00:00Clearly, you're expanding here. We mentioned Australia, which is a market you just entered.
00:05When it comes to the global landscape, where do you see the biggest opportunities for growth right now?
00:11Well, Katie, thanks for having me on. And for those listening that are not familiar with Rover, here's what you need to know.
00:18If you need a dog sitter or a cat sitter, dog walker, dog trainer, Rover is number one.
00:24We're number one in the United States, in Canada, in Europe, and yeah, with the acquisition of MadPause that we announced recently in Australia as well.
00:35And I appreciate the question. We are happy with our existing footprint.
00:40I think we are, with this latest expansion, we are focused on country growth.
00:47There's always a chance that we will do additional countries in the future.
00:51But where we are today, you know, with 100 million pet-owning households in the United States and about 130 in Europe and adding another six or seven million in Australia, that's plenty of room for growth for us.
01:05Yeah, absolutely. When you just think about how many people own pets, I do want to talk about, you know, you're expanding in countries.
01:11As you said, you're happy with your footprint as it stands right now.
01:14I know that you've acquired three companies since 2024.
01:18Are you happy with that current portfolio or, you know, could you see yourself expanding and potentially being more acquisitive in 2026?
01:27Well, I think we will be more acquisitive, I think.
01:32You know, we were happy to acquire Cat in the Flat last year, Goo Dog this year, and again, MadPause.
01:38The reason we buy companies, you know, at Rover is because we think we can add more value as a combined entity to addressing customer needs on both sides of the marketplace, both pet parents and care providers, than we can as standalone entities.
01:53And we've found something to like in each of the companies that we've purchased and are excited about all of them.
01:59That doesn't mean that we're done.
02:01And I think one of the things that Blackstone ownership of the company has opened up for us as M&A, as another lever for growing the business, it's always been interesting for us.
02:13But we've moved into another gear in this phase of ownership.
02:17I love it. Cat in the Flat. I wasn't actually familiar with that. I'm not a cat. Katie's the cat person. I'm the dog person. Cat in the Flat, MadPause.
02:23I love these names, by the way. Very good. Yeah. Can we talk about names for a second? The most popular pet names?
02:29I'm ready. Katie has a cat named what? Catrick. Catrick. I don't know what that stands for.
02:34It's Patrick, but with a C because he's a cat. Okay. And I have a dog, a Basenji. Yenzi, the Basenji. There she is. Look at that. Look at that. Beautiful, beautiful girl there.
02:45Milo and Luna. These are the top names in the U.K. Charlie and Luna here in the U.S. Simba and Naila in France.
02:51I could keep going on, Brent, but you tell me. There's Catrick right there. He's gorgeous. What's most popular with you?
02:59Well, I am personally a cat person as well. I'm one of the few cat-only people on the executive team.
03:05I love dogs. We just don't have any right now. And we have two cats, Boxy and Mr. Wiggles.
03:10And Little Mr. was actually a, we are also a regular foster family for kittens. And Little Mr. was a, was a foster cat that we just could not send back.
03:22Although I will say Boxy has chosen me. Cats choose people, one person in the household a lot of times.
03:28And she has chosen me every morning at about nine o'clock. If I'm unwilling to pick her up, I, I get a good yelling at.
03:35I am curious here, as you kind of expand this business, I mean, how far can it go?
03:41I mean, obviously dogs and cats are kind of the primary animals, pets that most of us have.
03:45And obviously the ones that probably require the most care. But does Rover become something even bigger than that?
03:51Well, when, uh, when, even in back in the days when we were raising venture capital, uh, we used to, one of the first things we would say is, Hey, pet care, what's the first brand you think of?
04:03And people would say, well, nobody. And we would say, that's right. Isn't it? That is right. And we still see that opportunity, uh, out there.
04:10And, and every day, uh, it becomes, uh, we, we, we become more synonymous with particularly what we would call the everyday services.
04:17And, uh, we think the key to continuing to grow is to, uh, continue to, uh, focus on customers, uh, on both sides of the marketplace.
04:25We'll roll additional services. We roll training this year, really excited about its momentum.
04:30I think grooming is certainly fair game, you know, pet adoption is fair game. Uh, and so you'll can see, uh, continue to see us do those types of things.
04:39We would really like to become the, uh, essential app that really needs to be on the deck of every phone for, uh, every pet owner, uh, the essential app for all your everyday pet needs.
04:49Brent, I also want to talk about your relatively new ownership. You mentioned Blackstone, which of course, uh, acquired and then took, uh, Rover private in February, 2024.
04:59The conversations we've been having all week about are about the IPO market and sort of these private equity backed IPOs finally coming public.
05:07When you think about the future of Rover, could you see a return to the public markets?
05:13Uh, it's always a possibility. I, I do want to say about, uh, the private equity ownership, you know, we were, um, venture backed for 10 years.
05:21Uh, we were public for 10 quarters and, uh, we were wrapping up our second year, uh, being private with Blackstone.
05:28And I would say, um, without reservation that the Blackstone experience has been the best in terms of the three, uh, ownership experiences we've had.
05:37And I'd measure that in terms of the amount of time and focus that the executive team is able to spend working on the business and addressing customer needs, as well as the, um, the ability to make catalytic investments to grow the business and strengthen it.
05:51The flexibility to do that, not only inside the business, but on the M&A front, uh, in a way that we, we almost certainly would not have done, uh, as a public company.
06:01And so the, the core thesis, uh, that they are operating under, we're certainly experiencing that, uh, in the office.
06:07And I'll see you next time.
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