Recently we had the opportunity to interview Jason Meltzer, the founder of Paway, whose motto is “it’s like Waze for dog walking”.

Q. Can you tell us a bit about yourself and Paway? 

A. My name is Jason Meltzer and I was born and raised in Southern California. I started my career at the age of 13, walking neighborhood dogs in LA’s Topanga Canyon. After graduating from Arizona State University with a degree in Psychology and Business I started working in software sales for a Fortune 500 company. Later I was recruited for a Business Development position at Zumbox, a startup that raised $28.3M from Steve Case to bring Digital Postal Mail to reality. After reading The 4 hour work week by Tim Ferris I was inspired to quit my tech job and start my first dog walking company SurfDog LA.  Soon after, I joined the founding team as the first CEO of Wag! in 2014. Later I ended up reconnecting with my former teammates from Wag! to start Paway in early 2020, it then launched in the App Store in August 2020. Paway is the first GPS-based social app for people who love to walk their dogs. Users can see what furry friends they pass on the street and whether their dog can play or should stay away. Additionally, the app allows you to navigate through the streets at ease with notifications of any hazards, suggested walking routes, and pinned dog parks/trails.

Q. How did the idea for Paway come about?

A. Paway has been over 10 years in the making for me. It started back in 2012 with my first company called SurfDogLA, a mom-and-pop dog Walking Company in Santa Monica. I was responsible for walking dogs all throughout Los Angeles, I even had celebrity clients whose dog was their pride and joy. This was a very big responsibility, I had to keep mental notes of which dogs in the neighborhood were aggressive and which dogs were friendly. If it was a hot day I needed to know which businesses had put out water bowls to prevent my client’s dog from overheating. That was the initial aha moment when I realized how great it would be to have the “Waze for dog walking” , a community app for dog owners to share what's happening in their neighborhood. If there is an outbreak of giardia at the dog park or someone lost their dog there needs to be one central network for pet parents to go to. It was also observed by Galloway Ryan from whom I learned to leverage technology to help me manage and grow my business. I realized that there weren't many tools for me as a professional pet care provider to keep track of my clients, to keep track of my schedule, to accept multiple forms of payment and  to provide real time updates to my clients. I had to hack together multiple other applications to manage my business and I wanted one solution that was designed for dog walkers. Finally when I started Wag! I got to see on a macro-level how my idea for a pet community application could really help prevent a lot of mishaps that happened on a dog walk. It's inevitable that dog fights happen, dogs go missing, animals can get sick and we dealt with that on a daily basis. Had there been this Waze for dog walking community it would have prevented a lot of problems or solved problems quicker. At Wag! I was talking with 1,000’s of dog walkers and Pet Care Providers and learned what they wanted from a partner. They needed tools that gave them the ability to make a living by caring for Animals. They're passionate about keeping animals healthy and safe and it's hard to do that when your partner is taking 40%. I feel like I  addressed their needs with Paway. Pet Care Providers can use Paway to grow and manage their business and we don't take a commission from their services, allowing them to make a real living doing what they love.

Q. Who is the Paway application for?

A. Paway is for Pet Care Providers looking to grow their business. They can keep track of their schedule, make their clients happy and keep the pet’s in their care safe. Paway is also for pet parents who are looking for a community, to keep their dog healthy and a place to find pet service providers in your neighborhood. Most of our user base is made up of Gen-Z & Millennials living in metropolitan areas. 

Q. How easy is it for people to start using the Paway app?

A. It's very easy to start using Paway. It's available for free in the Google Play and Apple Store. When you sign up you create an account for your dog with the dog's name, their breed and  their temperament. Then you can start using the app to track all of your dog walks and to tap into the local pet community. You can also find fun walking challenges in the app  that are themed for the holidays, that raise money for animal shelters or annual challenges to burn 200,000 calories.

Q. What kind of traction have you had since you first launched?

A. Paway has seen staggering growth. We have over 22,000 registered pet parents on the network plus over 2,700 registered dog walkers. We have completed 40,000 dog walks with close to 5 million minutes of user engagement. We have users across 120 different countries who have placed 40,000 pins on our interactive map. Our mission is to make it possible to go anywhere in the world with your dog and with the Paway app you can tap into the local pet network and know all the tips.  

Q. Aside from being aimed at dogs and dog owners from all walks of life are there any technological or other unique features that differentiate Paway from other apps like Wag!, Rover and Time to Pet?

A. Paway offers a lot of technical features that you can't find anywhere else. Our interactive map is unique where you can see if dogs are walking in your neighborhood, if they are friendly, if they're aggressive or if their service dogs. The app will  alert you if an aggressive dog is coming towards you. Paway also allows pet parents to keep track of the dog's medication feeding and water schedule. This is important because 30% of dogs are overweight and this is mostly due to overfeeding. Paway connects everyone in the household to the dog's schedule and alerts you when the dog has been fed, medicated or given water. You can also set your dog's walking goal and the app will track if you hit your dogs goal or not.  All of this is entirely free to dog owners. What's really unique for the pet care providers is with Paway you actually sync your calendar to your schedule, this allows for new clients to book you automatically saving users lots of time. Pet care providers are given a link to  promote your Paway business profile that has your pricing, service area and your availability. New clients can book you directly from that link, it’s like Calendly but just for dog walking. Paway allows pet care providers to add all their clients into the app so that they can book you directly through Paway. This is a better experience for the dog owners and the app keeps track of all your bookings. Finally Paway provides GPS tracking so your clients can have peace of mind and follow along with the walk. In the future Paway will offer integrated payment methods like Venmo and the ability to accept credit card or crypto payments. We will also incorporate a tipping flow so that our pet care providers can begin earning more money via tips. 

Q. Did you hit any roadblocks that almost caused you to throw in the towel?

A. I feel like we hit roadblocks every single day and that's just part of the founder's journey. It's not supposed to be easy, and someone has to pioneer a new way. I've been pioneering in space for a decade with folks telling me it cant be done. It started with SurfDogLA, when my family thought I was crazy for starting a dog-walking company. They changed their mind when I turned that into a 6 figure business. Then later when I started Wag! people doubted that we could scale and that pet parents would trust an app to walk their dog. Again they were proven wrong and Wag! was very successful. And now with Paway I hear the same thing from doubters that a community built for pet parents isn't possible and that there is not enough market size for SaaS for pet care providers to work. But they don't know what I know. I know that over 60% of us households own a dog, this is a tipping point where the niche became mainstream. That last year over 12 Million people got dogs, many of them new dog owners who are looking for ways to keep the dog healthy. They also don't know that at Wag! we processed millions of applications for folks who want to be dog walkers in the US. There is tremendous demand on both sides of the equation and that one platform can link these two together seamlessly, creating massive potential for returns. 

Q. Are you looking for additional funding? If so, what are you looking for in a potential investor, and how can interested readers get in touch/learn more? 

A. Yes we have opportunities for investors to back our vision. Learn more by emailing us at  investors@paway.com. From there potential investors can learn more information on how to get acquainted with Paway along with next steps for funding.

Q. Is there any advice you'd give to other aspiring entrepreneurs?

A. You need to find what you're passionate about and  learn everything you can about it. Then try and find where there's a gap in the market where you can solve  someone’s problem or make someone's life better. You can't be afraid to be out there with your idea and face criticism or put in the hard work. Understand it's not always going to be all rainbows and ice cream, it’s going to be a lot of tough nights and making hard decisions but if you believe in what you're doing then it'll be worth it. So go out there and give it your best. I like to talk about the 4 P’s that make aspiring pet entrepreneurs successful. The first P is four Passions. You really have to love what you're doing. The second P is for Persistence you're going to get knocked down, you're going to fail a lot  but you're going to need to get back up and keep trying. The third P is for Performance you're going to have to be adequately skilled to deliver and if you don't have those skills learn them or go recruit someone with the skills needed. And the fourth P is  for Puppies because everybody loves puppies.

Q. Is there anything else you want to share about Paway with our audience?

A. Paway has been over 10 years in the making, this is a culmination of all of my learnings in the pet space and I'm hoping that Paway can deliver a more open and democratic solution for pet owners and Pet Care Providers to engage in transactions or to share tips and tricks. At the end of the day I want to create a healthier more enjoyable life for the dogs in our care.