Hey everyone, I’m David
Did you know there’s a 15% chance your cat goes missing in a five-year period? And it’s not just cats. Around 10 million dogs go missing every year in the US alone.
2 years ago when I saw another blurry ‘missing cat poster’ on a rainy dark night I figured this could be done way better nowadays with digital technology. So I started a small side project with a friend. We used sponsored posts on social media to basically advertise your missing cat to thousands of neighbors in a 0.6 mile / 1 km radius around your address.
It worked much better than expected. Suddenly we were finding lost cats and reuniting them with their families. I remember when the first sighting of a lost cat came in. I couldn’t believe it. Reuniting them was a beautiful moment, and I was even invited for dinner as a thank you.
It really started to pick up, and not much later I actually quit my full time job and focused only on what was then called CatRadar.
We’ve found our 8,000th missing cat last week and since we get many people with lost dogs also asking for our help, we’ve now rebranded to PetRadar. We’ve already found our first dog, actually!
Just wanted to share this journey with you. Hope it gives some inspiration/positivity to your day :)
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Love this! Good job, OP!
what a terrific idea! thanks for sharing.
Thanks a lot man 🙏
That’s amazing! Well done! As a fellow business owner, I’m curious how you attracted enough customers to quit your day job? Obviously posts like here on Reddit help, but I imagine that’s not your main flow.
This is so niche, wholesome, cute. I love every part of it. Easy upvote. Thanks for quality content OP!
Thank you so much, appreciate the positivity 🙏
If a cat wants to be free, shouldn’t we let it be?
Hey David, have you contacted HASS (Human Animal Support Services)about this very cool thing you do? They’re an animal welfare organization that works on a community centered sheltering approach to keep people and pets together. They have weekly zoom seminars discussing how Animal Control can be restructured, how to implement heat maps in your city to identify stray dog/cat hot spots and how to start a pet retention program among many other things. They have a podcast and pet reunification was a subject they discussed recently. It’s one of their primary focuses, new strategies for pet reunification.
I’m wondering if the heat maps tech combined with what you’re already doing could work well together! I hope you’ll check them out and hope it leads to a working relationship because your business is great and definitely needed.
Id also check out Maddie’s Fund if you haven’t already. They fund all kinds of projects but most non-profits. Still worth looking into.
Very interesting, thanks for the input!
Did iOS changes make this more difficult?
Bravo, less strays on the streets & bringing families back together!!
How are you monetizing this though?? Are you receiving donations, being hired to find the pet by the family or finding the pets and then holding them for a ransom? Lol
I’m so proud of you!
This is awesome, you should have a section of success stories. How the pet went missing they used the site and how they were found!
Congrats, great job, sounds very fulfilling! Where are you based out of, what are your forecasts for expansion and how many people on your team so far? I am interested in more information, I live in an area saturated with a lot of cats, dogs, coyotes and money.
My cat went missing when I had him 4 years…now he’s indoors only and I watch him carefully. Great work op
As a dog pro (show dog handler) I applaud you. How do you monetize that though and don’t you ever get, “you’re only in it for the money.”?
Not trying to rain on your parade, I’m just curious. I’ll start sharing this with my clients and coworkers once I have a better understanding. You can pm if you prefer
Our business model is that we take a part of the advertising cost. Some people indeed ask us ‘why do you need to make money off of this’, but seeing as we’re 7 people working day and night, our bills also need to be paid. Kind of like going to the vet, they also make a small margin.