new enterprise Development

Endurance

Hello

We are a group of final year Business students. As part of our New Enterprise Development module we have developed a new product and are currently testing its feasibility.

Our product is used to track the location of pets. It consists of dogs collar with a lightweight GPS tracking device attached. This innovative collar will enable us to locate your dog at any time.

We are aware that micro-chipping is available to dog owners in Ireland. However, with this method of locating your pet there are no guarantees that your pet will be found and then brought to be scanned. We believe our product removes all worry of losing a beloved pet.

We will also provide a tracking service with this product. If the pet goes missing its owner can notify us and we will send the co-ordinates of its exact location within minutes by SMS message. The product itself also has a range of special features, for example it includes a "geo fence" option which will automatically notify us if the pet moves outside of a predetermined location. It is also waterproof and has a re-chargeable battery time of 96 hours.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and we would really appreciate any feedback you could provide us with.

Mairead, Nicola, Leanne, Amy

johnbo66

This sounds interesting, how do you charge the batt after 96 hours?
Do you have the costing done?
I have 3 dogs - all of them pedigrees and while they are all chipped I feel that the threat of them being stolen is a huge worry for me.

Great idea.

John

snoopy83

i think this is a real good idea.. i dont have any dogs myself but my dad has 2 which i refer to as "my sisters" coz theyre like his kids!

he would definitely be interested in something like this, any ideas on prices coz your just gave me an idea for a future christmas present

Gemma

PK2008

Its a good idea but Im pretty sure it already exists (excpet maybe the geo- fence thing)- google GPS for pets.

Woodgate

Hi,

It's a very good idea, but may need some improving.

You should try and make contact with Stuart Baggs from the latest series of the Apprentice UK, in the second last episode (the interview stage) he actually said he had an idea pretty similar but I think it was a small chip that could be tracked by GPS, not sure on power source. Anyway, he would be high profile now so you could get more recognition for the product if you had him on board, just a thought anyway.

Good luck with it.

Woody.

I think Stuart Baggs the brand might have something to say about your idea!

petergfiffin

Sounds very much like the service from http://www.pawtrax.co.uk/main/

Having a similar product to somebody else can be a good thing though as at least it proves there's a market there (for one company at least), the important thing is you have something that will set you apart from the competition. It's also important you're clear about the purpose of the product, if it's for recovering stolen pets I imagine it would need to be invisible to the naked eye so most likely would need to be inserted inside the body - this raises issues around transmitter power etc.

Have you thought about how applicable it would be for farm animals? You wouldn't necessarily need to use the GSM network and could instead use a lower power transmitter that could broadcast up to 1-2 miles? Would be a LOT cheaper to run for customers also.

seamie11

I think they have companies like this in the USA,tracking,gps etc

dollydishmop

johnbo66 wrote: »

I have 3 dogs - all of them pedigrees and while they are all chipped I feel that the threat of them being stolen is a huge worry for me.

And on that subject, if a dog is stolen what's to stop the collar being cut off/removed?