How They Scaled a $100M Pet Food Brand | Spot & Tango скачать в хорошем качестве

How They Scaled a $100M Pet Food Brand | Spot & Tango

This week, we sit down with the founders of Spot & Tango, they quit wall street to build a $100M dog food brand Russel and Dylan break down how they went from cooking dog food in their kitchen to building a $100M/ year pet food company, why they chose to own manufacturing instead of outsourcing, and how they perceive profitability as a responsibility and not a bonus. From being prudent operators to dog lovers we talk about the moments where things nearly broke, the risks most founders avoid, and why they believe discipline beats speed when building something that lasts. Honest, opinionated, and packed with real lessons, this episode is about building a durable consumer brand, making hard decisions early, and staying focused when the pressure to move faster is everywhere. ___ Timestamps: 01:43 - Cooking dog food at home and where the idea came from 04:02 - Leaving finance to bootstrap a side hustle 06:26 - Early demand signals and distrust in legacy pet food 07:55 - Humanisation of pets and changing consumer behaviour 10:26 - Inventing UnKibble to solve cost and convenience 12:05 - Selling out in 4 days and scrambling for supply 14:09 - The reality of outsourcing manufacturing 15:34 - Choosing Allentown and building a factory from scratch 18:29 - Why there’s no ceiling in the pet market 18:51 - How they deploy capital: manufacturing and marketing 19:22 - Why adding friction actually doubled conversion 22:28 - Becoming obsessed with data and dog health 24:48 - From 0% margins to nearly 50% gross margin 27:01 - Manufacturer vs marketer business models 30:28 - Curiosity, risk, and learning by doing 31:01 - The biggest challenges of bringing manufacturing in-house 32:22 - Frugality as an operating philosophy 34:22 - Early failures and slow early progress 37:46 - Automating procurement and logistics with AI 41:29 - ROIC, CAC, LTV, and how they measure sustainability 43:57 - Why growth at all costs destroys businesses 45:13 - Staying profitable while growing 55% year over year 46:49 - Creative testing, volume, and rapid iteration 48:28 - Why spending more doesn’t have to increase CAC 49:42 - Keeping CAC flat while tripling ad spend 54:23 - Retention as the hardest metric to improve 57:53 - Why heavy discounts destroy LTV 1:01:20 - Why they launched PupGum as a separate brand 1:03:56 - Branding, provocation, and earned media 1:05:16 - Selling out fast and early demand signals 1:08:03 - Amazon launch and blended CAC benefits 1:10:52 - Why they’ve avoided retail and wholesale 1:17:33 - Goals for the next 12 months ___ Follow us across our socials: Twitter: https://x.com/happystackhq LinkedIn: / happystackhq Instagram: / happystackhq ___ Check out the HappyStack website: https://www.happystack.com/ We connect the world's best DTC brands with the software they need to scale efficiently. ___ #ecommerce #podcast #founder #business #happystack #thelockin