Hey Product Hunt! 👋 I'm the maker of PetMeet, and here's the honest story behind it. I really love dogs. Like, stop-on-the-street-to-pet-every-dog-I-see kind of love. But my apartment doesn't allow pets. I spent years just looking at dogs in parks and wishing I could spend time with them without the awkwardness of approaching a stranger and asking "can I pet your dog?" Then one day I thought: there must be millions of people like me. People who love dogs but can't own one for whatever reason. And on the other side, there must be millions of dog owners who are too busy to walk their dogs as much as they'd like. What if there was an app that connected us? I searched for one. Nothing good existed. There were dog walking services, sure, but those are businesses where you pay someone to walk your dog. I wanted something social — a platform where dog lovers and dog owners could find each other naturally, casually, like neighbours helping neighbours. The hardest parts weren't technical. They were design decisions: Should I show exact dog locations? No — privacy first. The app shows approximate distance only. How do I build trust between strangers? Dual-rating system where both the walker and owner rate each other after every interaction. What's the default search radius? I started at 5km but users told me that was too far for a city. Changed it to 1km and booking rates jumped 40%. Should I launch with chat? I initially skipped it. Big mistake. People couldn't coordinate details, and 70% of bookings fell through. Added messaging and completion rates went from 30% to 75%. Every one of these lessons came from real users telling me what was broken. Building in public means shipping fast and listening faster. Some context on the market: China has over 70 million dog-owning households in a pet economy worth over $40 billion. But the loneliness-meets-pets dynamic isn't unique to China. In every major city, there are people who want dog companionship without full ownership, and owners who need community support. PetMeet serves both. I'd love your feedback: • Would you use something like this in your city? • What features would make you trust it enough to try? • Dog owners: would you let a stranger walk your dog through an app? Download it: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/do... Thanks for reading this far. Give your dog an extra treat today. 🐶

PetMeet

Find and walk dogs near you — even if you don't own one

Find and walk dogs near you — even if you don't own one