This episode is brought to you by Zoetis.
Kaelanne Quinonez is the Texas state media ambassador for the Foundation of for Western Professionals.
We were approached by Kaelanne to do an interview for FWP about our story founding Pegasus, a journey we've embarked on since the outset of the pandemic.
With Jen's leap from horseback to tech engineering and Sam's pivot from military boots to entrepreneurship, we've galloped through uncharted territories to bridge the gap within the equestrian community.
Amidst the pandemic's hurdles, we latched onto a shared vision, intending to streamline equestrian event management. You'll even catch a glimpse of our own comical tumble into the equestrian world, which only deepened my resolve for our quest.
Navigating the complexities of equestrian event organization and participation, we lay bare the arduous yet rewarding path that led to Pegasus's inception to today.
Listen to the full conversation here or on FWP's Facebook page.
Before you listen…Zoetis is always by the side of horses and their caregivers with products like Dormosedan Gel®.
Did you know that you can help calm your anxious, excited and fidgety horse for bandaging, body clipping, first-time turnout after stall rest, farrier work, and more?
Speak with your veterinarian to learn more about how this oral sedative prescription may help.
Visit ZoetisEquine.com or follow us on Instagram and Facebook for more information on our expert-informed horse care solutions.
🐴 This episode is brought to you by Pegasus, the first modern event management system that makes it easy to host and run equestrian events. Sign up for early access at www.thepegasus.app.
Be sure to follow Pegasus on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and subscribe to The Oxer, the #1 weekly newsletter for global equestrian industry happenings. 🗞️
This episode is brought to you by Zoetis.
Kaelanne Quinonez is the Texas state media ambassador for the Foundation of for Western Professionals.
We were approached by Kaelanne to do an interview for FWP about our story founding Pegasus, a journey we've embarked on since the outset of the pandemic.
With Jen's leap from horseback to tech engineering and Sam's pivot from military boots to entrepreneurship, we've galloped through uncharted territories to bridge the gap within the equestrian community.
Amidst the pandemic's hurdles, we latched onto a shared vision, intending to streamline equestrian event management. You'll even catch a glimpse of our own comical tumble into the equestrian world, which only deepened my resolve for our quest.
Navigating the complexities of equestrian event organization and participation, we lay bare the arduous yet rewarding path that led to Pegasus's inception to today.
Listen to the full conversation here or on FWP's Facebook page.
Before you listen…Zoetis is always by the side of horses and their caregivers with products like Dormosedan Gel®.
Did you know that you can help calm your anxious, excited and fidgety horse for bandaging, body clipping, first-time turnout after stall rest, farrier work, and more?
Speak with your veterinarian to learn more about how this oral sedative prescription may help.
Visit ZoetisEquine.com or follow us on Instagram and Facebook for more information on our expert-informed horse care solutions.
🐴 This episode is brought to you by Pegasus, the first modern event management system that makes it easy to host and run equestrian events. Sign up for early access at www.thepegasus.app.
Be sure to follow Pegasus on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and subscribe to The Oxer, the #1 weekly newsletter for global equestrian industry happenings. 🗞️
And as a question myself. I think that is a fantastic idea, because I struggle with that all the time growing up. And then when I got Facebook, it was super fragmented and super disjointed and very hard to kind of know, or you'd end up going to the same show all the time and after their series ended you're like well, what do I do?
Speaker 2:Hi everyone, my name is Noah Levy and I'm the producer of our Pegasus podcast, hosted by our founders, sam Baines and Jen Tangle. Today's episode is going to be different. Kaelin Canones, texas's state media ambassador for the foundation for Western professionals, is interviewing our founders on the story of Pegasus. Listen to this episode if you want to know more about us and our story. All right, let's get into it.
Speaker 1:Hi, thank you so much for joining me today. My name is Kaelin and I am the South Texas state ambassador for the foundation for Western professionals. Thank you so much for joining me today. I'm so excited to learn more about Yl's backgrounds, passions and the Pegasus app in general.
Speaker 3:Thank you very much for having us, and I'll let Jen start, as she is the true equestrian of the two of us, sure.
Speaker 4:So my name is Jen Tangle, so I'm the co-founder of Pegasus and you are.
Speaker 4:I'm Sam Baines and I'm the other co-founder of Pegasus, but yeah, I'm the lifelong equestrian of the two of us, just like a quick riding background. So I grew up into a riding household. My mom was a competitive hunter-jumper rider so I've learned to love the Western sports largely due to Yellowstone bringing it to my attention and obviously being in Texas now too. But started off as a hunter-jumper but I got an Arabian pony who didn't do so well in the hunter-jumper circuit so eventually got introduced to pony club and with him turned a 14 one hand super chubby pony that my mom bought for a dollar into this really great little eventing sport pony who competed with for a few years. Then got an advanced level event mare. So that was a big transition and went up the ranks with her and went to college.
Speaker 4:So you know, like everybody else, when you're riding you make this tough decision which is am I going to really keep going and doing this in school or am I going to make my parents happy and get a quote, unquote real job? And unfortunately and I guess fortunately, but my horse kind of made that decision for me because she had gotten bone chips on her knee right before I was supposed to go to school, so ended up focusing on engineering, which I went to school for, worked in tech, worked at startups and I'm kind of skipping through a lot with the cliff notes here, but it was in 2020, which I'll let you come in with your background. But it was in 2020 when my parking startup that I was working at was no longer doing that much work because it was a pandemic, so a lot of people weren't parking or leaving their house and Sam and I had actually so, in addition to co-founders were partners engaged, and it was 2020 March. We were at a farmhouse in rural Virginia surrounded by horse farms, and I was like it'd be really great to be able to ride more often, but it was really hard to connect with everyone. So I'm kind of cutting through a lot here, but had the idea for Pegasus at that time, which was the ability to be able to connect with and find everything equestrian in one place. I had the equestrian background and tech, sales and working as an engineer.
Speaker 4:Sam, I'll get up for you how you got involved with engineering.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I'm obviously not American. I'm Australian. I moved to the States about nine years ago now and prior to meeting Jen and first dating now engaged I actually worked in the national security space. So I was in the. I grew up in Australia, moved and I was in the Australian army for four and a half years and then, when I left the army, I went into defense contracting and that's how I ended up moving to Washington DC, because my thought process was very simply If I'm going to, if I'm going to you know work in defense contracting, I may as well move to the one place in the world that takes it more seriously than anywhere else in the world and spends the most money on it.
Speaker 3:So I came across the DC and then worked in defense contracting for a few years there and then I had a company that I started in Australia with two other friends, grew into a global company, and so I ended up running the American branch of that company in Washington DC for a few years and that was in the defense contracting slash veteran help, slash edu tech space, and I just exited that company when COVID started and so I didn't have a job because I just exited my previous company and Jen had a lot of time on her hands because the conference circuit had stopped because of the pandemic. And that was when Jen was like well, I want to start an equestrian tech company. You know how you've done tech companies before. She knows the equestrian industry. How about we create a tech company together? So that's kind of how the company came about.
Speaker 1:Wow, that is like a perfect storm of just everything, right? So startups, entrepreneurship, and then, of course, you had to bring him into the equestrian center, because that's what we all do, right.
Speaker 3:I'm just another victim. I'm just another man who's been taken down. I remember I'm one who loves horses and now my whole life is horses. Okay.
Speaker 4:No, here's a little secret. So Sam, who now is like, oh, I'm just an outsider, I just studied the industry and I know the industry. Sam, when we first started dating in 2019, he had said that he grew up on a farm in Australia and he knew how to ride horses. And I was like, great, at the time I was leasing this thoroughbred. He said, great, let's go to the barn and let's go ride. And so he's like, yeah, sure thing. So we're bringing the horses in. I gave him this gentle giant of a thoroughbred, retired like 20 years old, sweetheart, putting you on him, and I took this little pony. So we're walking in and Sam kept remarking. He's like, wow, this horse is really tall. He's only 16 too. I mean, he's tall, but not that tall. He's like he's so tall, he's a normal thoroughbred. Yeah, he's so big, right. And then tack up and then fast forward. And Sam's like I think it's a little too hot, I don't know, Are you sure you really want to go riding so long story?
Speaker 4:I just learned that Sam's whole oh. I grew up on a farm in Australia wrangling like the cowboys, oh, whatever, jen Jen.
Speaker 3:Jen loves to tell this story and she loves to perfectly omit certain facts what did I miss?
Speaker 2:What did I miss?
Speaker 3:So it all sounds just about right to throw me under the bus. No, I grew up sorry, coming in Australia we had a hobby farm and I grew up and we had my sister was in Pony Club and she was like every little girl who was just completely obsessed with horses, had the had the you know briar horses equivalent in Australia. Maybe it was a briar horse, I don't know, it's probably briaring. She was obsessed with national velvet Used to run around the backyard with the girlfriends playing horses, all that sort of stuff.
Speaker 3:So we had a hobby farm and we had two horses on the farm, one could Toby, one could Jesse. And though Jesse was a big mare, I don't know what size, toby was a little fat white pony who was very troublesome and I grew up riding those now and then there was a few times growing up I also went out on camped overnight for like a few days on horses in the Australian Outback. So I had some experience. I didn't know that that throwaway line of like oh yeah, I grew up riding horses was going to turn into this like trial, jury and execution of my riding background.
Speaker 3:And we were newly dating. I was just trying to, you know, come across as like oh yeah, I'm in touch with horses and I've lived to regret that comment.
Speaker 1:I had no idea what you were getting yourself into.
Speaker 3:And day of. I will say. I turned up in jeans and it was like 95 degrees and like 70% humidity and by the time we walked out to the paddock, which was like 500 meters away, and then brought the horses in and I was in jeans. I was like I do not want to go riding.
Speaker 4:You're talking to horse people. We can't we can't relate you can't relate.
Speaker 1:That's just. That is just what we do. That is what we do. Oh my gosh. So that's awesome. So, okay, hunter, jumper a little bit, and then we have cowboy and backpacking with horses, which is super fun. I'm glad you got to experience that. Not many people do so. Did this kind of love come together when you were exploring the Pegasus app and determining kind of what equestrians you were wanting to market to?
Speaker 4:Yeah, well, so I I started hunter, jumper, but I really went up through eventing. So I ended up doing prilin level, about to move up to intermediate, and that was the summer before I went to to school. But I mean, it was something where the industry has historically been just so fragmented and really hard to connect and find things. And it was at that time when I had the opportunity to really reflect on the industry and what I wanted to do, what I thought would be really good for what I love, which is riding and the sport, and so, at the time, wanted to be a place where you can search for, find everything. And then what we kept hearing about was, well, the events. The events is also very problematic in terms of being able to search for and find all kinds of clinics, shows, you know, from all disciplines.
Speaker 4:For me in eventing it was really difficult, but the more that we started to talk to other event organizers and riders and people that are in the sport, we learned it wasn't just an eventing problem, but it's truly problematic across all the different disciplines and even worldwide. So it was after we incorporated. It was toward the end of 2020, after we'd incorporated. At that point there were blogs. There was searching for and finding course, transportation, boarding barns, riding lessons, like well, you know what. The events is also something that we keep hearing from everybody in the market and people that we talk to and learn from that. This, too, needs to be incorporated. So finding the events was something that we added in in what 2021.
Speaker 3:Yeah, 2021. And we at that point because it was, you know, covid was still in full effect we moved out to the countryside outside Washington DC. There's a small beautiful town called Middleburg, virginia, which is heaven, yeah, and people who listen to this, if they're in the Western world, they may not know it, but in the English world it's kind of like the mecca of equestrian sport not question sports, but equestrian lifestyle. It's a very wealthy area. All the horse farms are like perfectly manicured, it's like a perfectly beautiful old English riding town, and so there are a lot of famous equestrians who basically retire and their goal in life is to retire there and have a horse farm Like that's the goal, or they have an operation there in Middleburg, slash Upperville, and then you know they winter in Florida or something.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so we were living out there and at that point you know we were trying to get, as Jen was saying, pegasus version one off the ground, which was this Facebook slash Airbnb for the equestrian industry, and it was a good product, it was just it, just it wasn't catching fire the way we thought it would.
Speaker 3:And that was when we kept going to we'd go to we go to, like, steeple chases, we go to polo events, we go to hunter jumper shows, we go to eventing shows.
Speaker 3:We would sit around on the porch having beers and wine with Olympians or retired Olympians, and the one current thing that kept coming up was yeah, this is great, but the one really, really annoying thing is that you find out about events that took place that you wish you had gone to, but you didn't know it existed.
Speaker 3:And the reason you didn't know it existed, even though you're in the know, is because of the fact that they are spread out across everywhere, like it's either on the farms old website, which is like an old WordPress website that they have to pay an outside IT consultant to update, so they don't update it properly, or they have it on a Facebook group that's private, that you're not a member of, so it doesn't populate your news feed or it's on, you know, or if it's a high level competition, it's on like event entries or horse shows online, etc. So that just basically created a thing, an ongoing complaint, which was like, can you guys fix the events problem? And so that's kind of why we pivoted in from this Airbnb, slash, facebook for Equestrians into building out an event management system to manage and try and get all the events in one place so that you felt like you could see the sport, as opposed to just like having access to it here and there.
Speaker 1:So true, so true. And as a question myself, I think that is a fantastic idea because I struggle with that all the time growing up, like I didn't do a lot of shows but I did a lot of clinics and I didn't actually get Facebook until like 2019. So Facebook game, and so growing up, my parents, you know it was just kind of a word of mouth thing. And then when I got Facebook it was go to the groups or hey guys, is there a show in such and such area? And you just hope that you got a response. And it was. It was super fragmented and super disjointed and very hard to kind of know, or you'd end up going to the same show all the time, but after their series ended, you're like, well, what do I do? Right, they have their, you have your winter series, your every spring series, but if you wanted to show more, if you wanted to go to more clinics, it was really hard to find those. It was it's yeah.
Speaker 3:So for us, like what we're about to launch our event management system is like it's an Airbnb quality experience for finding events. Like it should be a case that if you are a rider and you are like I am, this is my location. Show me every clinic within a 50 mile radius or 200 mile radius, that is, within this price range for these disciplines next month, so that you can be like what's on, I'm going to go, I'm going to want to go to a clinic or, ultimately, where we want to get to down. The line is that we want to build into the platform the ability that riders can basically plan a season, so the idea that you're like okay, by this time next year, I want to qualify for this competition. In order to qualify for this competition, what are the events that I need to attend and what are the scores I need to get in each event in order to qualify for that competition? And then the platform will build a season planner for you and show you all the events you can attend and then you can basically register for them in a row to basically achieve your goal, so that, rather than dissipating in a sport and I, as an outsider, like looking at the equestrian industry.
Speaker 3:It's fascinating how so much money, time, effort and dedication goes into it as a sport, but for the grand majority of riders, like they, don't really treat the sport like a season.
Speaker 3:It's more like oh, I go to one event, I see how I go, and then I go to another event. But these events aren't related, they're not strung together to achieve a goal. If you don't do well in one event, we spoke to many parents who, you know, didn't come up in riding themselves, but had a daughter or a son who is riding, and the parents would be like so what's the feedback? Like how do we? What's the next step? How do we get ready for the next event? What do we need to do differently next time? And there was no way to give tangible feedback because it wasn't treated like a season. It wasn't like if we achieve this, we unlock this capability to go to this event here, and so we want to be basically create this system where the sport can be seen, seasons can be planned, time, effort and resources can be allocated efficiently so that people feel like they have control over their question in Korea and success.
Speaker 1:Definitely, definitely. I mean, you were talking about earlier, Jennifer, having an Arabian pony, and I know there's two giant Arabian shows. You have Scottsdale's and then you have Nationals, right. But you know, if you didn't grow up in that, how do you know what shows to do to get to those events, to be able to qualify for Scottsdale or to qualify for Nationals, and so I think that is super super important.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you're just. You're kind of at the mercy at that point. If you're a parent's chief, someone who's found a love for horses, and then they go on Google and they search for riding lessons and so whatever comes up and whatever has the best reviews, that's really where the touch point starts and ends, because it's not like you have Pegasus right now, where, or in the past, where you'd be able to go into this big platform to be able to see the sport. It starts off with like okay, riding lesson here, and then, depending on what that first Google search is, can really determine the outcome of where their child goes on to ride. So if a hunter jumper barn has the best SEO, then that might be the thing that they go along with. And maybe, if you are in Arizona, perhaps Scottsdale Arabians will be the first thing to pop up. And now they're learning about Arabians, but there's not really a cohesive ecosystem to really to date to learn about all the different aspects and what's needed and where they can actually go to once they are indeed in the sport.
Speaker 2:Hey, are you an equestrian event organizer looking to put on your next clinic or schooling show? Pegasus is about to release its new event management system, which is a modern platform that makes it easy to accept entry registrations, receive digital signatures for your event paperwork, as well as manage the logistics and scheduling of your event. You can even digitally showcase your vendors and sponsors, so that brands have much better visibility than the traditional logo. On offense, pegasus has made it easy to run an event from start to finish, with features designed for everyone involved, especially the riders, who can now easily register and receive real time updates. Gone are the days of running your event through Facebook or tech from the nineties. Check out the launch of the Pegasus event management system at wwwthepegasusapp. That is wwwthepegasusapp.
Speaker 1:And so I was seeing your Facebook posts and everything and I saw you were actually in Fort Worth the other day and went to some cutting and rodeo events up there. So are you finding that same problem in the Western space and are you having a lot of great feedback from that side of the community as well?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so our foray into the Western industry started about two years ago now From our podcast actually.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was actually from our podcast. So we have a podcast and we were doing a new story. I think the story that really resonated with Irene was we did a story about the labor crisis in the equestrian industry. I'm not sure if it's still as bad today, but a couple years ago, like there were a lot of people who ran barns and boarding barns, especially on the East Coast, where they just couldn't get any help like any you know, cheap labor to like help them out, which is how they usually run their business and so they were. They were basically having to do it all themselves, and so we did a podcast on that and what caused that labor crisis.
Speaker 3:And Irene, who is still to this day the head of international partnerships for the American Pain Horse Association she lives in France she reached out to us and was like hey guys, I love your podcast, love that you're talking about these big topics. Have you explored the Western industry at all? And the truth was we hadn't, because we've been so embedded on the East Coast, which is predominantly English, and our, you know, middleburg, was an English writing community and all the events that Jen grew up participating in were English events. So we had a meeting exposed to it all. So she was like I don't know what you're doing next month, but happening in Fort Worth is basically like the National Leaders Summit of all the different Western associations is their annual general meeting and it's when, like all the little, like the regional chapter heads turned up to vote on rule changes that affected the APHA.
Speaker 3:Everything was there, I think everybody.
Speaker 4:American Quarter Horse.
Speaker 3:Association they were at.
Speaker 1:Congress. Right, they were at Congress. That's the thing.
Speaker 3:And that's the thing we learned. It was like, well, like, why is AQHA not here? They're like because AQHA, every year we, we, we put the date in for this APHA leadership summit that everyone attends except AQHA, and then every year, a week later, aqha announces its date on like the same weekend, so they kind of put them at the same time. It's a bit inefficient. It's a bit of a shame to basically split the split the customer base, which is a bit silly. But we ended up going to that and it was the first year actually that the USEF President of the USEF also attended to talk about how could the English world and the Western world interact more and streamline processes. And that's kind of how we got involved with the Western world and essentially realized that every single complaint, issue, problem that the English world has been telling us about is exactly the same one for one existing in the Western world.
Speaker 4:Yeah, absolutely. Have you been to that event before? I believe it's the APHA symposium might be the right term. I have to look it up.
Speaker 1:Maybe I have not. I do spend a little bit of time up in Fort Worth, but I was not able to go this year. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:And yeah to Sam's point, that was our first introduction into the Western world and once we were there it was great because all of the various leaders of different Western associations were there so we could pick their brains and we'd stay in contact and are working alongside them. But it was really surprising. It's not just an English problem, it's a Western problem and we've traveled quite a bit Australia, england, italy, a few different countries and when we're there we meet with the leadership who are running events and it's not just even an American problem, it's actually an international problem. I mean internationally. They also struggle with modern technology to run efficient events. So not alone, yeah.
Speaker 3:Like in the English world, writers love to complain about the USCF and the USCF. We've worked with them quite closely. They are a pretty good operation. Behind closed doors, like they are, they're truly committed to the sport. They're doing the best they can. They've got an impossible task which is to regulate on like a daily basis as well as manage the policies, the rule changes, the votes, the committees, everything for 28 different sports with a not an insufficient budget. They've got a good budget, but it's an insufficient budget. So they're doing the best they can.
Speaker 3:And then so we were like oh well, maybe America just isn't as advanced as everywhere else. And then we went and spoke to Equestrian Australia, equestrian France, equestrian Italy, equestrian UK, and you find out that the USCF is actually has its shit together, far more so than the equestrian federations everywhere else in the world. Really, that are like way, way far behind the USCF and the Western associations year. Like Americans, you might think that your associations and your regulatory bodies are, you know, could do better. But it's like anything once you have it good, you want more. And the rest of the world, america's got it very good.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's awesome. I would have thought that the places that would have had these sports long standing way before America would have you know, okay, we've had this federation for years and years and years. We would have gotten all the bugs figured out, but wow, yeah, I think it's got.
Speaker 3:I think it's. There are a couple reasons. This is this is just us hypothesizing, you know, it's not like we've spent a lot of time with the international federations and really got to look under the hood. It's a combination of two things. One, they just haven't got the budget that the American organizations do.
Speaker 3:I mean, the American equestrian industry is the biggest industry in the world. It makes up 30% of the global market. So when you've got that much, when you've got that much of the market share and you've got combined with the fact that you have that many riders playing membership fees, it gives you a bigger budget that allows you to hire a bigger staff to then be able to do more stuff, which the other countries don't have. The other thing, too, is because America, the horse world, has a long way to come when it comes to tech, but the horse world in other countries has a further way to come when it comes to tech. The American industry is better at being able to collect data, being able to collect fees, being able to regulate who's paying what, where, when, and, as a result, they just have more infrastructure in place to be able to do what they do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely. If you look at some of the, the fertility earnings, right, the winners of the fraternities win like hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars, right, and I'm sure in the English world as well, with cross country I mean, their sponsors are, you know, rolls Royce and Range Rover and Rolex, and you have some of the, you know outside of the equestrian community. Those people sponsor those events and so you do have a huge pool. If you, now that I'm stopping to think about it, you do have a huge pool of resources that you can actually have people pay membership fees and be able to treat the pro athletes like a basketball player or a football player.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:And so I want to kind of step back just a little bit. And you said you had a podcast as well. So you have the Pegasus podcast, but you also have the Oxer, which is your blog. Tell me how those things kind of are helping light the fire of the Pegasus app and bring your vision to light.
Speaker 4:So yeah, and I know you'll have some thoughts, Dad but essentially we want the equestrian community to start thinking of themselves as entrepreneurs and not so much like small businesses. Our podcast was one where we started a few years ago. We took a bit of a hiatus as we were really focusing on the build of the technology last year, but we've since revamped it earlier this year and we have conversations with industry leaders across the globe, so people that are doing really interesting things in the equestrian industry in China and Bosnia. You had a conversation with someone in Uruguay, and so, instead of just thinking about what's happening in our backyard, if people can have a more global perspective or just think about all of the opportunities and the challenges and what we can do to further the industry, then it will advance.
Speaker 4:So I think to date and I think this is one of the questions that we had raised before but it was like what are the trends that are happening? And I think, with COVID, the further adoption of technology, thinking about all of the technology that we have at our fingertips in every other industry so Uber and Airbnb and there's this expectation for really good, efficient processes in everywhere else in the world except for the equestrian industry. So if we can provide insights into what are the possibilities, what can we each do in the industry to make it better than at least sparking that conversation? You never know what can transpire. You were really the big one on the podcast and I was the big one on the newsletters.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah. So Jen was very bullish on the newsletter, I was very bullish on the podcast, but she's just doubled down on Jen's point the equestrian industry. And again, like I say this every time as a caveat, because I didn't grow up writing so I'm kind of like you know. I'm requesting permission to be taken seriously.
Speaker 4:We should get shirts and I'll say equestrian in yours can just say like, not an equestrian.
Speaker 3:But as an outsider coming into the industry, the thing that really struck me was that there are many parts of the equestrian. The equestrian economy is huge, like there are tech companies out there all over the world and there are investors out there all over the world trying to find niches where they can create technology or they can create products. That has a lot of opportunity in it because it hasn't been flooded with products and companies and stuff. The equestrian market as a vertical is very, very untapped, for lack of a better term. Now, as a result of that, it's kind of immature in a lot of sense. An example of that is that let's just take a look at the media ecosystem. The majority of the distribution channels there are for young companies out there trying to market their product and get in front of equestrians is going to be, you know, the main publications are still magazines like things like Chronicle of the Horse or a Platt Horse or something like that, like a physical magazine, and that's an expensive thing to produce. Like you've got to actually hire. You've got to hire journalists. They've got to sit down. They've got to write the articles. You've got to edit the articles. Then you need to basically print them physically print them and then you've got to distribute them. And if you're not getting enough readership and you're not getting enough subscribers, then you're limited in your distribution. And that ultimately means that if you're a young business who doesn't have enough sales yet to be able to really spend on marketing and advertising, then you've got to pay, you know, $500 to $1,000 for a half page ad in a magazine that you hope gets delivered to a house that potentially has a customer of yours in it, and if it works, you won't know. If it doesn't work, you won't know. And all those marketing dollars to you are very, very crucial.
Speaker 3:So for us, with the podcast and the thing it was like, okay, so how do we create some, a podcast and a marketing channel, which is the newsletter that basically gets more equestrians to start thinking entrepreneurial as opposed to thinking like a small business? So how do we get them to start thinking about what is my position in the wider market? And that market can be a local market, it can be a regional market, it can be a national market, it can be an international market. But now that I understand which way the wind is blowing, what are the trends, what are the opportunities? Okay, and then, on top of that, what are the? What is the technical tools I have at my disposal to be able to get advantage of those opportunities.
Speaker 3:And for us, I mean from a, you know, an idealistic perspective that's good for the industry. That's going to advance the industry forward. From a selfish perspective, the more people in the equestrian industry that we can start thinking about the use of tech will become more inclined to be customers that will use our tech. The more customers that we create, who create successful businesses, will become customers of us, who will then use our platform to achieve their sales goals. So it's both an idealistic goal as well as a well, let's get ahead of the curve and start growing the market for when we're ready to onboard those new clients onto our system.
Speaker 4:And we found to. Just there really wasn't any other outlet that was talking about the things that we were and really doing the investigative journalism to go and talk to people that are in these other countries and learning from them and seeing what these opportunities are. It's just, historically, it's been a lot of results and points and grooming, tips and things that are just like day to day things, which is obviously fabulous for the sport, but taking a more global approach to the industry and then speaking about that was something that we felt was missing and so we wanted to fill that gap.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, that's a really good point. It's just that what, what, what are the opportunities overseas and what people doing overseas that we can learn and use here? Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I'm sure you've seen this through COVID too. I mean, people got back on the internet like we were so isolated for so long that what did we use to connect with people? We used our technology and it has such a reach across, as you're saying, such a reach across nations, and if you love horses, it's going to bring you together. It doesn't matter where you live, right, like, yeah, you could be in Australia, you could be in the UK, you could be in America. But if you love horses and you see, oh, I got this article online or I've got this podcast, I'm going to listen to it. You know, I'm going to learn something from somebody else and I'm going to learn about a new breed, or I'm going to learn about a new writing style.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the other thing too is that there are so many things that equestrians can do with tech that's very, very cheap to pay to use on a monthly basis that a lot of equestrians don't know. They don't know it's that easy. So in my last company I was a co-founder. I was majoritiously involved in a sales role because we were selling the vision, selling the company, raising money, selling to big clients.
Speaker 3:I wasn't really involved with the tech product and I remember, like I was, I ran a tech company and I remember sitting there being like I cannot comprehend how that code on that screen becomes that on a webpage, like how does that actually happen?
Speaker 3:And it's just that incomprehension that leads you to just take the off ramp of tech and be like, well, like there's no point even trying because it's just it's too far gone for me. I'm just not, my brain isn't designed to use this. But then the more you learn about it and more especially if you come up through the corporate world right, you live in a metropolitan city, you have a corporate job just through colleagues, through tools that the company forces you to use, you're so much more exposed to tech than a lot of equestrians who come up through the barns, that it becomes more second nature. And so having the podcast talking about the tech that exists, talking about the opportunities and getting more equestrians to believe that they can do it too and it's not as hard as I think it is Well, just that idea will catch on. More people will start companies, more people will start to create products, and that will ultimately grow the industry and the sport.
Speaker 1:Definitely. And you'll have the younger generation in your pocket, for I mean Gen X, millennials. They all use technology and so the switching cost for them is really low because they're using it for everything else in their day to day life. And I know it was me as an end user. If I can pull something up on my phone and you know I don't have to go buy a magazine, or I don't have to, I mean, or if I don't have to, you know, use word of mouth. If I can just type it in a search engine or type it in an app, I'm sold. Yeah, you've got a lot of people my age, so I know that's good to hear.
Speaker 3:We'll hold you to that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely, I was like send me, send me the beta when that comes out.
Speaker 4:I'll have it in a couple of weeks. Yeah, that's exciting couple weeks. Yeah yeah, that's when we're so. Yeah, right now we've been in just like an internal. I guess it's an alpha stage. Yeah, we can call it, and then in the next few weeks it'll be open to more like a public audience.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's been. It's been a long build process because ultimately, when we launch the tech, we're launching with clinics and other events. So trail riding, pony club, education nights, potentially rodeo queening all the things that don't require live competition support. And live competition support is everything from software modules such as scoring modules, live updates in gate, modules that allow them to change the order of go on the fly and then automate push notifications, etc. All of that, all that building, especially when you've got to support 54 different disciplines and they've all got different modules, is a big technical uplift. So, and then on top of that, you've also got to provide all the customer service for that at scale, because people are running live events and our customers are the show managers who are running their business on our platform for their clients, which are the competitors.
Speaker 3:So we're starting off with the lower level events, but we've built all the infrastructure to manage the competitions already. So it's taken us longer than we were expecting to get to this point that we're about to launch it. But what it means is that once we launch with clinics and other events we're just calling them other the path to then adding the competition management will actually be very, very quick. It's just a matter of sitting down and being like making that mental shift of okay, we built it for clinics and other it's working with. Socialize the idea. Okay, now let's add the competitions.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so we've built a lot. It's just what we're, to your point, like, what we're going to be first going live with, or just that lower tier type of events, so unsanctioned, and then everything else like it. You just people won't see it yet, but all those other features that do cater toward the larger events and the spectators, and push notifications and sponsors and all those other things, those will be released very quickly thereafter, so it's about to be unveiled.
Speaker 1:That's huge. I'm so excited for you guys, like I'm excited as a potential end user Right, I love it. I'm not an event manager, but I go to shows and I go to clinics and I go to events, so I'm very excited about this. Okay, so, youth and agriculture and youth in equestrian sports Jennifer, you started young, I started young. What do you think some of the benefits are keeping youth in these equestrian sports, keeping them connected to horses, and then how is Pegasus going to facilitate that?
Speaker 4:I mean it's such a good point. So I I started off in Pony Club, as I mentioned before, which was I'm so grateful that we discovered it. It was so good for me. You may I, some of my best friends in the state are old pony clubbers. The fact that our technology is going to be implemented in Pony Club events is really exciting. So our technology will be able to facilitate those events. So if it's a pony club, as you mentioned, just starting off as a pony club educational night, the competitions will also be able to be hosted on Pegasus.
Speaker 4:But there's so much, so much of what we're talking about. Even with the podcast, the newsletter, it starts at a young age, so I didn't have this growing up. I think a lot of kids now they do have the resources with podcasts and TikTok and just all these types of resources to then see what is possible. So for us, not only are we talking about certain things, but our technology is also helping to facilitate certain things. I think opportunities that people are now thinking about for us in our 30s, maybe 20s, that they can jump into. They might be able to start sooner. So Pony Club was, for example.
Speaker 4:I started when I was, I think, seven I first joined Pony Club. If I had known then what I know now, I would have started my entrepreneurial path a lot sooner. It took me going through engineering school, then discovering startups and then discovering my own company. But had I known at age seven, I probably would have started tinkering with different opportunities then. Noah and I had a conversation just yesterday with this woman in Texas. She's 18 and she started. She opened a tech store and so a real tech store actually, she started at age 17. And so and I think for her, we'll have another conversation with her in a few weeks so we'll get the full scoop then but I think for her it was. She saw that that was possible and so, knowing that it's possible, it was like, well, if someone else can do it, why can't die? And that was the path that she chose and she's doing really well, so yeah, Well, two things to your point.
Speaker 3:One about having access, do you ask about? How does our technology help with it? So low hanging fruit. Let's talk about the podcast and the newsletter.
Speaker 3:The equestrian industry is one of those things that we're talking about getting people to think bigger and about themselves in a wider context, as opposed to just their local market. When we said small businesses, your average horse trainer who has a boarding barn thinks about their business in the sense of, okay, I've got a boarding barn, I've got 10 stalls, I've got nine field, I need to find one more client, and they find that client and they lose a client and they need to find one more client. It's a very like small business, just like keep the trains running, sort of mindset, as opposed to like all right, I've got one boarding barn, what can I do to scale operations? How can I make it more efficient? If I buy five, do the unit economics make better? Then I can build a brand and then I can build a training material Like it just becomes a whole different thing. So in trying to get people out of that because equestrian sports they happen these little pockets all over the place by having a podcast that people can listen to, they can virtually feel like they're part of a bigger community. So you know the same way in which gamers all over the world I mean they sit. You know a lot of really intense gamers, like video gamers. They sit in their living room, you know, by themselves gaming, but they feel connected to a wider community and that connection inspires them to wanna do greater things, to achieve more, to go to big competitions and all that sort of stuff. So by having like the podcast and the newsletter, it allows to virtually connect people through the spirit of the sport and the spirit of the industry, rather than just connecting with the people at their local barn and their local competitions, et cetera, from the perspective of agriculture and good for youth.
Speaker 3:I came from a military background and prior to that I went to a large Catholic boarding school which is considered like a private elite boarding school in Australia, and college and then the military and I think one thing that's really I said this quite a lot in our podcast I think the one thing that's really undervalued with the equestrian industry again as an outsider is that it is a highly physical vocation. Working with horses it is. You've gotta get up and you've gotta get out to the barn before sunrise, no matter the weather. You often leave, you know, after sunset, no matter the weather. If it's hot, it's hot, hard, muddy work. If it's cold, it's cold, muddy, hard work. It's very physical, it's demanding, it's logistically complex.
Speaker 4:You don't just walk in with the horses and say, oh, it's too hot to ride. Yeah exactly, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3:It is a very physical thing. It is the closest thing that I've seen in the world to the military as far as requirement, dedication, effort, routine and then the lessons you learn about working hard, committing hard, doing hard work and seeing the benefits pay off. So two things that come out of that. Is that one great for kids, right, like the kids horse girls, especially horse girls who grow up in more disciplines where there's a high level of responsibility on the rider, such as eventing. It teaches them great values, great commitment to hard work and it makes them for lack of a better term not soft.
Speaker 4:But also just how to take care of the horses too. So, like, the household that I grew up in was very much well, if you have your horses like, you're gonna take care of them. So every single day I was out at that barn cleaning stalls, turning them out, bringing them in, and then, yeah, the pony club competitions. Were you in pony club by any chance?
Speaker 1:I wasn't, but I was at a pony club barn. So, I got to experience pony club.
Speaker 4:We say this with love, but we still have a little bit of PTSD from our pony club days, because it was one where you'd leave the barn, you'd tack up, but then you'd have your formals and it would likely be through mud and stuff and so when you got there everything had to be perfectly clean. But you're walking there, so of course your shoes are gonna get muddy. So we would walk there with shower caps on the bottom of our shoes and everything was basically just in bubble wraps about the time that we arrived to formal, which is a thorough inspection to see your safety and the cleanliness of your tack and horse, et cetera, and then they'd go through the main if there was one little speck of danger, if it was point soft.
Speaker 4:So I mean at the time we were terrified, but it was such great learning.
Speaker 1:Well, that is exactly the military, yeah okay, and it makes sense, and that's a good inspection. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:And it makes sense because a lot of these equestrian riding institutions like what's the British one, vhs, british Horse Society, yeah, like they are famously militant, right and that came out of the military, like it was literally born, from what I understand, out of the cavalry units in the military. So it is like the equestrian industry if you put your kids in it and it's like sending them to military school but it's like pulling the rug out from beneath them because it's masquerading as fun but really it's teaching you the principles and values of military school. And because we are running out of time. The second thing I just wanted to add on that, which is why I was talking about this, is a very tough thing.
Speaker 3:Being in the equestrian sports is that. I say this all the time, like again as an outsider. It blows me away, excuse me. It blows me away that the equestrian industry does not get more public recognition in general society because, especially over the last 10 years, 15 years, that there's been a huge increase in support for female empowerment and celebrating women in the workplace and their capabilities and equal pay. And you look at the last five years, 95% of movies that have come out of Hollywood have had a strong female protagonist to really push that message forward.
Speaker 3:And then you've got the equestrian industry, which we're just talking about the cowboy Christmas, where you've got 12,000 people turning up with 12,000 horses let's call it to basically run highly logistically complex operations with live animals that you like to think they're gonna do it, that you tell them to do but they might not Like. Do you know how daunting of a task that would be to give anyone, a man or woman who's in a white collar job, organize this event? That is a highly daunting event to organize and the equestrian industry does it all over the place, all day, every day, and 95% of it is run by women and it doesn't get like why it should be something that everyone talks about. It's like this is a demonstration of like women don't need men. They can do these highly complex things all by themselves and they're very competent and capable of it.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, you just need to look at a woman inventor or a woman barrel racer to see like the epitome of a strong female lead. Like it's crazy. I mean those, I mean they are another breed, the inventors. I love inventing, I'm too scared to do it myself, but I will watch it all day long. And barrel racers, they're just. You know, it's the epitome. And you got all the other, all the other in between right Hunter jumpers, your breakaway ropeers. There's some gritty, gritty women out there. And I agree, I think if you want to see a strong female lead, just look to an equestrian right.
Speaker 4:Yeah, 100%.
Speaker 1:I really, really appreciate it, I love. So this is again probably off the podcast, but I love everybody's background. Female in tech right, you are just like what, is it Like? 0.1% of the population? Congratulations to you. And then Sam, I also have a military background. My dad was in the military. I was training for the military, so I appreciate your perspective on the entrepreneurial, military side of things and how it relates to horses. Thank you very much Again. I know you all have to jump. Thank you, noah, good to speak with you again.
Speaker 4:Thank you very much for having us. This was a lot of fun.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was great, and.
Speaker 4:I'll have you on our podcast.
Speaker 1:Definitely Anytime. Good luck on your launch in a couple of weeks. I'm really excited for you guys.
Speaker 3:Thank you very much. Thanks very much, Kelly.
Speaker 1:Of course, you guys have a good one, thanks to you.
Speaker 2:Bye everyone. Thank you so much for listening to the latest episode of the Pegasus podcast. As you heard from our mid-roll, we are also releasing an equestrian event management software platform. Now it's easier than ever to host, sign up and sponsor for any equestrian event in the world, thanks to all the features of the Pegasus app. To sign up, go to our homepage at wwwthepegasusapp. That is wwwthepegasusapp. See you next time.