Startup Spotlight: smoll - Bringing Pet Wellness to the Digital Age

In our inaugural startup spotlight, we sat down with Fahad Shehadat, founder of smoll, a pet telemedicine platform that's addressing a growing need in the Middle East's evolving pet ownership landscape.

From Design Studios to Pet Wellness

Fahad Shehadat's journey to founding smoll wasn't linear. After spending over two decades in the design world—working at prestigious agencies like M&C Saatchi, Landor, and FutureBrand before running his own agency, Dynamics, for eight years—the pandemic sparked a different kind of creative thinking.

"It was probably during COVID time that I started thinking, okay, I'm done with services," Fahad reflects. But here's where the story gets interesting. smoll didn't start as a pet wellness platform at all.

The Pivot That Changed Everything

Originally, Fahad and his former colleague built a live streaming web app with integrated crypto payments, they developed the entire infrastructure, but after some time, reality hit. "We just realized there wasn't an evident market fit for it." he admits.

Rather than abandoning everything, Fahad made the difficult decision to pivot, a move that would transform their crypto streaming app into something completely different: a telewellness service for pets. “That’s when we started thinking about recycling some of the parts we had already built — mainly the video chat and interaction layer — into something that felt more relevant to me.”

Solving a Universal Pet Parent Problem

The pitch for smoll is elegantly simple. As Fahad puts it in their deck:

"Nobody likes going to vet clinics, including pets."

"Forget about the financial part of it, it's just the whole experience. It's really stressful for pet owners as well as the pet itself."

smoll positions itself as the intermediary that can help pet owners determine whether a vet visit is actually necessary. "Instead of taking the effort to go, you could actually give us a call, and we will let you know if the case requires immediate attention.” Fahad explains.

One of their key tools is a referral system that assesses cases and directs urgent ones to partner clinics. “In many cases, pet parents underestimate how critical their pet’s condition actually is, and fast access to a service like smoll helps them make that decision — go to the vet now, not tomorrow, right now, this needs to be checked immediately,” Fahad explains.

Beyond teleconsultations, smoll also offers pet wellness plans that cover in-clinic services such as routine check-ups, vaccinations, and preventive care — ensuring pets receive comprehensive support both at home and in the clinic.

First Mover in a Growing Market

Remarkably, smoll appears to be the only player in its category within the region. “Currently, we’re the only company focused purely on pet wellness. There are a few others offering pet-related services, but our focus is entirely on this vertical,” Fahad notes. “The PetTech category is still developing, as pet ownership itself is still quite nascent in this part of the world due to cultural and social factors.”

But this is changing rapidly. The cultural shift around pet ownership in the Middle East, driven by social media and growing awareness of pets' mental health benefits, is creating new opportunities. "There's a massive gap between the top of the pyramid—food, supplies, and right at the bottom, the vet clinics. But in between, it’s a vacuum "

Building Without Burning Cash

Perhaps most impressively, smoll has achieved meaningful traction while remaining completely bootstrapped. With nearly 4,000 registered users, five partner clinics, and steady growth driven purely by word of mouth, the company has kept its burn rate remarkably low with a lean five-member team.

"We haven't done much paid marketing, and we always reject paid features, but we still have word of mouth as our main driver," Fahad says. Their users? Primarily first-time pet owners who need guidance navigating the world of pet wellness.

Working with Vets, Hand in Hand

A critical aspect of smoll’s approach is its relationship with veterinarians. “Vets are not going anywhere — we’ve partnered with some of the best in the city, and we’re not here to replace them but to empower them,” Fahad emphasizes.

Expanding Beyond B2C

smoll is preparing to launch its B2B offering by the end of the year, targeting corporate clients and community owners. The idea is simple: companies and communities can offer smoll’s services as an added value for residents or as part of their employee benefits programs.

The Bigger Vision

Looking ahead, Fahad sees smoll becoming the go-to pet wellness platform in the Middle East. But it's not just about scale, it's about laying the foundation for better animal welfare across the region. “A large part of what we do is educating people on how to care for animals. But our main goal is to build a stronger foundation for pet care and animal welfare in general — and to raise pet wellness standards across the region to a level that keeps up, if not surpasses, the rest of the world.”

About smoll: Founded in 2024 by Fahad Shehadat, smoll is a Dubai-based pet wellness platform offering telemedicine services for pets across the Middle East. The company is bootstrapped and growing through word-of-mouth, with plans to expand into B2B services.

This is the first installment of our startup spotlight series, where we highlight founders in the MENA region who are solving real problems and building meaningful companies. Know a founder we should feature? Reach out to us at hey@menagrid.co