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by MoeGo on Jan 9, 2026 12:00:02 PM
Before opening We Dog Care in San Jose, Ruben worked in corporate venture capital and animal rescue: two worlds that taught him how systems break, how risk compounds, and how responsibility scales. When he entered pet care, he brought those lessons with him, aiming to build a business where exceptional care was underpinned by intentional operations.
Serving Silicon Valley pet parents meant operating at a different standard. Clients expected efficiency, transparency, and hospitality on par with luxury service brands, while the realities of daycare, such as tight margins, constant movement, and dozens of dogs at once, left little room for wasted effort.
As We Dog Care grew, Ruben saw a widening gap between the level of care he demanded and the outdated tools supporting his team. To protect the standards he had built the business on, he knew the operation needed infrastructure that could keep up.
The $3-an-Hour Reality: The Financial Imperative for Efficiency
At the heart of Ruben’s operational philosophy is an economic reality that defines every decision he makes. He breaks it down clearly for any owner who wonders why efficiency is a requirement for survival.
1. The Deceptive "High Ticket" Price
A customer picking up their dog after a week might see a bill for $500 to $1,000, which is a significant sum. But boarding is a 24/7 operation. When you divide that total by the hours of constant monitoring, feeding, cleaning, and care provided, the revenue earned translates to roughly $3 to $5 per hour, per dog.
2. The "Ritz-Carlton" Expectation on a Budget
Serving Silicon Valley’s discerning pet parents meant operating at a different standard from day one. Most of Ruben’s clients are high-disposable-income professionals who see pets as family, and they expect efficiency, transparency, and hospitality on par with luxury service brands.
Yet, as Ruben notes, “Very few other industries can deliver a service at $3 an hour.” Unlike a grooming business’s one-and-done appointment, boarding and daycare are a continuous, complex flow of care that never stops. The business must deliver five-star service on an efficiency budget.
3. Why Efficiency Is Non-Negotiable
Ruben is running an operation with the safety and complexity of a children’s hospital, but at the hourly revenue rate of a vending machine. This is why “mom and pop” software couldn��t work. “When you’re operating at $3 an hour, you just don’t have a lot of time to waste,” he explains the thin margin.
Managing 50 to 80 dogs a day is already complex: moving dogs between playgroups, meals, rest, and supervision. Any extra friction, such as chasing paper forms, fixing booking errors, and manually entering data, quickly makes the business unsustainable.
The "Ping-Pong" Effect and The Cost of “Making It Work”
For nearly a decade, We Dog Care relied on legacy software. It was familiar, but it was holding the business back. As the industry evolved, the software did not.
"The old system was very 'mom and pop,'" Ruben recalls. "It didn't grow with the times."
- Fragmented Systems: They needed separate tools for scheduling, payments, and marketing, creating data silos and confusion.
- The Intake "Ping-Pong": To onboard a new dog, staff emailed PDF application forms. Clients printed, scanned, and emailed them back. Then staff manually entered vaccine dates and client data. "It was a huge time sink and ripe for errors," says Ruben.
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Fear of Switching: Perhaps the biggest obstacle was psychological. "It was laziness, frankly," he admits, "The fear of retraining staff, migrating data, and facing downtime kept us in a bad relationship with our software for years."
Choosing an All-in-One Central Nervous System
Ruben was searching for a new foundation for We Dog Care: "The pet industry is where restaurants were 20 years ago. Back then, waiters used paper pads, orders got misread, and service broke down. The modern POS system connected the front and back of house to stop errors. That’s what we needed: a single platform that connects our entire operation."
That is what led him to MoeGo.
Rather than layering more tools onto an already complex operation, MoeGo gave We Dog Care a single platform to run the entire business. Reducing mental load for staff and allowing Ruben to protect both service quality and profitability, so that they can truly deliver on their promise of a five-star experience, for every dog, and every human, every day.
Digital Intake & Client Portal: Eliminating the "Ping-Pong" for Good
This was the first and most ground-breaking change for the We Dog Care team. The messy PDF chase was replaced with a single, professional digital link.
- How It Works: A link from MoeGo handles the full application, e-signatures, and direct vaccine uploads. "In one button, the client does it, it populates their profile, and all of that work has been done," Ruben says.
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The Impact: It cut down administrative time, eliminated errors, and delivered the seamless first impression his clients expect. The Client Portal then extends this transparency, letting clients view package balances and daily notes, building the trust that turns customers into advocates.
Lodging View: The Command Center for the Daily Operation
Managing the flow of 50-80 dogs daily is what Ruben calls the "Nutcracker dance performance": a complex dance of play groups, meals, and breaks.
- How It Works: MoeGo’s Lodging View gives the team a visual, real-time map of the facility. They can see capacity across all size categories, schedule moves, and manage every dog’s unique regimen at a glance.
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The Impact: This visual control is what makes the "Nutcracker dance" safe, efficient, and possible. It prevents overbooking, streamlines staff communication, and ensures every dog is in the right place at the right time.
2-Way Messaging: Turning Communication into Connection
For Ruben, client communication is a strategic lever. It must balance the immediate, personal connection that builds loyalty with the systematic outreach that drives growth. The team uses 2-Way Messaging and Marketing tools as a unified system to nurture relationships and drive predictable growth, all within one platform.
- How It Works: Ruben uses MoeGo’s 2-Way Messaging as the primary channel for all client communication. For efficiency, it replaces "clunky" email for real-time logistics like confirmations and schedule changes. For relationship-building, the same thread is used for informal check-ins, updates, and "old friends" chat.
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The Impact: It builds emotional capital and loyalty while maintaining quality control. Ruben can review message history to ensure his team’s tone always matches the "Ritz-Carlton" standard, turning communication into a managed pillar of the brand experience.
Prepaid Packages: Stability in a Thin-Margin Business
To build a predictable business, Ruben focused on prepaid packages and deep client relationships. MoeGo provides the infrastructure.
- How It Works: MoeGo tracks all prepaid plans, making it easy to promote, sell, and monitor usage, which is a key metric for business health.
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The Impact: Today, 80–90% of We Dog Care’s revenue comes from prepaid packages and memberships. The combined power of transparency (Client Portal), automated follow-ups (Messaging) fuels their 99% customer retention rate.
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