Why I'm building CorePaw
Hi, I'm Tony Dalton.
CorePaw is a small app with an unfashionable goal: keep one honest record of an animal's life, make it work without a signal, and let the people who share the care share the record.
(/assets/images/founder/founder-hero.webp)
The problem I kept hitting
Everything you need to know about a pet lives somewhere else. The vaccination card is in a drawer. The microchip number is in an email from whoever you got them from. The insurance policy is a PDF. Whether the dog has been fed is a text message. And when a vet asks "when was her last worming?", the honest answer is usually a guess.
None of that is a hard software problem. It just needed someone to sit down and build it properly.
Three decisions I'm not moving on
It works with no signal.
Every tap is written to your phone first. Logging a walk in a field with one bar of reception should not be a design constraint you notice.
A pet belongs to a household, not an account.
Most pet apps assume one owner with one phone. Real life is a partner, kids, a parent who feeds them on Thursdays and a dog walker. So CorePaw has roles and per-area permissions — and they're enforced in the database, not by hiding a button.
Grief is never an upsell.
Memorial mode and the memory book are free for everyone, permanently, even if a paid plan lapses — and a memorial pet never counts toward the free pet limit. The app should go quiet the day you need it to, not ask you for money.
What I won't do
I won't sell your data, and I won't dress up general information as veterinary advice. CorePaw keeps records and shows you what you've recorded — your vet makes the decisions.
Where it's up to
CorePaw is pre-launch. The app is built and being tested — passport, microchip, health records, medications and reminders, walks with GPS routes, measurements, symptom diary, documents, photos, the vet PDF and memorial mode all work today. What's left is the store listings, closed-app push notifications, and the subscription plumbing behind Premium.
If you'd like to try it before it's public, tick the box when you join the waitlist. I read every reply.
Come and try it early.
Join the waitlist for launch news — and tick the box if you'd like to help test it first.