Dogswell

CASE STUDY 5

Marco Giannini, Dogswell

Managing inventory and continuous innovation: Growing and selling a pet food company

Entrepreneur: Marco Giannini

“The best focus group you can have is to get the product out there, sell the product, and then get [the customer’s] opinion.”

It is tempting to romanticize a great success story like Dogswell. The company was started on a shoestring budget by a passionate and charismatic founder, grew to eight-figure revenues in a few short years, and is now a national brand with a presence in stores like Target and Whole Foods. But even the most gifted entrepreneurs can stumble, and their self-acknowledged mistakes can be the key to understanding their eventual successes. Marco Giannini’s star didn’t rise on his first attempt at starting a business. Immediately after business school, he started a beverage company that, as he says, “didn’t really go anywhere.” The failure of that venture left Marco nearly broke, but he remained determined to find a new business. During a trip to China in late 2003, Marco met someone who produced pure chicken breast dog treats. Marco began thinking about his childhood pet, a German Shepherd who took medicine every day for hip dysplasia. Marco wondered whether there might be a market for supplement-enhanced pet treats. After scanning the US market and finding few competitors in this niche, the idea for Dogswell took shape. Marco believed that his concept was solid: all-natural pet treats with nutritional supplements to address specific health concerns. But he didn’t want to make the same mistakes twice. Marco says, “I did everything differently from my first failed venture. I really just had a focus on getting the product in people’s hands and selling it rather than talking about it all the time, which is a really common mistake when you’re starting a company.” With less than USD 20,000 to invest in the business — not even enough to cover the cost of shipping the product to the US — Marco...