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Rover.com
Rover Group, Inc. is an American company which operates an online marketplace for people to buy and sell pet care services including pet sitting, dog boarding, and dog walking. Rover was founded in 2011 in Seattle, Washington and was formally incorporated under the name "A Place for Rover, Inc." The company serves as a broker and takes roughly 30% of each transaction booked through its site, up from 20% in 2017. The company was publicly listed on the Nasdaq since 2021, until it was taken private by Blackstone in 2024. History Rover was founded by Greg Gottesman after he had a difficult time finding good pet sitter for his yellow Labrador. In June 2011, he went to the Startup Weekend in Seattle, Washington, and pitched the idea for what would become Rover. At that event, Gottesman worked with interested supporters, including co-founder Philip Kimmey, and they later decided to move ahead with starting the company. Rover first began operations in Seattle, Washi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Menlo Ventures
Menlo Ventures is a venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, California with an additional office in San Francisco, California. The firm was founded as one of the earliest venture capital firms in Silicon Valley in 1976 and provides technology venture capital funding for pre-pre-seed, pre-seed, seed, early stage and growth companies. Investments Menlo Ventures invests in consumer Internet, mobile, communications infrastructure, enterprise, security and storage. Since its founding in 1976, the firm has invested in more than 400 companies, including Anthropic, Uber, Gilead Sciences, Fab.com, Roku, Inc., Credit Sesame, Dropcam, HP 3PAR, IronPort, Machine Zone, Siri Siri ( , backronym: Speech Interpretation and Recognition Interface) is a digital assistant purchased, developed, and popularized by Apple Inc., which is included in the iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, macOS, Apple TV, audioOS, and visionOS operating sys ..., PlaySpan, Coraid, Inc., Rover.com, Warby Parker and Vidy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blackstone Inc
Blackstone Inc. is an American alternative investment management company based in New York City. It was founded in 1985 as a mergers and acquisitions firm by Peter Peterson and Stephen Schwarzman, who had previously worked together at Lehman Brothers. Blackstone's private equity business has been one of the largest investors in leveraged buyouts in the last three decades, while its real estate business has actively acquired commercial real estate across the globe. Blackstone is also active in credit, infrastructure, hedge funds, secondaries, growth equity, and insurance solutions. As of May 2024, Blackstone has more than $1 trillion in total assets under management, making it the world's largest alternative investment firm. History Founding and early history Blackstone was founded in 1985 by Peter G. Peterson and Stephen A. Schwarzman with (equivalent to $million in ) in seed capital. The founders derived their firm's name from their names: "Schwarz" is German for "bl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dog Boarding
Dog boarding, also known as dog sitting, refers to overnight care for dogs. It is offered through service providers including dog kennels, professional boarding facilities, dog hotels, dog resorts, private dog sitters' homes, or within the homes of dog owners. Background The practice of dog boarding emerged as a solution to accommodate dogs when their owners were away, whether for vacation, business trips, or other reasons. Dog boarding facilities can vary widely, ranging from traditional kennels to more contemporary free-roaming dog hotels. In addition, some individuals opt for in-home dog boarding services or seek local dog sitters in their communities. The concept of dog boarding evolved in the early 1990s, evolving from traditional kennels. Before World War II, dogs in the United States predominantly lived outdoors, but urbanization Urbanization (or urbanisation in British English) is the population shift from Rural area, rural to urban areas, the corresponding decre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pet Sitting
Pet sitting is the act of temporarily taking care of another person's pet for a given time frame. It commonly occurs at the pet owner's home, but may also occur at the provider's home or at a pet sitting place of business or organization. Pet sitting is a more personal and individualized arrangement for care compared to boarding or kenneling. Specialized training is usually not required for pet sitting. Description In 1997 Pet Sitters International (PSI) successfully campaigned to have "pet sitting" added to the Random House Dictionary. "Pet sitting" is defined as "the act of caring for a pet in its own home while the owner is away." Dog walking is also a form of pet sitting since it involves coming to the pet’s home to provide exercise and companionship. Caring for pets in the clients’ homes is what separates pet sitters from boarders or doggie daycares. Pet sitters visit the pet home to provide a range of services. This primarily involves feeding, exercise and companionshi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Special-purpose Acquisition Company
A special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC; ), also known as a blank check company or a blind-pool stock offering, is a shell corporation listed on a stock exchange with the purpose of acquiring (or merging with) a private company, thus taking the private company public through a procedure which requires less regulatory filings and has less safeguards for investors than the initial public offering (IPO) process. According to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), SPACs are created specifically to pool funds to finance a future merger or acquisition opportunity within a set timeframe; these opportunities usually have yet to be identified while raising funds. In the U.S., SPACs are registered with the SEC and considered publicly traded companies. The general public may buy their shares on stock exchanges before any merger or acquisition takes place. For this reason they have at times been referred to as the "poor man's private equity funds." The majority of companies ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reuters
Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was established in London in 1851 by Paul Reuter. The Thomson Corporation of Canada acquired the agency in a 2008 corporate merger, resulting in the formation of the Thomson Reuters Corporation. In December 2024, Reuters was ranked as the 27th most visited news site in the world, with over 105 million monthly readers. History 19th century Paul Julius Reuter worked at a book-publishing firm in Berlin and was involved in distributing radical pamphlets at the beginning of the Revolutions of 1848. These publications brought much attention to Reuter, who in 1850 developed a prototype news service in Aachen using homing pigeons and electric telegraphy from 1851 on, in order to transmit messages between Brussels and Aachen, in what today is Aa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
House Sitting
House sitting is the practice whereby a person leaving their house for a period of time entrusts it to one or more "house sitters", who by a mutual agreement are permitted to live or stay in the property temporarily, in exchange for assuming any combination of responsibilities. These can include taking care of the home owner's pets, performing general maintenance (including pools, lawns, air-conditioning systems, etc.), keeping trespassers off the property, readdressing the mail, and in general, making sure that everything runs smoothly, just as if the owner was at home. Benefits for the home/pet owner Pets are the reason for 82 percent of house-sitting arrangements, and for many people the cost of pet care during holidays is more than the cost of the vacation itself. Many pet owners prefer to leave their pets at home in familiar surroundings, cared for by other pet lovers. A secondary benefit to the home owner is that the property is maintained for the entire period they are aw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dog Daycare
Dog daycare, or doggy daycare, is short-term daytime care for dogs. It differs from multi-day kennel boarding and pet sitting, where the sitter comes to the pet's home. Background Dog daycares arose out of traditional kennels in the early 1990s.Strasburg, Jenny (4 November 2000)Longer work days lead to need for doggy day care ''Today's New Herald'' (reprint of article originally published in ''The San Francisco Examiner'', distributed broadly)Lee, Jean H. (20 August 1999)Dog owners lining up for day care services ''Bangor Daily News'' (Associated Press story)Knight, Rebecca M. (26 September 1999) ''The New York Times''(9 September 1973)A Day-Care Center For the Lonely Dog ''The New York Times'' (noting the unique "day care" for dogs concept in a 1973 article) Prior to World War II, dogs more commonly lived outside in the United States, but as urbanization spread dogs started to live indoors more frequently. Other factors, including an increase in the population of adults witho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dog Walking
Dog walking is the act of a person walking with a dog, typically from the dog's residence and then returning. Leashes are commonly used for this. Both owners and pets receive many benefits, including exercise and companionship. Description Dogs are restrained by a collar around their neck or a harness, or by simply following their guardian with familiarity and verbal control. Commonly, the dog is walked by the guardian or another family member, but there are also professional dog walkers. Dog owners can also go hiking with their dogs. Many trails mandate that the dogs are on leash, in view of the dogs' safety and the safety of other hikers. Health benefits A study by Michigan State University showed that people who walk their dogs are 34% more likely to meet expected goals of exercise, with a recommended level of 150 minutes of activity such as dog walking per week. Matthew Reeves, the co-author of the study said, "There is no magic bullet in getting people to reach those b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spark Capital
Spark Capital Partners, LLC is a multi-stage venture capital firm based in the U.S. with operations in San Francisco, New York, and Boston. Spark is a generalist VC firm with a portfolio that spans verticals such as consumer internet, enterprise software, gaming, infrastructure technologies, hardware, semiconductors, crypto, fintech, and AI. Funds Spark Capital was launched in 2005 by Paul Conway, Santo Politi, and Todd Dagres.Today the firm manages assets north of $12 billion. They have raised eight early-stage funds: US$265 million in 2005; $360 million in 2008; $360 million in 2010; $450 million in 2013; $400 million in 2016; $450 million in 2019; $700M in 2021; and $700M in 2024.They have also raised five growth funds: $375 million in 2014; $600 million in 2016;$900 million in 2019; $1.4B in 2021; and $1.4B in 2024. Team Spark Capital was founded in 2005 by Bijan Sabet, Paul Conway, Santo Politi, and Todd Dagres. Other people who have joined the company since its inception i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
