IIPTF PET FESTIVAL PUNE Vol 12 Issue No 10 October 2019 | Page 31

Our company has multiple sources
of revenue such as a Dog Café in
Gurgaon, Pet Therapy sessions in
Mumbai and Delhi/NCR, boarding
facility in Gurgaon, and sale of retail
merchandise. Recently we have also
started an online platform to book pet
sitters, pet walkers and pet trainers,
but currently we are working with
a small number of people, who are
trusted in the industry and whom we
know personally. of animal welfare is a bit different from
the conventional method of rescuing
stray animals. We believe that cruelty
against animals will never get over if
the feelings of empathy and sympathy
are not inculcated in the young kids of
our country, which is why we conduct
animal sensitisation sessions in
schools to teach them about love and
care towards animals. However, I have
rescued and helped several stray dogs
in my personal capacity.
We believe that delivering quality
service with less service providers
on board is way better than providing
bad services with a large number of
service providers. Our Pet Walking
facility is available in Golf Course road,
Gurgaon; Pet Training sessions are
available in Delhi/NCR and Mumbai,
and Pet Sitting service is available in
Mumbai. Our current customer base
for pet therapy sessions is over 5000
people and 1000 pet parents per month.
For our pet boarding and café facilities,
we get around 800 new people every
month including approximately 80 pet
parents. Our Pet Therapy and digital
platform reach will soon be available
in other Tier 1 cities such as Bangalore
and Hyderabad. We also promote adoptions. Fur
Ball Story is an adoption partner
of WeWork. In addition, we also
conduct several adoption drives in the
Gurugram Dog Café in collaboration
with Fauna Police, SGAC and Paws For
A Cause.
Apart from this, Fur Ball Story provides
free therapy sessions to old-age
homes, orphanages and schools for
underprivileged children. Our concept
Our business is currently bootstrapped
and we don’t want to rush into funding.
We believe in the profi t factor rather
than the growth multiple. In recent
times, a lot of start-ups have died down
due to running in operational losses
despite increasing their revenue by 30
times per month. In the long term, it is
bad for the company and it spoils your
shareholding table too as the investor
would want a big piece of the cake that
you are baking.
Our motto is two-fold - to help in
reducing stress of people right at the
basic level, so that it doesn’t escalate
to the chronic stage; and to sensitise
people towards dogs. In the wake of
recent incidents of animal cruelty,
such an initiative was much needed.
The concept of pet therapy is very
prevalent in the West and we had no
clue of what to expect when we fi rst
started out. We have been facing a lot
of criticism too, like any other new
idea would. There are people telling
us what to do and what not to do. But
we believe in listening and moving on,
because we know they haven’t been in
our shoes. This would be the fi rst thing
we would advise a person entering the
world of entrepreneurship.
We have given sessions of Animal
Assisted Interventions at several
residences and corporates, including
Mumbai International Airport, Sequoia
Capital, Yes bank, Shardul Amarchand
Mangaldas, Jio Saavn, Nagarro
Technologies, DirectI, Cars24, RedFM,
ScoopWhoop, SoDelhi, Burger King,
CoHo, MakeMyTrip, and the like. We
also provide our services pro bono to
non-governmental organisations and
have given so in the past to Make Love
Not Scars, Shashiraj Foundation, etc.
We are looking for more such places
for our furry soldiers to leave their paw
prints at. It is said that a dog is the only
creature on Earth who loves you more
than he loves himself. Please give us
an opportunity to provide you with
that love, you can visit all our services
at www.furballstory.com.
* Animesh Katiyar is the Founder of Fur
Ball Story. He is a lawyer by profession.
October 2019 • Vol. XII • Issue 10 • Noida
31
| Creature Companion