FitBark wags its way into nationwide retailer
May 29, 2015 | Bobby Burch
Animal tech company FitBark is now selling its dog activity-tracking device in Target stores nationwide.
FitBark Marketing Director Sara Rossi
The deal will place its product in front of millions of consumers each year at Target’s nearly 1,800 U.S. locations. FitBark’s animal tracking device will be featured among Target’s new “Connected-Life” section, which features other Internet-enabled products such as wireless thermostat Nest and Belkin’s wireless light switch.
“It’s been super exciting,” FitBark CEO Davide Rossi said. “We’re transitioning from early-adopters to become more mainstream. … This really allows us to reach a larger number of folks and potential buyers and to ship way more products.”
FitBark, which relocated to Kansas City after being a part of the Sprint Mobile Health Accelerator’s inaugural class, also sells its tracker in Best Buy stores in Canada. Rossi now is a member of the Pipeline Entrepreneurial Fellowship program.
FitBark allows pet owners to attach its device to a dog’s collar to begin tracking its activity, monitor its movement, set health goals and take action on any health issues. The data is transmitted to a user’s app, which provides a dashboard of the dog’s activity and performance.
Reaching potentially millions of consumers through the Target deal, however, comes with new challenges, Rossi said. In addition to fulfilling online orders, FitBark now must meet in-store demand.
“This comes with new responsibilities,” he said. “You not only have the folks that have been cheering us along on Kickstarter as we develop the product, but now we have folks buying this as a gift. … It comes with more responsibilities to support our customers.”
To meet consumer demand, Rossi said Fitbark now is hiring for three positions, which can be viewed here. He added that Kansas City has been helpful and supportive of its mission to revolutionize animal health.
“We’re really happy with the decision to move the company here,” Rossi said. “The folks, institutions and associations in Kansas City have just been phenomenal. We’ve been very blessed.”
Featured Business
2015 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
KCultivator Q&A: Diana Kander on Pitbull, honey badgers, stand-up material
Editor’s note: KCultivators is a lighthearted profile series to highlight people who are meaningfully enriching Kansas City’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. Check out our features on Victor & Penny’s Erin McGrane, SEED Law’s Adrienne Haynes, Code Koalas’ Robert Manigold, Prep-KC CEO Susan Wally and community builder Donald Carter. Early in her career as an innovation coach, Diana…
Startup transforms students into teachers for educators’ diversity training
Conversations about race, power, privilege and oppression are being had across the country every day. And Kiara Butler believes there is no better group to lead these discussions than young people, she said. “Students are already having these conversations every day,” said Butler, co-founder and CEO of Diversity Talks. “It’s the adults that don’t necessarily…
Sprint Accelerator alum trades Miami HQ for KC
TradeLanes’ move from Miami to the Midwest is about proximity. “In Kansas City, we’re closer to customers and closer to everyone on our list of prospective customers,” TradeLanes co-founder Vijay Harrell said. “The closer we are to our customers, the faster we can learn, spot their problems and then solve them.” The global trade firm,…
With 42 KC evictions per day, civic hackers pinpoint action with data
Kansas City can be a leader on housing justice, Tara Raghuveer said. The details are in the data. Examining a Jackson County data set that included 173,720 eviction records spanning 17 years, Raghuveer, a Harvard-educated researcher and Shawnee Mission East High School graduate, confirmed a leading predictor of eviction in Kansas City: race. “It disproportionately…