Victoria-based Chonk Finder app aims to connect communities through cats

For many, finding a cat while out on a walk can be the highlight of the excursion.

A Victoria-based couple is aiming to harness that positive energy and whimsy through a homemade app, turning it into a community building exercise.

The app is called Chonk Finder, and allows users to document cats they find, taking their picture and turning them into cards on the app.

Cats, or “chonks,” as the app calls them, will then show up for other users, who can find them and add them to their collection.

The idea came about when Courtney Majewski attended the Fernwood Cat Walk.

She had such a great time meeting all the cats at the event that her husband, a software engineer named Junaid Ahmad, decided to build the Chonk Finder app and spread her joy with others.

“After we left, Court was like, ‘Hey, I want to do that more often,'” Ahmad told Victoria Buzz.

Ahmad explained that Majewski said she wished she could do it every day, and he, with his software engineering background, decided to bring that dream to life with an app.

“Her and her friends started playing every day,” he said.

“Then I just started noticing more and more traffic on the app, and it turns out the love of going on cat walks is universal.”

The couple say they plan to partner with the Fernwood Cat Walk next year and hope to make their jobs a lot easier.

“As soon as a cat’s added, it can be added to the map. It makes the experience much more immersive—like on Chonk Finder,” Ahmad said.

“We’re bringing it back to the Fernwood Cat Walk, which is kind of a full circle moment,” said Majewski.

The couple moved to Victoria from Toronto in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, when they were able to spend a lot of time outdoors going on cat walks themselves.

They loved spending time outdoors on Vancouver Island, and said they wanted to help others get outside as much as possible too.

The app is already being used in 24 countries worldwide, and has a dedicated user base in Victoria and beyond.

The leaderboard is a particularly fun part of Chonk Finder, with users able to climb the rankings by finding chonks. The app’s top users love the social aspect, and Majewski and Ahmad have a close relationship with all of the app’s top users.

“There’s a really enthusiastic chonk finder out in Salem, Oregon named Heather,” Ahmad said. “She’s out there single-handedly carrying Salem.”

“She’s got like 80 cats or something,” laughed Majewski.

When users reach 40 cats, they’ll even receive a set of physical cards that Ahmad has been creating. Ahmad said the idea came to him from the Fernwood Cat Walk, where trading cards were being given out.

“I wanted to do that too,” Ahmad explained.

“So I went through the process of learning how trading cards are made, and so I’ve kind of perfected the art of making legitimate trading cards. They’re ready to go now, I’ve already started shipping them out.”

The app has spread as far as Europe, China and Africa, with Majewski’s parents logging some wild big cats in Africa and several users logging cats in China, Greece and Turkey.

Ahmad explained that many of the locations can take off overnight.

“I do all the moderation for the app, and in the morning I get up and look at the cats that have been documented since I went to bed. Turkey, Greece and China just popped up overnight.”

The couple even shared the story of a cat near the border between Ukraine and Russia.

“One of the early cats was a Ukrainian cat, right on the border of the conflict,” Ahmad explained.

“In a place with so much conflict, there’s a cat named Mischa who is just hanging out.”

Ultimately, Mischa’s story is one that Majewski and Ahmad want to see more of. The couple hopes the app will bring people together from different communities, as well as connect people within their own.

Near their residence, the couple said that a cat named Pilgore captured the hearts of everyone in the neighbourhood. When Pilgore unfortunately passed away, the couple wanted to do something for his owner.

“We had such a deep connection to Pilgore,” said Ahmad.

“We’re very empathetic to the loss that the family experienced, and I’ve been building a card with a plastic case for his mom.”

With apps that encourage people to get out and move like Pokémon GO and Pikmin Bloom taking off, it’s a great moment for Chonk Finder to capture.

The couple says that one of the goals of the app is to get people away from their computers and out into the world.

“A lot of our communities have become online since COVID,” Ahmad said.

“And seeing real-life communities becomes a reason for people to get outside.”

Chonk Finder has a website and an app, and the couple hope for more users to get involved. The couple has even hired an illustrator to help them with the trading card creation process, and is offering users the chance to purchase physical trading cards as well.

For an app with small goals early on, the couple hopes the app becomes a phenomenon and brings people around the world together over their love of cats.

Ready to start chonk finding? Download the app here!