Travel is for the dogs! Puppy Mama App Connects Women Who Love Their Dogs and Want to Bring Them Everywhere
Puppy Mama is a new community app that connects women and their dogs with pet-friendly travel, services, places and activities.
Currently, traveling with dogs is tough and in the United States, only 8% of workplaces and less than 2% of restaurants are dog-friendly. Puppy Mama is hoping to change that by leveraging technology to help women connect with one another and share information that will remove the friction in finding pet-friendly travel, places, and social events. For example, the app will make it easy to find cute spots and schedule puppy play dates, "yappy hours" and brunches with friends.
When community members find a location they love, they can easily add a review and 5-Paw rating so other community members know they are welcome, and that their business is valued. The app will also make it easy to message, share photos, and inspirational stories of how women’s furry best friends have brought joy to their lives. Puppy Mama’s mission to create a more dog-friendly world.
Puppy Mama Launch Video! Bring Your Best Friend Wherever You Go!
“Many of our members don't want to spend time googling to find a safe place to bring their small dog without worrying, or a dog-friendly outdoor restaurant where they can bring their big husky,” says founder Theresa Piasta. “We're bringing this information to them conveniently, and we're making it effortless for our members to connect with other women who are like them - “outdoorsy” puppy mamas and want to go on a group hike with their dogs, or fashionistas who love a good pet-friendly ‘yappy hour’ with their girlfriends.”
Piasta also feels that many busy, on-the-go women professionals also struggle with pet-friendly business travel. “We talked to many women who experience a lot of friction with business travel. Let’s say one of our members has a last minute business trip to Charlotte. We want to make it easy for her to quickly search, find, and book that pet-friendly hotel and pick an airline that is going to welcome and make the travel experience easy for them and their dog.” Piasta also plans to make it easy for these women to connect with and get together with other puppy mamas when they are traveling with their dogs in other cities.
In their first four months of community building, Puppy Mama has received and shared 250+ stories of women spanning six continents and have attracted over 10,000 followers across all of their social media accounts while gaining traction with influencers in entertainment, lifestyle, fashion and technology. Women from Singapore to Berlin have cultivated a safe online space dedicated to lifting each other up! “I joke that is is a very “pawsitive.” community,” says Piasta. “In today’s political environment, it is refreshing to me to see all of these women nurture and inspire one another.”
Piasta is a former Army Captain and Decorated Iraq-War Veteran who after suffering health issues, searched for an assistance dog which started her on this journey. "I created Puppy Mama because I realized that there is a vast community of women who (like me) loved their dogs with a passion and want to take them wherever they go,” adds Piasta. “Today’s social media giants are trying to be everything to everybody but lacking that emotional, community connection. We’re building a tribe of like-minded women and we are laser focused on their needs and their lifestyle.”
About Puppy Mama, Inc.
Before founding Puppy Mama, Inc., Theresa Piasta was a Vice President at JPMorgan, spending six total years in the Investment Bank and Sales & Trading businesses at two Wall Street banks. Prior to that she served as an Army Captain in a Field Artillery Brigade. During her 14-month Iraq deployment in 2008, Theresa led a large team to defend thousands of soldiers and contractors residing on Forward Operating Base (FOB) Delta near the Iranian border. She was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for her service.
Theresa attended the Stanford Graduate School of Business Ignite program in 2016 and received a B.A. in Economics from Wellesley College in 2006. She also studied military science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a ROTC scholarship recipient and was a collegiate soccer player for two seasons during her time at Wellesley College.