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Amy Zaleraitis never decided to participate in the pets of pets.
As a creative director in the fashion industry, she built a successful profession far from the world of dog nutrition. But when in her younger sister Alissa was diagnosed these days the stage of colon cancer in his thirties, (*45*) life brought an unexpected turn.
Alissa built a prosperous raw activity in the field of dog food in Austin, Texas, which she expanded at the national level and continued running to the last week of life. When she passed, there was no time to lose. The production needed to proceed, meat supplies needs to be made, and customers relied on food. Amy and her family jumped, transforming their tragedy into what would turn out to be a flowering business.
Today, we feed RAW at the head of the disturbance of the food industry for pets worth $ 45 billion in the USA, where it is estimated that fresh and raw food will increase by $ 3.2 billion from 2025 to 2029-the most-developing segment in space.
In the recent episode of One Day with Jon, Amy, she shared her journey from a reluctant entrepreneur to enthusiasts for higher animal nutrition. Here are the key observations from our conversation.
Dog food problem
According to Amy, the biological machine of dogs is not designed to deal with constant spikes of blood sugar from soluble carbohydrates found in croquettes. The results are disturbing: 60% of dogs in the USA are obese or obese, and 50% will gain cancer by age. For many dogs, most of their calories come from ultra-processed food, a meal after a meal.
“Why do we accept it as normal?” Amy asks. Its solution is to feed dogs of their original, evolutionary food regimen of raw food.
The challenge of conventional wisdom – he works out
Amy knows that something needs to be done to coach the consumer, but in a constructive way. That is why he tries to be refined in his sales approach.
“We must be really brave in our messages because we interfere with the space,” he explains. “But we must be careful not to have any embarrassing tone.” Most animal owners love their dogs like a family and consciously do not need to hurt them.
“The transition can sometimes be difficult for people. They spend a lot more money and want to see how these results happen, “he says. Solution? The RAW Feed customer support helps people in a transitional period, especially since dogs that have been eating processed food for years might have time to adapt the intestinal microbiome.
Knowing your role
Some founders attempt to let go – not Amy, who has a refreshing view of her strengths and restrictions. “I am not a general director at all,” he admits. “This is not how my brain works.” Instead, he covers his role in a creative and passionate spokesman for the brand. The company recently brought CEO and CMO, which Amy describes as “the most bad, intelligent women” with whom it has ever worked. “I don’t even feel as smart as they do, and I love it because they just know what to do. We all work together in this very complementary way. “
Building brand identity
One of the first essential Amy movements after securing external financing was intensive investing in brand development. She hired Preacher, a creative agency in Austin to create RAW identity. “It was a very common process – colors, appearance, sense, atmosphere,” he explains.
The investment paid off: “It really helps us stand out. It gave us credibility. ” In the industry full of what it calls the “shitty food brand for animals”, this early focus on the brand’s identity helped us separate RAW.
Remains strong in the struggle
For Amy, entrepreneurship was a deep resistance teacher. “Learning not to stay too long when you are knocked down,” he says. “I think it may be really overwhelming that you feel like you hit the face in a circle … But sometimes the most genius we have done, we didn’t give up.”
One of its most difficult periods occurred before providing serious financing when the company operated from month to month. Even when people asked what he was doing, she kept their faith. “It will work. I know it will work, “she told herself.
At a particularly dark moment, the text buddy really helpful that he would hear “how I built it”. Podcast became her life line. “It saved me because I realized that there are other people like me,” he explains. “You must protect your mind and energy when you are in this space, because most people will tell you that you are crazy.”