HelloPuppy
By |Last Updated: May 5, 2023|Categories: |

project brief

In 2015 John Cantlin set out to find a business to start that he had a passion for. As his first true venture, he came up with HelloPuppy. HelloPuppy was a way for puppy goers to find the best dog breeders, avoid puppy mills and help limit the number of dogs on the euthanasia list. John Cantlin has always had a passion for dogs and his unique bootstrap approach and creativity led him to financial success in his second year before the company was acquired.

John Cantlin was optimistic that all breeders cared about the quality of their puppies, yet fell out of love with the business due to the shocking number of puppy mills, AKC.org lobbying laws to allow puppy mills to operate, and the simple fact 80% of dogs breeders unethical breed their puppies that can cost upwards of five thousand dollars in Vet fees and or taking home a puppy that does.

Explainer Video

Explainer Video

Written/Directed By John Cantlin

What made HelloPuppy Unique

HelloPuppy

Adopt 1 Save One

Adopt One Save One was our secret sauce. There is a stigma that I support that adopting purebred puppies instead animal shelters significantly reduced the number of saveable dogs in shelters. That’s why we focused on serving both markets and donating 0ver 30% of our Net Profits to shelters to minimize overcrowding and unnecessary euthanasia. During the three-year venture, John Cantlin donated over 1,500,00 million dollars to shelters in need.

Evil Stats For The Puppy Business

Entering this business, we had an evil competition that would sell puppy mill dogs, and they were heavily funded. To overcome this, we focused on breeder recruitment with our Trademark ™℠®©w “Match Maker Program.” We would extensively have our breeders vetted as more than our customers to ensure that puppies we are not coming from the top three related companies that overcharge the price of puppies and know as Puppy Brokers:

The common misconception was that dog breeders are good people that love dogs

  • 1

    Our competition had millions of funding

  • 2

    We were fitting online scams

  • 3

    Over 20+K active puppy mills

  • 4

    Now true validation of the puppies origin or health status

Funding

John Cantlin’s story of HelloPuppy is a trued hard, knocks approach to bootstrapping his business. John Cantlin was homeless, sleeping in his car to ensure his employees were paid. Most of the time, he would sleep in his Arizona office to work late and meet his employees in the morning.

Things became tough for John when he was running out of cash flow and going through the most adversity most business owners avoid or give up. But that is not the closest to the once 14 and homeless young man. He always had a burning desire to do whatever it took to make it work.

During the last week of depleted operation expenses, he received a call interested in purchasing HelloPuppy for an outstanding payday.

“Life is complicated, and sometimes the most challenging lessons from you for the most challenging problems. I would not change anything from the amount of suffering during this process as in the face of failure; I decided to keep going”. Said John Cantlin – Forbes

Innovated Health Check To Hold Breeders Accountable

the final result

Results:

  • Website traffic for HelloPuppy increased by 300% using John Cantlin’s priority strategy first three months.
  • Online sales increased by 600% within the first six months
  • Notable press coverage
  • Email open rates increased by 50%, and click-through rates increased by 80%
  • The company’s brand awareness increased significantly within the local community.

Founding Technology

Accomplishments

What made HelloPuppy Unique

Adopt 1 Save One

HelloPuppy

Adopt One Save One was our secret sauce. There is a stigma that I support that adopting purebred puppies instead animal shelters significantly reduced the number of saveable dogs in shelters. That’s why we focused on serving both markets and donating 0ver 30% of our Net Profits to shelters to minimize overcrowding and unnecessary euthanasia. During the three-year venture, John Cantlin donated over 1,500,00 million dollars to shelters in need.

Entering this business, we had an evil competition that would sell puppy mill dogs, and they were heavily funded. To overcome this, we focused on breeder recruitment with our Trademark ™℠®©w “Match Maker Program.” We would extensively have our breeders vetted as more than our customers to ensure that puppies we are not coming from the top three related companies that overcharge the price of puppies and know as Puppy Brokers:

The common misconception was that dog breeders are good people that love dogs

  • 1

    Our competition had millions of funding

  • 2

    We were fitting online scams

  • 3

    Over 20+K active puppy mills

  • 4

    Now true validation of the puppies origin or health status

  • 5

    Amish run puppy mills legally and do not concern about the puppies health. But companies like PuppySpot, Permier Pups and, Corckett Doodles all use the same Amish breeders in Lancaster PA, and Ohio, where it’s legal to treat poor dogs as cattle and pup profit first by mistreating the living environments.

the final result

Results:

  • Website traffic for HelloPuppy increased by 300% using John Cantlin’s priority strategy first three months.
  • Online sales increased by 600% within the first six months
  • Notable press coverage
  • Social media followers increased by 150% within the first year
  • Email open rates increased by 50%, and click-through rates increased by 80%
  • The companies brand awareness increased significantly within the local community

Key Personal

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