Building the infrastructure layer for pet adoption at national scale.
Founder of WeRescue. Architect of the Clear The Shelters tech stack. Hands-on engineer, product builder, and entrepreneur.
I sit at the intersection of technology, animal welfare, and national media. For over a decade, I've been building products that help people find the right pet — and helping shelters save more lives doing it. I don't just lead teams. I build the systems.
The work that matters.
What I'm building.
WeRescue
A pet adoption platform with hundreds of thousands of adoptable animals across iOS, Android, and web. Integrates data from RescueGroups.org and the broader rescue ecosystem to match people with pets more intelligently.
WeRescue Hub
The operational backbone for animal shelters. Integrates with ShelterLuv, PetPoint, and RescueGroups. Built for shelter operations — volunteer workflows, event management, video-first pet discovery, and AI-assisted matching. Other shelter management systems available by request for integration. Not just listings.
Clear The Shelters Portal
The operational backbone of NBCUniversal's national Clear The Shelters campaign. Replaced spreadsheet-based coordination with a structured platform serving TV stations, shelters, and sponsors across the country. Licensed SaaS with a negotiated enterprise agreement.
CelebrateReel
A beat-synced photo slideshow platform for weddings, school events, memorial tributes, galas, corporate events, and more. Built for photographers, DJs, funeral homes, and event planners. White-label B2B model with music licensing integration.
I don't just lead teams. I build the systems.
Unusually hands-on for a founder. I architect, ship, and maintain production systems across the full stack.
Operating inside a real ecosystem.
NBCUniversal / Clear The Shelters
8-year technology partnership powering a national adoption campaign that has placed over 1.3 million pets into homes.
RescueGroups.org
Deep integration serving thousands of rescue organizations — the connective tissue between shelters and adopters.
Shelter Software Ecosystem
Active integrations with ShelterLuv, PetPoint, and others. Building the data layer the industry runs on.
Rescue needs infrastructure, not just awareness.
Most people in animal rescue are running on donated time and legacy tools. I'm building sustainable, revenue-generating technology that makes the industry more effective — not just more visible. The goal is a system that outlasts any single campaign or funding cycle.
In motion.
The personal layer.
Based in Naperville, Illinois. Husband and father. I built WeRescue over 11 years alongside a full-time career — because I believed the problem was worth solving. We have two rescue dogs: Apple and Pi (rescued on March 14, Pi day!). That's not a detail. That's the whole reason.
Let's Connect
Open to strategic partnerships, media collaborations, platform integrations, and investment or acquisition conversations. If any of that sounds relevant, reach out.
Frequently asked questions.
WeRescue is a pet adoption platform with hundreds of thousands of adoptable animals across iOS, Android, and web. It integrates data from RescueGroups.org and the broader rescue ecosystem to match people with pets more intelligently.
WeRescue Hub is a multi-tenant SaaS platform and the operational backbone for animal shelters. It integrates with ShelterLuv, PetPoint, and RescueGroups, and is built for shelter operations including volunteer workflows, event management, video-first pet discovery, and AI-assisted matching.
Clear The Shelters is NBCUniversal's national pet adoption campaign that has placed over 1.3 million pets into homes. Mark Wade has been the technology partner for 8 years, building the operational platform that replaced spreadsheet-based coordination with a structured system serving TV stations, shelters, and sponsors across the country.
Mark Wade is a founder, engineer, and entrepreneur based in Naperville, Illinois. He built WeRescue over 11 years and is the architect of the Clear The Shelters tech stack. He sits at the intersection of technology, animal welfare, and national media, building sustainable infrastructure for pet adoption at national scale.
WeRescue's tech stack includes SwiftUI for iOS, Kotlin with Jetpack Compose for Android, Django and FastAPI for backend services, Apache Solr for search, PostgreSQL and Firebase for data, AWS for cloud infrastructure, Cloudflare for CDN and media, and Claude Code for AI-assisted workflows.
CelebrateReel is a beat-synced photo slideshow platform for weddings, school events, memorial tributes, galas, corporate events, and more. It is built for photographers, DJs, funeral homes, and event planners as a white-label B2B SaaS product with music licensing integration.
You can reach Mark through the contact form at markwade.net or by scheduling a 30-minute intro call at schedule.markwade.net. He is open to strategic partnerships, media collaborations, platform integrations, and investment or acquisition conversations.