HORSE MATCH: A Modern Way to Shop for Horses and Essentials
Online shopping is here to stay, giving customers ease and convenience which make it an everyday part of life, so why not transfer that to the horse world? Which is exactly what CEO and co-founder, Summer Gentry along with Michael Upchurch, COO and co-founder set out to do when they met 3 years ago to offer an app to help equestrians purchase their next horse and the services and products that goes along with horse ownership.
“Searching for my horse was a painful experience,” Summer recalled, “The websites were antiquated and with limited filter options and social media had direct messaging but those got lost.” Summer realized there had to be a better way, especially with so many innovative and easy solutions in the consumer world for all types of purchases. “I wanted to create a Tinder (online dating app) for horse shopping,” she said. After meeting Mike, who is a serial entrepreneur, they discussed the idea and came up with the name Horse Match. They launched in January 2021 and brought to fruition a simple, easy solution for buying a horse. “I wanted to make it more fun and much easier for all parties involved with buying and selling,” said Summer.
Early Equine Days
Summer, who is currently based in Virginia, grew up always wanting to be with a horse. “I was five years old when I took my first lesson and started competing in the local circuit with ponies when I was seven,” She rode up until college when she sold her horse and then ten years later got back in the saddle. “One of my best friends who lived near me bought a horse and she invited me to ride which got me back into what I loved most.” Summer’s current horse is a Percheron Thoroughbred cross, named Winterfell aka Jon Snow, and she competes in eventing.
The Horse Match App: Swipe left for horses you aren’t interested in, swipe right for ones that look like a good prospect and connect with the owner.
Rules of Engagement
Horsematch is an app that you can download for free from the Apple App store or Google Play. Swipe left for horses you aren’t interested in, swipe right for ones that look like a good prospect and connect with the owner. Everyone sets a profile and that helps drive the type of horses you are looking for and owners get more qualified buyers. You’ll also receive notifications when new horses get added. “We are always working on adding more horses to the site and we incorporated a ‘featured horse of the week’ to help drive engagement,” said Summer. Currently the app is free, but the future model includes sellers buying ad space through a subscription and they also offer bulk pricing, if you are looking to sell more than one horse. “We want this to be affordable and easy, so the pricing is very reasonable.”
Transparency and Much Needed Features
“The horse world has relied on word of mouth for selling horses for a long time and there is a stigma with horse sellers – where some can be trying to sell you more than what the horse is worth, or lame, or ill-suited to the job. With that said, we decided to set up a rating system – buyers can rate sellers and vice versa,” stated Summer and added, “It’s time we added more transparency to the process.”
To offer buyers more services, they are adding equine insurance partner – Markel Insurance. “We are also looking to partner with more service providers to help make the horse buying experience a one-stop shop,” said Summer. Those providers will include farriers and veterinarians along with companies like Smartpak. “Horsematch will also include ratings for service providers to continue to build trust and transparency.”
We have also partnered with Buddy Insurance, and innovative short-term insurance you can choose to take out for as little as 24 hours, for as little as $6 a day. Their benefits help cover up to $50,000 in out-of-pocket costs, like deductibles and copays after an accident. Because the benefits are paid directly to you, they can also be used for things like repairing damaged gear, missed work, or even childcare. We could see this being useful to our users as extra protection for show or travel days.
Platform and Privacy Focused
“We built Horse Match using the latest technology and invest in cloud service providers for our applications and website,” said Michael. Their technology goals are focused on scalability and the ability to add features and functionality quickly, plus, provide a fantastic user experience. Michael also stressed the importance of making sure they have industry leading security in place. “Cloud providers have spent billions of dollars on data protection and privacy - the capabilities far exceed what an individual company could develop so we decided very early on to leverage their investment to protect our customers,” shared Michael. Choosing highly scalable and secure providers translates into a platform that can provide solutions to other markets in the future.
Gaining Exposure
As any startup knows it is hard to gain exposure and mindshare with a limited marketing budget or social media presence. “Looking to build our audience and subscriber base, we are now using an equestrian marketing agency to help with media buying and overall brand recognition,” said Michael. This will include more ads with The Plaid Horse and Eventing Nation. The exposure will help expand their subscriber base and keep equestrians up to date on available horses along with new features, “Our vision is for equestrians to use the Horsematch app in a modern way – a digital tool that is intuitive, safe, fun and fits their lifestyle,” stated Michael.
Horsematch Website
Follow Horsematch on:
Instagram: horse.match
Facebook: @horsematchapp