Posted on October 02, 2026
What if your dog could tell you how they were feeling, even when they couldn’t actually tell you?
On this episode of the Bold Inventor Show, J.D. Houvener and Matt Kulseth sit down with Richard Nilsson, founder of My Pet Go, a pet-health technology company focused on using wearable technology, data, and AI to help pet parents better understand their dogs.
Richard shares the story behind My Pet Go, the technical challenges of collecting health data from dogs, why the company chose a B2B model instead of going directly to consumers, and how he thinks about intellectual property as the company moves toward its next generation of technology.
For inventors and entrepreneurs, Richard’s story also highlights an important lesson: sometimes protecting an innovation isn’t just about filing patents. It can also involve trademarks, trade secrets, business strategy, and building something that is difficult for competitors to replicate.
The Origin of My Pet Go
J.D.:
Let’s start with the origin story. What inspired you to create My Pet Go?
Richard:
It was really a combination of being a pet parent and being an opportunistic entrepreneur who looks at gaps in the market.
My dog, Cesar, is a 10-year-old Maltese. When I started this, he was about six. At the same time, I could see that the pet sector was still very analog.
I started asking, how do you digitally transform it?
I’ve done a lot of that in other industries throughout my life, so I looked at the market and the numbers and thought there was something interesting here.
Millennials at the time, and certainly Gen C today, are becoming a very large group of pet parents. They’re very data-driven and do most of their chores on their mobile phones.
So it made sense to try to consolidate all of your pet information into your mobile phone with a data-driven approach and then add new technologies like AI.
What Is My Pet Go?
Matt:
We’re looking at your website right now. Tell us about My Pet Go. What is the service or product you offer?
Richard:
It’s like a WHOOP strap for your dog.
We’re a canine-only offering at the moment. We don’t have a feline or cat offering yet. That’s in the works for 2026, but we’re trying to perfect the dogs before we jump over to a different animal.
The idea is essentially to report on the same types of information you would get from a health wearable as a human.
The difference is that pets don’t tend to talk. We’re trying to give them a voice through the data and explain what these health markers mean and what you can do when something goes out of range.
We look at HRV, which isn’t commonly used in the world of dogs. We also look at step count, behavioral traits, respiration rate, temperature, and other health markers.
Temperature, for example, can potentially indicate hyperthermia or something that could lead to heat stroke.
But I think what we do differently is explain the information in a layman’s way. Then we say, here’s what you can do with this data and these insights, and here’s someone who can help you.
That could mean connecting you to a service provider or a physical product. So it’s really an ecosystem and platform play.
Solving the Technical Challenge of Measuring Health Data in Dogs
J.D.:
When you’re dealing with dogs, you’ve got hair, different breeds, different body types, and different conditions. Did you have to overcome technical hurdles to get the sensors to work?
Richard:
Yes.
With something like an Apple Watch, you’ve got a green light that looks at how the blood is flowing under your skin. Unless you’re extremely hairy, that tends to work quite well.
We use different sensors and different science.
The technology that a WHOOP or Apple Watch uses is PPG. We use something called BCG, which is ballistic cardiography.
It looks at how the blood mass is shifting in the body.
We can’t emit light because we’re dealing with fur, so we use a gyroscope and an accelerometer. There are other data points that we extrapolate, and then we put those data points into AI models to try to mimic what a heartbeat looks like.
J.D.:
Is that a new type of sensing or a new sensor?
Richard:
The sensors themselves aren’t necessarily new. The AI models are where things get interesting.
We’re really a data business. We’re not really a hardware company. We’re a data business.
We try to make sense of data, report that data in a simple, understandable way, and then help you understand what the data means, what it can do for you and your pet, and how it can help you mitigate something that’s going in the wrong direction.
How Do You Collect Enough Data?
J.D.:
We’ve had clients who aren’t necessarily in this exact technology area but want to gather data and use it. How did you go about getting the data you needed?
Richard:
You can have plenty of users, but if you want to understand the markers, it’s more complicated.
We’re dealing with roughly 200 dog breeds. Then you have males and females, healthy and unhealthy dogs, young and old dogs.
Once you start looking at all the combinations, you’re dealing with far more than 200 types.
You need to take the wearable, test it on tons of different breeds, ages, and health conditions, and then validate the data output with medical equipment and traditional veterinary methods.
Then you calibrate backward.
It’s a lot of work. We’ve been building this for the past four years, and we’re now going to market.
Why My Pet Go Chose a B2B Model
Richard:
We’re a B2B proposition. We tend to work with other pet-tech or pet-related companies that already have a large base of users.
We white-label everything from the application we’ve built.
We’ve created a longevity program with daily tasks covering activity, mobility, rest, health, nutrition, preventative care, and health screenings.
The idea is that if you do these things in a timely way, you’ll have a happier, healthier, longer-living dog.
That’s the mission and vision: helping you understand your pet better and helping your pet live a longer, healthier, better life with you.
When Did Intellectual Property Become Part of the Strategy?
J.D.:
Let’s talk about intellectual property. When did it dawn on you that this was something you needed to protect?
Richard:
We have a bunch of trademarks.
Because we’re a global business, you have to decide whether you go crazy with trademarks or focus on certain territories.
I haven’t gone super crazy with it, but I think we will.
I’ve spent a lot of time in Asia Pacific, particularly Southeast Asia. There’s a famous example involving Ralph Lauren, where the brand didn’t trademark certain things in Indonesia.
As a result, you can find thousands of Polo Ralph Lauren stores there that aren’t actually his stores. They can be extremely convincing copies.
That really showed me the importance of protecting your brand internationally.
For us, we haven’t patented anything yet. We’ve trademarked the name My Pet Go because we think logos can come and go, but the name is important.
We originally wanted a different name, but another company already owned it.
Why They Didn’t Patent the First Generation
J.D.:
What about patents?
Richard:
We decided not to do anything with Gen 1 because we knew that whatever we built for Gen 1 was going to be vastly improved for Gen 2.
For Gen 2, we’ll probably look at a combination of hardware where we’re building our own components rather than relying on third parties.
The way we build it is something we can potentially patent.
We’re also going to look at patenting algorithms, which can be difficult because you can’t patent the underlying science. But you can potentially protect the way you leverage that science and how the algorithms actually work.
So we’ll certainly look at doing that.
Have You Seen Copycats?
J.D.:
You’ve been selling the product for a while. Have you seen any copycats or potential infringers?
Richard:
I’ve seen many companies because I speak at a lot of pet conferences. There are big conferences in Europe, the U.S., and Asia, and I tend to go to all of them.
I know the major players in the space.
There are a lot of wearables that are now using AI models and looking at longevity. It sounds very familiar to what we’re doing, but I don’t know where they got all that from.
I think it’s a free market. Having other companies in the category can actually help grow the category.
Pet wearables are nowhere near their full potential compared with human wearables.
Most people don’t even know they exist. They may know about GPS trackers, but health and longevity is a completely new subcategory.
The Barrier to Entry Is High
J.D.:
What you’re doing is a big lift. You’ve got software, hardware, sales, distribution, and manufacturing.
It’s not something a hobbyist could pick up over a month and replicate.
Richard:
Exactly. It’s a high barrier to entry.
If somebody wants to compete, they need to be a complete full-stack individual who understands algorithms, AI, hardware, firmware, middleware, and software.
And you need to do all of that well.
Nobody can do everything themselves, so you’re going to have to hire quite a few experts. Then you have sales channels, distribution, business development, and everything else.
It’s a completely different ball game.
J.D.:
You’re probably talking about around $100,000 just to get started, I’d think.
Richard:
It took us $7 million to get where we are.
So if you can do it for $100,000, I’ll hire you!
How Richard Funded My Pet Go
J.D.:
How did you get funded? Were you self-funded initially?
Richard:
I’m the main investor.
I had built some things in my past life. Some weren’t very successful, and some were quite successful. I managed to sell one of them to a large German media and entertainment conglomerate.
Some of the proceeds from that venture were reinvested into this new venture and idea.
When you’re self-invested to a large degree, money, time, blood, sweat, and tears, you tend to be able to convince others to put money in because you have so much skin in the game.
I have professional investors and angel or private investors who have come in.
Now we’re looking at creating a larger group and focusing on AI and longevity as two important areas.
We’re also looking at acquiring, building, and investing in things that are synergistic and can be assembled together.
Think of it like Lego bricks that can be put together.
Why B2B Instead of B2C?
Matt:
Why did you decide to go B2B instead of B2C?
Richard:
The direct-to-consumer route is very expensive.
You have a high customer acquisition cost, and then you tend to have a high churn rate. You’re spending a lot to acquire a customer who may leave fairly quickly.
These businesses are often driven by a SaaS-style subscription model.
So we asked ourselves: why don’t we go to the big companies that already have the pet owners and already have a relationship with them?
There’s trust there. They’ve spent a lot of money building that audience.
We can do a meaningful deal with them where we provide value to both them and their users on a revenue-share basis.
That was always our approach to marketing and growth.
Building an Ecosystem
Richard:
We’re looking at potentially powering millions of users.
Some will be freemium users who don’t need the wearable but get many of the other features in the app. A portion can then become premium users and get the wearable and the additional health markers.
The application covers things like scheduling, journaling, and other aspects of your pet’s life.
You can go completely nerdy with it and track everything you feed your pet and everything you do.
Or you can simply use the features that are helpful to you, such as reminders for dental scaling or an upcoming checkup.
It’s really up to you.
What About Other Patents in the Space?
J.D.:
Do you run into problems with other patents in the space? Are you worried about infringing on other patents?
Richard:
I was looking at another wearable company that was considering partnering with us or selling its business.
I saw in their pitch deck that they had around 15 patents.
I asked myself, why have you gone down this road?
A lot of them were around GPS tracking, which I’m not particularly interested in because I think it’s an older feature and doesn’t work particularly well.
You file patents, and sometimes you get them and sometimes you don’t. You spend money and time on them.
I completely understand wanting to protect what you have, but if it’s not meaningful technology, it doesn’t make sense to me.
We get asked about patents a lot by investors.
They’ll ask, “What type of patents do you have?”
My question back to them is, “If I had a lot of patents, would that make you more inclined to invest?”
You’d be shocked by the answer. Quite often they’re like, “No, I’m just curious.”
J.D.’s Take: IP Isn’t Always Just About Patents
J.D.:
There is obviously value in protecting something incredible.
But what’s interesting about your business is that you’ve developed an amazing hybrid business model.
You have trade secrets in how you’re doing what you’re doing.
You have a small circle of employees, trusted counsel, and people you’ve worked with who know how you’re doing it.
That’s intellectual property, too.
You’re creating a competitive advantage by having a business and technology combination that’s difficult for someone else to replicate.
And I like the idea that you’re looking toward Gen 2, where you’re going to innovate again and potentially have your own device and your own hardware design.
Turning Potential Competitors Into Customers
J.D.:
One thing I really like about the B2B model is that some of your customers could potentially have been competitors.
But by making them customers, you’re giving them a reason not to build their own competing product.
Richard:
Exactly.
It’s a bit like saying, “We’re going to offer you the easy way here. We’ll enable you, you can take all the credit, and it will be white-labeled as your own brand.”
It’s also a quick way to scale globally.
If we had to have performance marketing teams everywhere, warehouses everywhere, and deal with local shipping, that’s a lot to manage.
I don’t need to deal with all of that.
I can focus on being a data company, being data-driven, creating a great product, and creating the features that these companies need and want.
Someone else does the heavy lifting when it comes to marketing.
Richard’s Advice to Inventors
J.D.:
As we wrap up, is there anything you’d like to share with inventors who might be listening?
Richard:
My dad was quite innovative and did a lot of interesting things.
One of his brothers was looking at ice skating and the old-style roller skates. He thought, “There’s something wrong with that. Two wheels, two wheels. If you think about ice skating, you should probably have four wheels in a row.”
He essentially had the concept for rollerblades outlined.
But he never really did anything with it. He had prototypes, but he never put proper pen to paper and tried to protect it in some way.
Obviously, the rollerblade was eventually invented by somebody else.
So to those out there who think they’ve got a good idea and have never seen it before: do some research.
If you can’t find it, maybe you have something worth protecting.
Take it seriously.
I also had an interesting neighbor growing up in Stockholm, Sweden. He was quite the inventor. He invented a GPS system for boats, and I believe he worked on the computer mouse and color screens for computers.
He was a high-end technology guy.
But he was also the funny neighbor who, if you bumped into him at the grocery store, would almost hide what he was buying so you couldn’t see inside his bag.
So, yes, he was a little secretive.
But I think protecting what you have is very important, especially if it’s something generic with a low barrier to entry and mass appeal.
You want to think about that.
I think we’ll definitely start protecting things as we move into Gen 2 and build everything ourselves.
But sometimes you need to get to Gen 2 by having a Gen 1 that’s suboptimal.
You have to learn just to get to market.
You can’t make money unless you’re in the marketplace.
J.D.:
You also have to learn.
If you’re the first person truly building something, you don’t necessarily have a reference point. You don’t know how well it should work or what you’re comparing it to.
That’s part of innovation.
Look at how technology develops over time. Think about the first iPhone compared with where smartphones are today.
Things evolve.
Bold Bites: A Pet Invention on Shark Tank
After the interview, J.D., Matt, and Richard took a look at a pet-related Shark Tank pitch as part of the show’s Bold Bites segment.
The company featured was Swift Paws, which created a pet enrichment product designed to let dog owners create a game of chase in their backyard.
The founders had developed professional-grade equipment, filed patents, launched a consumer version through Kickstarter, and eventually appeared on Shark Tank seeking $240,000 for 6% equity.
The pitch ultimately resulted in an offer from Lori Greiner.
J.D. and Matt also discussed the company’s intellectual property, including its patent and trademark portfolio, and how the company’s protection strategy appeared to support its growing product line.
Richard:
It’s always interesting to see some of these companies. You think, “Wow, is that really a thing?”
And then obviously it is a thing. There is a need, there is a want, and they’re selling products.
It’s always good to see people who are passionate and find a path forward.
A Look Ahead for My Pet Go
J.D.:
Richard, this has been incredibly helpful. Before we wrap up, what’s next for My Pet Go?
Richard:
We’re currently at about $159 retail for the wearable, with a monthly fee for the data plans that provides the health markers, recommendations, and full suite of services.
I think the model to mimic is one where you don’t necessarily pay for the hardware upfront, but commit to a longer duration and potentially a higher monthly subscription.
We’re hoping to launch Gen 2 around the middle of next year.
The inventions and team are primarily based in the U.S., including our chief veterinary officer. Manufacturing will likely be in Southeast Asia because that’s where this type of technology is commonly manufactured.
We’re also looking at international trademark protection and rolling out more broadly.
Final Thoughts
Richard’s story is a great reminder that building an invention-based business isn’t always a straight line from idea → patent → product.
Sometimes the path involves testing a first generation, gathering real-world data, building a customer base, developing trade secrets, protecting a brand, and then deciding what technology makes sense to patent as the business evolves.
For inventors and entrepreneurs, the bigger lesson is to take your idea seriously enough to research it, understand what makes it valuable, and think strategically about how you want to protect and commercialize it.
J.D.:
Richard, thank you so much for joining us and sharing your knowledge and experience. We’ll have to have you back to hear about version two.
Richard:
Thank you guys so much.
J.D.:
Awesome. Go big. Go bold.
