Three years after injuries ended his sports career, athlete-turned-entrepreneur Justin Javorek is preparing for a fourth-quarter launch of PetKonekt, an app that links pet owners and pet-care professionals. 

PetKonekt is a customer relationship management tool that benefits both the pet owners and the people who help them care for animals. The owners can find veterinarians and other service providers in their area, and the professionals can keep in touch with their customers year-round.

The PetKonekt team – Javorek, CTO Shawn MacBurnie, and veterinary candidate out of Ontario Veterinary College Julia Bulfon – interviewed 250 pet owners to research their business model. Some 48 percent admitted they did not bring their pets to the vet every year, saying they would only come in when something was wrong. PetKonekt aims to fix this problem by allowing veterinary clinics to remind pet owners that it is time for a checkup.  This improves customer retention for clinics’ and allows vets to focus on preventative care as opposed to corrective treatment.

The launch planned for later this year will be one more milestone in the journey from athlete to entrepreneur for Javorek, the Co-Founder and CEO of the company.

A world junior hockey player from Bratislava, Slovakia, Javorek came to Nova Scotia five years ago on a Dalhousie University athletics scholarship to play hockey.  After sustaining several injuries in his first two seasons, he was cut, losing his scholarship in the process.

The cut was devastating for Javorek, as sports had been his life from Day 1. He was even named after his grandfather, the coach and former goalkeeper of the Czechoslovakia national football team. “Some part of you dies,” said Javorek speaking about the cut. “This is what I live for and to have someone just come in and take it away was devastating.”

After the cut, Javorek met Gordon Dickie, a Dalhousie hockey alum who had founded his own company, GoalLine, which develops websites for sports leagues. “I really got inspired,” said Javorek of his impressions of Dickey and GoalLine. “I saw he got started in his garage, that he just went for it and that you can do it.”

Javorek began working for GoalLine doing customer support, graphic design and courtesy calls. While working at GoalLine, Javorek was further inspired by the entrepreneurial success of his roommate Shea Kewin, co-founder of Spring Loaded Technology, and his friend Daniel Bartek, co-founder of Sage Mixology. So in partnership with med student Cameron Sieffert, he began to work on Salubrian Health, which developed an app for doctors’ waiting rooms.

After extensive consultation and consideration, Javorek began working with a new team on PetKonekt.

Now with 18 months of entrepreneurial experience under his belt, Javorek and the PetKonekt team recently finished their time in Dalhousie’s Launchpad accelerator. [Disclosure: Dlhousie is a client of Entrevestor.]

Launchpad, run by Mary Kilfoil and Ed Leach, provides participants with mentorship, practice in essential entrepreneurial skills and $10,000 in seed capital.

“We really need to give love to Dr. Kilfoil and Dr. Leach,” said Javorek. “What they have accomplished by putting this program together is a really unique experience and has provided us with the skills and the capital to move to the next level.”