Dogster/Catster Launches Contest and Releases Growth Stats

Dogster CEO Ted Rheingold was the first CN interview I conducted just over a year ago. I was impressed from the first minute I met him both on his business acumen but also with his strategic visions. I can only imagine what he was thinking as he was coming to meet a no-name, new, no traffic blogger :)

Today, Ted sent over some very impressive stats about Dogster and Catster:

• Over 17.5 million distinct friend-to-friend connections have been made
• Over 3 million photos have been uploaded
• Over 20 thousand videos have been uploaded (video only started this year)
• Over 10.8 thousand member-established and -driven groups have been created
• There are over 100,000 locales now in our dog and cat friendly Local Listings
• There are over 4,000 adoptable pets available on the site right now.

They also launched the 2007 version of their coolest pet contest. I wonder if any cats will be twitter’in about their entries. Check out the contest details.

The reason for their success is (at least) three things: a passionate team of employees who are actively involved with the site community, a leader who is active in the tech community, and a fun, active, affluent community. Dogster is like the Yelp of dogs. Some startups have one or maybe two characteristics, but all three is a huge step towards profitability and long-term growth. Of course I would like to belive the real growth happened after our interview. :-P