PawFive

See your dog's friends again! Scan a code at the park, plan the next playdate without the awkward text, and find dog-friendly spots in Metro Vancouver.

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Inspiration

My dog (Tori) is friendly, but she doesn't click with every dog. Once in a while at the park, she finds the one: same energy, same play style. So the other owner and I swap Instagrams, and that's it. Asking again means writing a message to someone I met once, when all I want is a quick playdate for the dogs.

So I looked for an app. Everything I found was about meeting random dogs nearby. But I didn't want 'strangers'. I just wanted to see the friends Tori already made!

What it does

  • No strangers. That's the whole point. There's no browsing and no random matching. You connect by scanning each other's QR code at the park. No phone numbers, no Instagram.
  • Plan a playdate without the group chat. Offer a few days and places, friends vote, and the host turns the winner into a playdate with invites, location and comments.
  • On the day: from 15 minutes before the playdate until it ends, everyone going can see each other's location live, and chat right inside the playdate. No need to open another app to ask "where are you?"
  • PawFives. After a playdate, you leave the other dog one word, like Playful or Friendly. It's free.
  • Super PawFive. When the dogs really clicked, you can upgrade it to a collectible title: Best Playmate, Stole My Heart, Love at First Sniff, and more. It lives on the dog's profile forever.
  • A dog-friendly map of Metro Vancouver. Fenced parks, small-dog areas, patios and cafés, collected by owners who actually went.

How it makes money

Super PawFives come in a 5-pack, a consumable purchase through RevenueCat. The only way a dog earns a title is from a friend: you can't buy one for your own dog. Nobody in PawFive buys anything for themselves. The money only moves between two people, and it only happens after a good playdate.

How I built it

Flutter for iOS and Android, Supabase (Postgres, auth, realtime, edge functions) for the backend, and Google Maps for places. Purchases go through RevenueCat. A purchase is verified on the server before any Supers are added, and the RevenueCat webhook credits the same purchase server-to-server as a backup.

Challenges I ran into

Testing the playdate itself. It's easy to test a screen. It's hard to test whether an app is actually convenient for two people walking to the same park. I had to check that live location was accurate, that people could ask "where are you?" inside the app instead of switching to a chat app, and that any change to the playdate showed up for everyone right away. So I tested it again and again with dog-owner friends in my neighbourhood, on real walks to real parks.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

A social app with no public profiles, no search and no strangers. Every connection starts with two people standing at the same park.

What I learned

At first, you could only create a playdate. But a friend pointed out: I don't know which day, time or place works for the other person. So I added planning: offer a few options, everyone votes, and the host creates the playdate from the result.

After I added it, someone left a comment on one of my build-in-public posts asking for exactly this: a way to agree on a day and place together. That's when I knew it wasn't just one friend's wish. It was something people really needed. Today it's used more than creating a playdate directly.

What's next for PawFive

Growing the community in Metro Vancouver first. A community app takes time, so I'm promoting it every week. As it grows, I plan to work with dog-friendly businesses: a premium option where a café, patio or pet store can highlight its marker on the map and promote its own events to dog owners nearby.

Categories

Entering the #BuildInPublic Award and the HAMM Award.

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