PawCo - Your Dog is Like Family. Feed them Like it.

Ramon Vela (00:02.335)
Hey everyone, this is Ramon Vela and this is another episode of the story of a brand.

Like always, we have an amazing brand and founder that we're going to feature on today's show. But before we do pause one, two, three.

Ramon Vela (00:55.549)
Welcome back everyone. This is going to be a great show. I have with me Mahsa Vazin who is founder and CEO of PawCo. Welcome to the show.

Mahsa Vazin (01:07.266)
Thank you for having me here. It's so great to be here.

Ramon Vela (01:10.761)
Well, I appreciate your time and we have a lot to unpack. We're going to be talking about your brand, Paul Co Foods. And then of course you have another thing launching called Genius Dog. And we're going to go over all of that in a second. But before we do, I always like to ask my guests a question of gratitude. And just for everyone out there, I ask it for two reasons. Mainly there's multiple reasons, but these are the two main reasons. One is I'm a big believer in gratitude. think it's.

something that helps people, it's free, it's at your disposal, and if you're feeling anxiety and stress, this is the perfect way to relieve that. Whether you meditate, you pray, you journal, whatever it is, it's just highly effective, and again, like I said, it's something that's available to you at any time. The other reason why I ask this question is that I want you, the listener, to know that the people that we feature and the brands that we feature, they're not just some faithless corporation.

There are real people behind these brands who care deeply about their products, about their communities, about their consumers. And I want you to get to know who they are. And one great way of doing that is by understanding who we're interviewing and getting to know who they are. And so with all of that said, Masa, would you mind sharing 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, your vision or your potential.

Mahsa Vazin (02:35.362)
Yeah, for me, I think it's a long answer. You know, I didn't start my company because I saw some big market opportunity at first. I started because I fell in love with my dog, Paco, and I'm really grateful to have him in my life. My background is actually pretty different. I did my PhD in nanoscience and then joining Possible Foods as one of the early scientists. That was a really meaningful experience for me. I was surrounded by people building something impactful.

And it kind of planted this idea in my head that maybe one day I would want to build something of my own too. But I had no idea what that would be until Paco, my dog, came to my life. And I still remember bringing him home and he honestly changed everything for me. He became part of my everyday life, my routine, he became my family. And I started feeling the level of care and responsibility I hadn't felt before.

So I started asking really simple questions like, what am I actually feeding him? Is this food healthy? And you know, the more I looked into it, the more I realized there weren't many options I felt good about. You know, that curiosity kind of took over. spent months researching, reading, talking to experts, working with board certified animal nutritionists, just trying to figure out what good really looks like. And then at some point something just clicked and we realized that

fresh plant-based food, when it's formulated right, could actually be a really good option for dogs. It could be healthier, more sustainable, and something we can actually scale to help more people. And that's when everything started to come together for me, my science background, my time at Impossible Foods, and my life with Poco. It kind of all pointed in the same direction, and that's how Poco Foods started. And even the name came from my dog's name.

It's my way of honoring him. And honestly, I feel like he gave me this whole pass. When we launched our first recipe, I didn't know what to expect, but people showed up. They trusted us with their dogs, with their family. And over time we grew from one recipe to many, and now we serve thousands of dog parents. But along the way, we noticed something even bigger. People don't really see their dog as their pets anymore. They see them as their

Mahsa Vazin (05:01.662)
their kids. And I felt the same way with Paqua. But that made me think if they are really family, are we giving them enough? Because it's not just about feeding them, it's about connection, spending time together, building a real bond. And that's what led us to create something new, what we call the Genius Dog. It's not just food, it's more of an experience. It includes like meals, treats, games.

things you actually do with your dog to connect more. Because at the end of the day, that relationship, that bond is what matters the most. And then I look back, it's kind of crazy. You know, the whole thing started with one simple moment, bringing Paoko home. And I really, I feel very grateful to him, grateful to the people who believed in us and grateful that I get to build something that fills this person up and we are just getting started.

Ramon Vela (06:00.328)
I love that and it's so thoughtful and so I know you put a lot of time and effort thinking about that. So and thank you for sharing that, by the way. Yeah, and I love this aspect about the brand and it's not in every brand, but you know, I think many brands have this. Where it begins because of the founders personal.

experience, right? They have a problem, they see a problem and or they have someone in their life, in this case, Paul, Paco, and you know, you want to help them in some way and you see that, hey, I'm experiencing this issue, I'm experiencing this problem, and maybe others might be experiencing this as well. And not only that, but just how you feel about your dog and about your pet is more than just like this pet relationship. It's more like, hey, this part of the family.

And so you've hit on a number of things that I really love about the pet industry, especially how it's developing right now, is how people are seeing these pets in a way that they're just more than just a pet per se. Like, I don't know how else to say it, but just a pet, but more like part of the family member. They use a pet parents and these other terms. So I love this aspect of what you're doing. To me,

This is more of a comment than a question, and I'm gonna have a question for you in a second. But what I love about this category as well is it's more than a product. It's more than a product because you are dealing with a family member, you're dealing with something that is so emotional to so many people, then it's it's more than a product. You're dealing with this emotional,

I don't know how to describe it, but just this most emotional connection that people have with their pets. And I think that from what I understand about GeniusDog, it feels like you're kind of touching upon that part of it a little bit more with GeniusDog and we'll get to that in a second. So let me begin. My first question is you have this great background in nanotechnology and you're working for some well-known companies. And it feels like, from my perspective, a lot of founders start off

Ramon Vela (08:23.137)
and many of which don't have that, scientific background of whatever they're building. They have to hire it out. They bring people on board. know, typically a lot of founders are sales and marketing oriented, business oriented, not necessarily in the sciences. And with you, it's kind of inverted. Like you, it feels like you have this really amazing science background, even if you bring people in to help you with recipes and things like that, ingredients.

you have a sound foundation of what it takes to build the recipes and the ingredients. So I'm wondering, did you find it challenging when you were starting, did you find it challenging to do the other things, the marketing, the sales, the promotion, all of those type of things? Was that challenging for you?

Mahsa Vazin (09:13.71)
That's actually a very good question and I get that a lot. But I feel like it's not challenging because honestly, like, you know, I'm a customer myself. I have a dog and that, you know, background in science really like helped me to really go to details with my team, talk about like the R &D, the science, lot of like, you know, test, nutrition testing, polytability testing that we do and understand those concepts.

more. But one thing I really learned early years when I started my company is that, you know, all these good ideas and all these good works come from a team, not from a one person. You know, it's not a one man job to do everything, run a company. So that kind of like makes me to think about like, you know,

Find those good talents that I can have and I can, you know, just give them the direction, give, show them the mission and vision that we have. And then with their help, you know, feel more powerful and, you know, build not just one brand, Paco Foods, but also go to the next level and create something that is very unique, that is called Genius Stuff.

Ramon Vela (10:37.173)
Mm hmm. And out of curiosity, when building your team, I know you're looking for the right skill sets and the people who are great at what they do. But do also look for other pet parents? you? Is that a plus? You know, if they also have pets as well?

Mahsa Vazin (10:50.286)
Yeah

Definitely. think when you feel like your team also understand what type of problem we are solving, they can do their job better. And also those people that kind of have the same feeling, they want to have a great impact. I really care about the culture of the company I'm building. I want to really...

build a company that we can have a huge impact on a lot of things like sustainability on animal welfare, animal health and nutrition. So those that they have a pet themselves really also like, you know, feel how much we can really like work together to have this, this much of impact.

Ramon Vela (11:38.166)
And for everyone out there, in case you want to check out what we're talking about and what we will be talking about, you can go to mypaco.com and paaco is spelled P-A-W-C-O.com. So mypaco.com is the website for the main brand, but as I mentioned, they're going to be introducing a new brand very soon.

And that is Genius Dog. So two words, GeniusDog.com or the website. We're to have all that in our podcast description, which you'll be able to find once you download this episode and listen to it. So, okay. So that's fantastic. I love your answer. And it's actually very wise because a lot of founders struggle with that. know, a lot of founders struggle with the whole, have to do everything myself. I have to do everything. You know, I have to be the, you know, the

the marketing person, the ad person, the logistics person. And sometimes you have to do that because you're low on funds or whatever it is. But the mindset I think is always that, hey, the goal is to have a team and to have the best people on that team. And so I don't have to be doing everything myself because I'm not the expert. There are other people who can take my vision and my direction and move it forward. So I appreciate that.

How about in terms of building awareness for the brand? What have been so far at least the important levers that you've pulled to bring awareness to the brand? Are you guys working with influencers? Are you working like on TikTok? Are you doing ads? Where are the places that you think are working the best?

Mahsa Vazin (13:31.822)
I would say it's a combination of all of those, but also amazing partners that we have for both Paco and GeniusDog. We are working with a lot of nonprofit organizations like PETA, Plant-Based Food Association, and also Pet Sustainability Coalition, those nonprofit organization that could bring awareness about the impact that we can have.

by just switching to these healthy, nutritious, sustainable product that we are creating at Paco. But the Genius Dog brand also has its own audience. And those people who are looking for a way to connect with their dog or those influencers that they can show how to use these products that we are creating are the best people to work with to really bring awareness to our customers and audience.

Ramon Vela (14:28.693)
And you know, I think it might be a good idea just so we don't confuse people. Why don't you give us like a 100 foot overview of Polco so the audience knows what kind of products and things that they're going to find on the Polco website. And then if you don't mind doing the same thing with GeniusDoc, just so that people understand they're interrelated, but they're two different brands. And there probably is some crossover in terms of the audience, but there's also

it sounds like there might also be two different audiences there as well.

Mahsa Vazin (15:02.93)
Yeah, definitely. initially when I started that, you know, Paco Foods, we started with one recipe. We invented the very first AI optimized plant-based meat for dogs. you know, something that has all the nutrition, has all the taste that dogs would want to enjoy their food. And out of that, we create a lot of, you know, recipes because

Dogs like human, they also have different tastes and different preferences. But we also realized that we can not come up with just one type of product, fresh plant based to satisfy all our customers. So we went to the next step and we created like, you know, different unique product. of our product is a LuxBite, which is, you know, our ultra premium product made with fermented protein, probiotic and postbiotic.

those novel ingredient that we're also bringing to the pet food, pet industry. And also the other product that we created was our Instabyte, the very first fresh shelf stable product for those with that busy lifestyle. were trying something and they wanted to try something healthy, but also a little bit more convenience and more affordable. But then we realized

Ramon Vela (16:28.713)
Yeah, that's it. Go ahead. No, no, I'm sorry to interrupt you.

Mahsa Vazin (16:29.324)
not just food. I'm sorry. Yeah. And we realized it's not just food. We also want to, you know, go to healthy treats, healthy, you know, snacks. And we also created, you know, our magic cookie and magic bar category that are not just treats. They also offer a lot of health benefits.

And at some point we realized that it's not just food or treats and dogs, you know, to really like build a relationship with them, you really need to have your experiences and, know, you need to like really spend time with those. So it's now more about the lifestyle, the whole experience and bond and connectivity you want to have with your dog. And that's where we started to...

Take everything to the next level and start a genius dog where we are offering our boxes that each box has its own theme and it brings a lot of experience and fun game and treats to our customers and subscribers.

Ramon Vela (17:37.631)
Wow. And it feels like Genius Dog is really like a...

It's, like this whole category, as I mentioned before, it is so, it's such a good type of category and community to build a community from because I notice that when people feel very strongly about a particular area, and it could be babies, it could be, I don't know, I mean, it could be a nutritional issue that they might be having, like,

like not being able to have digestion problems. I covered a brand called Belly Welly and they focus on people who have digestion issues. And there's a community out for that. And it's really emotional for them because they have this issue and they can't eat certain foods and they've got to have certain things and they can't have desserts and so forth. And that's why how Belly Welly came around where they created this, you know, this

sort of like pastries and brownies and things like that. But the point is that whenever people feel very connected, there is a community that naturally starts to grow within those areas. And I kind of feel like Genius Dog is a perfect, whether you're building it through Facebook or through the website, but it's a perfect opportunity for you to build a community of your audience there.

Mahsa Vazin (19:12.778)
Exactly. You're absolutely right. You know, genius dog, probably have heard this humanization, know, pet humanization, that it's a new trend. A lot of people, they really want to like, you know, treat their dog the same way that they treat themselves, their kids. So if you're technically offering them that tool that they can like really have to...

have that connection, have that experience. mean, either it's a product, it's a food, it's like a champagne, popcorn, or if it's a game that really build that connection and help them to really feel like they are part of their dog's life or their dog is part of their life. really build that bridge and fill that gap.

Ramon Vela (20:06.613)
And you know, like with the with the Poco, I love the fact that you have you have a variety of different options there for people. You have the fresh meals and then you also have these I think you referred to them as treats and toppers. And and within this category, what I find very interesting is, you know, it goes along with what with what we were just talking about a second ago around.

know, people treating their pets, you know, like family members and, know, kind of looking at them as more than just this animal, but it's like, you know, they're like almost like a person in a way. And, but the realization that these pets also have nutritional needs, also have health issues that need to be taken care of. Cause I know, I remember when I was growing up, we didn't really think of dogs that way or pets. kind of just like gave them.

just the standard dry dog food or sometimes a canned food and it didn't really look appealing to me or didn't look appealing. But we didn't really think about treating the dogs and our pets the way that we treat ourselves. And I think that's one of the big changes is that we're now looking at, I have gut health issues. I need supplements for my hips and my joints. I might have to take collagen or whatever it is.

Mahsa Vazin (21:09.358)
I'm out.

Ramon Vela (21:31.551)
We're thinking about our skin, our skincare, we're talking about our heart health and so forth. And what I love about what you're doing and what the trend is, is really thinking about, if we're experiencing these things, are our pets experiencing these things? What do you say, what's your feedback on that?

Mahsa Vazin (21:53.474)
Yeah, actually, you mentioned a very good point. Actually, that's a topic I really love to talk about. when I usually actually talk about this, I even go a little to the background and talk about the very first generation of food. You also mentioned dry food that we had that were made with very low quality ingredients, something that

you know, it's even made at a very high temperature in which the nutrition value of the product will change significantly. And these days, a lot of pet owners are aware of that, you know, health concern associated with those type of food. And, you know, there were the second generation of product that even came to the market, which were, you know, fresh animal based product, but they also had like, you know, some concern themselves, like, you know,

they're not very sustainable, very scalable. And then I talk about like, know, our food, our product, I talk about the new generation of pet food, which can have all of these benefits. You know, the nutrition is one part, the sustainability is another good benefit of that. And also, you know, it's affordable, like, you know, what we are creating, it has all of those, you know, good points.

Um, and we can, you know, basically we don't have to always have a negative effect on the environment or also animal welfare. So I'm, I'm referring to like, you know, new generation it's that fresh food that we can create and we can really optimize with all of those, you know, functional ingredient, postbiotic, probiotic, all of those ingredients that we can also offer God health, you know, um, skin and code a lot of like.

benefit that dogs they can have and we can specifically optimize them for our lovely dogs and lovely kids.

Ramon Vela (23:54.39)
Yeah, I love that. just so the audience knows, so like I'm on the mypaco.com website and under the toppers you have a magic cookie for gut health, have for hip joints, you have for skin and coat, you have for heart health. And then of course you have other things there. So, but I love the idea that you're looking at head health and nutrition.

And not that dissimilar ways as we look at ourselves because they are facing the same issues that we have in terms of their health. And they need to eat better, we need to eat better. And so if we're eating better, why not have our pets eat better as well?

Mahsa Vazin (24:40.322)
Yeah, exactly. And Raymond, actually one product that I haven't mentioned, and it's a very interesting product that we recently launched in our Paco business line is also Super Salad. It's the very first salad for dogs because no matter what customers are feeding their dog, like he or man, that we are always like, we are adding like salad as a side dish to our food to just

get more taste, more health benefit. It's the same for dogs. If you are even feeding your dog still kibble, that salad can be, you know, something that you can add more health benefit and can make your dog to be more like fresh food and also add a lot of health benefit.

Ramon Vela (25:28.389)
Yeah, I love that. Okay, so now walk us through a little bit more on Genius Dog because it is a little bit different. I know you kind of gave a brief description, but I think we need to dive into a little bit more about what people are exactly are going to find when they go to GeniusDog.com. Is it a subscription box that people get? What's in it? what type of things will they find in it?

Mahsa Vazin (25:57.944)
So I think for genius dog, the way I want to describe it is like a monthly box that you receive and it has everything you want to entertain yourself and your dog in terms of the treats, toys, all in one box. And each month it's a different items in the box, but it's also something that you cannot find it anywhere else.

It's something that's been designed to really like give you a specific unique experience that you and your dog can have, but just subscribing to that membership. And we have like very innovative products. We have a lot of surprises for you. You will get those very unique humanized products. I would say like we have popcorn for dogs. have champagne for dogs.

Other that I don't want to spoil it and mention a lot of those, but you will get things that you never find anywhere else, but they are like humanized product that, you know, you will be surprised to see them. Your dog is also like going to have it. It's like tea, coffee, everything you have. They can experience the same thing in their life. And you know, honestly, like a lot of people ask me, why did you name it genius dog?

And there are lot of reasons, there are a lot of things I don't want to get to that. But one thing I realized is that, you know, when I started going to like school, college, I could experience different things in my life. And that made me to be socially smarter. It's the same for dogs. Those dogs that are always home, they don't get to experience new things. don't experience to, you know, talk to,

People, kids or other dogs or, you know, try popcorn or, you know, read newspaper and those, but those ones that, you know, experience those are socially becoming smarter and they become genius dogs.

Ramon Vela (28:02.229)
I love that. Yeah, this is fantastic. So in terms of, so Genius Dog will be launched this May, is that correct? Or is it already launched? It's launching officially in May, correct?

Mahsa Vazin (28:13.986)
Yes.

Mahsa Vazin (28:17.666)
Yes, actually we have a big announcement officially on May 7. We are going to be on NASDAQ Tower and we are announcing the launch of Genius Dog on NASDAQ.

Ramon Vela (28:28.559)
wow, that's exciting. then, okay, then the, the Paulco is already available, obviously, and where do people find that? Is it in stores only and, and or are there any retail outlets?

Mahsa Vazin (28:45.656)
main channel is still our website. It's a subscription based, but we also want to give more flexibility to customers so they can also buy it as a single purchase. But we also are available on Amazon and soon we are going to be available on Chewy. We haven't announced it yet, but it's a big thing for us to start also offering our product on Chewy.

Ramon Vela (29:13.587)
Yeah, that's fantastic. So this is all great. And we're going to make sure that people know more about more about the websites before we end the interview. But I am curious, too, because you worked at some really well-known companies. I think it was was it impossible or was it impossible? What did you learn? How did that experience from a business perspective and or an ingredient or science perspective? How did that?

Mahsa Vazin (29:32.717)
Yes.

Ramon Vela (29:42.771)
that experience benefit the building of Paul Coe and or Jeannie's dog.

Mahsa Vazin (29:50.19)
Um, that's a good question. know, um, basically right after I finished my PhD, joined Impossible Foods. And at the very beginning, uh, I was working on, you know, a very high level project, uh, more aligned with what I was doing for my PhD. It was mainly focused on R &D. Um, but right after that, I got involved into a lot of other products that it was like a cross-functional work between different teams.

So I could really understand a lot of like new concept, how everything that we are creating in R &D can have impact on, you know, the business side of the work or, you know, even on the manufacturing side of the work. So all of those really gave me a lot of knowledge and experiences that later on I've used them on, Power Quote. But also in my last year at Impossible Foods, I started working on a project. I became the

take a lead for that project. And very soon that became the high priority project for the whole company. And, you know, that was stressful for me at the, at the beginning, but gave me a lot of experiences and really gave me a lot of good, you know, insight about like how everything can be related and how you can even like, you know, at the beginning when you're working on the R &D, if you have the right, you know, vision and you

kind of understand those details better can really like, you know, make a better decision when it goes to like manufacturing or also on the, on the business side. Look, everything is kind of like really connected and while we are working on R &D, you can also have a lot of impact on the, on the business side as well.

Ramon Vela (31:37.046)
Yeah, I mean, I would imagine that that, you being the project lead on that gave you really a great experience into multiple areas, right? I remember I worked at a job in the mid 90s that was like a back then they were just computer distributors. I guess they're still are, but you know, we just don't buy the.

Mahsa Vazin (32:03.874)
Yeah.

Ramon Vela (32:04.549)
Stuff the way we used to, you know, cause when I was back in the nineties that people don't realize that when you would load it up software or like on servers and things like that, they came in disc. And so you'd have to sit there and like put the disc in there and so forth. It's kind of funny. Like I'm dating myself, but it wasn't that long ago. and, but anyhow, but, but while I was there, I was able to experience a little bit of logistics, a little bit of finance, a little bit of, you know, product inventory, a little bit of this.

Mahsa Vazin (32:14.51)
Thank

Ramon Vela (32:32.573)
And it feels like that might've been the same for you because as a project lead, even though you might have a specific authority over the ingredients or the science component of it, you have to be worried about, know, forecasting and product management and finance and packaging and marketing and everything else. Cause it all kind of has to come together when the product is ultimately released. So,

I think that's a great experience from an entrepreneurial standpoint. Which leads me to my next question, which is, know, I love, as I'm listening to you, what I really love is your conviction in terms of your vision. Like you had this vision about how you wanted the kind of foods and the kind of nutrition that Pawco should have and what other dogs should have.

And I know you're evolving and the new products will come out and so forth, but I love the vision that you have, that you currently have. And I'm wondering, what would you say to another entrepreneur? Like let's say another masa came to you, like she just graduated college or maybe she's...

Mahsa Vazin (33:49.922)
Thank

Ramon Vela (33:52.979)
like in her graduate degrees or maybe she's like in her, you know, about to graduate and she's really interested in going into entrepreneurship. What would you, you know, what words of wisdom would you give to that, to that young version of yourself?

Mahsa Vazin (34:10.894)
I would tell her first, believe in yourself. If you believe in yourself, you can do anything. You can really like, you know, feel that power. And also I would say if I go back even myself, what I would tell myself is to, you know, start or launch before you're a hundred percent ready. You know, lot of us, we would

Think about everything in the perfect way. are like perfectionists. want to make sure that when we launch a product, everything looks perfect. But honestly, the sooner you launch your product, you start getting more feedback from customers. start like, you know, testing everything even faster and easier. And you can like basically optimize based on those feedbacks. So just don't wait for that perfect moment. Believe in yourself.

and start launching product and start building the team that you feel like you can rely on them to even expand faster.

Ramon Vela (35:17.397)
Yeah, I love that. Yeah, I I think, you know, there's I remember having a conversation with the founder and asking, asking them, you know, what would you say to your younger self? And I remember her, she answered.

that she wouldn't say anything to a younger self. She would just ask her younger self to remind her like, why is she doing all of this? Because it's so difficult, you know, at times that sometimes you need to remind yourself why you're doing this. And if you have a strong why, it kind of keeps you going a little bit. So she was being funny, but I think, when you're young and or when you're starting out, shouldn't say when you're young, but when you're a young entrepreneur, I guess, and you're just starting out, you do have a little bit of a naiveté that

Mahsa Vazin (35:40.398)
Okay, okay, okay.

Ramon Vela (36:05.17)
You know, you think everything's going to work out great, but then as you start going, you realize, there's all sorts of challenges. Like it's like one day it's this and one day it's the next thing. when, you know, and you have to have a why that it's going to keep you going. And like with you, I can see that obviously that why has to do with PawCo and with just the, you know, with your vision of how nutrition, you know, nutrition for pets and these, these pets that we love so much as part of our family.

Mahsa Vazin (36:32.49)
Exactly. And the impact. would say, you know, sometimes you feel like, you know, there are a lot of like challenges, things are not going well. You know, you have to like do a lot of things in one day. Sometimes you feel like exhausted and those, but when you think about like the impact that you can have, when you receive an email from a customer, I remember

It was one day that I had back to back email. I had to also go to the production side, but made me to even feel like, you know, more excited and, you know, even more energized to go to production side was an email I received from a customer was that, you know, they even called our product a godsend product because

Ramon Vela (37:21.46)
Mm-hmm.

Mahsa Vazin (37:22.36)
Their dog had allergies to animal-based product and switching to Poco has changed everything for them. They shared photos, videos, and they were saying that, you know, now they are super happy. Their dog is so healthy. That made my day, you know, that made me to be even happier. And, you know, those impact that we can have or we work with.

Ramon Vela (37:41.716)
Thank

Mahsa Vazin (37:46.006)
lot of shelters and we donate to them and receiving email from them really help us to, you know, go back the track, you know, think about like how we can do even better each day.

Ramon Vela (37:59.741)
Yeah, I love that. OK, so let's say someone listening to this and they really like your story and they like the vision that you have for these brands and especially for the food and for the subscription box with Genius Dog. Let's do them each individually, but if someone wants to start off with Poco, like they're interested after hearing this, where do you suggest?

they start with the journey of your brand. Obviously at mypawcode.com, but while they're there, where do you suggest they start? If they're just brand new customers to the brand, where do you want them to start or where should they start?

Mahsa Vazin (38:44.526)
So I think I would say for both Paco and Genius Dog, I would recommend our website. They can easily subscribe and we have an amazing customer relation team and customer service. One of the things that actually differentiates us from other brands is how we care about customers, how we want to...

really offer 100 % customer satisfaction. So I feel like if you directly purchase or subscribe to our product, either Poco or GeniusDog, we can really offer a lot more on that customer relation, customer support part. So if they can either subscribe or even email us, we would be happy to help them.

Ramon Vela (39:36.733)
Mm-hmm. Okay. Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of, there's, mean, on the PawCo, it feels like there's a couple of different places where they can start. I love this idea that you have about building your pups bowl, and that's on the website. So you go through, you go through, what do call it?

Mahsa Vazin (40:00.29)
multiple expressions.

Ramon Vela (40:01.269)
Yeah, it's like a tailored plan for your pup. And so you put the dog's name. I love how you're capturing this, by the way, from a marketing standpoint, because now you can address their dogs and their pets by name. So you give them the dog name, the breed, the age, the weight, the gender, the daily activity, the allergies, like if they have dairy or soy allergies or gluten or beef or chicken or whatever. And then you keep going through this process.

And my assumption is that you, because I'm not, can't go through the entire process, but my assumption is you will then be shown what type of products or which products to start off with and which areas from a health perspective to start off. And so I love that aspect of it. It's a great way, by the way, like I said, to get to know who your customers are and get to know who your, what their pets are. And this

You know, not just from a marketing standpoint, but this also allows you and your team to better understand your customers and who's actually buying them. And then you can also create future products based on this data, right?

Mahsa Vazin (41:07.306)
Exactly. We are absolutely right. We want to understand also, our customers more, what type of customer do we have and what type of product they prefer even more. And our R &D team can help even working on those new products. If we feel like there is a great demand for something, we would definitely want to make sure that we can also offer those in the near future.

Ramon Vela (41:35.591)
Yeah, that's great. So this is fantastic. I want to be respectful of your time. So let's make sure that people know where to go to purchase. I know we just mentioned the websites, but if you wouldn't mind giving the websites again, but also like their perspective social media handle so that people want to go, you know, maybe online and on socials to check it out. And then if you have any last words you want to leave with the audience, now is a great time.

Mahsa Vazin (42:02.69)
Thank you so much, first. Thank you for having me here again and for sharing all of these information. But one thing about like Paco and Genius Dog is, you know, I'm really proud of what we have made so far. And one thing I would say, it's hard to really bring it on the paper is like how much care, love and, you know, iteration.

and nutrition testing we are really doing to make sure that we're offering the best type of product for our customers. It's, you know, those behind the scene details that it's hard to really show it on marketing or like, you know, on the packaging or other things. you know, as a scientist myself, I really like, you know, I want to make sure we do everything that we can to

really offer our customers, our lovely dogs, the best experience and we constantly optimize and even improve our product just to make sure that we give them all the nutrition and the health to have a happy and healthy life. And please check both the website, mypaco.com and also geniusdog.com if you want to learn more about our product and our customer.

relation team are also always available to help you with any question you might have.

Ramon Vela (43:36.915)
Great. Well, this has been fantastic. Thank you so much, Masa, for sharing your time. And I know we had some hiccups trying to get this interview conducted. So I appreciate your patience and thank you so much for making time. And I really love what you're building here. think you really do have what our tagline, you basically meet our tagline, which is a product worth buying, brand worth supporting, because you've got this great vision for

you know, for pets and for pet parents. And you've built these amazing, two amazing companies that have these, they look like great products. and you know, you're doing a lot of things. You're doing a lot of things for these pet parents and for these pets and these dogs. And you, and I get the sense that you're doing them. Of course it's a business and so forth, but at the heart of it, it's really about, you know, what, what can, you know, you know,

If I had, you know, if I'm feeding this to my parents, you know, would I feed this to my POCO? And that's always at the heart of your decisions is your experience and would you do the same? And can you share this now with other people? So I really appreciate that. So thank you so much for being on the show. I really do appreciate it.

Mahsa Vazin (44:54.402)
Thank you so much. for having me here.

Ramon Vela (44:56.476)
Yeah. And everyone out there, we're going to have the website, which is mypodcode.com. And then of course, the other brand geniusdog.com. We're going to have both of those links on our podcast description, which you could find on Spotify, Apple, pretty much anywhere you listen to podcasts. But we're also going to include their social media handles so you can go check them out online. And I would definitely visit this. you are

at all interested in pet nutrition. If you have a pet, if you have no someone who has a dog and you want to go check this out, go to the website, go check it out and even go give it a try. I would love to hear your feedback. If you go give it a try, send me a feedback because I'd love to hear your experience. It's not the both the products sound amazing and Masa has put a lot of time and effort into this. So it sounds like it would just be amazing. Unfortunately, I don't have a pet or dog anymore.

but hopefully I will in the near future. But go check it out. And as I always say, stay safe, stay sane, stay healthy. And in this case, staying healthy actually is not just for yourself, but also for your pet. If your pet is experiencing gut health issues and other health issues, go check out pawaco.com, mypawaco.com and see if there's something there for you as well as geniusdog.com. And then lastly, one last thing.

We've all been going through a lot of stuff. There's a lot of craziness in the world. The news can get you really anxious, a lot of stress and so forth. So let's just do ourselves a favor. Let's just be a little kinder to each other because I know we can make this human experience a better one. So just remember that person in line at the grocery store, the person that may cut you off on the freeway, whoever it is, let's just take a deep breath and just remember that everyone is going through something and let's just be a little kinder.

And then beyond that, everyone, thank you from the bottom of my heart for listening to another episode of the story of a brand.