Hello Marshy: building better pet care, one booking at a time

The first version of Hello Marshy gave pet sitters six months free. It still wasn’t enough to bring many of them onto the platform.

For husband-and-wife founders Maha Ali and Behroz Saadat, that slow start exposed a gap between the marketplace they wanted to build and the way people were ready to use it. A subscription could make sense for an established sitter. Someone trying a new platform first needed a reason to commit.

Their response was to change the model: introduce a free plan, charge a commission only on completed bookings, and give sitters a choice. It was one of several adjustments that would shape Hello Marshy, a Canadian pet-care platform serving Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area.

In written responses to Motivation Toronto, the founders describe a business built through months of small corrections. Their goal has stayed consistent: make care more affordable for pet parents while helping the people providing it earn more.

A problem Maha knew from both sides

Before Hello Marshy, Maha had spent 12 years in people operations, including at Cision and Sentry, according to the founders’ account. Behroz brought more than 15 years of software engineering experience, including work at Amazon/AWS and Block, the company behind Square and Cash App. Today, Maha is Hello Marshy’s CEO and Behroz is its CTO.

Maha’s interest in animal care was already part of her life. She had fostered animals through the Humane Society and worked as a part-time pet sitter on online platforms. That experience gave her a close view of what it cost to arrange care, and how much of a sitter’s work translated into earnings.

The fees bothered her. In the founders’ account, charges to pet parents and sitters on platforms she used could together exceed 30 per cent of a booking’s total cost. That observation became the starting point for a different approach.

When Maha was laid off, she decided to pursue a marketplace with fees she considered fairer. Behroz’s engineering background gave the pair the ability to build the platform themselves.

The model changed when the feedback came in

Hello Marshy connects pet parents with local sitters for boarding, house sitting, daycare, drop-in visits, walks and pet transportation. Its services extend beyond dogs and cats to birds, fish, small pets and reptiles. Sitters set their own rates, services and availability.

The founders initially offered sitters a membership model with a six-month free period. Sign-ups were slow. Their conclusion was that trying an unfamiliar marketplace should not require committing to a subscription.

They introduced a free plan with a 12 per cent commission on completed bookings. A paid membership remained an option for sitters who wanted to keep all their booking earnings; the membership itself carries a subscription cost. Both choices appear on Hello Marshy’s published sitter plans.

They also revisited a smaller charge on the other side of the transaction. At first, pet parents paid a processing fee to cover payment costs. The founders say some people hesitated at checkout or considered arranging care outside the platform.

Hello Marshy removed that fee and took on the processing cost itself.

“We now cover that cost, so pet parents only pay their sitter’s rate.”

Maha Ali and Behroz Saadat, in written responses to Motivation Toronto

The company’s website also states that it adds no booking, platform or payment-processing fees for pet parents. For the founders, removing friction was part of making the marketplace useful enough for people to stay.

They say their first paying customers arrived after repeated rounds of feedback and product changes, finding Hello Marshy online while looking for a Canadian alternative with fewer added fees.

A profile is only the beginning

Pricing was one challenge. Getting both sides of the marketplace moving together was another.

Pet parents needed confidence that someone would be available and ready to care for their animal. Sitters needed bookings to make their time on the platform worthwhile. Recruiting one group without the other could leave both disappointed.

“Pet parents need confidence in who is caring for their pet, and sitters need bookings to make staying on the platform worthwhile.”

The Hello Marshy founders

The founders encountered delayed responses and sitters who were not yet ready to accept a booking. Having a listing was not the same as being prepared to provide care.

They responded with more frequent and detailed notifications, a clearer intake process, meet-and-greet features, and better tools for managing bookings. They are also developing resources to help sitters prepare, understand each pet’s needs and manage their businesses.

The work reaches beyond attracting a new user. A booking needs a response, clear expectations and someone ready to follow through.

Toronto became part of the product

The founders say feedback from pet parents and sitters across Toronto and the GTA has directly influenced what they improve.

One example was practical: sitters did not always know what to charge. Hello Marshy added suggested rate ranges as a starting point, while leaving sitters in control of their own prices.

That kind of local feedback helped the pair look beyond their own experiences as pet parents. Different users brought different budgets, service needs and questions about care.

A milestone came when new sitters started finding the platform organically and signing up each day, the founders say. Seeing people complete their profiles and list services after a difficult launch gave them confidence that their changes were working.

They describe that growth as creating more choice for pet parents, including people looking for a particular service, a sitter within their budget, or someone with a veterinary technician background.

Keep the purpose. Keep learning.

For now, the founders’ focus is growing in Toronto and the GTA: helping pet parents feel confident enough to book again, and creating regular opportunities for sitters.

Their advice to someone starting a business comes from the same experience.

“Build something you care enough about to keep showing up for.”

The Hello Marshy founders

They encourage founders to test early, listen to feedback and stay committed to the goal while remaining willing to change the route. Hello Marshy’s early decisions show what that can look like: reconsider a subscription, remove a checkout fee, improve how a sitter receives and handles a request.

For Maha and Behroz, the ambition begins with something concrete: a pet parent finding care they can afford, and a sitter finding a booking worth taking. Their task is to make that connection work, then make it work again.