When Becky Baker welcomed Cockerpoo Buddy into her home five years ago she admits she didn’t quite know what had hit her.

Sleepless nights, toilet training and constantly worrying whether she was doing things right led her to having the ‘puppy blues.’

But she also had a lightbulb moment - if she was feeling like this then surely others were too - and she created a solution - the K9Nation app.

It started in 2017 as a rough and ready website and app that she bootstrapped bit by bit while working for a law firm.

Now it’s an amazing app and monthly podcast for pet owners and Becky has an entire team supporting her too.

I met Becky right at the start of her K9Nation mission and I am so excited to speak to her about all she has achieved.

Key timings in this episode:

3.02 - Becky’s background and what the K9Nation app is - think Trip Advisor meets Facebook for dogs and their owners

4.55 - How Becky had the idea for the app

6.20 - Using her contacts in the tech industry to make it a reality

9.16 - Boostrapping the K9Nation app herself and how Becky scrimped and scraped to get the first version of the app off the ground

12.08 - How losing a colleague at work in a tragic road accident inspired her to take action and do the Paws On Tour to test the water for K9Nation in summer 2019

16.23 - Getting the word out there about K9Nation and appearing on The One Show

18.08 - Accepting that she needed help and joining a business accelerator in 2020 as lockdown hit

20.07 - Taking part in Pitch Fest, a virtual pitching event to investors and securing funding and a team of investors for K9Nation

21.05 - Her long term goals for K9Nation

22.12 - How K9Nation works for both pet parents and pet business owners

25.28 - How pet businesses can use K9Nation to find clients and be discovered online for their products and services

29.15 - Becky’s PR coverage and how it wowed her investors

30.27 - How having a team is helping Becky grow K9Nation

32.19 - Getting over being a perfectionist

35.04 - Becky’s advice for anyone considering launching an app or following their dream as she did

37.37 - How Becky coped in the tough times and kept going 

40.09 - Why you DON’T need to hire a PR - Becky’s advice on publicity and how it can help your business grow

41.55 - Where to find out more about K9Nation

Links mentioned in this episode:

Find out more about Becky on the K9Nation website: https://k9nation.dog/

In this episode, Becky refers to having support from my membership programme and you can find out more about joining here: Publicity for Pet Businesses membership.

Read Becky's first story about the K9Nation app from back in 2018:

Do you have post puppy depression?

Becky's coverage of Paws on Tour:

Animal lover and her Cockapoo hunt for Britain's most dog friendly destination

Becky's K9Clean Up coverage:

Dog lover launches K9CleanUp campaign for Dogs Trust

How determined Becky secured funding:

Social media platform for dogs secures £250,000 investment

My first blog post with Becky:

How puppy Buddy inspired Becky to make the K9Nation app