Disrupting the Pet Products Industry – Adam Baker of SodaPup

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Hey there entrepreneurs, my name is Sushant and welcome to Treptalks. This is the show where I interview successful e-commerce entrepreneurs, business executives, and thought leaders, and ask them questions about their business story and also dive deep into some of the strategies and tactics that they have used to start and grow their businesses.

And today I’m really excited to welcome Adam Baker to the show. Adam is the founder of SodaPup. SodaPup supplies high quality treats and toys for dogs. And today I’m going to ask Adam a few questions about his entrepreneur journey and some of the strategies and tactics that he has used to start and grow his business.

And now before we dive into this interview, uh, if you enjoy this content, please make sure to hit the like and subscribe button. And for more content like this, please visit our website, Treptalks.com. And with that, Adam, welcome again to the show. And thank you so much for joining me today at Treptalks.

Adam Baker of SodaPup: Thank you. It’s great to be here. [00:01:00]

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: So, you know, I visited your website and it’s, uh, your products are very interesting and unique. And I also read on your website that you were doing a nine to five job and then you decided to go into business. So maybe we can start there. Maybe you can share a little bit about your, uh, story.

Um, you know, what were you doing before starting this business and what kind of motivated you to get into like dog treats and, uh, supplies business.

Adam Baker of SodaPup: Sure. So, um, my career was actually in the sporting goods industry. I worked for Nike for a decade. Uh, I went to Under Armour when it was a small private company.

Um, I became the VP of apparel. Um, where was the iPod, which was an amazing experience. Um, then my wife and I moved to Colorado where I ran product management and licensing for Crocs Footwear, the funny foam shoes. And after [00:02:00] four years of that, um, I was just tired of corporate life. Part of politics and tired of other people, you know, other people deciding what I get paid, what job I get to do all of those things and no complaints.

I mean, I had a wonderful career and had amazing experiences and some really great bosses and some really horrible bosses as well, but, uh, I’d had enough and, um. Yeah, so during the time that I was at Crocs, I went there in 2008 and honestly, they were on the verge of bankruptcy. There was an auditing firm that had issued a going concern.

It was a really difficult time and I was brought in. You know, partly to help with a turnaround. Uh, I was the kind of lead product strategist, um, and, and we got that business turned around, but during that period, um, I started studying the pet [00:03:00] industry cause I had heard on a report somewhere, uh, radio program.

That the pet industry had grown by 4 percent during 2008. And I thought, you know, that’s pretty interesting. Uh, a recession proof business. So that’s where it started.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Exactly. Recession proof. And I’m assuming AI proof as well. You know, people are not going to stop loving their pets. And I think people are quite passionate about their pets and, and, you know, the, uh, so I don’t think, you know, there’s, uh, ever going to be a shortage of, you know, as long as they’re people and they have their pets, uh, you know, them wanting, uh, pet supplies.

Adam Baker of SodaPup: Yeah, it’s, um, Yeah, it’s one of the things that attracted me to the pet industry, aside from the fact that I’m, you know, I had three dogs and two cats and was crazy about my pets. Um, but it’s the emotion that people have wrapped [00:04:00] up in their pets. And, um, you know, in the sporting goods industry where I came from, that’s what drives the industry, right?

It’s the next football season, next baseball season, next hockey season, could be your kids, you know, school athletics and, and there’s so much passion wrapped around it. And all the marketing is wrapped around this passion. And so when I saw the pet industry, I thought, well, okay, this is interesting. I don’t really see a lot of interesting marketing.

Um, I don’t see, I know that pet parents are passionate, but I don’t see how that’s being translated. Into product and into product marketing. And so, you know, the idea was, you know, could I run the Nike playbook in an industry that was really unlike the industries that I had come from? Yeah. And that’s what I’ve been doing.

I’ve been taking the principles that I learned, um, from the sporting goods industry with these, you know, great brands that I’ve worked for [00:05:00] and, uh, and applied those principles to this industry. And, uh, it’s. Uh, a really fun journey.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah. I think, you know, um, for entrepreneurs who are kind of starting out, you know, people, especially younger people, um, who have kind of a passion for entrepreneurship, like some people kind of want to jump head first into entrepreneurship.

They’re like, you know, I don’t like the corporate world, but I think there is value in people working in the corporate world because there’s a lot to be learned there. Right. And, uh, I mean, with your product. Yeah,

Adam Baker of SodaPup: yeah, so, um, so I also have an MBA and I got my MBA after having worked for some time.

And I think, you know, it’s the MBA that becomes more valuable once you’ve actually had some work experience. So you have context for the things that you’re learning, and then you can apply those principles when you. You know, continue your career. [00:06:00] And so, um, and in many ways, Nike was an MBA because it’s such a, you know, such a well run organization.

There’s so many talented people there. But, um, but, yeah, I mean, I, uh, all I’m doing is applying the principles that I learned earlier in my career and had I not had the career first. I don’t think I would have been as successful at what I’m doing now, you know, it’s like when I say I’m running the Nike playbook, I mean, the most fundamental thing, which I didn’t really see happening, um, when I started this journey, but 10, 10 years ago was, I didn’t really see a clear connection between a target consumer and the product.

So, you know, the most basic thing that I’ve done is figure out who I am selling to? And then let’s see if we can take existing product types and, and, and make them specifically attractive to [00:07:00] that consumer. Uh, if that makes sense. So,

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: yeah, I mean, definitely want to learn more about that. I mean, how some of the products on your website, uh, I mean, I’m, I don’t have a pet right now.

Um, so can you talk a little bit about your products and where exactly You, you know, when you were doing your research, where exactly did you find the opportunity? And are these products a little bit unique, uh, for, for your, uh, brand, um, and category or, um, like, are these universal products that you can find at like, you know, uh, other pet brands and you have kind of created your own, um, version of, of these.

Adam Baker of SodaPup: The latter, so, you know, I really haven’t invented any of the categories that we compete in. What I have done is for every category that we compete in. I [00:08:00] studied the leader in that category and understood. Both the pros and the cons of the existing products. Um, and then went about, um, making them better, making them more interesting, making them more fun, making them more targeted.

to the consumer. So I’ll give you an example. So there’s a product type called a lick mat, and the lick mat is a thin, uh, synthetic rubber mat with a texture on the surface, and you can smear foods into it, and then your dog licks the mat. To get the food, and it has a lot of benefits. Um, licking releases endorphins.

So it has a calming effect on dogs. Um, dogs have natural foraging instincts, but they don’t get to use their foraging instincts when they eat out of a bowl because they don’t have to work to get their food. Therefore, they eat too fast, and then they have digestive issues because they’re eating too fast.

And so a [00:09:00] lick mat solves all of these problems. Well, when I entered the LICMAT category, there was, um, a category leader, and it looked like their products were designed by an engineer. They, they didn’t, you know, I think they’re, you know, functional, but I didn’t think that they were attractive. I didn’t think that they were interesting.

Um, and I didn’t think that they were very hard. Like, I don’t think that they were offering very much of the foraging challenge. And so I, you know, I studied this category and I said, well, what can I bring to the table? And so, you know, the first thing we did was we. We created really interesting patterns that, um, that are, you know, our specific targeted consumer might be interested in.

We did a completely different type of color palette. That was more home decor oriented versus dog toy colors, you know, neon brights, because this is something that you use in your house, usually in your kitchen, um, and color for, [00:10:00] so our, our target consumer is a woman, 25 to 55 years old, and she has at least one dog, if not more.

And, you know, she’s sensitive to design and color and, and things of that nature. So, you know, I come from sporting goods, but really I come from the footwear and apparel industry. And so, um, I’m applying these types of principles, um, in the pet space. So, um, you know, between design and color, um, we brought something new to the table and then we went a step further and said, well, what if we could create.

You know, not all dogs have the same food drive. So what if we made some matches that were quite easy, and then we made some that were moderately difficult, and then we made some that were really difficult. Um, and that was based on my own experience. I have 3 dogs and 1 of them is finicky and is not a big eater.

So if she gets bored or has to work too hard on a lick match, he’s gonna walk away from it. So I had to make an [00:11:00] easy match for her. And then I had a black lab. It was very food motivated, and I had to make something very difficult. Go for him so that I could get through a 45 minute zoom call without him, you know, constantly interrupting me.

And so we developed this. Uh, it’s almost like going to a ski area where you decide where you’re going to go down an easy green Hill or an intermediate blue slope or a double black diamond. So we’ve created this type of, uh, degree of difficulty. And that was totally new. That didn’t exist in that product type before.

So that’s 1 example, but we’ve done this kind of thing. In all the product types that we make.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: So you’ve really thought through, you know, what your target is, like who, you know, the consumer that is paying and, and, you know, how you can improve the product. So, so your product becomes more attractive, you know, when they’re out in the market trying to buy this and they have two different options, they will more likely select yours rather than the competition.

Um,

Adam baker of SodaPup: Well, yeah, I mean, the reality, [00:12:00] particularly in the, um, In the pet store space. You know what drives the business is food and treats and cat litter. They’re all the consumables and then everything else is an accessory. And so, um, you know, what my observation was that if you went into a big box pet store, you know, Petco, PetSmart, what have you, the toy assortment is very slow moving.

It rarely changes. So, if you’re a female consumer and you go in once a month to buy a bag of dog food, and the toys always look the same, then you’re not really going to pay much attention to it. But if you, if you have a cadence of newness in that section, then you’re giving her a reason to stop. And so, in my mind, what it boils down to is, can you create something that’s visually arresting that will catch their eye?

And if we can do that. [00:13:00] Then we’re helping the retail. Uh, and of course we’re helping ourselves cause we’ll get the sales. It’s sort of like, um, you know, most of my competitors have maybe two or three lick mats. Um, I’ve got over 25 and so if you think about walking into an apparel store, let’s say they’ve got graphic t-shirts in this apparel store and there’s a table up front and maybe there’s 10 different t-shirts with 10 different graphics.

And then you’re going to buy, you know, you might buy one, you might buy three, depending on whether you like what you see. So I’m applying a graphic T-shirt mentality to my lick mats. Um, so I’ve got something for everybody and it also allows retailers to differentiate. So if you’re scalawags in Portland, Maine, uh, and you’ve got a lot of tourist consumers there, then, you know, I’ve got a lick mat with a whale on it and I got a lick mat with a lighthouse on it and so she can assort those types of products for her [00:14:00] store.

Whereas if you’re in Aspen, Colorado, um, you can buy our great outdoor bowl or our camping lick mat. That’s a, you know, it’s a camping scene. And so it allows people to differentiate their assortments as well and speak to their customers, um, that are unique to their location.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Now I see on your website right now you have about, I would say, 14, 15 different product types.

Um, when you started out, Uh, did you start with one product? Did you launch with one product? Or did you already have a collection of products that you had been working on? And, um, yeah, maybe can you share a little bit about the beginning of, you know, where you started and what kind of investment went into that?

Adam Baker of SodaPup: So this wasn’t the original business. The original business was a licensing deal that I did with a company on the [00:15:00] West coast and they had a bumper sticker called Wagmore Barkless. And I licensed that slogan. And the original idea was to build a lifestyle brand for dog lovers. So we made things like dog bowls and collars and leashes, but then we also made coffee mugs and.

Um, hats and T-shirts and I don’t know if you remember the brand life is good, but the idea was to create a life that is good brand specific for dog lovers. And so we did this licensing deal and a quarter of a million dollars into new product development. Well, all in Asia, and then we launched and no sooner did we launched and that company sold their business to a venture capital firm and the new owners came to me and said, we don’t want to license the brand.

Okay, well, that’s how it started and then I was like, okay. I don’t want to walk away from this investment. So how do I. [00:16:00] Pivot and keep going. Without putting more money into it, because at that point, my wife had drawn the line and said, okay, that’s enough of our own money. And so, as luck would have it, I was having lunch with a friend who works in the investment community.

And she told me that she had been at a rubber manufacturer the prior week, and that the person she met with knew a lot about dog toys. And so she made an introduction, and I went up and I met, um, The factory owner, and it turns out that he used to produce rubber toys for the largest rubber toy company in the pet industry called Kong Kong company K.

O. N. G. and, um, he and Kong had just gotten a separation. And so here is this beautiful state of the art factory. Without a lot going on. And so I met with him and he had a product that he had designed and developed [00:17:00] and cut the molds and tried and pitched it to Kong and they weren’t interested. And he said, well, I’ve got this, the tooling already exists.

So we could try. I mean, if you want to give it a try, you could try selling this and that’s what I did. So, in the beginning, we were kind of 1 hit wonder and it was a, it was a rubber treat dispenser called, um. The can toy looks like a soda can, and I can show it to you. Hold on.

So, this is it. I don’t know if you can see that, but it looks like a soda can. It’s got a hole in the bottom where you can put treats and, um, you know, I guess I should mention that we produce everything 100 percent in the USA.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah,

Adam baker of SodaPup: so that creates certain challenges because we also only make injection molded products.

So you have to invest in molds, which can be very expensive. So the fact that [00:18:00] that this guy had a mold. We’re actually several months old. Um, and it was sitting on a shelf, you know, it was serendipity that I had had lunch and she told me about this guy that I met him and he had a mold.

And so we reboot it. Um, and because, uh, it was a can and I didn’t want to name the company can toy. Um, I thought soda pop soda pop. That’s kind of a cute name and we went and got the trademark and and we started selling can toys, but it’s all I had and I didn’t have any more money. So I couldn’t open new molds.

So we just did the can toy in different colors and different durometers. Hardnesses. We did a puppy version. We did an extreme version. It would just, you know, squeezed as much out of it as we could. Then the next step was, um, uh, subscription boxes were a big deal. And I think that [00:19:00] business is plateauing a bit, particularly in a difficult economy, cause it’s non essential, but at the time subscription boxes were booming and I did a couple of really big sales to a company called bark box out of New York.

They’re now a public company. Um, and then, um, I started working with another box, uh, called Bullymake. And they’ve since sold, but at the time I was working with the founder. And I went to him and I said, Hey, listen, um, if you can give me 18, 20, 000 units, I can open a mold. So I’ll design a new product for you every month.

And, uh, I’ll sell it to you at my cost, but I keep, but I own the designs and I own the molds when we’re done. So all I did was build the mold cost into the cost of the product. And he was doing enough volume at the time, um, that I could give him a great price and cover my mold costs. And I literally didn’t make money on those orders, but I got molds.

And I did [00:20:00] for three years. Uh, and then they got big enough. They wanted to make their own with their own branding. And so they went away, but at that point I already had like 40 natural rubber, um, treat dispensing toys more than any company in the world. And I thought, huh, I ought to start marketing my own brand.

And so in the beginning we were just a rubber toy company and we leveraged these partnerships to subsidize tool making and, um, which is the biggest challenge. You know, and most people manufacture in China and typically they’re just buying the designs that a Chinese manufacturer comes up with. So, it’s very difficult to differentiate, whereas we were doing all these crazy shapes.

I mean, we’re doing everything from. Rocket men to hot dogs and dinosaur eggs and all kinds of fun things. Um, and then we moved into nylon toys, which is a super hard, like, bone type of true [00:21:00] toy. So, But we did lots of novelty shapes, and we built in enrichment capabilities, and then We moved into lick mats, and then we moved into slow feeder bowls and, but always applying the same principles.

Like, how do we differentiate? How do we bring greater value? How do we do interesting and fun shapes? How do we leverage color? Um, that’s how we got here.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah. To me, what sounds really remarkable about your, um, story is That and which is maybe what you’re bringing the value that you brought to your business through working at Nike and other brands is, you know, if, if anybody else were starting a business in the same category, that, that, um, that twice, you know, they would probably be thinking direct to consumer first.

I think, I think what. You know, if I’m correct, I think you really came from a distributor supplier kind of mentality, right? So you, of course that, and that [00:22:00] requires upfront investment, which you made, but, you know, um, but, but of course that, that carries risk as well. I mean, you, you talked about serendipity and, you know, things working out, but, you know, Your partner walking away that could have put you in a, you know, quarter of a million dollars behind.

Um, so, I mean, 1st of all, I, I’m thinking, you know,

Adam baker of SodaPup: the quarter million, I still had inventory, so I could convert. I could convert that back into cash, so it’s not like I lost. I mean, I lost some money, the mold costs and something, but I did have inventory. Um, but I had inventory and products that would ultimately go away.

Because, because the license went away. So, you know, so then it was a process of selling off the inventory to recoup the capital so that I could redeploy it in something else. But the real serendipity was that this tooling was already made. It was like [00:23:00] 300, 000 worth of tooling for this Cantoid. So, and that was just made available to me for free to see if we make it go, you know?

So yeah, there was a combination of persistence and luck,

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: you know? Did you, um, I guess when you started out, you thought that you would have greater success by having that, uh, that relationship with that partner. You didn’t think that you can go out, um, on your own, like create your own brand from the beginning?

Adam Baker of SodaPup: Well, it was somewhat informed by the fact that I was running licensing at Crocs at the time that I started to formulate this. I mean, I literally signed the licensing deal the day after I left Crocs. Okay. So it was all pre negotiated. And, um, so I had licensing on the brand, but in hindsight, it’s all a blessing because I’m not paying anybody royalties.

I’m not building somebody else’s brand. You know, [00:24:00] we don’t. On the whole thing, so, um, we ended up in a much, much better place, uh, than when we started out. And, and again, it’s luck and circumstance that we landed here, but we landed in a pretty good spot. For sure. And, but for sure, I was not actually, I was not focused on being a direct to consumer business.

Um, yeah, I mean, I was selling on Amazon and I was selling on chewy. com. So those were direct businesses, but. Um, I don’t know. I think the challenge with the commerce businesses is that, particularly in the pet space, it’s so competitive that you end up spending, you know, it’s everyone thinks that you have great margins in a DTC business, but the reality is that after your marketing spend, you really don’t.

And so, and, you know, my goal is to, is to be a global brand and. [00:25:00] You don’t do that one toy at a time, you do that one retailer at a time, one distributor at a time. You know, and you know, I started this business when I was 52, so you know, I started later in life. And so it’s kind of like, I need to grow this thing, you know, as quickly as I can.

And I don’t think D two C is the way to get there. For sure.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: I mean, I, I definitely want to ask you about, you know, you, you say later in life. I mean, I was just, uh, listening to someone and they’re, you know, they were saying it’s never, never later. But, uh, I want to ask you about your manufacturing. So you, I mean, one of the assets now that you have is you said, you know, you have your own, you know, Uh, molds, right?

And then that’s an asset. Um, so are you, do you have your own manufacturing plant now? Like, do you, do you manufacture all the, all of these items yourself? Or, you know, just the mold itself has the value and you can provide that to a [00:26:00] manufacturing facility and they can create it,

Adam Baker of SodaPup: right? So I’ve got strategic manufacturing partners.

Um, so you have to understand, like, the machinery required to make a rubber toy is not the same as the machinery to make a nylon toy or a toy. Uh, or lick mat, for example, so different manufacturers have different equipment and so, you know, I’ve had to find partners for each of the product types. Um, and then I concentrate because we introduce a lot of new products. I concentrate a lot of, uh, business into these strategic partnerships so that I can become meaningful to them.

So I get preferential treatment, good pricing, et cetera, et cetera. So, um, so, you know, part of the story has been a sourcing, uh, strategy, but, you know, the other thing is that the industry that I compete in, I’m primarily competing against Chinese made products. And [00:27:00] when I did this, I started out with a blank piece of paper and said, what does the consumer actually want if we start there?

And then let’s see if we can give them what they want. And 1 thing they prefer is American made products, particularly for food or anything that goes in your dog’s mouth.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Uh,

Adam baker of SodaPup: which all of our products go in a dog’s mouth. So, so I said, okay, let’s see if we can produce in the U S uh, and then I, I worked with this factory here to make the can toy and then I expanded to another rubber toy factory and then it kept expanding from there, but, um, um, you know, we’re kind of defying the odds because most people would tell you that, uh, if you’re going to be cost competitive, then you have to.

Produce overseas but there are drawbacks to manufacturing overseas because you have less control over your factories. You have less control over your [00:28:00] materials. So, all of our materials are FDA compliant. Um, you have longer lead times. You have customs, you’ve got, you know, the whole supply chain is.

Longer and more complicated, whereas, because I’ve developed these strategic partnerships, I can place a P. O. and get inventory and, you know, 3 weeks sometimes faster. And so then that allows me to run really lean inventories. And then, you know, I’m basically manufacturing on a just in time basis by running lean inventories, I can have a wider product offering.

So, while most of my competitors have a very narrow product offering, and they’re very deep in inventory, I’m actually wide and shallow and then what it allows me to do is to try all kinds of stuff and some stuff is a home run and other stuff is, you know. Is not successful. And so you just quietly sunset those and then so [00:29:00] because I’m able to iterate so quickly, I can really begin to hone in on the things that are work and then build a fortress around those winners.

Um, and it’s allowed me to get traction in new areas relatively quickly. And, you know, the, the, the faster you can iterate, the faster you can learn.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: For sure. For sure.

Adam Baker of SodaPup: And because I’m a privately held business, I don’t need anybody’s permission. I might have an idea one night, I design it the next day, I get the CAD made the next week, and we’re off to the races.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: So, I want to ask a few questions. Number one, from a cost perspective, as you said, you know, American made, um, uh, probably still more, uh, from a cost perspective, more, and I’m not sure, you know, maybe not. Your products probably cost a little bit more than what you would, You know, maybe get if you were getting it made from China or something.

Um, [00:30:00] but, uh, I’m not convinced that that’s true. Yeah. Maybe not, not today because, uh, I mean, China is getting expensive and now transportation costs and everything, maybe not. So,

Adam Baker of SodaPup: yeah. And the other thing is, well, uh, you have to make sure you’re doing an apples to apples comparison. So for example, in China, for a natural rubber product, they put a lot of filler in their rubber compound, it’s basically clay.

And it, it, um, it reduces the tear strength of the material. So even though it looks the same, feels the same, it doesn’t actually perform the same. And so to compare the price of a rubber toy coming out of China, by the time you land it, In the U. S. you actually have an inferior product and it’s roughly the same price.

So, you know, the fact that we can do it in the U. S. and our transportation costs, I mean, we’re producing all over the U. S. you know, from Maine and Pennsylvania and Colorado and Illinois and Tennessee and, um, you know, lots of different places, but those transportation [00:31:00] costs compared to, you know, getting on ocean freight or air freight.

is relatively inexpensive.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: So that is, I mean, that, that is, that is really interesting. Um, do you think that is true only in your industry? Do you think manufacturing is now coming back to the U S uh, slowly, or

Adam Baker of SodaPup: I think it’s true for me because of the product type. So the thing about Injection molding is once you’ve got the mold, the machines can be, um, can be largely automated.

Not totally. I mean, there’s still an operator, but they might be operating multiple machines. And so you can begin to amortize those costs, um, over the output. You know, on how many machines are running, um, other categories like, uh, plush toys. So plush toys. It’s like a teddy bear toy, right? It’s a, it’s, it’s, it’s sewn.

So there’s a lot of physical labor to make that. It’s [00:32:00] like the footwear and apparel and the reason footwear and apparel is made overseas is because cost labor is lower and there’s a lot of labor in those. So I’m able to do it. Um, because I’m doing injection molding. So my challenge isn’t labor costs. My challenge is mold costs.

How do I drive enough volume out of the gate on a new design to cover my mold cost quickly so that I can continue to introduce new things and and some, you know, different products have different mold costs, for example, natural rubber toys. Have really long cure times. So you’re like, your machine’s only going to cycle four or five times an hour.

So, in order to make the economics work on a natural rubber product, you have to make, you know, 20, 25, 000 molds. So, that hurts, right? Whereas if you’re doing, you know, what we’ve done is we, we’ve created systems. Like, for most [00:33:00] of our other toys, like, Max bowls, things like that. We’ve created systems where you, let’s say a mold has 5 parts.

Um, 4 of them I’ve standardized so that when I want to introduce a new product, I’m only paying for 1 5th of the mold. So it allows me to kind of rinse and repeat, right? It’s the same. It’s like, take the graphic t-shirt business, right? Um, the t-shirts are always the same. It’s only the screen prints that’s changing.

So I’ve created a manufacturing system that kind of resembles that. So I can drive my product development cost down and it allows me to. To do more designs.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Is there a different way to test a new product idea as well? I mean just to put like You know um I guess a graphic design or a mock up of of the product on your site [00:34:00] and and see what kind of demand it drives or Because you’re primarily working with retailers You have to have something to hold on to the hand before you can actually test it You know, see if it’s working or not.

Adam baker of SodaPup: Well, so I will say that one of the things that has dramatically impacted our business is Instagram. And so, but the thing to know about Instagram is not only do you have consumers, Interacting with you, but you also have retailers and distributors. Everybody’s looking at Instagram. And so, um, I haven’t tested new designs on Instagram, but when we have a home run product, uh, uh, so typically I launch in one color, whereas my competitors might launch in 345 colors.

But they don’t even know that the thing’s going to be successful. So I launched with one color and then if I get pickup on it, then I roll out new colors. So I have, I’ve done posts on Instagram. For example, we have a product called the honey pot and I’m like, we’re considering doing, you know, two more [00:35:00] colors.

Um, and then I do an image like Hollywood squares with nine colors. So the honeypot, and then I say, you know, rank the top three in the comments below, and then I’ll get like 600 responses. Uh, and then I tally it up and then we added the top three suggestions. And so, and then consumers feel really, uh, a part of the brand.

Um, so yeah, we love social media because it’s an instant feedback loop for us.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: No, that’s, that’s awesome. Um, I want to shift gears.

Adam Baker of SodaPup: I’ve never put a design concept out there. I haven’t done that. I’d be nervous about doing that. I don’t, I don’t like to show my hand too much with new designs. Okay.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Um, I want to shift gears a little bit on, um, on partnerships and, and finding, uh, customers because you are primarily working with other [00:36:00] retailers or, you know, um, you know, Big retailers, smaller retailers, and so forth.

Um, can you talk a little bit through, uh, given that you’re coming from a product background, do you have a partner that’s doing some of that outreach? Are you doing that yourself? Do you have a sales team? How are you building these partnerships to distribute your products? Your product,

Adam Baker of SodaPup: uh, very atypically.

So we’re kind of, I love technology because it allows us to do so much. Um, whereas in the past you would need a team to do it. Now you can do so much just using technology. So, our best selling tool is Instagram. I have opened retailers all around the world using Instagram where, you know, people reach out to us and say, we love you.

You know, we love your products. Can I sell them in my pet store in the UK or in Singapore, or, [00:37:00] you know, whatever. So, we sell in about 48, 49 countries right now. And we have distributors in 25 countries. So, um, but that’s all that’s largely been through Instagram. Um, the 2nd way has been through. There’s a platform called fair dot com.

I don’t know if you’re familiar with fair dot com. Yes. Kind of came out of nowhere, very powerful, very well funded. And, you know, they launched in the US and Canada, and then they expanded to Western Europe. So I opened up and I was an early adopter on the platform. So. Um, you know, I opened up retail accounts all over Western Europe.

And then once you get, there’s another platform in the States called wholesale pet dot com, which is similar, but it’s very pet specific. Res fare does gift and other categories. Um, so, you know, with distribution, I don’t think that there are [00:38:00] shortcuts and what I mean by that. Um, and, uh, what I mean by that is, you know, my first big job was at Nike and the founder of Nike film night.

You know, he started by selling shoes out of the trunk of his car at track meets, and then from there, he opened up run specialty accounts, and then that led to bigger accounts, and then eventually he was in, you know, big box sporting goods accounts, and then he opened his own Nike town stores. And, you know, you don’t you don’t go from nothing to opening Nike town stores, right?

There’s no skipping the steps. You have to work your way up. And so this is definitely the case for us. We went to trade shows, got people to try our product. We used fair. We opened more retailers. Once you start opening more retailers, then all the retailers are competing with 1 another. They’re all shopping 1 another stores.

And so then you begin to build momentum and then people just start soliciting us because they [00:39:00] saw us at a competitor store and they don’t want to fall behind and then enough people do that and and the distributors come knocking and say, hey, we’d like to represent your your product in our country. And so, um, so then you’ve got, you know, distributors, we’ve got distributors all across Europe and all across Asia.

I mean, I’ve got 2 distributors in China, which is amazing to me that we’re exporting dog toys to China. Um, and so, but, you know, you can’t like, no distributors interested in you, unless you’ve already got the distribution. So, um, which is a bit of an oxymoron, but, um, uh, but that’s the way that it works.

And so that’s been our progression. And so now we’re omni channel plus, you know, we sell on amazon. com. We sell it on chewy. com, walmart. com. Um, so, um, yeah, so we’re, we’re direct to consumers on our own website. We’re kind of direct to consumers through other marketplace platforms. And then there are [00:40:00] wholesale marketplaces, and then there’s, you know, just a lot of face to face contact and distributors, but I have no Salesforce.

Distributors have sales forces, so they’re essentially selling now on our behalf.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Wow. Very, very interesting.

Adam Baker of SodaPup: I can build it. I can build a B2B business with no sales force.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s remarkable. I mean, fair definitely helps quite a bit, but I think with the, with the bigger accounts, um, I mean, Bigger retailers, how have you kind of reached out to them through LinkedIn?

I mean, you, you did mention that sometimes they reach out to you, but.

Adam baker of SodaPup: No, really the only direct contact I’ve had is, um, I do, um, work with a company called pet insights and they’ve got, they maintain a database. And so I’ve paid for the database. And so, I did a direct email campaign to the top 100 pet retailers in the US [00:41:00] and, you know, I had the buyer’s name.

I had their email and I had their shipping address. And so we put together brand boxes with a cross section of our toys. And we mailed it out to the top 100 retail buyers. And then I would follow up with an email and, um. Yeah.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Whoa. That’s it.

Adam Baker of SodaPup: Yeah.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: That’s a, that’s a great strategy. I mean, uh, I wonder if there’s like, uh, these lists available in other categories and industries as well.

That’s it sounds, uh, I’m sure

Adam Baker of SodaPup: There are, I mean, there are companies devoted to, uh, to, to collecting email data for buyers. Yeah, it’s yeah, I mean, I, I get I’m solicited every day. Do I want to buy this list or that list from all kinds of operators? But, um, but the 1 I’m using is highly credible. [00:42:00] And, um, it’s a, it’s a research firm that I’m partnering with.

So, but it’s great because anytime, you know, I need the name of a buyer for a big retailer or whatever. I can, I can look it up and.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah. I mean, that’s, that’s half the battle, right? It doesn’t

Adam baker of SodaPup: make it any easier to get in because most buyers are bombarded, you know, by people trying to get in their stores.

So, you know, there are times when just having an introduction from a friend of the buyer, it was a lot farther.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah,

Adam Baker of SodaPup: for sure.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: But, uh, but having the, I mean, the, having the right, uh, email and contact name is, is half the battle. I mean, that solves at least some, some problems for sure. Um, you

Adam Baker of SodaPup: Now, the other thing is, like I said, we led with a box of products.

So we didn’t, we didn’t just send him an email out of the blue. We actually sent him a product. And so, you know, I have to assume that they’re going to at least open the box and take a look inside. And then, you know, I’m just really confident in our product. It’s really [00:43:00] different. It’s made in America.

It’s actually a premium product. It’s better made. Uh, so, you know, the product does the talking. Yeah, and then we follow up and say, you know, would you be willing to have a conversation for sure? But as often as not as often as not the big retailers are contacting us, which again, I find that remarkable and it’s because, you know, they see us popping up again and again and, you know, we’ve, we’re very active on the P.

R. So, um, you know, we’ve won a whole bunch of awards for our designs and I get quoted a lot in pet trade magazines and, and we work hard to help editors and give them interesting things. And because we introduce new products every month, we always have something to talk about. And so we’ve kind of become a go to resource for a publisher who’s looking for.

you know, a new product to write about or something like that. So [00:44:00] we’ve developed these relationships. So, we get a lot of free coverage and then periodically as I can afford it, I advertise with them as well.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: What does your team look like right now?

Adam Baker of SodaPup: Well, there’s me. Um, I do, uh, I do product design and development. I manage our website. Um, I do the sourcing. Um, I’ve got a finance person. Um, I’ve got a warehouse manager. So we have our own warehouse. We have about 20, 000 square feet of warehouse space. Um, she’s got an assistant and then we have 7. Or so, um, people that do fulfillment in our warehouse.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Well,

Adam Baker of SodaPup: That’s it. That is it. There’s no marketing team. There’s no sales team. [00:45:00]

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: So who’s doing, who’s doing your Instagram post?

Adam Baker of SodaPup: That’s me. I do it at night.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Really? Wow. I mean, I have to say your Instagram looks, uh, Really good. Like I thought there was, there were at least a couple of people doing things like taking pictures and stuff.

Um,

Adam Baker of SodaPup: You know, it comes back to the product, right? So we do really, um, we do really interesting designs and then consumers are inspired by those designs and they’re doing really amazing enrichment, you know, beautiful things with our products and then they’re posting and tagging us. And so. Almost everything I post is just user generated content that I’ve reposted to celebrate our consumers.

It’s like a giant gratitude wheel, right? They, they’re, you know, they’re hash tagging us or they’re, they’re tagging us in their [00:46:00] posts and then I repost it. And as our account grows, so we’re at about 85, 000 followers now, then it gives them more. Because we’re reposting and of course, giving them credit for the content, then their accounts are getting more exposure so that they can grow.

And so, uh, and I get to show the world authentic content from real people using our product, and there’s nothing more valuable than that versus a, you know, a slick, you know, a slick. that the company made, which can feel dishonest or too slick. This is all real, real people using our stuff.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: I have to say, I mean, these people are creating some really great content, really photogenic content.

Adam Baker of SodaPup: You know, the hardest part of Instagram for me is deciding which ones I’m going to repost because there’s so much good content. Um, so yeah, I mean, [00:47:00] we’re really, we’re super lucky in that way. And that’s been the real journey for me is to, you know, if you pay attention to your consumer and who they are and what they like, and if, you know, in my case, I’m a student of Instagram, I’m not just following.

People that are following us, but I’m following my competitors as well. And so you learn, and then you take those learnings and you build new products. And, and so it’s, it’s just, it’s amazing to see how it’s kind of blossomed. Um, at the end of the day, it comes down to, you know, at Nike, we used to say the product is King.

You know, it all begins and ends with a product. If the product isn’t good, then it doesn’t matter how good your marketing team is and how much money you have. People just don’t want it. And so we’re, uh, and, you know, we’re doing this very grassroots, right? [00:48:00] I don’t have any. I have 1 investment partner from years ago, but we cash flow the business to do new products as we can afford to do it.

Um. We and we’re growing the business organically. I don’t do any paid ads. So no Instagram ads, no Facebook ads.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: No, I think it makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. No, I think that makes sense. And, um,

Adam baker of SodaPup: I’ll let me, if I could add one more thing, we also have a pretty decent direct to consumer business, but it’s, but it’s not because of, it’s not because of advertising, you know, it’s, it’s like the thing has started to take on a life of its own, which is the real joy to, to watch, um, I don’t know how to, I don’t really know how to describe it.

If, if you’re true to your consumer and you’re authentic and you try to do the right things, um, people respond to it. [00:49:00] Yeah, it feels good. You know,

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah, I mean, marketing is marketing that can take you, um, help in the short term. But if the product is not performing, the product is not, uh, connecting with the consumer, then, uh, then it’s not going to work in the long term.

So I think product is definitely the king for the long term. Um, before I move on to our rapid fire segment, um, Last question for you. Um, in every entrepreneur’s journey, there’s always mistakes made, lessons learned, uh, failures. Um, is there any big, I mean, I know you mentioned like a big failure in the beginning where your partner walked away.

Um, any, anything big that comes to mind where, you know, it was a big learning lesson for you. And, uh, what did you learn? What could other entrepreneurs learn from your mistakes?

Adam Baker of SodaPup: You know, the only other, I mean, we obviously had, you know, a near fatal disaster in the beginning. You know, the only other thing I would say [00:50:00] is, you know, I’ve made a couple of hires that I regretted in the end because I thought that I needed, uh. A certain type of position. Um, and then I discovered after the fact that indeed, I didn’t, I didn’t need that.

And, you know, the thing about, you know, my experience as an entrepreneur is that I’ve got people every day selling me things that they’re telling me I need and, you know, whether it’s the latest CRM system or whatever. Transcribed You know, I should go from Shopify advanced to Shopify plus, which costs, you know, a grand a month and, and, you know, I’ve been pretty good at, at figuring out that I don’t need 99 percent of it, that I can get by and cashflow my business and be profitable by not falling prey.

To all of these shiny objects [00:51:00] that everybody thinks we need, and I had convinced myself that I needed, you know, an operations director, um, and we’re doing just fine without that person and giving other people in my organization growth opportunities. And so it actually is. You know, that’s been an interesting journey.

And so, um, you know, I think what, what happens in a lot of startups is you do a raise, you get a bunch of money, you get some office space, you hire a bunch of people, and then you start developing a product. That’s kind of that seems to be, like, the new way of doing things and I’m just the opposite. It’s like, figure out how to get a product made, see if there’s demand and then add things as you can afford it, kind of pay your own way.

Um, it’s a bit of an old fashioned notion. Um, and yet, what it ensures is that you have a strong foundation. You know, your business is. [00:52:00] He’s actually built on something real for sure. For

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: sure. Yeah. I mean, I think, um, um, even the new, uh, new model of, you know, having the funding first and then kind of developing, I think it’s, it’s for the most part, it’s, it’s, it’s gambling from the, you know, uh, from the investors because, you know, they, they, they want to make a hundred.

Thousand shots and they know that one of them may work out. So I don’t think that’s, that’s probably the right way to do it, to run any business. Um, I know we are running short of time, so I will move on to our rapid fire segment. In this segment, I’m going to ask you a few quick questions and you have to answer them maybe in a word or a sentence or so.

Um, one book recommendation for entrepreneurs and why?

Adam Baker of SodaPup: Uh, well, I’ve just read a book called Playing to Win, and it’s a strategy book. And what was so interesting about it is, uh, it was written by a couple of people. [00:53:00] I think they worked at Procter and Gamble. Um, the authors are Lafley and Martin and, uh, what was interesting to me about it, it was almost identical to the strategic planning process at Nike, which we called the field of play.

And so it made me think there must have been some cross pollination there. Somebody from P&G went to Nike or vice versa. But, um, it’s a great, uh, really practical, um, discussion of, of what strategy really is and

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: how you implement it. That’s awesome. I’m going to check that out for sure. Um, an innovative product or idea in the current e-commerce retail or tech landscape that you feel excited about.

Adam Baker of SodaPup: Well, we’ve talked about it already. It would be fair, fair. com because, you know, they didn’t exist a few years ago and now it’s become like my right arm. Uh, so it’s, it’s been, it’s been pretty amazing for me to watch them and the impact that they’ve had on my [00:54:00] business. So I’m a huge fan.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: a business or productivity tool or software that you would recommend or a productivity tip?

Adam baker of SodaPup: Well, the two, two tools I recommend are Shopify. And the reason I love Shopify is because it’s a little bit like an iPhone, right? An iPhone is so much more than a phone, right? It’s all the apps that you can dream of on your phone. And Shopify is that way you have this basic platform and then you can.

You can, I mean, the apps are endless, so you can tailor it to all of your needs. So it’s a super powerful platform. So I’m a big fan of that. And then we use a pricing app called wholesale gorilla, which is, uh. Has really changed our business as well, and it’s a simple app, but it allows me to sell to wholesale accounts at 1 price international wholesale accounts at a different price distributors at a 3rd price.

And so what’s a lot of what it is a lot of to do [00:55:00] is we push all orders regardless of. What type everything runs through Shopify because of this app has enabled it. And then that allows us to maintain inventory inside of Shopify. So the reason that’s important is because there are many, many products out there.

Um, for managing inventory and, you know, managing CRM systems and they’re all separate systems. And because I’ve, I’ve pushed everything through Shopify. I’m kind of like, well, Shopify is a CRM system and it is an inventory management system. And it’s, uh, you know, sales channels. I’ve got all these, you know, um, third party selling channels funneling into Shopify to automate our fulfillment.

And so it’s a perfect example of everyone’s trying to sell me something and I’m staring at Shopify saying, how can I make this do more for me?

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah,

Adam baker of SodaPup: without adding cost.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: So, yeah, it’s incredible. I mean, you know how these [00:56:00] platforms can bring so much together and really drive that productivity like one person can really, you know, have a really great picture of their entire business.

Um,

Adam Baker of SodaPup: You know, the other thing is, uh, so I’m dating myself, but, you know, we didn’t have computers when I was in college. And, now I’m running an e-commerce business with no experience in e-commerce and so none of that would be possible without Shopify, you know, and I didn’t have to pay 60, 000 for somebody to make my website for me.

I just picked a template that worked. And, and so it’s such a powerful tool for people. Um, because you don’t have to be a developer. You can just be a business person and it’s intuitive.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Very much. Um, a peer entrepreneur or business person whom you look up to, or someone who inspires you?

Adam baker of SodaPup: Well, so I, as I mentioned earlier, I worked at Under Armour. Uh, [00:57:00] I went there when they were a private company and we IPO’d when I was there. And it gave me a front row seat into entrepreneurship for the first time. Like, to be honest, I’ve always had an entrepreneurial, um, inclination. Um, but you know, I had a family to feed and I had good jobs that paid well.

So, um, but working at Under Armour and watching Kevin Plank, who’s the founder of Under Armour, it was a real eye opener. You know, it’s like his personality traits and force of will to To grow his business. So that was, uh, that was really fun for me to, to learn from him and to watch him because, you know, I could look at Kevin and say, you know, he, it’s not like he’s a rocket scientist and, you know, he didn’t go to Harvard or anything like that.

He’s just a really driven guy with good ideas and, and he’s a good leader. He could inspire people around him. Um, [00:58:00] and. So it was nice to see that a pretty normal guy could achieve amazing success.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Awesome. Yeah. I mean, yeah, role models can definitely, uh, help us grow, for sure. Final question, what, what business advice, what is the best business advice that you have ever received or you would give to other entrepreneurs?

Adam Baker of SodaPup: Well, you’re probably not gonna like this, but, um Mm-Hmm. . It’s, uh, there’s just no shortcuts. So, when I worked at Nike, they used to do, uh, brown bag lunches and they would have an executive answer questions. Right? And so I went to one of these brown bag lunches and the guy speaking was actually a friend of mine, Kirk Richardson, and a young woman asked him, uh, she’s like, Kirk, how do you find work life balance?

And his response was. I’ve never met an Olympic athlete who led a [00:59:00] balanced life, which was kind of a roundabout way of saying, if you really want to be

great at something, you won’t lead a balanced life that they’re, they’re almost incompatible. And, um, and I’ve heard versions of this, you know, throughout my career as well from other successful entrepreneurs. Um, and I think it’s true. I think greatness comes from. Um, an imbalance, like an obsession, uh, that you’re consumed with and that’s where the deep insights come from when you’re when you’re paying attention all the time.

Um, and so, yeah, I mean, it’s so my advice is, you know, be ready to work hard.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah, and, and, you know, that’s, that, I think that kind of goes back very, very true. And I think it kind of goes back to, you know, trying to find [01:00:00] something where, which kind of really, Inspires you or attracts you drives you because otherwise it’s like, you know, you need, you kind of need that obsession.

You kind of have to be able to automatically think about what you’re doing all the time in order to improve and go forward.

Adam Baker of SodaPup: Otherwise you’ll be miserable. So,

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: yeah,

Adam Baker of SodaPup: You know, because it is a bit, it can be all consuming, at least in my experience. But, uh, you know, I’ve, I’ve no regrets. I love it every day.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Uh, that’s, that’s awesome.

Well, Adam, those were all the questions that I had. Thank you so much for sharing your story, for, for inspiring us, uh, for sharing some of your, uh, strategies and how you grew your business as well as your failures, um, and lessons learned. Uh, so thank you again for joining me today at Trep Talks and, uh, wish you all the very best.

Thanks so much.

Adam baker of SodaPup: It’s [01:01:00] good talking

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: to