An opportunity to pounce on!
The Nakahu consumer app is an AI-driven social media and e-commerce platform with a range of practical tools for pet owners. The platform is completely free to use and has various engagement incentives to encourage participation.
We are constantly improving and expanding our features, and you can learn more about these from our Roadmap. Our goal is to provide people with a pet-centric platform that is both practical and meaningful.
We work hard to ensure that we provide our users with the quality they expect, because we understand what it means to be more than a pet owner.
I've been a kahu to many pets in my life, particularly dogs, cats, horses, and fish. My heart is at the foundation of Nakahu, which I believe has the potential to revolutionise the pet industry. It's more than just a social media platform for pet owners; it's a practical tool that will make pet ownership easier. I started with the idea of just having reminders for things like worming and flea treatments for dogs, but with the rapid evolution of generative AI, I saw a real opportunity to put something bigger together that could make a meaningful difference.
Julian Parge
Founder of Nakahu
Julian Parge is a “full stack” senior web developer specialising in PHP, Python, and JavaScript. He has over 20 years of experience in the technology industry and has spent over 15 years developing practical web-based software solutions for complex businesses. He has experience with Machine Learning through tools such as TensorFlow and PyTorch, and has developed a number of AI projects, both personal and professional.
Migrating from Germany to the United Kingdom at a young age with his parents and his older brother, Julian was always a curious engineer and creator. From a very young age he loved building things, taking things apart, and putting them back together. By the age of 10, Julian built his first PC, an i486 with 4MB RAM running Windows 3.1. From there, he continued to build computers and still enjoys doing so today.
Julian is an amateur mycologist with a keen interest in applied mycology (in particular of functional fungi with practical applications). He is a fan of Star Wars and Marvel, and in his spare time, he also enjoys playing classical piano, watching movies, learning, skiing, fine dining, American pool, bowling, golf, and gaming.
Throughout his life, Julian has always been a keen kahu to many pets, including horses, dogs, cats, and fish.
Since 2006, Julian has worked for SMEs and public companies, delivering technical solutions and managing technical teams. He also has over 5 years of experience with OTC Markets, having played a significant role in the IPO of a company who listed on OTC Pink and later uplisted to OTCQB. Julian played the main role for organising the 15c2-11 and liaising with the beneficial shareholders to complete the due diligence process, offering him an invaluable insight to the IPO process. Later, Julian was an executive consultant for the same company and played a significant role in the uplisting process to Nasdaq, which was subsequently approved.
Monetization
Our consumer revenue is generated from product sales and our business revenue comes from advertising and data services.
Consumers
The Nakahu consumer app is a free-to-use platform. We monetize this predominantly by adding a margin to products and services sold through the "AI Shop", which understands a user's pet needs based on the information they have shared. Users are incentivized to share more information in order to receive more relevant product and service suggestions, and to improve the quality of the AI's responses.
Consumers are further incentivized through gamification. Actions such as buying a product or service, leaving a review, posting a picture or a story of their pet, etc., rewards the users experience points which improves their overall user level. Higher level users are offered discounts and rewards.
Researchers, Suppliers, and Freelancers
Our platform offers us the advantage to create unique reports with data insights for researchers and statisticians. These insights can be tailored and sold, either for research and development, or for publication.
Suppliers and freelancers can pay for advertising space on our platform. Such ads are shown to users based on their pet data and sent to them in a non-intrusive way, predominantly through the platform's social 'stream', similar to other social media platforms.
Charity & Causes
Giving back is very important to us at Nakahu. We have a number of pet-related charities and good causes, chosen and checked by us, to which our users can either donate directly, or vote on for us to donate to with a percentage of our profits. Our goal is to ensure underfunded charities making a difference in the pet world can get the support and encouragement that they need to continue their efforts.
Interesting Statistics
The pet industry a multi-billion pound market with steady growth.
We have collected some of the most relevant statistics that highlight the practicality and applicability of our platform. We have focused particularly on the US market due to the availability of data. We will update this information in due course to centre around the UK market.
Proprietary Technology Stack
We leverage the best-in-class technologies to provide a scalable and reliable platform through a user-friendly interface.
Existing technologies
- Pre-trained models from Hugging Face with pet-focused fine-tuning
- Voice input/output (Speech-to-Text and Text-to-Speech) through Google and ElevenLabs
- Discussions powered by Anthropic's Claude 3 and OpenAI's GPT-4 for beta
Proprietary elements
- Social media platform with AI-driven relevance algorithms and unique pet and kahu profile features
- Periodic training and fine-tuning from discussions history to improve future discussions
- Realtime notification system with websockets delivered with push, email, and/or SMS
Scalable services
- Microservice architecture
- Predominantly written in Kotlin, Python, and JavaScript
- Infrastructure managed with Terraform
- Cloud-based deployment with Kubernetes and Docker
Machine Learning
We use machine learning to deliver continuous improvements to our platform so that we can provide our users with what they need the most.
AI-powered Marketplace
We analyse the user's pet data to provide them with the most relevant products and services.
For example, if a user has a betta fish, we can recommend suitable food, tanks, and other accessories which are specifically suited to this type of fish, which may not otherwise be suitable for other types of fish. The algorithm to fetch these recommendations will take into consideration what other tank mates the betta may have, and what current setup the user has.
Community-driven Social Platform
We use realtime analysis to understand what people are talking about and what they are interested in. This allows us to provide the more relevant feeds.
We combine the best of social media platforms in terms of sharing, and the best of directory platforms in terms of service listings, thereby providing a unique and powerful user experience which is relevant and meaningful.
Work @ Nakahu
Below you will find our current priority employment opportunities. We are flexible on remote working and also have an office in Belfast.
We also have several opportunities not listed below which are open to applicants with less experience in junior roles. We can offer competitive salaries and benefits for the right candidates, and would love to help you push your career forward. These positions are limited to: software development, artificial intelligence, customer service, investor relations, and marketing. If you are creative, innovative, unconventional, driven, and passionate about pets, we want to hear from you and will offer you a placement. We are open to interns too. Both remote working and office-based roles are available.
IMPORTANT: we cannot commit to hiring until completion of the seed investment round (estimated Q4 2024).
Current Employment Opportunities
Nakahu is looking for talented individuals to join our team.
We are not working with any software agencies or recruiters. Please do not contact us with related offers.
Lead Developer (Backend)
Full Time | Remote | Belfast, Northern Ireland
- Salary guide: up to £100,000/year GBP*
- Description: The Lead Developer (Backend) will be responsible for managing the company's backend development and associated team. The right candidate will have a strong understanding of good development practices, clean code, scalability, and security.
- Skillset: Experience with JavaScript, TypeScript, and Python is essential. Knowledge of Terraform and understanding of DevOps would be beneficial. AI experience preferred. Some full stack experience is helpful but not required.
- Experience: 10+ years in a similar role, preferably with experience in the pet industry.
To discuss this employment opportunity or register your interest, please contact Nakahu via [email protected] with "Lead Developer (Backend)" in the subject line.
Lead Developer (Frontend)
Full Time | Remote | Belfast, Northern Ireland
- Salary guide: up to £100,000/year GBP*
- Description: The Lead Developer (Frontend) will be responsible for managing the company's frontend development for web and mobile, and any associated teams. The right candidate will have a strong understanding of good development practices, clean code, scalability, and security.
- Skillset: Experience with JavaScript, HTML, and CSS is essential. Experience with Ionic, Capacitor, and either Angular or React is essential. Creative experience is a bonus. Full stack experience is preferred. Some DevOps knowledge would be beneficial.
- Experience: 10+ years in a similar role, preferably with experience in the pet industry.
To discuss this employment opportunity or register your interest, please contact Nakahu via [email protected] with "Lead Developer (Frontend)" in the subject line.