Petzbe is raising an equity offering at a $14.3 million valuation. The company has built a community of almost half a million users, with more than a million followers on social media. That network is valuable and represents a decent stream of potential future revenue. However, future revenue is all Petzbe has to offer. The company has not yet generated a single dollar of income. No matter the value of the app’s user base, it’s difficult to justify a $14 million valuation for a company with zero proof of monetization. Consequently, Petzbe’s price rating is its lowest across all five metrics. 

About 85 million families in the US own a pet. That’s 85 million potential users for Petzbe in the US alone. Because Petzbe is free and as accessible as any other mainstream social media network, theoretically that entire segment of pet owners could easily download Petzbe and become a user. 

What Petzbe ought to be more concerned about, though, is monetization potential. The company doesn’t seem to have plans to charge for its core social network, so the company’s actual market size is more reliant on the base of prospective customers for its physical pet goods (currently a line of salmon pet treats) and its future mobile app game. US pet food and treats was a $34.3 billion market in 2019, so that market is only decent-sized. The market for spending on mobile games is almost twice that size, though, estimated at $68.5 billion in 2019. 

While Petzbe’s largest market opportunity doesn’t seem to correlate with monetization at this point, the company does have monetization potential from decent-sized markets in pet goods and mobile gaming. However, the company will face established competitors in both those markets and may struggle to claim a niche of its own. Therefore, the company’s market rating is middling. 

Petzbe was founded by Andrea Nerep, a corporate communications and PR professional. Nerep holds a master’s in corporate communications and public relations from New York University. After graduation, she spent a couple of years in communications at SpencerStuart and AllazoHealth. Shortly thereafter, though, Nerep founded Petzbe, which has been around since 2017. 

The Petzbe team also includes Chelsea Williams (director of growth and content creation). She’s a marketing professional and content creator who has more than 10,000 followers on Instagram and runs several of her own pet content accounts with tens of thousands of followers between them. Williams holds a degree in film production from Emerson University and worked briefly in marketing and social media before running her own content creation businesses. 

The Petzbe team seems to have a strong sense of the pet content space — mostly via Williams’ personal experience as a micro-influencer. However, the team doesn’t have strong expertise in business, entrepreneurship, or monetizing mobile apps. As a result, Petzbe’s team score is only slightly above average.

Petzbe offers a unique social media experience that is entirely focused on pets. The company clearly positions itself as an alternative to mainstream social media networks that are saturated with news, political opinions, pretty photos that prompt negative comparison, and other content that can damage mental health. Even among other apps focused on pet owners (such as Dig, a dating app for dog owners) Petzbe stands out. Its Instagram-esque feed cuts out the human perspective entirely and also offers stickers and filters to make pet photos even more fun. 

Of course, Petzbe will always battle with the fact that there are already many pet-centered accounts on Instagram, Twitter, and other mainstream social networks. Posting photos and messages in the voice of a pet isn’t novel in and of itself. Therefore, Petzbe users could always find similar communities and content on other networks. That risk mitigate’s Petzbe’s differentiation rating somewhat, but the company’s score is still its highest across all five metrics.

In terms of user growth, Petzbe has made solid progress since its launch in 2018. More than 450,000 users have registered with Petzbe, and most of that growth came from the last year (February 2020 through February 2021). In addition, the company has more than one million followers on Facebook and 33,000 followers on Instagram. Many of these followers likely came from Petzbe’s press features in Good Morning America, People Magazine, and more. 

However, Petzbe has zero revenue to show for all of this user growth. The company hasn’t generated a dollar of income since its founding, and it’s burning a good deal of cash. Petzbe’s net loss was just over $1 million in 2019, with an additional decline to over $1.6 million in 2020. These significant net losses seem unusual for a fairly simple mobile app company, and it’s not a great sign that Petzbe hasn’t figured out monetization yet.

Between strong user growth metrics and poor financial metrics, Petzbe’s performance rating is just slightly above average.

Petzbe has built a fairly impressive community between app users and social media followers, and the concept of Petzbe’s niche social network seems solid. However, the company just doesn’t have any financial traction to show for the last several years of work. It seems like Petzbe finally started thinking about revenue in the last several months, with the launch of its pet treats and mobile app game. However, those steps could also be perceived as a lack of focus. Why isn’t Petzbe doubling down on its mobile app and potential for corporate partnerships, mobile ads, app upgrades (stickers and filters), or other revenue streams that prioritize its initial product? 

It seems as though Petzbe will face meaningful operational challenges in trying to scale as a consumer goods company, mobile gaming company, and social media company all at the same time. The team is still very small, and Petzbe’s founder doesn’t have any experience operating a business. Particularly at this high valuation, there seems to be a strong risk that investors won’t reap a return. 

A pet-centered social media network might seem silly to a certain segment of the population. Yet, there are undoubtedly millions of pet owners who are obsessed with taking photos of their furry friends, editing and sharing those photos, and consuming content from other similarly-obsessed users. Petzbe has clearly proven this product-market fit. Almost half a million people use Petzbe, and it has another huge base of social media followers. It seems like the company’s content and marketing strategy, led by a pet influencer/content creator, has worked like a charm. 

It is somewhat worrisome that monetization has been on the back burner for so long, but Petzbe is clearly working on generating revenue now with the launch of its pet treats and mobile app game. These priorities are arguably distracting Petzbe from its core product, but there’s also an argument to be made that Petzbe’s audience is large enough to support these new ventures. A pre-existing base of avid users is an asset that most pet treat or mobile gaming companies would love to access. Petzbe’s large user base is its greatest advantage, one that might help the company generate revenue quickly this year and beyond. 

Petzbe is a pet-focused social media network. It is pursuing additional revenue streams from pet treats, a mobile app game, and potentially future pet goods. The company has built a user base of 450,000 over the last three years, most of them acquired in the last year alone. Petzbe’s large user base — which could theoretically be converted into paying customers for products or game upgrades — is the company’s biggest asset. 

On the other hand, Petzbe generated zero revenue in the first several years of business, and the company’s founder doesn’t have a strong business background. In addition, the company’s recent launches in consumer products and mobile gaming arguably reflect a lack of focus on its core product. Therefore, Petzbe has been rated a Neutral Deal. 

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