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 :)

  • lkattan3@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    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.