Baron
A smart pet care ecosystem that pairs a digital brain for every dog with vetted sitters, weather-aware recommendations and real-time tracking. I co-founded Baron and I'm designing the entire product from scratch.
A category built on anxiety
Pet owners don't lack love, time or money. They lack confidence. The moment you hand your dog to someone else, whether that's a sitter from an app, a neighbour doing you a favour, or a kennel over the holidays, every existing product does nothing to make that easier.
Most pet care platforms today are paper thin. A calendar, a photo, a price tag. They treat every dog the same and ignore medical history, breed-specific needs, allergies, activity requirements and the weather outside. Baron exists because that gap is exactly where bad outcomes happen and where a better product can change things.
Make health data feel warm, not clinical
Baron's product has to do two very different things at once: hold a surprising amount of medical and behavioural data, and still feel like a place an owner actually wants to open every day. That's a design problem most pet apps never even attempt.
The visual system had to sit on the narrow line between "premium calm" and "warm companion." Closer to a wellness app than a veterinary portal, but credible enough that a vet looking over an owner's shoulder would trust what they see. Getting that balance right took dozens of iterations and a lot of honest feedback from pet owners who told me when it felt too cold or too playful.
A digital brain for every pet
Smart Profile as the product spine. Every dog on Baron gets a structured profile that covers vaccinations, medications, allergies, temperament notes and daily routine. That data is not filler. It drives everything else in the product. Sitter matches, activity recommendations and safety flags all read from the same source, so the system gets smarter the more an owner fills in.
Weather-aware, health-aware recommendations. A proprietary algorithm adjusts activity guidance based on real-time conditions. A senior labrador gets a different walk suggestion at 32°C than a young husky would. Owners stop guessing what's safe for their dog. Sitters stop improvising routines they don't fully understand.
Onboarding as a game, not a form
Filling out a pet's full health history is the kind of task most apps bury behind a long, dreadful form wizard. I redesigned it as a gamified sequence with short steps, clear progress feedback and a pet identity that visibly grows as owners answer questions. The experience feels more like unlocking a character profile than filling out paperwork.
Completion rates became the proof. Owners who finish the smart profile stick around, refer friends and trust the sitter matches the algorithm surfaces next. The onboarding flow is doing real retention work before the user ever books a sitting.
The Baron Shield and a Live Journal
The Baron Shield is a visual signal on every booking that confirms health protocols, sitter verification and care standards are in place. It exists to convert anxiety into trust at the exact moment an owner is about to hand over a leash. That single badge carries more weight than any amount of marketing copy could.
Once a walk starts, the Live Journal takes over. GPS tracking, activity logging, photos and health markers all stream in real time. Owners see their dog's day as it happens instead of getting a summary after the fact. It turns an anxious wait into something that actually feels reassuring.
Designing the business, not just the interface
Unlocking supply through regulation. In Slovenia, paid dog sitters must legally register as sole proprietors, a barrier that kills roughly 90% of potential supply. I spent weeks researching Slovenian tax and labour law until I found osebno dopolnilno delo (personal supplementary work), a framework that lets people earn up to €6,000 per year by filing a single form. No business registration. No accounting overhead. This completely opened up the marketplace to students, retirees and anyone looking for flexible side income, and it became our core value proposition to sitters.
Inventing an insurance product. Dog sitting carries real liability risk, but no Slovenian insurer offered per-sitting coverage. I pitched one of Slovenia's largest insurers a data exchange: real-time health and activity data from our platform in return for developing pay-per-sitting insurance tied to our booking system. The partnership is still in development, but it would be a first of its kind in Slovenia and a significant competitive moat for the business.
From idea to product direction
Baron is in active build. The design system, onboarding, smart profile, sitter matching and Live Journal are all drawn, prototyped and tested. As co-founder, I own the entire product surface and the brand. The same hand works in Figma, builds the pitch deck, creates investor materials and designs the marketing site.
This is the most complete expression of how I work. A problem I genuinely believe in, a product I shape end to end, and a design system built for a team that is still being assembled. I am building Baron to be the product I wish existed when I first started looking for someone to take care of my own dog.