BarkBox

Bark & Co. (BarkBox)

Type of business	E-commerce subscription service
Headquarters	New York City, New York, U.S.
Area served	USA and Canada
Founder(s)	Matt Meeker, Henrik Werdelin, and Carly Strife
CEO	Matt Meeker
Key people	Cathie Black
Employees	54
Website	www.barkbox.com
Launched	December 2011 (2011-12)

Bark & Co. (BarkBox) is a New York-based provider of pet-themed products and technology known for its monthly subscription service BarkBox, which has approximately 200,000 monthly subscribers.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]} The company also operates the dog-themed content site BarkPost, the photo-sharing app BarkCam, and BarkBuddy, a "Tinder for Dogs."^{[8][9][10][11]} Matt Meeker, Henrik Werdelin, and Carly Strife are the founders.^[1][6]

History

BarkBox

CEO Matt Meeker, Henrik Werdelin, and Carly Strife founded BarkBox in December 2011.^{[1][2][3][6][9][10][12]} The inspiration for BarkBox arose when co-founder Matt Meeker failed to find retailers in New York City who sold products tailored to dogs of all sizes, specifically his 150 lb. Great Dane Hugo.^{[2][12][13][14][15]} Prior to co-founding BarkBox, Matt Meeker co-founded the social networking site Meetup.com.^{[1][7][9][15]}

Bark & Co

The company rebranded to Bark & Co. in April 2013 after raising $6.7M in venture funding.^[6][9][16] The company used the funds to diversify its products, adding the dog-themed content sites BarkPost and PuppyFeed to their repertoire.^[9][10] The company surpassed the $25 million revenue run rate the same year.^[16] Bark & Co. received an additional $15 Million in Series B funding led by Resolute.vc, along with RRE, BoxGroup, Lerer Ventures, Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments, Slow Ventures, Daher Capital, CAA, Vast Ventures, and City National Bank in 2014.^[3][4]

Forbes Magazine named BarkBox as the one of the top 20 companies to follow on social media.^[17]

Bark & Co. launched BarkCam in early 2014, a photo sharing app which operates as an "Instagram for dogs" and their owners.^[11]

Products and services

BarkBox

Bark & Co.’s flagship product, BarkBox, is a monthly subscription service which caters to dogs and “dog parents.”^[9][10][18] Each BarkBox typically contains 4-6 items including bones, toys, treats, accessories, and designed-for-pet dental and health products which have been tested by the company’s on-staff vet.^[12] Subscribers can sign up for 1, 3, 6, or 12 month subscriptions.^{[2][3][12][13][15][18][19][19][20][21][22][23][24][25]}

10% of BarkBox proceeds go to local shelters, rescues, and animal welfare organizations.^{[2][14][18][20][23][24][25]}

BarkPost

BarkPost is a dog-themed content site similar to BuzzFeed's “Cute” section.^{[7][10][12][12][15][26][26]} The site has over 3M unique visitors each month.^[16] The site works in tandem with PuppyFeed, a dedicated webspace where dog owners can share dog photos and videos.^[15]

BarkCam

BarkCam is a photo-sharing app, similar to a dog version of Instagram, available for iOS.^[11] Users can choose from a variety of built-in sounds, designed to grab the pets' attention, which users activate by tapping the camera shutter.^[3] Users can then add text, filters, stickers and chat bubbles to the photo to share on social media platforms.^[11]

BarkBuddy

Bark & Co. has also launched BarkBuddy, which is similar to a "Tinder for dogs," as users can swipe left or right depending on their level of interest in the dog.^{[3][8][27][28]} The free app, available for iPhone and Android,^[29] is designed to match humans with dogs up for adoption at nearby shelters, and users can filter choices by gender, location, activity level, age, and size.^[29] The app is connected to rescue centers and shelters across the United States and Canada, and there are approximately 300,000 dogs in the database.^{[3][8][28][29]} The app sources many of its adoptable dogs from the pet adoption website Petfinder and from Bark & Co’s personal network of shelters and rescue organizations.^[27][28]

Co-founders

Matt Meeker is the co-founder of Meetup and former runner of Dogpatch Labs NY.^[7] He has founded four startups in total, but BarkBox is his first position as CEO.^[1][9][15]

Henrik Werdelin founded Prehype, a New York City-based venture development firm which worked closely with Matt Meeker and Carly Strife to develop BarkBox.^[30]

References