The Exchanges

Q So it took you, do you remember how long it took you from the time you started to experiment with, and, and were you using beef or using chicken or turkey or, or what?

A I think maybe it was just chicken and turkey in the very beginning, but soon after we used, uh, we were using beef also. Um, so we wanted to have a handful of different proteins because different people and dogs like different types of proteins. And I would say it was probably a year of, of testing and trying and tinkering before we thought we had it. But, um, It's a lot of times today you'll hear people say it's V version one or V one. Um, I would say that was V one and we thought it was ready to go to market. And, and the reality was it probably was good, but it wasn't where it quite needed to be on kind of that version one.

AI assessment note: “probably a year of, of testing and trying and tinkering before we thought we had it”

Q So after you, by the way, um, by the way, did you, I mean, you kind of fell into the world of pet food, but were you like a pet person? Did you have lots of pets? Was that part of your own life?

A It was. I mean, I always had pets growing up, um, and then when I met my wife, um, that, you know, I met her when I was at Ralston Purina, and she owned, she had four cats when we first started dating, and she had worked at a shelter, um, And had a, you know, incredible heart, um, and, and she ended up taking some of these cats home that didn't have homes, and, um, so I, I was always involved with pets, and I love them, and what I started realizing more and more is the value that they bring into people's lives, um, and I, and there was actually a lot of research that had been done that people with pets live longer and healthier lives, and there were three aspects on why they did. One of them was the emotional benefits of having a pet, um, and having kind of a You know, someone you're, you love in your life and caring and nurturing. People are caring and nurturing, and you get to do some of that with a pet. It's part of it's because they make you more active. Um, and then the third piece that is people do not think about or realize is, believe it or not, it's actually the microbiome. It's actually the bacteria that, that pets bring into our lives. People with pets tend to have less allergies typically. Um, but I knew that being involved in an industry that, that did that Um, that I could feel really good about being involved in it.

AI assessment note: “It was. I mean, I always had pets growing up”

Q Yeah. So you, you, um, sort of, your time with, with Meomics comes to an end, and you, you have some cash with you, and, and at that point, did you think, okay, now I'm, I'm, maybe now's the time for me to start my own thing?

A So, um, you know how you have these times in your life that are incredibly, like, you remember, like, it was yesterday, and it's just crystal clear, and I remember, um, there were a few of us sitting around, uh, talking about, Like, maybe what we wanted to do next, and the CFO of Meow Mix came by and handed me an envelope, and that envelope had a seven-figure check inside of it, and it was, you know, maybe more money than I thought I might have ever had, quite honestly, and there was incredible excitement around getting the check, but I swear, I remember opening it up, and it was the emptiest moment, maybe, of my life, and I realized it wasn't about Just the money. I mean, the money was about that empowerment, but it was about building something great, and I remember that so clearly, and I had become very awakened around nutrition, and just thinking about what food is, and a lot about the food supply, and that led, led me and, and two other gentlemen, um, to start thinking about if we reinvented pet food, like if we were going to start literally with a completely clean sheet of paper from scratch, What, what would we make? What would that product be? Um, and we started thinking it probably wouldn't be kibble because the conversation literally was, is kibble even food?

AI assessment note: “it was about building something great... start thinking about if we reinvented pet food”

Q So how did you know whether this was, you know, good?

A You know, there's a range of dogs. There are dogs that will eat almost anything. Then there's a very large group of dogs that will not eat, you know, almost nothing. And we wanted to test with all the dogs, and part of it was about taste, but, but we had to make sure the nutrition worked for the pets. And then when the consumer opens it up, They have to look at it and go, oh my god, this, this looks good. It looks like food I could eat. And we would literally go out of our way to make sure it smelled good for the consumer. So the first tip is the dog loves it and eats all of it. Um, and then the more people used it and the longer they used it, the more they saw literally a visible difference in their dog's health in some way.

AI assessment note: “we wanted to test with all the dogs, and part of it was about taste”

Q And why, why not? Why didn't you, yeah.

A Um, it's interesting. So, you know, um, when we made the commitment to retailers, and we said, we're, we're working with you, and we're putting our fridges in the store, the deal was we weren't going to go around the retailer and go direct to consumer. And, um, we feel as though the opportunity to deliver fresh food is where people are going to buy their fresh food over time, and that's going to be, they're typically going to make a trip to a store to do that. So that fresh trip is owned by the brick and mortar guys, and those are our partners that we went in with in the beginning. So even when we have played with this idea of shipping food to consumers, we're actually working with our retailers to actually ship it through their stores.

AI assessment note: “the deal was we weren't going to go around the retailer and go direct”

Q Professor Connors Pet Food? Was it dog food initially only?

A Professor Connors Deli Fresh was the original, original name, and I, I, I know it's a little bit of like a tangent, but, but John, we kept talking about we got to change this name, and John didn't really want to change it, and he went away, um, over, um, Over, uh, on vacation. And the second he walked away, I turned to Kyle and said, we have to change the name of this company. I said, we're going to regret this forever. And we ended up changing it to fresh pet. And when he got back, I had changed the name in front of the, we had a small little house as our office. We changed the business cards and we completely changed the name and then started to moving, moving on the packaging. And when John came back, he actually literally drove by the office the first time because he He, uh, he didn't recognize the sign. Um, he, he just drove past it a little bit, and he came in and said, what, what do you guys, what'd you guys do? And I said, John, you're gonna thank me for this later? We could not be Professor Connors. We needed a name that really was understandable and quickly digestible by consumers and retailers, and 20 or 30 years from now, it may be Kleenex, or it may be Xerox, Where it's the name of the category, but for now, this is the right decision for us to be making, and, and I think within about a minute, he realized that it was the right decision for us, and, and it was a go…

AI assessment note: “I know it's a little bit of like a tangent, but”