The Series A Crunch Is No Match For Man's Best Friend

With all the barking in startup activity these days, it can be tempting to dismiss certain categories as another sign of the bubble. For example, how about an online marketplace for dog-owners to find other people to pet-sit their four-legged friends? Recently, I was a bit surprised to learn of a $50B+ annual consumer category that seems to double every decade for the past few decades: The U.S. pet industry. To give some perspective, Americans spend about $600B+ per year at supermarkets and grocery stores (some of which includes pet items, Im sure). As it turns out, a few pet-related startups not only got off the ground and began to make money, at least three of them were able to take a bite out of The Series A Crunch to advance their businesses. While it may have been easy to target such startups as small ideas, the size of the market doesnt lie, and consumers are voting with their paws.