Update: Exciting News and How You Can Help! (hint: woof woof!)

Tl;dr - short story

Hey friends,

This is my last week at The/Nudge , and I’m excited to share my next adventure. I'm dedicating the next decade to improving the lives of animals through floof (www.floof.in ), a virtual pet-adoption platform. After learning about the harsh realities faced by animals and shelters in India, we’ve created a solution that allows people to virtually adopt and care for animals without taking them home.

I and Dhaval Parekh are developing floof at Build3 in Goa, and we've already seen great success in our initial trials. Now, I need your help to build a strong foundation. If you have skills in crowdfunding, social media, marketing, full-stack development, or UI/UX design and love animals, please join us! You can start with just 2-5 hours a week.

Interested? Fill out this form: https://tally.so/r/nrKZ0l . Let's make a difference together! Note that this is an unpaid position.

Love,

Akash

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Long story below for those who are interested:

Update: Exciting News and How You Can Help!

Hey friends,

This is my last week at The/Nudge, where I’ve had the privilege of working with incredible colleagues and audacious entrepreneurs. I’ve learned so much and will share more about that soon. But today, I’m thrilled to announce what’s next for me.

As many of you know, I'm a passionate animal lover—dogs, cats, cows, you name it. My life and personality have been profoundly shaped by these wonderful creatures, as I'm sure is true for many of you. Sadly, their lives are often far from happy.

After dedicating the past 15 years to working for human causes, I'm adding animal causes to my full-time focus with the intent of having a real impact on the lives of animals, at scale.

Through conversations with shelters (both registered and unregistered), feeders, vets, and fellow animal lovers, I’ve uncovered some critical facts:

• 10 million small animals (dogs, cats) in shelters and 100 million on the streets in India.
• Street animals face harsh lives, with an average lifespan of 3-4 years and 80% being malnourished.
• Sheltered animals deal with loneliness and health issues, and adoption rates for older or unhealthy animals are extremely low.
• Shelters are overcrowded, understaffed, and lack proper infrastructure.
• On the flip side, many people who love animals can’t adopt due to socio-economic or familial reasons. They long to have a pet but can’t take one home.

To bridge this gap, we’ve conceptualized a solution at floof: virtual adoption. Traditional terms like "sponsorship" and "passive adoption" fail to engage people long-term. Our approach aims to enhance retention and involvement through regular updates, opportunities to visit animals, and fun-filled animal festivals.

I’m currently at Build3, a purpose-driven early-stage startup incubator in Goa, where we’ve developed an MVP for a virtual pet-adoption platform called floof (www.floof.in ). By taking care of a shelter animal’s monthly needs, you get a pet best friend you don’t need to keep at home but can visit and play with.

We partnered with a shelter called WAG in Goa and enlisted their 19 dogs on the platform. During an adoption drive, two dogs were adopted, and we received donations for 60kgs of dry food and 17kgs of wet food. We received tons of love and great feedback! Currently, payments are closed on the website as we upgrade the experience.

Now, I need your support to build a strong foundation for floof. I’m looking for individuals with the following skills, who also have a deep love for animals, to join floof's mission:

• Crowdfunding expert
• Social media strategist
• Marketing specialist
• Full-stack developer
• UI/UX designer

You can start by giving floof 2-5 hours of your time. I can discuss full-time roles after we raise funds. For now, I’ll be adding you to floof's support spiral.

I am currently bootstrapped and looking to raise a year’s runway to hire talented individuals for the above roles. If you’re interested in funding floof as a startup, please let me know.

Please fill out this form to express your interest: https://tally.so/r/nrKZ0l

You can also post below or DM me.

It is important that humans and animals have better lives together. We can make this happen within our lifetimes.

I’ll release more support requests and share insights about the animal welfare space as I learn more. Thanks for your time and support!

Love,

Akash