Naperville Man Sidesteps Pet Shops With App

NAPERVILLE, IL — In the midst of a local yearslong debate on puppy mills, one Naperville man is developing a way for rescue dogs to find homes. Mark Wade has been developing the app WeRescue since 2014. Now, he’s ready to take it to the next level, which includes looking for partners. The app has been described in the past as “Tinder for Dogs,” but Wade assures, adopting a pet is nothing like dating.

“When it comes to adopting pets, we find that people don’t ever want to deny a pet. Even if they’re not interested, they’re not going to vote it down,” he said. “The Tinder model doesn’t fit with what we’re doing.”

Filters are what makes his app special, he said. For example, people can look for a canine that is good for seniors, if it’s trained, or if it works well with with older kids. Users can check a “protective” box, which will tell them whether the dog exhibits protective traits in case they want an extra set of eyes watching out for them. There are dozens of filters to choose from.

For now, it uses data from pet rescue centers across the country and Canada. Wade is looking to build stronger relationships with those facilities so they can help with more problems they see at the ground level. A resident of Naperville for 20 years, Wade has seen plenty when it comes to the debate on puppy mills.

“There’s an ordinance in Naperville that they’ve been working on passing for quite some time and it keeps getting pushed to the side,” he said. He views his app as a way to side-step the politics and puppy miss, and allow people to connect directly with rescue dogs and cats.

About 16 years ago, his family bought a dog. They were told it came from a family farm in Iowa. After some research, he found out that the "family farm" was a gross exaggeration. Wade now refers to Iowa as “the puppy mill capital of the Midwest.”

Wade designs apps for a living. In 2014, he joined a local competition— a “hack-a-thon” of sorts where people pitched ideas and make apps in one weekend. Someone came up with the idea to match humans with rescue pets, Wade quickly developed a rough sample version of the app (which was originally called Woof), and they ended up winning. The prize? Bragging rights, not money. But it was never about the money for Wade. From that point on, the app became a side passion project.

Four years later, WeRescue has 1,000 reviews and a five-star rating on Apple's app store. Although it's not his full-time job, he hopes to gain more traction with the app in 2018. A competitor, Petfinder, was bought out by Purina. But Wade's not interested in being bought out. He is, however, very open to sponsorship partners from dog food companies and the like.

“It’s going well but it’s difficult. It’s difficult to find the time to reach those companies," he added. "You kind of have to start out small.”

Working from his Naperville home with no advertising budget, he's managed to reach most of his users in California, Chicagoland, Florida and New York. So far, a quarter million people have used the app to find pets.

In the midst of the app's big push, Wade keeps his ear to the ground in Naperville for any ordinance changes. Recently, city council has been discussing the possibility of banning shops from selling anything other than dogs and cats from animal shelters or rescue organizations. That discussion has been tabled.

In case you're wondering, here's a list of the top breeds of interest on WeRescue:

Dogs
1) Labrador Retriever
2) German Shepherd Dog
3) Chihuahua
4) Pit Bull Terrier
5) Terrier
6) Shepherd
7) American Pit Bull Terrier
8) Beagle
9) Boxer
10) Australian Cattle Dog/Blue Heeler

Cats
1) Domestic Short Hair
2) Domestic Medium Hair
3) Tabby
4) Domestic Long Hair
5) Maine Coon
6) Siamese
7) American Shorthair
8) Tortoiseshell
9) Calico
10) Russian Blue

Image courtesy of Mark Wade