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I started thinking about putting pdxdog.com, the social network, together in the Fall of 2007.  It just seemed like the right thing at the right time, a "high touch, high tech" way to build a community of dog lovers in the Portland Metro Area.

It built on my experience, in my store, The Pearl Retriever, which I closed in August 2007.  One main feature of my store was how much people liked to gather, meet each other and build relationships and share information. Of course we liked it a lot when they bought products as well.

I thought that building a social network, with the features of an intimate community, would work.  We went forward, working on it, but not really knowing if it would fly.  We also wanted to see if people liked it well enough to contribute, by advertising with us, or otherwise helping us out.

We launched pdxdog.com in early April 2008, publicly with our fingers crossed.  Were we right?  Would a social network for dog lovers in Portland work?  How would we pay for it?  Would people like it and become members? 

We relied on word of mouth and a good mailing list.  It didn't take long to see that there was real interest and very quickly, credibility in the dog world.  People got the hang of it fast and invited all their friends.  It started to become a speeding bullet and the possibilities just kept revealing themselves as we went along.

New ideas are hatched to respond to a need or question.  Sometimes we just think up a good idea and try it out to see what happens.  It's evolving into a three-legged stool made up of the social network itself (pdxdog.com), Events (we organize with our members for others), and Products (still developing).

Within the social network we work in concert with our members and growing with them.  Like many of our members, we are a small business, and rely on advertising dollars to make the system go.  It's symbiotic and collaborative, dynamic and alive.

We are learning all the time, the business model is fascinating and it is always a challenge to keep it real, true, fair and fun.  We rely a lot on our members and their integrity to self-monitor their use of the site appropriately.  We are very supportive of our business partners.  They are our customers and sponsors.

We are excited about upcoming projects and opportunities which we think will be amazing.  As the plans become more solid, we will share them with the network. 

The story continues to write itself!

Andrea Schneider (10-20-08)