Last week we announced that OneMind Dogs has been accepted in the Capital Factory Touchdown program in Austin, Texas. We had a chat with Fred Schmidt, Director of International Affairs in Capital Factory, and asked him what OneMind Dogs can expect next.
What is the Touchdown program and how will OneMind Dogs benefit from it?
The Touchdown program provides concierge service for foreign entrepreneurs. Capital Factory is like the entrepreneur’s first friend in the US. We help companies get settled in and assist them with practicalities, like getting a visa or opening a US bank account. Next, we start helping them with their business strategy, like fine-tuning their product market fit or recruiting employees.
OneMind Dogs is more advanced than many of the other companies we work with. 70% of their customers are already in the US. With OneMind Dogs, we’ll be able to move more quickly.
We’ll help OneMind Dogs expand their opportunities and find customers in Texas and elsewhere in the US. We will also help them identify strategic partnerships, from vets to pet food stores and people in the pet business. I think the company has a huge B2B opportunity as well in addition to the consumer business.
What are your first thoughts about OneMind Dogs Puppy Training?
After seeing first hand how OneMind Dogs Puppy Training works, I am very enthusiastic about it. This is coming from someone who sees a lot of new products every year!
CEO Noora Keskievari showed how it works with my daughter’s new puppy. Within thirty minutes, my daughter was replicating the method and was able to connect with her pup and influence its behavior. That gave her great satisfaction and quickly made her interested in purchasing a product to continue this training.
As her father, it also made me interested in buying the product for my daughter as a gift if she did not buy it herself. So right there, two sales opportunities were established. My daughter has also shared her positive experience with several friends who have new puppies. Now they are interested in the product as well. That’s called the “network effect” and the training of young pets is a ripe consumer market in the U.S. for fast viral adoption through word-of-mouth recommendations and social media postings.
How do you think OneMind Dogs Puppy Training fits the US market?
America is dog crazy. People build their lives around dogs. We love our animals and spend a lot of money on them, from the food they eat to how they sleep. They’re part of our family. The one thing we struggle with is training those pets. OneMind Dogs Puppy Training is solving a real problem.
The traction OneMind Dogs already has in the US market with their unique approach among advanced dog trainers demonstrates that they have a well-formed program. Launch of the new puppy training program this summer should enable faster and broader consumer adoption among a large market segment. And if those early customers see results and feel successful, that will greatly grow the lifetime value of OneMind Dogs’ relationship with their customers.
I believe the program will be very successful when pet owners start talking with each other about it. When Noora first came to Austin, everyone in the Capital Factory community was instantly talking about her approach. I believe OneMind Dogs will be able to grow quickly through viral adoption and start producing revenue.
I see hundreds of companies every year and most of them have ideas that still need to be proved. OneMind Dogs is way past that. Their connection with customers speaks for itself.
The market exists and it’s already validated by OneMind Dogs through their agility method. Puppy Training will now get them in the broadest possible customer segment.
What do you think about the OneMind Dogs team?
Noora has a unique background of coming from an established family business. I identify other of the same core characteristics in her that I see in a lot of other successful entrepreneurs. She is passionate, smart, and focused - exactly what you need to succeed in the US market. I can tell she has the drive and commitment to make OneMind Dogs a success. She has already proved it by taking this company this far in seven years.
Noora has surrounded herself with capable people, who come from true professional backgrounds. The people in the OneMind Dogs team are not a group of inexperienced college students. I believe the company has all the ingredients they need to make it in the US market.
To find out more about OneMind Dogs’ plans in the US, check out our Invesdor page!