Kabo—Founder & CEO, Vino Jeyapalan

DTC Growth Show

In this episode, we talk with Vino Jeyapalan, CEO and Founder of Kabo, a company that brings human-grade dog food to dog owners.

Vino and team are on a mission to improve the life of dogs. It's personal for him because his first dog, Kabo, passed away. That got him and his co-founder searching for answers-what influence do owners have on the lifespan of their dogs.

Research shows that more fresh dog food, and an increase activity, reduces a dog's chance for cancer, and increases a their life significantly.

Questions turned into intentional research. They started sending out surveys to understand whether human-grade dog food was something people wanted.

The moment they made the first sale is when it all become real for Kabo. Getting to that first sale took a lot so of manual and unscalable work. They searched on Instagram for dog owners in their city, and then they sent direct messages to each one. Tedious, but it helped them bring in their first purchase.

Kabo takes a personalized approach to buying dog food. Because this is new for most people, getting the messaging right takes time. Understanding your consumer and iterating on product are the most important things to focus on as you launch a brand.

There's a lot that goes into the customer experience at Kabo. A large part of that is done up front-they ask for information about the dog, so that they can suggest the best meal plan. Another large part of the experience is customer support. They make it easy for customers to get in touch and chat with a team member. Those are things that make it hard for "big kibble" to cut into their market.

Grow at all costs isn't an option. They're looking to scale in a way that maintains their unit economics.

What are some hard decisions they've made? Saying no to dog owners and dogs in markets that they can't support.

Wondering what DTC brand Vino is excited about? Check them out: harrys.com
Learn more about Kabo at kabo.co

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Thanks for listening!

-DTC Growth team