Ep. 100: To Define Your Business Model, Follow the Money—with Emily Dong of Snout

A lot of founders are focused on making their solution accessible to everyone, so they offer it for free. But you’ve got to make money if you want to build and sustain a successful business. So, how do you identify who sees the most value from your product or service and design a business model accordingly? Emily Dong is the Founder and CEO of SnoutID, a company working to improve the patient experience at veterinary practices through the centralization of data. Prior to Snout, she built and sold Pawprint Inc., a pet health app designed to digitize pet medical records. Emily earned her BS in Accounting Information Systems, Entrepreneurship and Math Finance from USC. On this episode of the podcast, Emily joins us to share the personal experiences that inspired her to found first Pawprint and then Snout, discussing the need for preventative veterinary care and the rising popularity of pet insurance in the US market. She walks us through the three phases of a startup, explaining how her role evolved as buy-in for her company grew. Listen in for Emily’s insight on balancing idealism with sustainability as a startup founder and learn her follow-the-money approach to creating a business model around the value you provide. Topics Covered The experience that inspired Emily to start PawprintNeeded vaccination records to board dogVet asked for fax number to send records The need for preventative veterinary care in the pet marketOnly 2% to 5% of pets insured in US30% of pets have never been to vet The rising popularity of pet insuranceGrowing 20% year over yearAlready common in Europe What factors influence the cost of pet insuranceZip codeBreed (e.g.: retrievers more prone to cancer) Emily’s take on the biggest challenges of entrepreneurshipFinding business modelBalance idealism with sustainability How Emily’s startup evolved from B2C to B2BApp popular with consumers but couldn’t make $‘Follow the money’ to B2B (identify value to vets) How Emily dealt with burnout as a startup founderTrack quality of sleepConsistent workouts Emily’s insight on the three phases of a startupExistential crisis (Am I working on the right thing?)Leverage personal conviction to generate buy-inPeople and org problems Emily’s definition of successAvailability of resources (money, network, etc.)Solve any problem passionate aboutConnect with Emily SnoutID https://snoutid.com/SnoutID on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/snoutidSnoutID on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/snoutEmily on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/dongemilyEmily on Twitter https://twitter.com/emiidee Resources Pawprint https://www.getpawprint.com/Chewy https://www.chewy.com/Trupanion https://trupanion.com/Healthy Paws https://www.healthypawspetinsurance.com/Petplan https://www.gopetplan.com/Pet Insurance by Nationwide https://www.petinsurance.com/Adam’s MONEY IS GOOD Post https://adamdraper.substack.com/p/money-is-goodAmplitude https://amplitude.com/Oura Ring https://ouraring.com/Threes http://play.threesgame.com/2048 https://play2048.co/Tetris https://tetris.com/Spenser Skates on Boost VC Podcast EP98 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUsIryDX8cIJK Rowling https://www.jkrowling.com/Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card https://www.amazon.com/Enders-Ender-Quintet-Orson-Scott/dp/0812550706Ender’s Shadow by Orson Scott Card https://www.amazon.com/Enders-Shadow-Orson-Scott-Card/dp/0812575717Bill Gates https://www.gatesnotes.com/ Connect with Boost VC Boost VC Website https://www.boost.vc/Boost VC on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/boostvc/Boost VC on Twitter https://twitter.com/BoostVCBoost VC on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/boost_vc/