🚨$2.6B lawsuit filed agains Hill’s Pet Nutrition for falsely accusing grain-free foods to cause DCM

Here is a brief explanation of what’s happening 👇

THIS WEEK'S TOPICS:

• 🤔 How Bitcoin can help dogs

• 💥 Exploding topics in the canine world

• 🐼 Dogs, pandas, & lions, oh my!

🤔 HOW BITCOIN CAN HELP DOGS

With Bitcoin having a nice rally the past couple of weeks, we thought it’d be a good time to talk about how its’ underlying technology could be a massive solve for canines.

The dog industry could use a good digital chew toy right about now.

Enter blockchain technology (👈 overview of how it works), a decentralized immutable ledger allowing for complete transparency in just about every major facet of our dog’s lives.

Imagine a world where Fido's ownership is securely recorded on a digital leash, accessible only to authorized parties. No more microchipping mishaps or adoption scams (historically make up 25% of reported scams to the BBB) – blockchain's tamper-proof magic ensures every tail could be accounted for from birth.

So many people are skeptical of getting a dog that maybe came from a puppy mill or an unethical breeder. Having a dog’s credentials on the blockchain could ensure that you’re getting a family member from a professional breeder.

Shelters could also use the blockchain to better track and document intake, meds, and overall treatment of animals. Most shelters still store a bulk of this information through lengthy paperwork, if at all.

With everything on a ledger you would have instant access to all of their data and never have to worry about losing a piece of paper.

Also, nowadays everybody wants to know where every ingredient in their pet food comes from. With use of blockchain tech you could track the journey of every kibble, protein, etc. from farm to bowl.

So, what business opportunities does this unleash?

• Secure pet identification: Develop microchipping solutions integrated with blockchain for enhanced security and pet theft prevention.

• Transparent pet food supply chain: Partner with pet food companies to create blockchain-based tracking systems, boosting consumer confidence.

• Ethical pet breeding and sourcing: Create a blockchain platform that verifies the ethical treatment of animals throughout the breeding and sourcing process.

⚕️ Medical

• Decentralized insurance platforms: Imagine a future where pet insurance runs on a blockchain, offering lower premiums due to reduced administrative costs and improved fraud detection.

• Secure medical records: Blockchain-based medical records could empower pet owners with instant access to their furry friend's health history, regardless of location or veterinarian.

• Telehealth integration: Integrating blockchain with telehealth platforms could streamline communication between pet owners, veterinarians, and specialists, leading to faster diagnoses and improved outcomes.

😄 Wellness & Training

• Tokenized loyalty programs: Imagine earning tokens for completing training courses or engaging in healthy activities with your pet, redeemable for discounts on food, accessories, or even vet bills.

• Decentralized fitness trackers: Blockchain-powered wearables could track your pet's activity levels and offer personalized challenges and rewards, gamifying their path to fitness.

• AI-powered behavior monitoring: Blockchain could securely store and analyze data from smart collars and feeders, offering insights into your pet's behavior and potential health issues.

💥 EXPLODING TOPICS IN THE DOG WORLD

The internet makes it easy to find out what things are all the rage.

Your social media feed will pick up trending posts, you'll start seeing certain ads, you might search for more information on Google, and the trends grow.

We love picking through this type of data, and the site Exploding Topics makes it really easy to visualize what it is people are searching for in different areas.

So this week we'll take you through some of the hot topics in the dog / pet space over the last two years, along with a quick recap of what and why.

One quick note, Exploding Topics uses Google Search data for the volume of searches and the growth over time.

We've covered Embark in the past in this newsletter, and we'll take full credit for their 1,400% increase in search volume in the last two years (kidding)!

As a reminder, Embark is a genomics and biotech company that sells a variety of take home or vet administered tests around canine health. This includes tests for:

• Age

• Breed

• Genetic health

• Gut health

• Oral health

DNA testing has become much more common in people over the last few years with 23andMe and Ancestry that it's not a surprise that it's caught on for dogs too.

The second trending topic, coming in at 301K searches and 567% growth is the "human dog bed" which we actually covered two weeks ago!

We promise we are not making this up, and pets for us for being on top of this stuff!

For those of you that don't remember we covered the Plufl human dog bed, though it looks like there are plenty of other options out there.

Basically it's a giant dog bed for people.

Next, with lower search volume but impressive growth is the "Flying Saucer Ball".

This is exactly what it sounds like, a ball that can turn into a flying saucer, and seems to be a great toy for both kids and pets.

What we're not sure of is why it's so popular!? There doesn't seem to be any trending social posts, tv appearances, etc. And frankly, it doesn't seem like some groundbreaking toy.

Go figure.

Rounding out the list is Jinx Dog Food with steady volume and growth.

While Jinx seems to be standard in their offer of quality dog food, two things stood out to us. Celebrities and money.

Jinx has raised a hefty $45 million in it's three years of operation and adds a nice list of celebrities as investors:

• Chris Evans

• Trevor Noah

• Halsey

• Odell Beckham Jr

• Nas

 🐼 DOGS, PANDAS & LIONS, OH MY!

Fair warning, this post is neither informative nor thought provoking. It's just cute.

We recently went down a rabbit hole looking at trending topics, which led us to Shark Tank and pet products seen on there.

That brought us to Pandaloon, which is a company specializing in panda and other animal costumes for dogs. Check it out:

@pandaloon

This started by accident but it took everything I had to make it into something bigger 🦈 Huxley was just a little puppy when i created the... See more

Their origin story is pretty great. Eugenia Chen was a part time mathematics professor who like many pet parents, decided to make a costume for her dog.

But unlike other pet parents, she turned that costume into a viral video which racked up 160M views on TikTok and got her a barrage of interest from people wanting their own costumes.

She decided to leverage that interest into a Shark Tank audition which got her on the show, and into a deal w/ Daymond John ($60K in exchange for 35% equity).

Before she came to Shark Tank she had been at it for 3yrs making $100K/yr with her costumes.

They've since expanded into other animal costumes, all of which are equally adorable.

How are they doing now?

No clue, but who cares, let's look at another cute video!

@huxleythepandapuppy

Ngl this is a bop 🐝 did I go to KFC just for a bucket? Yes…but it was worth it. #pandapuppy #dog #puppy

DOGGYDEX™

Winner 🏆: BITCOIN

Proudly introducing the DoggyDex™, an index comprised of 10 publicly traded companies whose primary focus is the dog/pet industry.

List of tickers used can be found at the very bottom of the newsletter.

The yellow line-plot in the chart represents these companies above (DoggyDex™) and their combined performance against both the S&P 500 and Bitcoin on a weekly basis.

Pawformance is measured by % gains & losses.

• 🦮 Guide dog are regular dogs too: Watch this Lab, Mister Maple, get all playful once he’s off of the clock and released of his guide duties.

• 🤢 Does your dog have garbage breath?: Check out this DIY bad breath remedy which consists of only 3 ingredients - parsley, coconut oil and bee glue.

• 🎨 New Yorker dog covers: Peep this great collection of dog artwork that has graced the front cover of The New Yorker over the years.

DOGGY B-DAY

• $CHWY - Chewy: E-commerce platform for pet supplies

• $IDXX - Idexx Labs: Vet point of care instruments and vet software

• $FRPT - Fresh Pet: Pet food company

• $PETQ - PetIQ: Pet health products and medicines

• $PETS - PetMeds: Online pet pharmacy

• $ZTS - Zoetis: World's largest producer of meds and vaccines for pets and livestock

• $TRUP - Trupanion: Pet insurance company

• $WOOF - Petco Health & Wellness co.: Pet health & wellness company

• $BARK - BarkBox: Subscription service providing dog products, services, and experiences

• $PET - Wag! Group Co.: Tech platform that allows pet owners to connect with industry professionals for services such as, walking, training, etc.