DTC growth Show. Welcome to the GGC growth Show presented by banknotes minted by hashtag pay, where we talk about all things e commerce and DDC. My name is Ian. Today I get to speak with Nicole Martian who is founder and CEO of dog child, dog child cells mixes that make it easy for dog parents to cook healthy, nutrient packed meals for their pets. Not only that, but they've also built a huge community of dog parents who share their recipes and stories about their picky eaters. Welcome, Nicole. Thank you. Yeah, so good to talk to you. So tell us a little bit about dog child and the idea behind it and just why you got started with dog child.
Yes. So dog child is all about cooking for your dog at home. So we empower pet parents to make nutrient rich pet food at home. And we do this two ways. We have our online recipe community. So think of it as like the Bon Appetit for dogs. And then we have a suite of products that all support cooking for your pet at home. So I like many others during COVID was looking down, my dog was eating I had a very picky eater, a senior dog, she was not enjoying her food, and kind of had the epiphany, like she should be eating whole fresh foods just like I do. At the same time, there was all of these fresh food delivery options that were exploding like farmer's dog, and nom nom. And so you know, I thought I'd check them out. I ordered them I found them a little expensive I found like you the packaging that they came with was not very environmentally friendly. My dog kind of like them. And when I looked at the side of the package, I thought like I can easily cook this at home, I do a lot of cooking for myself. So I went on the internet found the first recipe that popped up, which is like the classic ground beef rice, Apple recipe started cooking my dog loved it thought it was like the best dog mom out there. And when I mentioned to my event that I was cooking for my dog at home, she gave me a really stern lecture, just saying that it's really difficult for pet parents to make sure they're getting the proper nutrients for their dogs. They're seeing at their clinic, all these dogs coming in with nutrient deficiencies. And some cases like worst case scenario, dogs with broken bones because of home cooking. So then I went back on the internet and found recipes, which are called complete imbalance and have all the nutrients. And they required really odd ingredients that I couldn't find at my local grocery store like chicken hearts, chicken gizzards, you know, rabbit, all of these things. And so this is really where the idea of dog child was born, was to empower a new generation of pet parents to cook for their pets at home, we want to make it nutrient rich. So we want to make sure that it is complete and balanced. We want to make it simple for the parents. So all the ingredients you can find at your local grocery store. And of course, we want to make it delicious, something that dogs absolutely love. And, you know, as we treat our dogs more like our kids, you know, there's this explosion in picky eater dogs or it's really hard to get them to eat. And so we want to make sure that all of our recipes really allow pet parents. Oh, that dogs really love the food that their parents are making for them.
Yeah, that's, that's super interesting. So you, if you will get a dog child's website, you see, you guys have advisors who are obviously advising on the science and the dietary nutrition aspect of this. What about the I guess one thing is, you're dealing with a customer who can't communicate with you what they like or what they don't like. Yeah. So what was that process? Like we hear your dog in the background? Super excited. Yeah. Talking about like, how you go through, you know, what products are available and flavors and all
that. Yeah, so dogs just like humans, different dogs live different things. Different dogs have different sensitivities to different proteins and different ingredients. So we wanted to have a wide variety of products that would fit for these dogs testing out. So first of all, developing the products was quite the feat to get, you know all the pet nutritionists and vets on board with what we're doing because there is some human error with cooking. And so we really wanted to make our products that you know, you were off a little just like all encompassing and making sure the dogs were getting the proper nutrition. I'm feeding this to my dogs. So I wanted to make sure we like all the bases were covered. Then this second part, what we did is we did a lot of experimenting with our dogs, our family and friends. And then ultimately we had over 50 dogs we did try out our product and pet parents cook using our products and getting feedback to really make sure that the dogs did love it. They were eating it. It was simple enough to cook. So we have so right now we have three products. We have our mixed veggie, and so that actually seems to be the most popular with picky eaters. just surprising because that's filled with like broccoli, kale, sweet potato, parsley, all of these like delicious things that you wouldn't expect picky eaters to love. But you know, when you're mixing it up with the ground meat of protein, dogs just seem to go nuts. All right, then we have the second one is the organics, oats and berries. And that also for certain picky eaters absolutely love that one. And then our final one, which we're actually launching, tomorrow is our grade freemax. So that's filled with coconut cook chickpeas. And that's really targeted at pet parents, you want more of a lower carb lifestyle for their dogs. And you often find that pet parents are feeding their dogs similar to the way they feed themselves. So if you have a pet parent that no very plant forward and wants to add and incorporate more, veggies are probably going to go for the mixed veggie, if you have that pet parent that's more on a keto diet, they're probably going to go for more of the green free diet.
I love this idea of picky, picky dog eaters.
It's a huge problem that you might see it's so interesting.
It's so interesting. So I mean, there's lots of directions we could go with this. I mean, one of you mentioned community and how you have like a whole community aspect of the business. So So talk about that and talk about how that's helped evangelize the product and just bring people together to talk about picky eaters.
Yeah, so I really wanted a destination where you know, if you were thinking about cooking your dog, anything from a birthday cake to ice cream, to a meatloaf, that you could go online and find these recipes, on knowing that they've been tested on dogs, knowing that they've been backed by nutritionists, and vets. And so that's where the whole recipe community comes online. And the way we're growing that community is we're collaborating with other people who are cooking. They're submitting their recipes, we're doing online cooking reels tutorials, we're just about to launch our YouTube channel where we're going to be doing, how to cook for your dog and 15 minutes. So really having a destination and a community where you can ask questions about cooking for your dog. You can ask questions about you know, why am I adding fish oil into this recipe, and just a place where you can go and find everything about nutrition and cooking for your pet at home.
A lot of stories I guess people sharing also their their issues with picky dogs. Yeah,
so the dogs and then also we've had a lot of sharing about dogs with allergies or food sensitivities. So we've had people you know, we've had some feedback and reviews where you know, people have been dealing with skin issues or urine infections with their dogs and they're starting to cook for them and using the dog child products. And in less than a week they're seeing some of these issues clear up and even with we got a rescue. This spring, same thing she came to us for was falling out chronic ear infections, we switched her over to dog child with lamb which is a protein that is less common to be allergic to. And within 10 days, she was off all of her medication from the vet. And her for now is like long, healthy, beautiful, fluffy fur. So we're hearing a lot of those. And then like on the picky dogs, so we've been doing a lot of in person events, or know a lot of dog festivals, we did a pop up. And we're giving out samples at these events. And you know, so many times we're getting like, Oh, my dog is such a picky eater. There's no way she'll eat this. But let's see, we're giving that sample and the dog is eating it. And then those parents are immediately kind of are buying the product and becoming evangelists for the brand. But the other big thing with picky eaters is you need to switch you need to switch things up for them. You can't just feed them the same thing every day. And you think about the way we you don't want to be eating the same thing every day, you're eventually going to get bored. And that's why it's great with our products because you can switch up the protein you can switch up the flavor, you can add in different we allow for the pet parents to add up to 10% additional ingredients into the recipes and with those we're really encouraging parents to use to upcycle what's in their fridge so using items such as like you know the kale stem that you might have thrown the you might be throwing away that brand banana and no one wants to eat mixing that up into your pets food, reducing food waste at home and giving your pet that extra boost of vitamins. But that all goes back to saying is that variety really is important when you're feeding your pets picking when you're feeding your pet. He's a picky eater.
So I imagine there's there's obviously huge education aspect as well. I mean, I know people cooking for their dogs isn't necessarily unique, but the idea that maybe they're not doing it the right way. Yeah, is a huge education aspect. So I know even my parents, you know, we'll do boil chicken and rice or whatever, you know, for the dog and or their, their dog and but never even give the thought that maybe it wasn't the right nutrients or Yeah. So imagine the huge education aspect goes into your marketing.
It does it does. And I think a lot of people that do cook sometimes intuitively so you feel like am I getting you're always paranoid like am I getting the right nutrients is this what's called in the industry complete and balanced foods. So I find that a lot of people that do do home cooking, sometimes they're still mixing and kibble just as like that safety net. And they're doing all of these things just to try and make sure they're they're getting the nutrients, but not really ensuring that they are. So yeah, that that is a huge, huge aspect. And a lot of people we are talking to you at these events, same thing are saying, oh my gosh, yeah, I have been home cooking. And I didn't realize that maybe I was missing this vitamin or that vitamin. And then the other thing about our products is a lot of parents are going out and buying all these supplements. So you might have a probiotic, a prebiotic, different oils, you might have all of these things. So when you're buying our products, we really put the time and effort that you're not having to go out and buy those additional supplements is kind of like an all in one product. So in some ways, I call it like the athletic greens for dogs, you're getting like all of those vitamins and nutrients, plus, plus these probiotics, prebiotics, all these extras to really help your dog thrive.
Yeah, I was gonna ask her out in the not the consumer awareness toward the pet, but more to the to the pet parent, on cost on cost. So I imagined just like meal kits you're having to fend off like, well, where's is this other cost efficiency here? How much more am I paying. But as you're saying, you're not paying for the vitamins, and maybe you're probably not paying for some vet bills down the road.
Exactly. It's like an investment in their health. And then the other way I compare it to on the cost is say like, if you were to subscribe to one of those fresh pet food companies, and get the food delivered every week and do that we come in at about once you factor in the ground protein and all that we come in at about 50% of the cost. So you're comparing it to some of these parents are already buying fresh food, who'd rather make it themselves. And when you make it yourself, you know exactly what's going in. And there's also this whole ritual that happens like your dog on Sundays, you're cooking for your dog, they know they come up, they're looking at you. And there's like this whole excitement and this new bonding experience just how when you cook for family and friends, you feel like really great, and it just accelerates your bond. That kind of happens with home cooking, rather than just going into the fridge and like putting food down for your bed.
Awesome. Yeah. So your background is you were in capital markets, and finance and now and now starting dog child. So I just talk a little bit about the why behind that and making that transition and then also getting into I mean, what's becoming a more a more and more crowded space in like the home home pit kind of subscription market. So I just talked about those two aspects of the winemaking, the movement and how you're competing and what's becoming more and more crowded. Yeah, so
I've always been passionate about dogs, I've been dog obsessed. And I can imagine since I was like probably, you know, two years old, all I've ever wanted is to be around dogs. And they have been my entire focus in life. I've always had a dog throughout my entire life. And my world really centers around dogs. So even though I was working in finance, it was still a huge passion of mine. I had started a nonprofit called love puppies, which is raises awareness about puppy mills and stopping the inhumane treatments of dogs and puppy mills. And so I've just been passionate on that side. And then through my capital markets experience I've owned and operated different businesses on that side. And always my job was to help entrepreneurs meet investors and raise capital. So I was always working with entrepreneurs with all these interesting ideas, going out helping them meet investors. And so I just got to a point in my career, I was like, I don't want to be consulting and helping these entrepreneurs. I want to be working on that side and be more of the operator. So I was doing really deep dive into the pet space and also the plant based food space because beyond just dogs, animals, like my personal mission in life is to change the way we view and treat animals and I think a lot of that does Start with pets, and then translates over to all the animals. And that's really when I have this whole epiphany when I was starting to cook for my dog. And I felt like I didn't have the resources. And I was confused about how to cook for my dog, what products to buy. There were some other competitors out there, but I felt like they weren't really targeted for the modern pet parent. And so really felt like there was a gap in this market. So yes, it is a very competitive space on the pet food side. But there's not a lot of people focusing on home cooking, and of course, because you're gonna cannibalize your own products. And we've all been told, like you have to buy dog food, and you need to get it. Whether it's kibble or these fresh food delivery service, we've all kind of been programmed to think like, that's the way you should feed your dog. But you look 100 years ago, they were you know, a lot of the way dogs are fed was from table scraps, or, you know, it was really home cooking. So I don't see a lot of brands really targeting this market right now. Like I said, there's some more old school brands that have been around that are that I don't think make it necessarily easy to cook for their dogs and aren't as much of an approachable brand. So I do think we stand out in the marketplace right now, just on this whole cooking market.
Yeah, super interesting. And such a unique differentiator, as you mentioned a couple of minutes ago of just like, what can you upcycle from the fridge and you guys are offering those tools to dog parents of not simply being beholden to the product you're delivering to them, but also upcycling, so that's, that's super unique. Yeah,
and I also just think sometimes I'm at the the treat store, and you're just like, wow, like there's so many things you can easily make at home. Every treat store has these like dried sweet potatoes, which take less than 15 minutes if you just wanted to start making those at home. So there's, there's just so many ways that you can start to feed your pet rather than going out and buying treats. And like I said full meals that you can just start doing at home and and it's really simple changes to and your dog's diet even if you start to add a little bit of fresh food that can go a really long way in your both your dog's long term health and longevity. And I think at the end of the day, that's really what we all want our dogs to live forever.
I may have to may have to try the sweet potato. Yeah.
Yeah, we did. You can look on our we did one where we did an airfryer one. So it's so so yeah.
Cool. Yeah. Cool. So what um, as you get started here, what what channels are working? What's What have you found just in getting back? A little bit less dog conversation and more EECOM conversation? Yeah, what are you seeing the successful? What channels are working? What's not working? What are you learning?
Yeah, so um, I would say like, the number one channel that is working is to start organic Instagram. So we started it, we started the Instagram page a year before we launched. And just building up these recipe community, this, this recipe community, and passionate dog parents who are all interested in cooking for their dog. So when we launched, we already had this engaged audience watching our reels following us. So that has definitely been the bus for us. We've had so many pet parents who have gone out, bought our product. And then because it is a little novel cooking for your dog, and it's a little aspirational, we're having a lot of content get reposted or people being like, Hey, I'm cooking for my dog, he or she loves it and, and that so that has been great for us. And then the the second thing I would say that has been going really well for us has been doing these like in conjunction these pop up or dog events. So sometimes somebody has seen us on Instagram or they've seen one of our ads on Google, they go to an event they're able to chat with us or we're able to have this discussion and then they're going either and then they're going online and buying the product so and then third I would say is just because we have this like passionate customer base really has been like word of mouth so so that has done really well for us as well. And then yeah, then going back to that then I think the fourth would be email marketing so
awesome. And what's what's coming down the pike for dog child what's next? Yeah,
so we're going to be launching in October our nutrient mix. So this is where all you have to do is take some of our nutrient mix and you can make fresh recipes from scratch. So right now our meal mixes have all the deep freeze dried fruits, vegetables and grains in them along with our nutrient mix. So all you do is add gram protein and you've got complete and balanced meals. So we're going to be launching it. So you can go on our online recipe community, you can find really simple recipes, you use our nutrient mix, and you have complete and balanced meals for dogs, we're going to be launching a YouTube channel, which is going to have 15 minute recipes for dogs. So a bit more long form content on all of it because you've your dog. And then we've got some like exciting other products, we've got it, we're just all about cooking for your dogs, we've got like hardware products that we're developing. And then we've got a line of baking mixes that we'll be coming out with as well. And just like really embracing everything healthy cooking for your dog. Awesome. So exciting. And then one last thing we have is we have a bunch of Chef partnerships coming out. So we'll be partnering with different shots on recipes, because you have your dog as well
as future pet network like Iron Chef, sort of collaboration going on.
Exactly. And like ultimately, I want to get to a series where I can show you like how you can cook for yourself and your dog at once to like kind of join rest of you.
Awesome. Yeah. Makes a lot of sense. Yeah. Well tell us all the places that we should be looking for. Dog child.
Yeah. So right now you can find it online at dog trial.co. And we ship across North America. And then if you're located in Canada, we're in some select nutritionally focused retailers here.
Awesome. Thank you. Awesome. Thank you for joining us. This is this was great. Thank you.
Thanks a lot. Okay.