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THIS WEEK'S TOPICS:

• 🧸 $17K/mo to $6M+/yr Selling Toys for Power Chewers

• ⚖️ The Long Paw of the Law

• 🤢 Bad Business Idea?

🧸 $17K/MO TO $6M/YR SELLING TOYS FOR POWER CHEWERS

A man by the name of Colin, with a background in finance and economics, watched as his new Bulldog puppy chewed and destroy every toy in sight.

Recently discovering at the time that he wanted to build a business, he decided why not build a somewhat indestructible toy not only for bulldogs, but all power chewing breeds.

Despite having no experience in this field, the seed for Bullymake was planted.

Bullymake got its start back in 2014 as a monthly subscription box of durable toys for power chewers.

Colin recounts his story of how he got his first customer in September of 2014 to then ramping up to doing $17k/mo within the following 12 months.

His key to early success was marketing listicles to very targeted audiences:

As you can tell by the screenshots, this was way back when you could actually reach people organically on Facebook before having to pay to play.

He would then spend all of his time retargeting these users via Facebook who would click through to his site and view his products.

The other key to growth was capturing the emails of those who clicked through to the site as well. Based on his ad spend he would get 30-150 new emails a day.

His business grew rather quickly from these two concerted efforts.

6 Years Later

Steady growth and a proven business model helped Bullymake catch the eye of Manna Pro, a $600M/yr behemoth in the pet space.

According to multiple sources, Bullymake’s revenue is $6M - $10M range. It’s difficult to verify those numbers as they’re a private company still. However, it’s safe to say they have surpassed their initial year of $100K+ handsomely.

More Numbers

Being the business detectives we are, we did come across a case study that was last published March 31st, 2023 by Loop, a growth marketing agency.

It appears Bullymake hired Loop to decrease their customer acquisition costs on Facebook, and to scale their presence on TikTok.

Did it work?

It appears so!

Bringing in $10k/day on TikTok is no easy feat, no matter the category.

Also, the doggy subscription box space has gotten pretty fierce over the last 5-7 years with Bark Box (who’s included in our DoggyDex™) leading the pack by bringing in a cool $507m for the fiscal year 2022.

It will be interesting to see if Bullymake can continue to carve out and dominate their power chewer niche for years to come.

⚖️ THE LONG PAW OF THE LAW

We have probably put a whopping zero hours into thinking about legislation that affects pet owners 😬.

I mean, can you blame us? It's not the type of topic that grabs your attention like an article on turning your dog into a panda.

BUT, is it important and impactful? Absolutely. So we got off our butts and took a look at some of the government activity related to pets in the last few years.

One Health

At the end of 2022 Congress passed a law which requires the development of a national program called One Health.

The concept behind this program is that the health of humans, animals, and the environment do not exist independently and are deeply connected.

The goal of this program is to focus on preventing, detecting, and controlling diseases that can affect any of the three groups.

That sounds all well and good, but what actually is happening?

Essentially, money is now being allocated to different programs:

• 💊 Vet medicine loan repayments - This program offers student loan repayments to incentivize vets to join the Department of Agriculture in areas of need.

• 🩺 Veterinary Services Grant Program - More money for grants that help expand vet practices into typically underserved rural areas.

• 🧪 Food Animal Residue Avoidance Database Program - This program helps monitor drug residues in human foods that come from animals (ex. meat).

• 🥩 USDA Food Safety and Inspection - More cash to help hire more public health vets at the USDA.

• 🐎 USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service - This is specifically to help combat abuse in racing horses (not dogs, but we support horses too, or as we call them "supersized dogs").

• 💰 Retirement plans - More funding for retirement plans to help self employed vets.

Honestly, most of these things don't impact us at the owner level, but still interesting to learn about the increased focus on health at the intersection of people and animals.

State Laws

Most laws concerning pets happen on the state level, so here is a roundup from a few different states:

• California - in 2023, the state expanded the practice of microchipping adopted or reclaimed dogs to support the return of lost pets. Additionally, kennel owners now need to create a natural disaster evacuation plan as a condition to get a kennel license or permit

• Texas - in 2022, it was outlawed to chain your pooch outside w/ a weighted chain, and any tie-out must be a minimum of 10 feet

• New York - In 2024 a new law will go into effect that bans sales of puppies at pet shops. The aim is to reduce the "puppy mill" pipeline

• Florida - In 2023 Florida will remove housing ordinances or policies that designate dogs as dangerous based on breed, weight, or size 👏.

• Ohio - In 2022, the state specifically prohibited dead pets from being processed for pet food ingredients (WTF, why isn't that the case everywhere!!?? 🤬)

Does recent legislation have a big impact on us as owners?

Not necessarily, but it is heartening to see more thought being put into protections for both animals and owners.

We expect to see more and more protections put in place as more people come over to the understanding that a pet is a family member, not just an animal.

🤢 BAD BUSINESS IDEA?

Picture this.

You are perusing the candy isle looking to capitalize on that sweet-tooth craving. As you scan the shelf, an orange package catches your eye.

It's the classic Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Yum!

BUT HOLD ON, there is also an add-on peanut butter dog treat for your pal? Now you can sit on your front porch swing and share a complimentary treat with your best bud!

Genius, right? Would you buy that!?

Ok, ok, perhaps we are over hyping this.

Which is why this segment is called "Bad Business Idea".

We lay out a questionable idea and you vote at the end if it's bad or not so bad.

The Pitch

We love snacking and we love giving our pups treats, just maybe not ours.

So why not create a product that allows us to do both?

Introducing Buddy Bites (or Hands and Paws, idk).

This brand would create snack packages that contained a yummy human snack, and a tasty dog-friendly version.

Peanut butter cups and peanut butter biscuits. Don’t like sweets, want something savory? Teriyaki jerky and air-dried beef.

The idea is you could find a type of snack or flavor profile that you both like, and it could be your thing to do together!

What We Like

It's an opportunity to create a habit or ritual for owners and their dog (think Starbucks coffee + puppucino).

A shared treat that you both can enjoy. This leads to some great marketing opportunities to differentiate yourself, and we can already imagine the advertisements showing a dog and it's owner chowing down on their favorites.

Also, this isn't reinventing the wheel, this is just putting two established types of products into one package (with a little separation of course).

So no worry about a new idea, it's just an old idea in a new way.

Why This Might Be Bad

Do you want your snacks near dog treats?

I mean I know we've all tried dog treats (and some even like it!), but there's good reason why these two don’t share shelf space. We could see some people being a bit weirded out by the proximity to one another.

Would anyone even care about this?

We think it's cool to buy a little something special for us and our pooch, but maybe no one else does? Perhaps the sentiment is there but the execution would need some tinkering.

The Verdict 👇

KIBBLE BITS:

Every week we love to shoutout a pooch that has made another trip around the sun.

Happy 2nd birthday 🎂 to this Golden boy! Keep the pup cups coming for this handsome fella!

That's all there is to bark about this week.

If you want more, be sure to follow our Twitter (@dogonomist).