In this episode of Brains Byte Back, host Erick Espinosa sits down with Ayaz Ahmadov, CEO and co-founder of Dosty, a comprehensive pet care solution platform designed to support pet owners throughout the entire life cycle of their pets. Ayaz explains that Dosty was inspired by his own experiences with his dogs, and the realization that existing pet care solutions are scattered. This gave way to this idea that spoke to the overarching needs of today’s modern pet owner in one simplified space.
Ayaz highlights that Dosty aims to be a “super app” that integrates various aspects of pet care, such as training, nutrition, and health management, into one platform. The app uses AI to provide personalized advice based on specific details about each pet, ensuring that owners receive accurate and relevant information. He also shares insights into the extensive research and collaboration with pet professionals that went into developing Dosty, emphasizing the importance of a strong, diverse team in bringing the idea to fruition.
Ayaz discusses the growing trend of pet humanization and the need for structured, personalized care in modern pet ownership. He also touches on the future plans for Dosty, including its expansion into Latin America and the addition of new features, languages, and pet types. Throughout the conversation, the pet-tech founder underscores the importance of community and collaboration in the industry, with a focus on improving the experience for pet owners globally.
You can listen to the full episode below, or on Spotify, Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Breaker,, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Overcast, Listen Notes, PodBean, and Radio Public.
Find out more about Ayaz Ahmadov here.
Find out more about Dosty here.
Connect with Brains Byte Back host Erick Espinosa here.
TRANSCRIPT:
Ayaz Ahmadov:
I’m Ayaz Ahmadov, CEO and co-founder of Dosty. Dosty is a modern pet care solution that concentrated on the full cycle of upbringing the pet. So, basically, from the very young age to the last days the pets are with us, we are here to support you via many interesting tools that we can talk about.
Erick Espinosa:
Amazing, Ayaz. Thank you so much for joining us on this episode of Brains Bright Back. I’m going to begin by apologizing in advance to our audience and to you Ayaz just in case my two dogs bark. They’re pretty rowdy. But you know what? It goes with the theme today, which is pet care and pet tech. Say that ten times fast, “pet tech”.
Ayaz Ahmadov:
That’s the music to my ears. That’s no problem.
Erick Espinosa:
I imagine you have a furry friend. What’s the name of your furry friend?
Ayaz Ahmadov:
Yeah, I got three. I got Matilda. That’s my first one, my girl. And then I got Macho. That’s my boy. And they got a puppy called Lucky. That’s the only one in the litter. So I called him Lucky Man.
Erick Espinosa:
Amazing.
Ayaz Ahmadov:
And I also really like the character of Lucky Luciano. So I called him Lucky.
Erick Espinosa:
It works. So I imagine that they or Matilda was probably the inspiration behind Dosty. Is that correct?
Ayaz Ahmadov:
Yeah, Matilda was the huge inspiration behind Dosty. I was always into into pets. I was always into animals. And as any kids, you know, growing up, I really wanted to have a dog. And my mom was always like, It’s either me or a pet in the house, so I really couldn’t have a dog.
Erick Espinosa:
There’s only one parent.
Ayaz Ahmadov:
Yeah, exactly, man. It’s always one parent. But I got older, so I got my own dogs now. And when I got Matilda, I started getting into the pet psychology, noticing a lot of things and figuring out how I can leverage on that and what I can do. Because like, if I’m experiencing problems as a pet owner, the millions of other pet owners who are curious about the same things or experienced the same problems that I do. And after the pandemic hit, 60% of all the pet care solutions, basically, they were born after the pandemic. So once the pandemic hit, I realized there is an urge to to create a full-scale solution that would help the owners to bring their pet from day one till the last day.
And the reason to do that is because to support the pet’s lifestyle, it’s not enough just to have a certain app on your phone, being a training app, being nutritionist app or a telemed app because you will end up having like six or seven apps to support your dog’s lifestyle, and then those apps are not connected with each other.
So you still have a lot of information that is missing. We decided to create a solution that includes all the important aspects of the pet’s life cycle in one. Learns your pet and delivers you to tailor-fit advice based on your specific pet.
Erick Espinosa:
Amazing. Did you come up with this idea during the pandemic? Because I know searches for domestic pets during the pandemic went up. I guess adoptions like 2.5 times higher than the normal. So we know that a lot of people were looking at, you know, getting domestic pets during the pandemic.
But it’s interesting because of your background, technically, you were like a sports marketer before you really got into this?
Ayaz Ahmadov:
Yeah, my brother, I was in marketing all my life. Like basically I graduated from university with marketing degree. Then I went to work in the mobile operator. I was I was leading the B2B marketing in one of the biggest mobile operators in the region. Then we signed a partnership with Manchester United, so the Sports Marketing and Strategic Partnership Department was created, and I was leading that as well. After the partnership with Manchester United, I got in love with the idea of having a sports marketing agency, and I built one.
Marketing influenced me and helped me see that huge gap in the market. But as I said, a lot of solutions are single-purpose solutions, which is not really convenient. The pet market, although it’s very crowded in terms of the products, has not just a pet dog but an overall pet market.
But pet tech is still a bit immature in terms of the solutions and the way the solutions are unfolding in front of the pet owners. So I realized that opportunity I seen that gap and in 2022 we sit down with my team and started sketching out Dosty and we launched it in February February 23rd, just this year.
So it was like a year, year and a half of cooking up the whole idea, you know, putting together the logic. And we worked on that quite a bit. And we launched this year.
Erick Espinosa:
That’s amazing. Congrats.
Ayaz Ahmadov:
Thank you very much, man.
Erick Espinosa:
So when I was going through the website and digging through the app, I kind of looked at it, this idea of a smartwatch with a bunch of other features, but specifically for your pet, because it’s like a Google calendar; it’s an AI assistant. How do you describe, I guess, when you first meet somebody, the concept behind what that Dosty is?
Ayaz Ahmadov:
Yeah, Dosty is a super app that’s a complete cycle of taking care of your pet. We are in the better mode right now. Both the website and the applications. September you are going to see the whole new thing. Like website is going to contain thousands and thousands of different articles and calculators and calendars you can use. And then, the application will already include the assistant, which is our A.I. chat that will be able to talk to you considering 40 parameters of your specific pet, like from vaccination to the breed type.
It’s all connected with ChatGPT and acts as a filter. Once you send the question to GPT, it will bring back the answer. Check in with the specific parameters that we set and tailor the answer to you, to the specific situation that we have, that you have right now. So let’s say if I want to take Matilda to swim, if you ask anybody in the world, can I take Labrador to swim? Everybody will say, yes, my Labradors love water, man.
Erick Espinosa:
I have that image in my head of a Labrador in the water.
Ayaz Ahmadov:
Exactly. When they dive in anywhere they see, bro, like everywhere, literally. But if I ask to advise me, let’s say pet the pet-friendly beaches around whatever city, it will come back and say, tell me, okay, these and these are the beaches. You can take a dog there, but don’t take Matilda today. She’s been vaccinated yesterday. So you have to wait one day and take a dog to swim tomorrow. So that vaccination part is one of the crucial things that is going to check because water vaccine, this is the correlation between them.
So we’re going to check the vaccine, come back and give you the answer. Whereas if you go to GPT or Google, you may not know that there is a correlation between vaccination and water, you know, and you will just type in, can I take my Labrador to swim? It will go, yes, hundred percent.
Erick Espinosa:
What kind of research went into this? Because you guys were doing this for like a year and a half. I imagine you have to reach out to, you know, different types of communities with pets. I imagine it’s been a crazy year and a half just really trying to build this product to address all the concerns that people have.
Ayaz Ahmadov:
And, you know, honestly speaking, the diversity is the is a testament to the fact that the great idea is not enough. It always takes a badass team behind it to make the product great. From idea to the product. And I really appreciate all my team, because that year and a half for us was very hectic. Like we contacted hundreds of pet professionals like nutritionists, trainers, vets. We worked with many of them. We spent tens of thousands of dollars into the research. We were buying, like the research libraries and stuff about every single breed, about all the non-breeds, and about older standards and stuff.
So Dosty includes the huge knowledge base behind it, and with the stuff that we did with GPT, with the model that we trained and the mechanics that we put for GPT to consider the information inside the app, we basically get access to the endless amount of information online. But now you as an owner, you are quite safe because that information is being filtered by the parameters that your pet has. There won’t be any screw-ups, basically. There is no chance that you can get the wrong answer or something because there is certain rules that are enlisted. There are thousands of rules, thousands of logics and the whole app operates based on them.
Erick Espinosa:
Ayaz, I’m going to read something to you. I was doing some research online and this kind of spoke to me, and what I quote, “The humanization of pets is a significant trend influencing pet the pet tech industry. Pet owners now seek to provide their pets with experiences and products that mirror the quality of care they would provide for themselves.”
So what stuck to me is this personalization that we always search for ourselves. I mean, I’m talking about Instagram and Spotify, and now I feel like modern pet ownership that exists right now is incorporating this idea of personalized care and entertainment for your pets.
And I feel like I’m that guy because I’m searching for, you know, the best tech things to keep my dog entertained. You’ve been an animal lover for years. Do you feel like there’s been more of a shift in the way that people take care of their animals in the last 35 years compared to how it was maybe 15 years ago?
Ayaz Ahmadov:
Oh 100%. And there are a couple of factors that really influence that. One of them was the pandemic. Obviously, we were locked in with our pets. So we started to build a different kind of relationship with them because they were basically, for a lot of people, a pet was the only friend the person was around.
But there is a problem with that as well because humanizing pets is a bit wrong. Yet treating a pet as a human may cause problems if it is a certain breed of dog because dogs are pack animals, and they have a very strict social hierarchy, whereas we don’t in our relationship, which is more relaxed and easy.
And another great thing —you mentioned it right—is that the pets are not using the apps we do right, and we like it structured. We like it when everything is structured, when everything is in its place. Like we got used to it. Yeah. Thanks to Meta, thanks to Google, thanks to Spotify. Like all these big titans, they showed us how everything can be structured in one place.
Even though you have access to thousands and millions of different songs on Spotify, your playlists are all structured. You can create many different playlists and blah blah, blah, blah, blah blah. So that’s what was missing in pet Care. Like, again, to support pets lifestyle, you need to have seven or eight apps on your phone, which is inconvenient, and we as humans will not do it.
And in order to put that structure, you need to combine those five or seven apps inside one application, you know, to remove some things that you don’t need, Add some things that you do and create an ultimate solution. Let’s say if you want to train a dog, there are great apps, amazing apps. I use many of them that offer 200 different commands. But let’s be realistic, man, will you teach your dog 200 commands? I would admit, hell no. I don’t have time to do that.
Erick Espinosa:
I’m still trying to teach my dog a second command right now.
Ayaz Ahmadov:
Exactly. That’s the whole thing. So what we did, we put ten. If you need the 11th one, you can always go and download the training app. But we got the ten ones. But you need my seats. Stay. They don’t do it. Yes. And blah, blah, blah. And more than that, we explain to you why you need those commands and why they are important. Like why it is always important to sit your dog when your dog is eating. It’s not because you want to do that, but what it tells your dog and how it helps you tomorrow and the next day and so on and so forth.
So we also put a lot of psychology behind those. We’re not just telling owners what to do. We also explained why that is important so they can build a better, more structured relationship with their pets.
Erick Espinosa:
And I think it also limits the frustration because, for me, I mean, I’ve only had my dogs for the past two years. I was really new to it. My partner, his whole life, he spent it with dogs in his household. But for me, I’m understanding they’re puppies. I’m trying to read as much as possible. But it’s a lot of information coming in all at once. And I’m trying to understand what’s the best leash to use, What’s the best collar to use?
Some are saying use this one. Some are saying don’t use this one. So, the way I’m understanding it, it’s like a one-stop shop for you to get all the information that you need specific to your breed age and all the information that you’ve put in about your pet.
Ayaz Ahmadov:
Yes, exactly. That’s basically the whole idea behind it. Users have to give us some time. We are very young. We’ve been four months at the market with it, our A and B stairs. So now we know exactly which direction we want to go. So within the next couple of months, Dosty will have all this bunch of programs, including the leash one, including the ones on how to properly walk your dog.
And we do that not out of our own experience, but we do that with the help of professionals and then professionals living globally. So we have vets from United Kingdom, from Spain, from Mexico, from the United States because, you know, from territory to territory, from people to people, habits change and the psychology factor changes.
So the stuff that you explain to the guy from Florida and the stuff that you can explain, the guy from Caracast or Mexico City is different and the way you pitch it is different. So we try to keep that vibe. And the whole idea of Dosty was to build a community. Community not just of pet parents, but also for every single person who offers something for pets.
So if you sell something for pets on Instagram, you can use Dosty as that platform, because now you know that all the pet owners are in the same place. You can target exactly those who you need. Exactly those breeds, those cities and those types of pets. And we can help you do that. If you are a startup offering, let’s say cameras for your pet, we can easily link with you and offer the application for that. We can place your widget inside Dosty, so the users of those you can easily link with your camera. If you offer if you offer a tag, a walking tag, we can develop a very nice walking feature and, you know, do some gaming, you know, gamification, action and stuff.
So we are very open to cooperating, and we will be reaching out to many fellow start-ups to do stuff together. At the end of the day, the beneficiary is a pet owner. And for us, that’s what matters. Because if the pet owner is happy, the goal of any business is to make money. Obviously, everybody will be making money and everybody will be happy.
Erick Espinosa:
What fascinates me about what you were just talking about is understanding culture and the way that people communicate, maybe with their own pets. I was doing some reading as well, and I saw that apparently, 60% of the population in Russia has cats in their homes.
One of countries in the world that has the most domestic pets, I think most people would guess ….what would be your your guess?
Ayaz Ahmadov:
The most domestic pets? The country? In the world?
Erick Espinosa:
Yeah.
Ayaz Ahmadov:
China.
Erick Espinosa:
Is it? Domestic.
Ayaz Ahmadov:
224 million cats and dogs live in China, bro.
Erick Espinosa:
But is that in reference to street animals as well, or no, do you think?
Ayaz Ahmadov:
No, no, I think that’s just the domesticated pets.
Erick Espinosa:
Because I know the U.S. is also very big one.
Ayaz Ahmadov:
The U.S. is huge and in terms of money U.S. is the biggest spender, one-hundred percent.
Erick Espinosa:
And you recently said that you guys are about to launch in Latin America.
Ayaz Ahmadov:
Yeah, that’s the house for a lot of pets. And you know what? We don’t want to limit Dosty just to cats and dogs. Eventually, we do want to switch. So once we understand that our mechanics, our assistant works with the logics that we enlisted into it, we can be adding parrots. We can add adding whatever weasels, man, whatever you want to add.
And if you talk parrots, Brazil man is the motherland. It’s like It’s like tens of millions of parrots, living in houses in Brazil. Dogs and cats, the same thing. Latin America is a huge market. So we come in there in October, definitely. And hopefully, it will turn out to be very, very good.
Erick Espinosa:
Yeah, I saw Brazil is also a huge market for domestic animals, but the one that stuck out to me is that Argentina is listed as a top country, with 80% of people in the country reporting owning a pet at some point in their lifetime.
Ayaz Ahmadov:
Yes, yes, yes. Pets per household in the world is up there with Argentina is on top. Let’s dive deeper. The reason for a lot of people to have pets is actually psychological reason. It may come in some cases it might come from insecurity. In some cases it might come from being lonely or whatever. Like we trying to solve our psychological problems with pets. We may not realize that, but that’s what it is,
We want to have affection for somebody, so we’ll get a dog or a cat. We wanted to have a good companion. We’ll get a dog or a cat. So, you know, I’m more likely to go hiking in the woods with my dog than with the human companion. I enjoy that with the dog much more because I’m the one giving pace and I’m the one I have to take care of it myself and obviously my dog.
So my dog just adjusts to me. Yeah. And I enjoy that in silence, you know, just walk my music on and then, you know, get my dog on and walk.
Erick Espinosa:
Ayaz, 100%. I agree. I had this conversation with some Colombian friends because I noticed that in Colombia, especially in Medellin, there are a lot of people it’s not just one dog, it’s like a dog and two cats or two cats and a dog.
And for me I thought it spoke a lot to the culture of the people that they have so much love to give in their family, that they extend that love to, you know, wanting those pets in their household. And they’re just like so accustomed to to that being part of the culture.
Ayaz Ahmadov:
Eric, I agree with you and my wife probably going to kill me if she hears that. If she hears that. But I got to say that, yeah, I’m a father of three kids. I got a daughter and two sons and I got three labs. I got I’m a pet parent of three as well.
Erick Espinosa:
That’s a busy household.
Ayaz Ahmadov:
That’s a huge that’s a crazy household. That’s that’s one crazy house a lot. But the amount of unconditional love that my dogs give me is unparalleled, is unmatched.
Like when you come home, and your kids greet you, you know that sometimes they pay attention to what you have in your hand. Like did you bring a present or did you do this or did you do that? But the way dogs greet you… the dogs greet you just because you are there. You know what I’m saying?
Like, you leave the house, you come back 5 minutes later, these dogs are going to greet you like they haven’t seen you for a year. And they love you unconditionally. You don’t have mood. It doesn’t matter. They’re going to be out there, you know, taking a bad mood, but they still going to be out there loving you. So there is a lot we can learn from animals in that perspective as well.
Erick Espinosa:
Ayaz, what can we expect…. where is it launching? What information If somebody is listening to this, if they’re interested in using it in their region, where can they see it in the next little while?
Ayaz Ahmadov:
Basically, Dosty available across all the platforms like the Google Play and the iPhone, and the App Store. Available in English right now. But before November, it will be translated to all the major languages: Spanish, French, Italian, Russian, German, and so on and so forth. We are having a massive update in August, so those will be redesigned and refeatured. We will launch the chat and the puppy and kitten programs in September. From that point on, every two week people will be getting updates. Like constant updates.
We have the whole package of new features ready and it’s just a matter of adding them into the platform once we build it fit. So everybody who is with us right now, stick around for one more month, and you’re going to get a whole new experience because we are switching off from beta. Those of you who are not with us, it’s a good time to download and again wait for us for a month and we switch from beta and it is going to be great. You’re going to enjoy it.
Because it’s an app delivered by the pet owners. Like the whole team, owns pets, both cats, dogs, whatever.
Erick Espinosa:
I’m excited to see what’s to come. I recently downloaded the app. I’ve been digging around it, you know. Thank you again Ayaz for joining us on this episode of Brains Byte Back. I’m looking forward to see what’s to come off of Dosty.
Disclosure: This article mentions a client of an Espacio portfolio company.
