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The Uber of dog walking arrives in Ontario

New shared economy app connects dog owners and dog walkers
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The shared economy boom has gone to the dogs.

A pair of Vancouver-based entrepreneurs have created GoFetch, which is being billed, and promoted, as the Uber of dog walking.

Launched on the West Coast in April, GoFetch is now available in parts of Ontario, including Guelph, Barrie, and Sault Ste. Marie, said Willson Cross, a marketing specialist who co-created GoFetch with investment banker Paul Ratchford.

The app basically connects dog walkers and dog owners.

After being approved, walkers (or "fetchers") sign up with GoFetch for a monthly fee of $5.99. They then set their own fees for dog walking and pet owners pay automatically through Stripe.

GoFetch connects pet owners with the dogwalkers but does not take a cut of the transaction. Walkers are paid every two weeks through direct deposit.

"GoFetch does not take any cut from each walk, a pricing model that sets GoFetch apart from other start ups in the space," Cross said.

While guarding actual numbers, Cross said the app attracted 1,000 engaged users in its first 30 days in Vancouver and has been growing steadily since.

Cross was doing his Masters at the States when he and Ratchford teamed up with the idea.

"Obviously the sharing economy, the on-demand economy space is growing rapidly and becoming very rapidly. The dog space is something we analyzed quite a bit and saw that there was a gap for it in Canada," he said.

Their market, he said, is millennial pet owners: young and busy people with money who love their pets.

"We're on a mission to make GoFetch.ca Canada's one-stop shop for pet owners," Cross said.

They realized they had to move quickly and the platform was quickly built.

"We felt a sense of urgency to get it out there, but also a sense of urgency to perfect the product and perfect the service to make it and the experience superior to any potential competition," Cross said.

He said GoFetch will spread amongst dog owners because it is unique, quick and easy to use.

Cross is well aware that people's pets are akin to their children in many cases and therefore they are very wary about who they hand them over to, even for a walk in the park.

To ease their minds GoFetch walkers are vetted through the background checking service Checkr (the same one used by Uber and Airbnb) and there is live GPS tracking of every walk as well as insurance that protects the pet and the walker.

Through the app, people can also stay in touch with their walker through in-app messaging.

"The walkers go through a long approval process," he said. "It only takes 90 seconds to apply, but it can take a week to go through the process to make sure we have the right individuals on our platform."

Cross is asked why nobody has come out with this before.

"I'm sure the CEO of Uber gets that question too," he laughs.

"I bet people have thought of it before. I know they have. But execution is the game," he said.

GoFetch is currently available through iTunes and will be available through android devices shortly.

More information is available at www.gofetch.ca.


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Tony Saxon

About the Author: Tony Saxon

Tony Saxon has had a rich and varied 30 year career as a journalist, an award winning correspondent, columnist, reporter, feature writer and photographer.
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