u/anonymous-coderhs

Today, I worked on researching a little bit more about pet care, and I’m planning to keep doing research for the next couple of days. Today was really all about what I needed to do to let different animals into this pet care website and what pet sitters would need.

I didn’t know that each different type of animal could need different legal requirements and different types of care. I planned to sort them out by types of animals, and this is the result:

Dogs would need questions about walking, feeding, medication, behavior, and emergency situations. Cats would need questions about feeding, litter boxes, medication, indoor or outdoor rules, and behavior. Birds would need questions about cages, feeding, handling, and experience with that specific type of bird. Reptiles and amphibians would need questions about temperature, humidity, feeding, lighting, and enclosure care. Small animals like rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, and ferrets would need questions about feeding, cages, handling, and cleaning. Fish would need questions about feeding, tanks, water conditions, and equipment. Larger or farm animals would also need their own questions based on what type of animal they are.

Basically, I realized that I can’t just ask every sitter the exact same questions because taking care of a dog is obviously different from taking care of a reptile, bird, or farm animal.

Now, as I was working on this, I also read some comments from yesterday and realized that I had to add more people into this project because you guys were really talking about hiring employees, and I realized I wouldn’t be able to manage all of the work by myself.

So, four of my friends actually decided to help me. They are some of my best friends, so they were willing to help!

Today, we actually searched up pet sitter places near me that are privately owned or small businesses, and we asked them questions if they were willing to talk to us. Me and my friends split up so we could cover more ground, and I can say that we managed to cover about 30% of the sitters near me and asked questions.

Even though most of them said they weren’t interested, some of them actually took us seriously and told us that there were some key flaws in our system when we “choose the good sitters.”

What they told me was pretty simple. You really can’t figure out if someone is a great sitter until you actually see them work and talk to them.

This really gave me a huge turn because I really thought running a lot of background checks would do the job, but I guess it doesn’t because there are still a lot of loopholes in that system.

But because I can’t talk to every sitter one by one in person, especially because who knows how far away that sitter might live, I started thinking about another option.

When they provide their phone number or another source of contact they prefer, I was planning to call or text them and talk to them for around half an hour about themselves and why they want to sign up as a sitter for this website.

We could ask about their experience, what animals they have cared for, why they want to become a sitter, and what they would do in certain situations. Then me or one of my friends could write notes about the conversation and discuss the sitter afterward.

As I went through this project, I also realized that no matter what I really do, I can’t always find good sitters who are caring. I might still make a mistake and let someone in who just wanted a side hustle to earn money.

That is something I don’t think any system can completely prevent, but I still want to make the system as good as I possibly can.

Also, by the way, when the sitters provide private information for screening, it doesn’t go directly to me. It would go to a third-party website, and they would check the sitter’s information and tell me whether the screening was approved.

At the bottom of the application, it would also be mandatory to leave a contact method that you want me or one of my friends to use to contact you. We would call or message you, talk to you about becoming a sitter, write notes, and discuss the application.

My friends and I are also planning to have a meeting every week or two to do progress reports, talk about what we worked on, what problems we found, and what we should work on next.

Even though this system isn’t perfect, I really do think this was the best system I could come up with right now, and I am still thinking of better ways to talk to sitters and figure out who would actually be good for the website.

Also, the starting payment is still being decided between $4.99 or $5.99. I’ll tell you more later when things are official and actually decided.

For now, this is what I worked on today. If you have any ideas or suggestions, leave them down below.

Thanks for reading!

Today, I stopped all my programming and started doing more research by going to different pet care websites, reading e-books, asking sitters I know some questions, asking my friends and family about my website, and doing research on pet care for all types of animals.

So, these are the things that I figured out:

1. I need to find good, trustworthy sitters who have prior experience in pet sitting.
2. I need to lower the price for sitters and owners for them to actually use the website.
3. I need a reason why people would use my website instead of using Google.
4. I need to build trust with sitters and owners for this website to actually start and become successful.
5. How am I going to keep my customers' information safe from hackers?

So, right now, I'm just writing ideas down in my notebook on how to fix these problems.

For trustworthy sitters, I was planning to gather more personal information from them by using a third-party website like Checkr.

To lower the price, I was planning to charge $5 once a month, and sitters can choose if they want to get paid through the website or by contacting the owner themselves.

If they decide to make the payment through the website, they have to pay the extra payment because Stripe takes about 2.8% of the payments. However, if they decide to contact each other personally and the sitter asks for the owner's personal information and the owner says yes, they can do the payments with no fee.

1. I was asked this question a lot:

Why would I use YOUR website when I can use Google or another pet sitter website?

Well, first, my website is planning to support all kinds of animals. Not only dogs and cats, but reptiles, amphibians, fish, birds, etc.

When sitters submit their applications, the website asks different questions for each different type of animal, and obviously, you can select more than one type of animal too.

And I won't have this information. The third-party website will have the information with them and tell me if their profile, pet sitting experience, or license was authenticated.

Second, my website provides information about the sitter quickly and in a more summarized way than Google.

On Google, you have to go into different profiles or websites to check sitters out. But my website simplifies all of it.

It tells you their prior experience on different websites, certificates they have in pet sitting, and their reviews on different websites.

I'm still finding more reasons why people will use my website instead of Google.

And for building trust with sitters and owners, I really can't do anything about this, and I really believe building trust is a matter of time, not something you can rush.

And for the last reason, that hackers might breach your information, that's why I'm using a third-party website.

A new website like mine has less trust built with sitters and owners. But these third-party verification companies have bigger portfolios and more trust than I do.

I'm still trying to find the best third-party company that will keep information safe.

And lastly, for the legal issues, I'm still looking into it.

There are sooooo many legal things about a pet care website.

Well, that was all for today. If you have any suggestions or ideas, leave them down in the comments!

Today I’m not posting another list of features I added. I want to hear directly from pet owners and pet sitters.

If you could change, add, or remove anything from a pet care website, what would it be?

It could be about finding good sitters, trust and safety, pricing, communication, payments, sitter profiles, business tools, or anything else.

If you have any questions about the idea too, leave them in the comments. I’ll try to answer everything and I’m open to criticism and suggestions.

After reading the comments on my other posts, I realized I was focusing way too much on the Proof of Care feature.

Some people said that constantly uploading photos, checking off tasks, and tracking every little thing could get annoying for sitters. Honestly, I understand that. A sitter should not have to spend the entire visit staring at their phone instead of actually taking care of the pet.

So I started thinking more about the bigger question:

Why would pet owners, independent sitters, and small pet-care businesses actually use this website?

For pet owners, I want the website to make it easier to find someone who actually matches their pet.

Most websites mainly focus on dogs and cats, but this platform would also help people find care for birds, fish, reptiles, rabbits, farm animals, and other pets. Owners could search based on the sitter’s experience, location, availability, services, animal types, and prices.

The pet profile would also include important information like behavior, feeding routines, medication, health needs, escape history, and how long the pet can be left alone. This would help owners avoid repeating the same information every time they contact someone.

Proof of Care would still be available, but it would be flexible. Owners and sitters could agree on the amount of updates before the service starts. Some owners may only want one photo and a short update, while others may need medication confirmation or GPS tracking for a walk.

For independent pet sitters, the goal is to help them look more professional and find customers without needing to build everything themselves.

Sitters could create a free profile showing their experience, prices, services, animal specialties, reviews, certifications, and availability. They could also choose a paid plan for more business tools.

I also want sitters to be able to create a simple professional website through the platform. This could help people who are good at caring for animals but do not know how to design a website, advertise themselves, or manage online bookings.

Sitters who already have their own website could connect it to their profile instead.

For small pet-care businesses, the platform could help them manage multiple services and employees or contractors in one place.

For example, a small boarding business, dog-walking company, mobile groomer, pet taxi service, or exotic-animal sitter could have a business profile instead of looking like one individual sitter.

They could display their team, prices, service area, available times, business website, and the types of animals they work with. In the future, I also want to add tools for scheduling, customer messages, booking requests, and business reviews.

Another important difference is that I want the pricing to be clear.

Owners should be able to see the sitter’s prices and extra fees before booking. Sitters and businesses should also know exactly what the platform charges instead of losing a large percentage without understanding why.

Today, I also worked more on safety and communication.

After an owner decides not to move forward with a sitter, the conversation would become read-only. This prevents people from continuing an uncomfortable conversation after the request has already been declined.

I also want reports to be reviewed fairly. A person should not automatically get banned because someone reported them. The platform should ask both sides what happened and review the available messages or evidence before making a final decision.

I am still not sharing the website name yet because it is not ready for real customers, but the comments are helping me understand what people actually want.

The main goal is not to make sitters complete a million annoying tasks. It is to give pet owners better choices, help independent sitters grow, and give small pet-care businesses affordable tools.

Would you use a platform like this as a pet owner, sitter, or small business owner? What would make it useful enough for you to switch from the platform you already use?

Today I spent most of my time organizing how the website should actually work instead of just adding random features.

The idea is to create a platform where pet owners can find independent pet sitters for different types of animals, not just dogs and cats. I have a Maltese and a British Shorthair, and one of the reasons I started this was because finding someone I actually trusted to care for them while I was away was harder than I expected.

Today, I also had a conversation with someone who asked me a really important question:

Why would a pet owner use my website instead of just going directly to Rover, Wag, PetMe, or another pet-care platform?

Honestly, it was a good question, and it made me think more deeply about what would make this website useful.

The goal is not to simply copy one pet-sitting app. The goal is to make it easier for owners to compare more of their options in one place.

A sitter might have a Rover profile, a Wag profile, their own business website, social media pages, or experience that is not shown on one major platform. Instead of owners searching through several different apps one by one, they could search by location, availability, animal type, services, experience, and other important details in one place.

Sitters would also be able to create one profile that helps them market themselves across different platforms instead of depending entirely on one company for customers.

This could especially help independent sitters who provide great care but do not rank highly on the biggest apps or do not want to keep creating and managing profiles everywhere.

Another major goal is to make the platform fairer for sitters. Sitters should be able to set their own rates and receive the full service amount they charge instead of constantly losing part of their earnings to platform commissions.

For pet owners, a big part of the website would be trust and proof that the pet is actually being cared for.

Owners could create a detailed care plan explaining feeding, walks, medication, behavior, bathroom routines, emergency contacts, and anything else the sitter needs to know. During the service, the sitter could complete checklists, upload time-stamped photos or videos, track walks, and give the owner updates.

I also want reviews to be more trustworthy than normal review systems. Reviews would come from real completed services, and both the owner and sitter would be able to review each other. The goal is not just to show inflated five-star ratings, but to help both sides make safer decisions.

Today I worked on organizing the pages, buttons, sitter profiles, owner profiles, account types, safety features, care updates, reviews, payments, and what should happen if something goes wrong.

I’m still not sharing the website name or link because I want it to be more complete before actual customers see it.

I would really appreciate honest opinions:

Would you use one website to compare sitters from different platforms and independent businesses?

What would make you use this instead of going directly to Rover or Wag?

Would you want to see a sitter’s profiles, reviews, availability, and experience from multiple places?

Would proof-of-care updates make you trust a sitter more?

Do you think sitters receiving their full service payment would encourage more good sitters to join?

What would this website need to offer for you to actually use it?

I’m still early in the process, so tough questions and honest criticism are genuinely helping me improve the idea.

Today was honestly way more stressful than I expected.

Yesterday I was mainly focused on building the actual platform and thinking about features. Today I started researching the legal side of running a pet-sitting marketplace, and I realized how complicated it can get when your website processes payments and connects strangers to care for someone’s pet.

At first, I thought I could just register the business, add Terms of Service, make everyone click “I agree,” and start accepting bookings.

Then I realized that even with contracts, there could still be legal risk if a pet gets injured, lost, or dies while someone is using the platform. There are also things like refunds, chargebacks, background checks, independent-sitter rules, and payment processing.

For a minute, I genuinely thought I might have to quit.

I don’t have thousands of dollars to spend before getting my first customer. I’m building this with basically no budget, so I had to rethink the entire business model instead of just giving up.

The new idea is to start more like a search engine and business platform specifically for independent pet sitters.

Sitters would be able to create profiles showing:

• Which animals they care for
• Their services and pricing
• Their availability
• Their experience
• Their service area
• Photos and information about themselves
• Links to profiles they already have on other platforms
• A link to their own website

Owners would search by location, animal type, service, availability, and other preferences. The owner would personally choose which sitter they want to contact.

The sitter would remain independent and control their own prices, schedule, services, customers, and business decisions. The platform would help people discover and communicate with them, but it would not claim to directly provide the pet-care service.

We are also thinking about offering optional tools for sitters.

There would be a free profile option and an Individual Pro plan for $6.99 per month with a seven-day free trial. Pro could include messaging, scheduling, profile analytics, care plans, Proof-of-Care updates, more photos, and better profile visibility.

Sitters could also get a simple professional website for either $99 once or $8.25 per month for 12 months. If they want something completely custom, they could describe what they want and receive a separate quote. Sitters who already have a website could just link it to their profile for free.

Later, once the platform has actual users, we could add optional booking payments. The owner would pay a 5% platform fee, but it would be capped at $10, so even large bookings wouldn’t have a huge fee.

One of the biggest goals is making sure sitters keep the price they set. If a sitter charges $100 for a service, they are guaranteed to receive the full $100. The platform fee and payment-processing costs would not be deducted from the sitter’s listed service price.

We also worked on the review system today.

I don’t want the platform to just show random five-star ratings that can easily be faked. Only people with verified completed bookings would be able to review each other.

Owners could rate sitters based on communication, reliability, following instructions, pet safety, and Proof-of-Care updates. Sitters could also review owners based on communication, accurate pet information, clear instructions, and whether the pet’s behavior matched the profile.

There would also be objective information like completed bookings, repeat customers, response time, cancellations, and Care Plan completion.

Today was basically me realizing that building a website is the easy part. Figuring out how to make it safe, affordable, trustworthy, and realistic is way harder.

I still don’t know whether this exact business model will work, but I feel better than I did earlier today because I found a way to start smaller without completely abandoning the original idea.

Would you trust a platform like this more if it clearly showed that sitters are independent and displayed verified booking history, care-completion data, and two-way reviews?

Also, as a sitter, would guaranteed full payment make you more interested in joining a new platform, especially if creating a basic profile was completely free?

Please feel free to leave comments or recommendations you guys have!

Today was honestly way more stressful than I expected.

Yesterday I was mainly focused on building the actual platform and thinking about features. Today I started researching the legal side of running a pet-sitting marketplace, and I realized how complicated it can get when your website processes payments and connects strangers to care for someone’s pet.

At first, I thought I could just register the business, add Terms of Service, make everyone click “I agree,” and start accepting bookings.

Then I realized that even with contracts, there could still be legal risk if a pet gets injured, lost, or dies while someone is using the platform. There are also things like refunds, chargebacks, background checks, independent-sitter rules, and payment processing.

For a minute, I genuinely thought I might have to quit.

I don’t have thousands of dollars to spend before getting my first customer. I’m building this with basically no budget, so I had to rethink the entire business model instead of just giving up.

The new idea is to start more like a search engine and business platform specifically for independent pet sitters.

Sitters would be able to create profiles showing:

• Which animals they care for
• Their services and pricing
• Their availability
• Their experience
• Their service area
• Photos and information about themselves
• Links to profiles they already have on other platforms
• A link to their own website

Owners would search by location, animal type, service, availability, and other preferences. The owner would personally choose which sitter they want to contact.

The sitter would remain independent and control their own prices, schedule, services, customers, and business decisions. The platform would help people discover and communicate with them, but it would not claim to directly provide the pet-care service.

We are also thinking about offering optional tools for sitters.

There would be a free profile option and an Individual Pro plan for $6.99 per month with a seven-day free trial. Pro could include messaging, scheduling, profile analytics, care plans, Proof-of-Care updates, more photos, and better profile visibility.

Sitters could also get a simple professional website for either $99 once or $8.25 per month for 12 months. If they want something completely custom, they could describe what they want and receive a separate quote. Sitters who already have a website could just link it to their profile for free.

Later, once the platform has actual users, we could add optional booking payments. The owner would pay a 5% platform fee, but it would be capped at $10, so even large bookings wouldn’t have a huge fee.

One of the biggest goals is making sure sitters keep the price they set. If a sitter charges $100 for a service, they are guaranteed to receive the full $100. The platform fee and payment-processing costs would not be deducted from the sitter’s listed service price.

We also worked on the review system today.

I don’t want the platform to just show random five-star ratings that can easily be faked. Only people with verified completed bookings would be able to review each other.

Owners could rate sitters based on communication, reliability, following instructions, pet safety, and Proof-of-Care updates. Sitters could also review owners based on communication, accurate pet information, clear instructions, and whether the pet’s behavior matched the profile.

There would also be objective information like completed bookings, repeat customers, response time, cancellations, and Care Plan completion.

Today was basically me realizing that building a website is the easy part. Figuring out how to make it safe, affordable, trustworthy, and realistic is way harder.

I still don’t know whether this exact business model will work, but I feel better than I did earlier today because I found a way to start smaller without completely abandoning the original idea.

Would you trust a platform like this more if it clearly showed that sitters are independent and displayed verified booking history, care-completion data, and two-way reviews?

Also, as a sitter, would guaranteed full payment make you more interested in joining a new platform, especially if creating a basic profile was completely free?

Please feel free to leave comments or recommendations you guys have!

Alright, so I’ve decided I’m gonna start documenting this whole journey from the beginning.
I’m building a pet care website, but I’m trying to make it different from the usual apps that mostly focus on dogs and cats.
I want people to be able to find care for basically any type of pet, like rabbits, birds, reptiles, guinea pigs, fish, farm animals, and other animals that are usually harder to find sitters for.
The biggest idea I’m working on is something called Proof of Care.
Basically, instead of an owner just getting one random text saying, “Your pet is doing good,” the sitter would actually show what they did during the visit.
For example, the owner can make a care plan with things like:
Feeding and water
Walks and bathroom breaks
Medication
Health or behavior notes
Home checks
The pet’s normal routine
Then during the visit, the sitter can complete the checklist, upload time-stamped photos or videos, track walks with GPS, and add updates to a live timeline.
I feel like that would make owners way less stressed because they can actually see that everything was completed instead of just hoping it was.
I also want the website to have detailed pet profiles, verified users, reviews for both owners and sitters, clear pricing, lower fees, exact booking times, and payment protection for both sides.
I’m trying to make it affordable too because some pet care apps add a lot of fees, and I don’t want people paying a crazy amount just to find someone trustworthy.
Today was mostly technical stuff.
I spent hours dealing with Cloudflare, SSL problems, domain redirects, Stripe test payments, and deployment errors. I’m not gonna lie, I thought building the actual website would be the hardest part, but getting everything connected is actually so annoying 😭
I’m not sharing the name or link yet because I don’t want people seeing it before it’s ready.
Once I feel like the website is actually ready for real customers, I’ll publish it.
But for now, I genuinely want opinions.

Would Proof of Care actually make you trust a sitter more?

What type of pet do you have?

What’s the worst experience you’ve had with a pet sitter or pet care app?

And is there anything you think I should add before I launch?

I’ll probably post another update tomorrow with whatever I end up fixing or breaking next.