Native Pet - Gut Health Goes to the Dogs

Ramon Vela (00:02.978)
Welcome back everyone. I have a wonderful show. I have with me today, Dan Schaeffer, who is a founder and CEO of Native Pet. Welcome to the show.

Dan Schaefer (00:29.409)
Thanks for having me, it's great to be here.

Ramon Vela (00:32.014)
Well, I appreciate you making time. know you're busy. You got a lot of stuff going on. And, and I can't wait to dive into this because I haven't covered a pet food brand in a while. It's been at least a year, maybe even two. And I love this, this area. I think it's such a cool area, but there's a lot of things to love about this. But for me, it's about the consumer, know, consumers love their pets. And I just find this whole industry very interesting because

You know, it's almost like, you know, people treat their pets like children. And so I just, I love to see that interaction and I love to see what new products are coming in and you're bringing in a lot of new products and hopefully we'll talk about some of those today too. but before we dive into your, into the company in your entrepreneur journey, I'd like to talk a little bit about gratitude. And now this is my signature question. I've asked it to probably at least.

500, 600 different founders on this show. And for me, it's really important. I've gone through some dark moments on my personal slash entrepreneurial journey. And gratitude has been one of those things that's been really helpful to me. It's a free tool out there. You don't need to buy anything. And it's really, really effective in dealing with stress and anxiety. And quite frankly, I can't promote it enough. But also, I just feel like

It's so easy for consumers to be able to go into a retail outlet or online and just see a product and just think, you know what, it's just some faceless corporation. And I kind of want to combat that. And I want people to know, least the companies that we're featuring here, there are real people who care deeply about the product. They care about the community, they care about the consumers, they care about the ingredients.

And I want you to know that there's real people and one way of doing that and humanizing this whole brand and this whole process is by getting to know who you are, Dan. And one way of doing that is by getting to know what you're grateful for. So with all that said, Dan, if you don't mind, share a moment or a memory when someone did something for you that just made you feel grateful because it meant that they believed in you or your vision or your potential.

Dan Schaefer (02:51.211)
Totally. It's a great question. Anybody who's, you we've had a great seven or eight year run at Native Pet, and so there's a million different things and moments that we should be grateful for. You know, in most businesses, it's better to be lucky than good. And we've had our fair share of luck and good fortune along the way. When I think of gratitude, I really think back to the early days, because I think anybody who's an aspiring entrepreneur or an entrepreneur themselves, I think they know

going zero to one is always the hardest part of the journey and getting started. And you have to be a little bit crazy, a little bit unhinged early on because it's a crazy thing to do. And so my business partner and one of my best friends, Pat and I, started this business in 2017, or sorry, we started this business, yeah, 2017 and then really in earnest got into it in 2019. And so I'm very grateful for my.

close friend to I grew up with Pat and co-founder. But when I think of a memory and for me, I'd be remiss if I didn't go back to my earliest believer, which is definitely my wife. When we started Native Pet, we had one kid and we had a second one on the way, a young family. I was working for the Boston Consulting Group, so had a good but demanding job.

that was helping us live comfortably and take care of these children. And I went to her and said, I want to do something entrepreneurial. I want to quit my job at BCG and I want to go all in and I want to make Native Pet happen. And that was a scary thing to say. It would have been a very reasonable response for her to be like, I don't know if this makes sense. We have so much on the line. But she was all in.

from day one of that conversation. She was our biggest believer. We call her our first angel investor, or I call her my first angel investor, because she believed in the business, and more than anything, she believed in me. And she believed that Pat and I were gonna make this happen for our families. And she didn't doubt me at all from day one. And so I am eternally grateful for the support.

Dan Schaefer (05:11.029)
the belief and the confidence my wife instilled in me and in Pat and in native Pat from day one.

Ramon Vela (05:17.326)
Well, I appreciate that because that goes to the heart of the question. And it also brings up something that I feel like it's just not talked about so much on entrepreneurship, like especially in social media. You know, it's so cool and there's a lot of glamour, there's also and probably more pain and suffering that goes into entrepreneurship than the glamour. But, you know, there is a reward and that's why we do it. But the key thing is that

We don't do it alone. We're not islands. And so there are people who may not be in the business with us, but they indirectly support us and they indirectly make that decision to be part of the team. and it's typically like your partners or your spouse or your family members. and you know, cause it affects them too, you know, your sacrifice.

When you're working and you're doing stuff, you're going, you're traveling, you're going to trade shows, you're, you know, you know, visiting retailers and partners and things like that. You know, all of that takes a lot of time. And so that's a sacrifice you're making and that they're making. So to have a person who is supportive of your journey, because they see it not only as your journey, but also their journey. I mean, that's, that's really special. I mean, you are, you are, you're definitely.

Lucky.

Dan Schaefer (06:41.813)
It's really special and it's a very underappreciated part of the journey. You have to people who believe in you and who are gonna be there for you and treat the journey as if it is their own. In the case of my wife and Pat's wife, whose name is also Kate, both Kates have been incredible partners to me and Pat.

De facto have been incredible partners to Native Pet and I know I can speak for Pat on this one. We both feel extremely lucky that we've had that level of support at home and you know, it goes beyond that. Both of our families have been very supportive. You know, in the early days, Pat's mom was helping us pack packages in an un-air-conditioned U-Haul in Chicago. So we've had a lot of support from our family, our wives, our brothers, our sisters, parents, and we are

Above all else, very lucky and very grateful to have had that support in the early days particularly.

Ramon Vela (07:40.504)
Yeah. Well, yeah, like I said, it's just, it's like, actually you, you said it, it's very underappreciated. People don't really talk about this. You know, they, they, they talk about all the other things you need to prepare for and learn about entrepreneurship and the operational and the marketing and the promotion and all of that. But, you know, for me, it's like, that's one of the foundational things is like, do you have people around you, even if on a personal level, just to help you and provide some of those.

those uplifting words when you feel like quitting because you will feel like quitting at different moments throughout the journey. And when they come in and they just kind of give you some encouragement, it just feels like, you know, just like it gives you energy to keep going. So yeah, thank you. Thank you so much for sharing that. I a hundred percent agree. And I love that. So let's talk a little bit about, about native pet. So

Seven years ago, roughly is, you know, I noticed and I, I've been doing this now for, since, uh, 2018. I've noticed that, um, that the pet food industry has, was starting to change, uh, maybe around that time, maybe a little bit before. And, um, and it wasn't easy because you had these large conglomerates who were the big, you know, the big, big guys on the, on the block. Um,

People didn't really understand what it meant to provide more nutritionally good food for pets. We were feeding them all this stuff. I I had a dog at the time and we were just buying the regular stuff you just buy at the store and whatnot. It never occurred to us to really like, is there a better food there for them nutritionally, et cetera, that they might enjoy?

Cause we just, whenever we were unaware of it and we were uneducated, but I, I remember that there was more and more companies out there starting to break through. and that's kind of like when you guys started, but it was a tough arena. So what, what was it about this area that for you gave you the, the, you know, pushed you off the fence and say, Hey, this is a good idea. And you know, we should, we should go into it because it was an uphill battle. I'm assuming.

Dan Schaefer (10:02.665)
Yeah, I'd love to tell you we were, you know, these big brain ex consultants who identified a growing market and were strategic geniuses and hit it just right. But it's just not the case. we, Pat and I were in corporate America doing, you know, big hour consulting type work, trying to raise families grinding out long hours at work. And I think we had always dreamed of being entrepreneurs and

talked about it for years. I we've known each other since we were 12 years old. So we go way back and we've always wanted to do something entrepreneurial. And we wanted to do it now. mean, with young families, it just felt like time was passing us by and we wanted to do something. We wanted to do something in consumer products. We both love food. We both love cooking. We love health and wellness. And so I think we wanted to do something in consumer packaged goods. And we were like, what should we do?

And I think we wanted to do something that was rewarding, exciting, and that we thought we could do well. And we just had a conversation and it was like, man, we love dogs. Like, wouldn't that be a fun way to spend your day in a really rewarding way is to help our best companions, which is our dogs, like help them feel better, help them eat better, help them live better. And that's just, you know, without looking at the market or the category or the analytical side of it.

We just felt like it would be a really fun and rewarding place to run a business. And that's how it all started, genuinely, with low expectations, very low expectations. And I think if we could quit our jobs and run Native Pet full-time, and that's all that this ever became, I think that was what we wanted to do at the time. And so we were a little less worried with, like investors love TAM and they love, and that all came later, but I think at the start, that's where we started. So then,

Ramon Vela (11:52.994)
them.

Dan Schaefer (11:59.061)
When we looked at the category and we put our consulting brains back on, was at the time, like the craze was around personalization and customization. So, you know, for years, complete and balanced kibble has said, all you need is kibble. And it's true. It's like the base level of nutrition. Any one dog across the country might need, but it's not the specific nutrition.

Ramon Vela (12:10.178)
Mm-hmm.

Dan Schaefer (12:26.907)
your dog might need. so, you you looked at the category, know, farmer's dog was starting to grow these, you know, raw, have wet, you have fresh, you have complete and balanced kibble, you have all of these genres of food. And Pat and I looked at them and say, man, like, it's really hard to do that generally. It's also nearly impossible to make those customizable. And so early on, we said, you know, we're not going to do dog food, as like we're not going to do what

what goes in the bowl. And I think where our big insight was is the consumer wants to be able to customize what they're feeding their dog every day, but they don't necessarily want to change what they're already putting into the bowl. Meaning like they're using complete and balanced kibble, they're buying blue buffalo, they're buying farmer's dog, they're buying instinct. What they want to be able to do is just customize what goes around the bowl. And so we trademarked the phrase around the bowl nutrition.

Ramon Vela (13:24.248)
Thank

Dan Schaefer (13:24.445)
and what we focus on is supplements. How can you feed your dog supplements in addition to their, whatever you want to feed them for dog food, and use supplements to personalize and customize what your dog might need? And that was kind of the key unlock. And so rather than being a dog food brand, we said, hey, we're going to be a dog supplement business and focus on around the bowl nutrition and sell.

additional products that will help pet parents supplement their daily diet to address the unique nutritional and health needs of their dog. And that kind of became our mission, our rallying cry, and how we have developed products since then.

Ramon Vela (14:07.814)
And I feel like that's a really good, that was a really insightful thing that you thought of because when we had a dog, we haven't had one in a while, but when we had one, I just remember going into the store and this whole idea of pet, and this is back in like the 2017, 18, 19 area time period. You never really thought about dog supplements per se.

Now there were things, I believe, if I remember correctly, there were things that if your dog has some specific issue that you were trying to cure, like about their fur or whatever it is, then there were things out there like that. But there wasn't really anything, or at least not from my perspective, and maybe you can share that, but it feels like there really wasn't this whole category of dog supplements per se. mean, there was, like I said, specific solutions for specific issues.

But you guys, feels like you guys were providing a kind of like from the way we look at supplements for humans, but you were doing it for pets.

Dan Schaefer (15:16.181)
think we just took a much different perspective on it. I'll use a really good example from my personal journey.

One of the big drivers for wanting to be in the pet category outside of just it being rewarding is we adopted my dog, Louie, in 2014. So well before we started Native Pet. And he came to us with a bunch of health issues. So he had some worms, had fleas and ticks, he was malnourished, he would eat the wrong things. And so we had a great holistic vet in Ann Arbor where my wife and I were going to grad school where

who helped us nurse him back to health. And a lot of what we were doing was diet and supplements. And so it was eye-opening, but the supplement brands were either very kind of like scientific, nutraceutical focus, where it was like, this doesn't really like feel great from a label and ingredient perspective. It just like looked very processed. Or it'd be like, hey, you know,

pumpkin is great for dogs. Like you should go to the store and buy a can of pumpkin. And I was like, oh, okay. And so, you know, our ethos around supplements is like for dogs, you don't want to feel like it's highly processed. I mean, if you think of like athletic greens in the human space, it's just greens powder. Like it's scientific, but it's also like whole food ingredients, things that you're familiar with. And we wanted to bring that ethos to the category. So I think supplements had existed

Ramon Vela (16:25.902)
He

Dan Schaefer (16:51.137)
before, we just reimagined how we can make them feel more natural, clean label and like an extension of their diet as opposed to this like foreign, highly processed, you know, almost pharmaceutical thing. And I think we wanted to bridge that gap to make it feel more like daily nutrition.

rather than this kind of like scary pharmaceutical solution. And like we've developed our product line to do it. And that canned pumpkin example, one of our first products and our best example is like, I'd buy canned pumpkin for Louis, I'd put it in the refrigerator and I'd have a can of like half-eaten pumpkin that would go bad in the refrigerator. And I was like, this should be such an easy supplement. And so what we did was we found dried pumpkin powder.

Ramon Vela (17:28.974)
you

Dan Schaefer (17:47.797)
We just played with the ratio of soluble and insoluble fiber to make sure it was like that perfect blend. And then we sold a pumpkin supplement and all it was was powdered pumpkin that you can scoop into a bowl, add some water and reconstitute it into pumpkin puree. But it was just so much easier because it was more affordable. was optimized from a fiber ratio and it was shelf stable. And so that's not like a crazy, you know,

innovation, was just, how do we make this can of pumpkin, make it easier, make it better, make it more clean label and make it easier for the consumer to use? That's one of our very first products. Now we do have products that are very scientific. have a board certified nutritionist on our staff, but like in the essence, what we want to do is make health and wellness customizable, make it easy to add to your bowl and make an extension of the values you have as a consumer.

and that your dog has in terms of what you're feeding them today. So it doesn't feel so disconnected from the daily regimen. It doesn't feel so disconnected from your values and how you choose food and how you view health and wellness. And I think we've done that through formulation, format, and a bunch of interesting product work.

Ramon Vela (19:04.11)
You know, and you mentioned the holistic person that you were working with. It's interesting because I remember in our journey when we had our Scooby or dog that, you know, was the areas that I did see some interesting solutions was always like an health food store and their pet section. always had, and it was always based off like real foods.

Dan Schaefer (19:18.752)
Love that name.

Ramon Vela (19:33.058)
kind of like what you're discussing. So it's really interesting. And it also brings to me like the overall sort of thousand foot view of this area in that, for many years, the food and the pet industry had one view of looking at this. And it feels like somewhere in the mid 2010s, this whole idea of your dog. And I don't even know if like,

things change necessarily nutritionally, but the idea that, you know, we have as humans, have like, you know, we have gut, gut microbiome issues or we have gut issues and we should be eating more fiber and we should be doing, you know, like eating, changing our diets and eating different foods or eating whole foods or whatever it is. And in somewhere around that timeframe, it kind of, it kind of transferred over to like the, to pets to like, you your dog. It's like.

you know, they should be eating good stuff too, or they should be eating certain foods and they should, you know, and like pumpkins or whatever. it's so interesting to me that, you know, that, that, that has changed. And I'm assuming that, you know, now, nowadays what you're doing and this whole perspective isn't so crazy anymore. It's like, this is, I think this is now beginning to be like table stakes now is that has the whole industry's caught up to this.

Dan Schaefer (20:59.633)
It's a great point and to answer your question and I'll add some context. I think we're still in the early days. I think the pet category tends to trail the human trend by like three to five years typically. And so I think we're still in the early adoption curve of what supplements and what around the bowl nutrition is ultimately going to look like. think there are

You know, the pet food industry is a $40 billion category. Pet supplements today is like two to three billion. But I think it's growing really, really fast and consumers are dramatically changing the way they're building their dog's bowl and what they're adding around it. So I think that's the first point. I mean, if you think about the evolution of human health and wellness, it's changed dramatically over the last, say, 20 to 30 years. I'm going to date myself a little bit, but when I was 10,

Most products didn't have calories or ingredient labels on the package. you didn't know. And I mean, now think of how maniacally the consumer flips over the ingredient label, especially like our target consumers. You know, when you eat, drink a soda or you eat a snack, you know exactly what ingredients are in there. You know how many calories it is. That wasn't even on the label 20, 25 years ago.

So think of how much has changed and I think supplements specifically have changed dramatically in the human space. So humans by nature, I think have more choice in their diet. So, you you mentioned fiber. One way to get more fiber is just to change what you eat. You might add some broccoli or some beans to your diet. So you have some choice in how you customize. Even though you have that choice, it's still sometimes easier or simpler

to take supplements, take a fiber supplement in the morning, your, know, drinking a collagen supplement is more potent than drinking a glass of bone broth. I like to do both, but you know, I think there's a role, even though we have so much choice, we have so much ability to customize our diet with what we eat, humans still opt into supplements. And then if you look at a product like Athletic Greens or our friend Chad at Groons, you know, this daily greens concept,

Dan Schaefer (23:19.731)
in humans has just exploded over the last 10 years. And I think it's because even though humans have so much choice, you just want to be sure you're getting the nutrients you need. And supplements are an easy way to do that. With dogs, it's even more extreme because with complete and balanced kibble, I'm just going to, I feed my dog complete and balanced kibble. I'm not knocking complete and balanced kibble. plays a necessary role. But with complete and balanced kibble, you don't know what

Ramon Vela (23:32.888)
Mm-hmm.

Dan Schaefer (23:47.485)
optimal blend your dog needs. And it's a great level of base nutrition, but you're feeding them the same thing every single day. can't pull the fiber level or pull the protein level because it's all the same thing. There's no variety and it's the same consistent routine. And so we thought, can, because of that, supplements are almost, if you think about it, even more important

Ramon Vela (23:50.414)
You

Dan Schaefer (24:16.531)
in dogs than they are in humans because they get less variety in their daily diet and they have less control or choice in their daily diet. So supplements are more important. Also, they can be more powerful because you're taking out all the variability of what we eat every day. Dogs don't get invited to a happy hour and have a couple of cocktails and a big plate of food they shouldn't be eating on Wednesday night and then invited to dinner with mom and dad.

Ramon Vela (24:27.768)
Mm-hmm.

Ramon Vela (24:43.789)
Hehehe.

Dan Schaefer (24:46.101)
We have roadblocks in our health and wellness journey. Dogs, you can manage them to a very specific regimen. So you can see the health outcomes quicker, and that's what's powerful. I'll use an example. We have our product, the Daily. This is kind of like inspired by athletic greens. What's the like all-in-one scoop you can add to your dog's bowl to make sure they're getting the nutrients? So that has 11 different health benefits, a ton of different ingredients.

all dosed and scientifically proven. So we have tried to take our learnings from the human space, apply them to the pet wellness space, and then make it unique and powerful to dogs. And we think that it's only gonna continue to evolve in the direction of humans. And so we pay a ton of attention to it. And you gotta make it work for dogs and customize it and personalize it. that the daily, yeah, this is it.

This product was launched 18 months ago. Last week after Prime Day, it was the number one best-selling multivitamin product on Amazon. It's in a ton of different retailers, PetSmart, Petco, Target, etc. It's just been 18 months and it's already our best-selling product. It's just proof that that customization and that personalization that we want in our own diets.

is incredibly important in the diets of our pet. And supplements are a great vehicle to do that. And the daily is just one example of many.

Ramon Vela (26:20.129)
Yeah, this is really, really interesting. I mean, I love this idea and I love the whole idea of the supplements and the direction you're going. I'm wondering what was the reaction when you initially started?

Did pet parents have difficulty understanding this or was it slow? Did you guys first start off in D to C? And by the way, let me just mention to the audience, if you wanna take a look, I have it up in the screen if you're eventually watching this on video, but if you're listening, you can go to nativepet.com. nativepet.com is the website. So Dan?

Dan Schaefer (27:06.081)
It varies by product. So we started online, so Amazon, our D2C site, and then eventually Chewy's where we started. We've since gone to retail. Early on, it was a very niche category. It's become more mainstream. So I think had we started selling the daily in 2017, it would have been a much steeper hill to climb because Athletic Greens was a small company. So I think that was a

perfect one to launch in 2023. It wouldn't have been a perfect product in 2018. We launched a product which is still one of our best sellers called Omega Oil. One thing consumers were very comfortable with in 2018 was fish oil. I think it's one of the most popular human supplements and it has been for 30 years. Dogs don't get enough Omega 3s in their kibble diets particularly, but most complete and balanced diets.

Ramon Vela (27:47.95)
Mm-hmm.

Dan Schaefer (28:02.593)
Omega-3s aren't necessarily included in that regimen. it was a supplement, consumers knew there was a pain point, vets were recommending fish oil supplements, and we found our unique way to do it. And so it's about being early on the curve. You don't want to be too early, but you don't want to be too late either. So it's finding products where consumers are becoming aware of the problem.

and also aware of the solution. And then finding a better and differentiated way to solve that problem and then communicate it to the customers. That is as simple as what we've done. so like we're not, you know, we're trying to make products our consumers want and our consumers need. And that's really our focus.

Ramon Vela (28:53.518)
And in terms of like the milestones, you you mentioned early on that, you know, Hey, you would have been happy if this was just something you guys were doing and maybe even being able to quit your jobs and, and, do it full time. When was that first milestone that you thought to yourselves or you, or you and Pat thought to yourself like, wow, this is, this is

this could be really big or this could be a really solid business. Was there a point in time where that happened? Like, I don't know your first DTC sales or I don't know.

Dan Schaefer (29:29.345)
But I think for any entrepreneur, I mean, there's been so many because when your expectations are low and things keep getting bigger, it's like everything is kind of... So let me share a couple of fun ones. I think the first one is when you get that, start to get your first sales on any channel, it's like so exhilarating.

Ramon Vela (29:39.607)
Thank

Dan Schaefer (29:57.579)
to make something and have anybody buy it. so I think just like, make a financial investment and you design the packaging, you buy the inventory. So I think as soon as you start selling it, feels really good. I think the big one for us was when you make the second order, because you're like, holy cow, like we're doing this. we, enough people bought all that initial inventory that we have to buy more inventory.

and we had to find a way to find the cash to do it. That was a big moment. I specifically remember Pat, calling Pat the first time we hit $1,000 in a day in sales was a big milestone. The retail launch into Target, which is its own funny story, I think it was surreal to see the products on shelf in Target. was our very first retailer. That was a really big.

milestones. I think there's just been all of these milestones. Every year there's new stuff and we keep hitting new highs. Every year we're grateful and surprised, but I think those early days just seeing products move is definitely like, cow, this is happening. We're doing it.

Ramon Vela (31:10.222)
Thank

And so now the sort of like the other extreme, what has been in your mind the hardest thing that you guys have had to overcome?

Dan Schaefer (31:24.961)
I mean, every year, we're growing really, really fast. I think the only constant in startup life is change. so, dealing with change personally and professionally, and then also as the team has grown, creating a team that has a growth mindset and can deal with change. I'll use a really prescient example. When we were...

e-commerce only in 2020. You have all this space on your website and on Amazon listings or Chewy. You have all this space to tell your brand story and explain the product and who you are. Packaging design matters, but not as much as when it's sitting in retail. We had this really beautiful Korean packaging. It looks great online.

We were lucky enough to get into Target. We had a great buyer named Erica and Olivia who really, really believed in the brand early on at Target. And we launched, it was surreal. were in 300 stores and me and Pat and our wives and our kids, we drove out to a Target to see our products on shelf. When we got to the store, we had this cream packaging.

A, we were kind of on the bottom shelf. The packaging looked tiny and the cream packaging was an exact Pantone match to the Target shelf. So we were like, oh my God, it's like camouflaged. It looks kind of terrible. And we panicked. We totally panicked. And we were lucky enough that our buyer was very understanding and worked with us. And then the interim, we brought in who, you know,

Ramon Vela (32:54.456)
Mm-hmm.

Dan Schaefer (33:18.889)
effectively our third partner in the business, is Caboo Ventures, which is our our lead investor and has been an incremental piece to our success. And they were like, you know, we'd love to invest guys, but you got to let us take over packaging and brand. And we were like, please do. You know, so we just kind of like we had to let go. And they're the absolute packaging brand experts. And so, you know, we

If we took that kind of failure in Target, it really scary and it was a big change and we had to adapt and change. We brought in Kavu, they took over, they redesigned the whole brand into this amazing brand story that really captured who we are, what we're about, and to tell it in a really cool, beautiful way. And so that pivot, that moment of hardship, challenge, being able to adapt, change, grow.

and turn it into an opportunity is ultimately what's, I think, the hardest part of entrepreneurship. But if you can do it well, it's also your best opportunity.

Ramon Vela (34:25.846)
Yeah, I love that. So yeah, this is so very interesting. Everyone out there, you can go to nativepet.com, nativepet.com. And so right now, what does that distribution mix look like? Like where are you guys? Are you guys now also in, so you started DTC, you're in retail. How about the marketplaces and or any other interesting channels?

Dan Schaefer (34:51.445)
Yeah, absolutely. the distribution journey has been a fun one. And at this point, we're distributed pretty widely. So nativepet.com, Amazon, Chewy, you can find us all there. For those of you who like to shop online, we're also in Target, PetSmart, Petco, where we have a bunch of cool off-shelf features in Petco. And check it out.

We're in a few grocery stores. We're in Meyer. We're in Whole Foods. We're in Sprouts. And then we're also in Tractor Supply. For those of you who like to live more of the rural or outdoor life, we're in 2,500 Tractor Supplies. And Ramon, if it's okay, let me tell a story about... Oh, and then we just launched a brand new one, which I'd be remiss, and we're stoked to launch in Pet Supplies Plus.

which is really an all-in-one pet retailer that's national and it's a great example of where everyday Americans like to shop for their pet. And we're really excited to launch Full Chain and Pet Supplies Plus this summer. But let me talk about Whole Foods a little bit. I think if you think of health food stores and where people buy supplements, you think of Whole Foods, right? I mean, that is, if you're a vital proteins, if you're a grooms, if you're

Ramon Vela (36:02.446)
Sure.

Dan Schaefer (36:16.267)
You you think, you any supplement business, you think of selling in Whole Foods. They have a huge dedicated supplement set for human supplements. And we were effectively the first supplement, pet supplement brand to launch into Whole Foods. And when you think about it, it's crazy. Like how did that happen? Whole Foods is like, you know, in Sprouts as well, like synonymous for health, wellness. You think of supplements when you think of those stores, but.

yet there were very few pet supplements in those stores. And I think it's a testament to what our brand has been able to do from a product ingredient label. They don't just put any brand in those stores, right? They have their own guidelines, their own quality checks, their own belief system on how supplements, and I think Native Pet is a great example. I don't want to put words in their mouth, but from my perspective, we fit that ethos better than any other brand ever has in the pet category.

And we're really, really proud. So we were really, really proud to roll out both Whole Foods and Sprouts. It's going really, really well. And so I think we have a bunch of different retailers now. They all serve different audiences, different types of people. But we are really focused on finding everyday Americans, helping them find our products where they like to shop, and helping them customize the health and wellness of their pets.

Ramon Vela (37:37.71)
And your audience feels like, your core audience, and correct me if I'm wrong, but your core audience feels like they understand this whole concept and they embrace it and they embrace it for themselves personally on a human level, but they also, see how it translates over to their pets. But there's a lot of different...

type of people out there, right? And you mentioned about, you know, being nationwide and reaching different folks. Is there still certain areas where it's still like an education play?

Dan Schaefer (38:15.627)
absolutely. Adoption of supplements is still relatively low. It's growing and it's growing really quickly. Supplements is the fastest growing category in all of pet. our core consumer knows, it's almost like easier because when the core consumer looks at the daily and they see what ingredients are in here and they're educated, it's an easy buy.

What's not easy is the person who's never bought supplements for the dog, or maybe they've never even bought supplements for themselves. That's where the education comes in. But we're really focused on making products that the most stringent core user of supplements would approve, but putting them in a package, in a marketing message, and positioning them in a way that an everyday American can appreciate the value of the products.

When we think of marketing and what's our go-to market, we have different halos and different types of personas we really talk to. And I think that core power user, our products are absolutely designed for, but from a marketing message, how do we bring more people into the tent? We believe in our products so passionately. I'm so confident that if you try our products, you're gonna love them, your dog's gonna feel better. How do we get more people into the tent? How do we get more people into the category?

How do we educate people on why supplements, which supplements, when supplements? And that is a core part of what we're doing from a brand messaging standpoint and a media perspective. But it's also just the daily, like a scoop a day. Like how do we make it easy and put it in a package that's easy for the consumer to understand? It's effective in terms of health and wellness. And then the one thing we haven't talked about is the dog's gotta love to eat it. I think a lot of brands forget that.

Ultimately, if your dog doesn't eat it, nothing else matters. And so how do we make it really, really tasty so that when we scoop the product or you squirt the product or you feed your dog the product, they love the taste because that's a really important component. absolutely, goal of marketing is everyday Americans. want everybody using supplements. We want everybody improving their customizing their dog's diet, improving their health and wellness. How can we make it easy? How can we educate? How do we make it accessible?

Ramon Vela (40:22.03)
Yeah.

Ramon Vela (40:38.03)
Mm-hmm. So, um, I, before we end, I want to make sure that we go over, um, some of the, popular products and we were, we talked about the daily. Um, but before we do that, um, I did want to find, I did want to get some info and hopefully you can share, you, uh, in our pre-interview, you mentioned that you have something coming up pretty soon. That, um, that's, to me is really interesting. Uh, I don't know if you can talk about it, but it just felt like it, really, um,

it fits into this strategy that you were talking about how human trends and health and wellness, usually the pet space is like three or four years behind them. So this new thing that you've come out with, I just found really interesting. Are you able to share this a little bit with us?

Dan Schaefer (41:28.577)
I'd love to. think the core of what we do at Native Pet is product innovation. The goal is how do you customize your dog's diet? And then how do we do it in vessels that are cleaner label? They feel more like the things you're already feeding your dog. They're effective and dogs love the taste. then following the trends of what we're learning about human wellness and applying it to dogs. if you take all of those things that we've talked about.

The next product that's coming is an innovation. So seven or eight years ago, the rage was athletic greens, why we made the daily. If you look back over the last few years, what's been the macro trend and it's been gut health. Everything is gut health. You got gut health supplements, like you got super gut and the rise of fiber supplements being the new Metamucil and all of these gut health supplements, probiotics.

Ramon Vela (42:13.176)
Mm-hmm.

Dan Schaefer (42:26.197)
You even got soda getting in on the gut health and you got our friends, Allison over at Poppy or the Ollie Pop gang. Everything is gut health. And so, and what we love, we were really inspired by the soda brands because they took a mainstream category, something people love to drink. And they said, how can we make this a little bit healthier for your gut? How can we make, you know, add fiber, add prebiotics? How can we make this something that tastes good and you enjoy it?

but is also effective and healthier and better for you. And so when you looked at the gut health category, we looked at the spectrum, everything from super gut to poppy. And we want to say, how do we bring that to the pet category? And it was really, really fascinating. So we've worked on this new product innovation for two years. The line launches in August and the product innovation is called GutWell. And so it is a gut health focused product line for dogs.

Ramon Vela (43:03.544)
Hehe.

Dan Schaefer (43:24.489)
And it's an amazing kind of, it's been an amazing journey. The premise of the product line is when we got into the research, what we saw is there's no one thing people take gut health supplements for. You know, and with dogs, it's the same. So, you know, some people want to improve their complexion. So they take probiotics. Other people want to lose weight and you have a natural GLP one. So they take probiotics.

Some of them are getting skin ratchets. So there's a lot of different ways. Our gut, all of our nutrients in our body gets processed through the gut and then put back into the gut stream. So the gut is really the epicenter of our wellness center. I everything goes through the gut. And so we realized people aren't just taking probiotics to poop better. And it was the same in dogs. There's a lot of reasons people take probiotics or they focus on fiber or gut health. It's not just to have that perfect poop.

although that will be one of our products. So what we said is what are the reasons why people are taking gut health and let's form you, or why people are using probiotic supplements for dogs or what can we control with gut health? And so the GutWell line has five different products and each of them has a very specific health benefit. So one example is GutWell CleanBreath, which will use

Ramon Vela (44:22.894)
people.

Dan Schaefer (44:48.681)
the oral microbiome and the gut microbiome to make your dog's breath smell better and their teeth a little bit cleaner. Another example is gut well trim down, which is a blend of probiotics, prebiotics, and postbiotics with a few other functional ingredients that's gonna help your dog lose weight. And so it's part of the journey. It effectively will help with blood sugar levels, blood glucose, and that natural GLP-1 response.

We also have an itchy skin formula, a formula that's gonna help your dog calm down called stress support. And then lastly, a product called Power Poop, which will be that just for if your dog, if the backyard time is going a little rough and you need a boost, but it's all by driving health outcomes by improving the microbiome. And there's tons of scientific research on the canine microbiome. They're a little easier to study than humans.

Ramon Vela (45:22.99)
Mm-hmm.

Ramon Vela (45:26.958)
.

Dan Schaefer (45:44.981)
that by using these specific set of ingredients in each product, we can drive specific health outcomes. We're really the first brand to take this approach to say, this isn't just a generic global gut health supplement. This is a gut health supplement that's going to do something specific. We're gonna tell you what it's going to do and we're gonna help you use this to improve your dog's gut health and drive the specific health outcome you need.

I'm probably most excited for Trim Down. I am obviously passionate about dog health. If you look at the number one most pervasive health issue in dogs today, people think of cancers, they think of a bunch of different other stuff. In my opinion, it's really obesity in dogs. Over 50 % of dogs in the United States are considered obese. Obesity is one of the biggest

Ramon Vela (46:39.096)
Wow.

Dan Schaefer (46:41.707)
comorbidities in our pets. can help create joint health issues. helps create, it leads to cancers or heart issues, liver issues, organ issues. And so I think if you really wanna focus on how to help your dog live better, live healthier, live longer, it really comes down to managing weight. And GutWell TrimDown is gonna be first of its kind product that's going to help dogs control their weight naturally.

and I'm really, really stoked. I think it's gonna be a massive product. I think it's gonna help improve dramatically the health span of dogs who try it. So that product line is gonna launch in August. It's called GutWell. It has five unique products, Clean Breath, Trim Down, Stress Support, Itchy Skin, and Power Poop. It's gonna launch first on our digital channels, and so try it out.

you know, come find me, let me know how you like it. But this is our biggest product launch of all time. So we're really excited to get it in market.

Ramon Vela (47:46.732)
Yeah. And it sounds exciting. And it fits right in with your whole ethos around and sort of a value proposition mission, whatever you want to call it, in what we've just discussed. And it also coincides with what you said about how the human trends come first and then the pet industry kind of falls on after that. Because, you know, that's like, that's the biggest thing right now. I mean, I'm still covering brands that talking about the...

gut microbiome or discovering new things. And I just covered a brand called Resbiotic that it's created by a researcher slash doctor who found links between your gut microbiome and your lungs. And yeah, he has all sorts of clinical data on that. But anyway, it's still, I mean, this is just an area that we're discovering more and more about how the gut microbiome, you know,

Dan Schaefer (48:29.964)
wow.

Ramon Vela (48:41.802)
affects us in all sorts of different ways. And it makes sense that also in pets that affects them in different ways too.

Dan Schaefer (48:49.109)
You've probably heard the gut brain access, which is when nutrients come from your gut, there's a connection to your brain because the bloodstream carries nutrients throughout your body to the brain and there are certain nutrients from your, there are cells, et cetera, that can actually cross the blood brain barrier. And so you gotta be thinking about like, what am I eating? How healthy is my microbiome? It can actually like start to,

Ramon Vela (48:52.035)
Mm-hmm.

Dan Schaefer (49:19.169)
start to change the chemistry of your brain. If you think of what crosses that blood brain barrier, the nutrients in your blood comes from your gut. So I think there are so many ways gut health can drive health outcomes in humans. And that has been the absolute wave in human health. It only makes sense that it would also be true for dogs. And this GutWell is designed

to utilize the gut microbiome and the other microbiomes in our body to drive specific health outcomes. And that's where human supplements are going. And I think we're on the very start of this journey with canines. And I think Native Pet, it wants to be the first one to do it. I think our board certified vet nutritionist, Dr. Dan Su, who just joined our team, led point here. We brought in a ton of outside industry experts to help us formulate.

It's gonna come, and here's the best part. So we talked a lot about taste and like daily scoop and know, Poppy brought color and flavor and energy to the category. We wanted to do the same thing here. So it's gonna be another, it's in a like what we're calling a cold pressed pellet format. So it's gonna be a pellet that's scooped over the top of a kibble or wherever you feed your dog. It's an extremely clean label. It's all ingredients. Dogs are gonna love the taste.

humans love poppy. then it's in, you know, it's kind of like the same, you know, like premium coffee bags have that like double fold roll top. We're putting it in like a premium coffee bag. So it'll be a first of its kind packaging format. It's gonna be colorful. It's gonna be bold. Dogs are gonna love the taste. And the best part is it's gonna drive serious health outcomes. that's when we're taking, it's not just like, hey, gut health is a mega trend. It's like, what else is the trend? And people wanna.

Ramon Vela (50:49.422)
You

Ramon Vela (50:55.278)
Yeah.

Dan Schaefer (51:17.341)
Love the brand, love the colors, love the story, and dogs need to love the taste. So we're putting the whole package together. I think this is gonna be a mainstream fixture over time. And I think when you see the packaging, when you see the format, when you watch your dog eat it, it's gonna open your eyes to a new type of dog supplement. I think GutWell is the next generation of dog supplements.

We spent two years working on it. I couldn't be more excited as you can probably tell. It's gonna hit the shelves here pretty soon.

Ramon Vela (51:49.612)
Yeah, your enthusiasm is contagious. I mean, I don't even have a dog right now and I'm like, I'm excited to see the packaging. So this is fantastic. Before we go, and I want to be respectful of your time, a couple more things I want to cover. So like I said, this is your passion and enthusiasm is really contagious. And I could tell how excited you are for all of this. And this whole area.

is I think pretty exciting because again, know, it is, you know, this is a truism for as long as I know is that people treat their pets like their children, you know, like they're, you know, call them pet parents and things like that. And, uh, and they want the best for them. And so for me, it's like your type of product is one of those things that is just a natural for a lot of folks who want to be healthy themselves.

and they look at their dog or their pet and they think, I want the same thing for them too. And so, you know, it's, feels very natural. Like I know there's still an education component to it, but you know, if, if that, if that pet parent is wanting to be more healthy and that's, that's on a human level, you know, we're, getting these messages all the time, then it's a natural extension to say, I want my pet to have that kind of health too. And so I love how

how you guys are addressing that and doing that. So kudos to you. So this is fantastic.

Dan Schaefer (53:20.619)
Thanks, and I think it's a great parallel, babies, pets, things people care about and they want to spend money on. so, rightfully so, people love to pay attention to these categories in CPG. The truth is, yes, they are great categories because of that high willingness to pay, very passionate consumers, but the burden on the brand and our responsibility and accountability as a brand.

is you have to deliver on the product promise and the brand promise because as loyal and as passionate as that consumer base is and they can be amazing customers, if your products don't deliver, they will drop you in a second because there's nothing more important than who they're buying these products for. And we take that extremely seriously. And that's why efficacy...

Ramon Vela (53:50.008)
Mm-hmm.

Dan Schaefer (54:11.137)
clean label, sourcing, transparency, all of these things we do differently than all of our peers because we take that accountability to our consumer really, really seriously. There is nothing they care about more about their kids than their pets. Their dogs are part of their family. We need to make products that stand up to their commitment to their pet. And our commitment to our consumers is that our products are going to work, they're going to be highly effective.

they're gonna be a cleaner ingredient label than anybody else, and then your dogs are gonna love the taste. It's really, really simple. But if we can't live up to that promise, we really don't have a brand. And so, it's a great consumer, and great consumers need to be met with great products.

Ramon Vela (54:51.084)
Yeah, no, I love that. And that's actually goes along with our tagline, which is whether it's taste or efficacy, the product really has to be first. And that's why our tagline is products worth buying, brands we're supporting. and I think you guys make that criteria. One last thing. People, I'm sure by now have loved.

Dan Schaefer (55:06.101)
Love that.

Ramon Vela (55:15.702)
what you've said and everything from gratitude to talking about the products. Where do you want them to start? mean, we just went through the Gutwell products, but is there anything else you want them to consider if they're new to the brand and they are just starting their journey with NativePad? Is there anything that you want them to try? Is there like a bundle? Is there a sample?

Is there one that you think like, try this one because this one's really going to be efficacious and you're going to see something? it the daily? What would you recommend for people to take a look at?

Dan Schaefer (55:54.239)
Yeah, listen up. My message to everybody is your dog is unique and their health needs are complex and you need to do what's right for individually to your dog. So I can't recommend any one product, but we have designed and coded a really, really helpful quiz on nativepet.com. So if you go to nativepet.com and you take the quiz, we offer a nice discount.

and we will actually recommend based on your dog's needs, your dog's age, weight, size, we will actually recommend the best products in the product portfolio for you to try, to consume, and it's just a very easy, simple tool, and it'll give you a recommendation with an explanation for what products will be right for your dog.

Ramon Vela (56:43.278)
I love that. then lastly, again, remind us where we can find the brand.

Dan Schaefer (56:52.627)
Our goal is to reach everyday Americans. And so we really focus on meeting you where you shop. So you can find us online on Amazon, Chewy, or directing consumer site, nativepet.com or TikTok shop. You can also find us nationwide in any number of retailers, including Petco, PetSmart, Target, Tractor Supply, Pet Supplies Plus, Meyer.

Whole Foods and Sprouts, I'm hoping I'm not missing any important ones. They're all important. And then we're in, we are all over in different boutique and independent pet stores. we wanna find you where you're shopping. And if not, we are available online as well. And our goal is accessibility and reaching everyday Americans where they're shopping.

Ramon Vela (57:45.964)
Yeah, well, I'm on the website right now, which is nativepet.com, nativepet.com, and they have a really great sort of store locator there as well that you can click on. I clicked on it and automatically saw my location and I see a couple of areas right now where I can buy native pet. There's one in sprouts. There's a target right near me and I think there's a few others there.

So this is fantastic. So everyone out there, you wanna go take a look if you're not watching this on video at the moment, you can go to nativepet.com is the website. And what is the social media handle?

Dan Schaefer (58:32.553)
You can find us on Instagram, TikTok at nativepet.

Ramon Vela (58:38.114)
Great. Well, like I said, this has been fascinating. I love this area and I love how, you know, it is such a great way to really take care of your pet and to think of your pet in the ways that you would think of yourself in terms of your health. And everyone wants the same health for their pets and their loved ones that they want for themselves. Any last words that you want to leave with the audience?

Dan Schaefer (59:08.255)
No, think I would encourage you to, if you're not using, if you're using supplements today, try Native Pet. We believe in everything we've done. We've done it differently and we've done it better. If you've never tried a supplement, head to nativepet.com. Just a challenge to start to think about how can you customize your dog's diet to help them live happier, healthier, longer, improve their health span. I think that is one challenge we've taken seriously.

All of our products have been designed to help improve your dog's health span. So take the quiz, think about trying supplements, and Native Pet would love to be there for you along your journey of improving your dog's health and wellness.

Ramon Vela (59:49.784)
Well, that's fantastic, This has been a really insightful interview and I really love learning about the brand. There's just so much. mean, there's a lot of stuff I wanted to ask you, but I kind of like, have to pick and choose because even though we have an hour, it goes by very quick. And I know you have a lot of stuff going on too. So I want to be respectful for that, but you maybe next time you guys are welcome to be on the show. Next time we'll cover more of the entrepreneurial side, but.

Dan Schaefer (01:00:06.293)
It did.

Ramon Vela (01:00:18.412)
You gave us a lot of really great insights on there as well, indirectly just talking about your milestones and everything else. But I am fascinated by this. Like I said, I've covered food, I've covered pets in different arenas. think you probably are the first supplement pet brand that I've ever covered before. But this is, like I said, it's fascinating. Everyone out there, like I said, we're gonna have the links to the...

to the website, to their social media, on our podcast description, which you could find at Apple, Spotify, pretty much anywhere you listen to podcasts. Simply type in the story of our brand show and you should be able to find it. Beyond that, we have just had Dan Schaefer, who is founder and CEO of Native Pet. And thank you, Dan, for being on the show.

Dan Schaefer (01:01:04.897)
Thanks Ramon, it was awesome. Appreciate being able to tell our story. It's crazy to be on here. I'm honored to even be considered to be a guest. So, beyond thrilled to be able to tell our story and you these milestones, it's surreal to be on your podcast being able to tell the native pet story. So this is just another one of those like, hey man, this is cool. So thank you for including us.

Ramon Vela (01:01:14.697)
Thank

Ramon Vela (01:01:26.862)
No, thank you. Everyone out there, I always say, be safe, be sane, stay healthy. And one way of being healthy, obviously, for yourself is to take supplements, eat right, eat whole foods, et cetera. And you want the same thing for your pets. And one great way of doing that is by looking at nativepet.com, seeing if there's something there for you, taking a look at it.

And if you don't use it, like for instance, I don't, you know, I don't have a dog right now or a pet, but I do know other people and I'm definitely going to share this with them. So please do the same and beyond that, everyone, one last thing we've all been through a lot of stuff lately, know, the pandemic and then geopolitical wars and then politics and then the economy and all sorts of other things going on. It's a little crazy, a little anxiety driven. So let's just do ourselves a favor and let's just be

to each other. Just remembering that everyone is going through something. So if we can do that, I know we can make this human experience a better one. Beyond that, thank you from the bottom of my heart for listening to another episode of the story of a brand.