awillen

64 ms·

1. 661.▲
   by awillen 6y ago

   Thank you!
2. 662.▲
   by awillen 6y ago

   Hmm, yeah, that makes sense - I'd still be interested to try it just to understand the process and see how it turns out. Ultimately if this gets big enough I'd want to find a co-packer for production, so it would be good to unders
3. 663.▲
   by awillen 6y ago

   Damn, that's what I was hoping to avoid :/
4. 664.▲
   by awillen 6y ago

   A lot of dogs (mine included) love to crunch on ice cubes. You can also find a lot of recipes for frozen treats online - I started by looking there first, but they were all heavy on ingredients my dog isn't fond of (he really just like
5. 665.▲
   by awillen 6y ago

   Ah, thanks - I'll have to look into that. I'm not opposed to selling internationally, but to your point I probably need to do a whole lot more research before I do.
6. 666.▲
   by awillen 6y ago

   Yeah, I also thought there would be a whole lot more red tape to get through before I started looking into it. I can't imagine starting a human food company with everything that's required for that. I'm happy to chat with any
7. 667.▲
   by awillen 6y ago

   I just don't feel like I'm nearly educated enough on CBD in dogs to start using that as an ingredient. I know it's become very common very quickly, but I'd have to read all the research before I could consider it.
8. 668.▲
   by awillen 6y ago

   I appreciate the offer, but I think I am quite a ways away from that at this point :)
9. 669.▲
   by awillen 6y ago

   At the moment I'm buying #10 cans (which are like 3 quarts I believe), though obviously I'll try to scale that up if sales merit it.
10. 670.▲
    by awillen 6y ago

    That's a good question... the last couple of LLCs that I've formed have been for businesses that are clearly operating in CA (one was for real estate here and the other for a local service company) and thus require the LLC there.
11. 671.▲
    by awillen 6y ago

    I really hope it does!
12. 672.▲
    by awillen 6y ago

    I have sprinkled some of the cheese powder I use in my mac and cheese, but that's about the closest I get :P. Luckily my dogs are happy to help out.
13. 673.▲
    by awillen 6y ago

    Thanks! I've been thinking about how to do it grain free, but it's really tough to get to that point and still keep it at a reasonable price.
14. 674.▲
    by awillen 6y ago

    Yeah, one of the suppliers I've identified for freeze dried foods is one of those survivalist prepper type stores. I'm sure my use case is not what they're thinking about :)
15. 675.▲
    by awillen 6y ago

    Thank you! I haven't tried frozen marrow bones, but I will definitely give them a whirl - I'm sure my dog would like them.
16. 676.▲
    by awillen 6y ago

    Thank you!
17. 677.▲
    by awillen 6y ago

    Honestly, the Beef and Cheddar smells a little funky but not too bad (especially for people who are used to having dogs around), and the Turkey and Cinnamon smells pretty good because the turkey isn't that pungent, so the cinnamon mask
18. 678.▲
    by awillen 6y ago

    The FDA does regulate, but much more lightly - from their site: "The FDA’s regulation of pet food is similar to that for other animal food. There is no requirement that pet food products have premarket approval by the FDA. However, the
19. 679.▲
    by awillen 6y ago

    On the safety side, I've had crude analysis done (which is the standard nutritional testing for pet food in the US and was $250 per flavor), and I've consulted with a couple of vets to make sure the product is safe. On the legal s
20. 680.▲
    by awillen 6y ago

    Thank you, glad to hear it!
21. 681.▲
    by awillen 6y ago

    It's a Shopify site, so I'm just using their integration to print labels from whoever's cheapest - so far it's always been USPS. Honestly the shipping is something I need to figure out... I'm charging flat shipping
22. 682.▲
    by awillen 6y ago

    Thanks for the feedback! All the extra stuff on the B&C comes from the cheddar cheese powder - for the most part they're natural ingredients (excluding things like the yellow color, etc.), but you're right, it doesn't loo
23. 683.▲
    by awillen 6y ago

    Thanks so much to the folks making purchases! Each time I get the email saying an order has come in, it reinforces for me that this is actually a product people want, which is just so ridiculously cool at this early stage. Thank you!!
24. 684.▲
    by awillen 6y ago

    Thanks so much!
25. 685.▲
    by awillen 6y ago

    Thanks and will do! At the moment I'm just buying the ice cube molds, and I haven't seen any that are smaller, but I'll keep an eye out. In the mean time you can always just skip the Starter Kit and buy the mix directly ( htt
26. 686.▲
    by awillen 6y ago

    Thanks so much! Hopefully one day we'll go international :)
27. 687.▲
    by awillen 6y ago

    Maybe I just got lucky then... I just Googled "mailer box printing" or something like that, found a few sites and picked this one based on price: https://www.uprinting.com/ . The designer gave me image files that w
28. 688.▲
    by awillen 6y ago

    I started my career doing some marketing and then moved to product management, all in tech at small startups. Even as a PM, because I joined companies of <50 people, I ended up helping out with marketing too. Google Ads are pretty straig
29. 689.▲
    by awillen 6y ago

    I ran a 99Designs contest for a logo, and the winner of that also had some experience doing packaging design, so I used her: https://99designs.com/profiles/bettymar . I just thought she really captured the feel I was lo
30. 690.▲
    by awillen 6y ago

    I really don't like talking about my side projects, so I guess they all qualify, but I'm particularly excited about one at the moment. Right now I'm working on a dog treat business - I make a treat mix that you add water to a