Gabby: everything for dogs’ health and acquaintance
Armenian State University of Armenia, within the frames of the grant program “Innovation constituent of startups” of the grant program “From Idea to Business” awarded by RA Ministry of High-Tech Industry, implements a project aimed at transferring necessary knowledge and practical skills to startup representatives, provide business connections to expand favorable conditions to develop their business. Beneficiaries of the acceleration program are 6 startups from different spheres. Within the frames of the program, starting from February 22, thematic learning courses as well as cooperation stage with mentors have started and continue at ASUE Change Lab where participants get acquainted with problems of intellectual property protection of startups, funding stages and investment instruments, fund-raising, digital marketing and branding.
ASUE Division of Marketing and PR has started a series of publications on 6 startups and the first one was devoted to Zleenk startup and the second one is about Gabby application.
Gabby is the first application in Armenia developed for the health and acquaintances that can be downloaded for iOS and Android users free of charge.
How was this idea turned into an application?
The idea emerged two years ago when Vache Sahakyan had to take care of his dog and understood that he needs to spend much time with the dog, take it for a walk, allow the dog to run and jump as well as he realized how necessary was the communication with other dogs because this way dogs not only enjoy their activities but also discipline each other. Later other problems started to bother him such as the period for the dog to find a friend to give birth to new generation.
“I decided to develop a social network platform that will help to take care of dogs, find relevant information, get acquainted, organize events and find friends for each other” – Vache pointed out.
Who are the initiators of the startup?
The idea to develop Gabby belongs to Vache Sahakyan who is the co-founder and director of the startup and deals with business issues. Vache is from Iran, his partner Aram Manukyan is from Syria and Narek Manukyan is from Armenia. They provide the programming of the startup.
What does Gabby offer?
The application functions in the market about 7-8 months. “Before the operations started, we experimented with the application and received only positive feedback from the users and made some adjustments based on feedback received”- Vache has told us. The application tells you how often to feed the dog, how to control its weight, as well as addresses of the veterinary clinics … so the main aim is health of your dog”.
On the achievements
“Team is the most important and the first prerequisite of success, each member is the best in their sphere and it is the biggest achievement. Partnership is like marriage, it revolves around the same interests and goals” – Vache says.
The future of the company
Gabby is going to target the State of Texas in the USA. In the coming 7-10 years Gabby will be a startup but goals and actions are abundant. They will make updates in the software and cooperate with organizations dealing with dogs.
“The initial slogan of the application was ‘Life of the dog is also important’. I will not reveal about our future actions but we should try to offer new services to dog owners” – Vache says.
On the acceleration courses implemented at ASUE
“My expectations were met here. I participated in such programs and courses in Armenia but most of them deliver only basic knowledge considering it the main requirement of the audience. Armenian State University of Economics provided us with something we did not know and showed the future that we need”- Vache tells about the training organized at the Change Lab.
He says that the acceleration program provides knowledge in different spheres: finance, branding, marketing, presentation skills, copyright problems, besides it has established effective cooperation with participating startups.