the

marketing

because you know what this really means

if I have to be totally honest with you

this needs a million pounds thrown at it

and I I think that your 50 000 ask it's

just a drop in the ocean

so I'm gonna say to you I wish you all

the best

and I'm out

okay thank you thanks Nadia thank you

thank you thanks

Nadia leaves the den without a deal

but despite the dog devotees previous

pedigree the dragon's decision not to

invest isn't proving a bone of

contention

I just don't think it will work without

as you say huge resources money and

talent at least a lot of money Millions

you're right Millions next for Lola and

I will just continue adding

um businesses to wag it improving it and

and maybe when they will come back