Friendr

What it does

Our goal is to revolutionize pet adoption by creating an intelligent matching platform that connects potential adopters with their ideal pets through personality-based compatibility, while empowering animal shelters nationwide with a standardized, data-driven adoption tool to increase the number of successful adoptions. The use of the science-based behavior attributes and evaluation methods that accompany Friendr will enable shelters to more reliably and more rapidly adopt their animals to homes and will enable adopters to more accurately predict their future with each animal.

How we built it

Friends For Life is an shelter with a history of being an alternative to traditional shelters and functioning as an incubator for new ideas in an industry that has been largely unchanged for 150 years. Friendr is just one of our unique trademarked programs. Two misses of the shelter industry addressed by Friendr are: not keeping pace with the science of animal behavior and not marketing animals to consumers in the way that consumers choose to shop.

Friendr meets consumers where they are—through allowing them agency in their choice by allowing them to take a quick, online quiz that pulls data from science-based behavior evaluations on the animals and matches the adopter’s preferences in behavior. Consumers overwhelmingly choose to shop through disintermediated communication. They want to do their own research and make choices in which their own research gives them agency in the choice. No one waits for/wants the car salesman to sidle up and say , “What are we looking for today?” Yet, animal shelters do just that.

In additions catering to people's preferences to make consumer choices by doing online research, studies show us that behavior is the number one reason animals are returned to shelters and behavior is the single most impactful factor in determining the success of an adoption. Yet, shelters are not matching adopters with animals based on behavior.

In fact, a quick look at the sites of the largest shelters in Houston (HSPCA, BARC, Harris County, Houston Humane Society) provide zero behavior data to the adopter looking for pets on their sites. Studies show that left without this behavior information, adopters choose animals based on appearance and spend an average of 70 seconds observing each shelter animals. Left without behavior guidance, adopters choose based on coat color, breed, gender and coat length. These appearance based choices frequently result in unsuccessful matches.

Challenges we ran into

From a technology perspective, still need to work on the SaaS model and connection to multiple Shelter CRMs. Shelters run on three main shelter software platforms and so far, Friendr only communicates with one of the three.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We successfully completed UI model. We have a scalable prototype data model and matching algorithm. A municipal, open intake traditional shelter is interested in partnering with us to introduce Friendr at their shelter. We have gathered two years of performance data on Friendr as a tool to increase adoptions and increase customer satisfaction.

What we learned

Friendr increases adoptions. Launched two years ago by Friends For Life, Friendr skyrocketed our adoption by 45% in the first 6 months as we pushed it out. As we ended the media push, the increase in adoption stayed at a steady 25% over previous rates. Most surprisingly, animals who had been passed over in our program, sometimes for years, were getting applications and getting adopted. It also increases adoptions of animals that had no interest before Friendr.

We believe these results can be attained in other shelters. These "long stay" animals are either languishing in programs waiting for a home preventing programs from taking additional animals or worst case, losing their lives in traditional shelters. We can dramatically change their trajectory through Friendr. Adopters feel energized by having agency in having a quantified % match for their top most likely matches.

Friendr brings adoption decisions from appearance based judgments about animals to the more reliable behavior based decisions. We have learned that left with no behavior information and no guidance, adopters will make adoption decisions based on appearance. We know the science is that behavior is the #1 reason for adoption relinquishment and conversely, behavior traits are the single most impactful factor in a successful adoption.

What's next for Friendr

With the initial prototype we can apply for grants to get donors and investors. The working prototype will help in getting partner shelters. Because we want to make this broadly available to other shelters, getting help on how to build this as a scalable service model will be crucial. We are a 501 c 3 and this intellectual property will be a funding source for the shelter. We need help getting fresh eyes on the tiered pricing system to be sure that we hit the sweet spot between making income for the shelter and widely dispersing the Friendr model. SLIDES DEMO https://youtu.be/sUrEZk8v410

Big Picture Takeaways: • Friendr can increase shelter adoption rates from 25-45%. • The three largest shelters in Houston provide zero behavior data on their adoptables yet we know behavior is the single most important factor in determining adoption success.
• For BARC, the COH shelter, that could mean an additional 1,325 adoptions a year and based on unit (per animal) cost of $1005 in the $15.2M budget, a potential savings of $1,331, 625 is possible if matches are made and retained. • Friendr creates a unifying language of behavior attributes and adopter interface that will allow adopters from any shelter that uses it to have access to accurate and predictive information about the animals.

Built With

• api
• database
• figma
• python