Automated Webinar Transcript

Hello and welcome to the Highlight Reel, our interview series, where we talk to CPG leaders and trailblazers that are building products that people love.  My name is Emma Steele and I lead our work with emerging and disruptive brands. They're shaping the future of CPG. And today I am joined by Michael Kim, the founder and CEO of Floof, which is a Los Angeles based Pet wellness brand.

So excited that you're here. So excited to be here. All right. Well, first things first, tell us a little bit more about yourself. Tell us more about what inspired you to found your brand. What, uh, motivated you to go so far as to, to build a project yourself. Yeah, absolutely. So. I actually worked at Dr. Squatch, uh, before starting Floof. Um, I'm sure many people know what Dr. Squatch is, but they're a men's personal care brand. They became viral for their bars of soap and I was doing strategy and operations with them. And I always wanted to start my own consumer brand company. Um, like even, you know, before starting Floof, I would walk around the aisles at Erewhon and just like, look at all the labels and the designing.

So it was always a category that was very interesting for me. Um, and then I adopted my French bulldog while I was working at Dr. Squatch and he had tons of skin issues like so many other French bulldogs do. And I took him to the local vet and they basically told me to use Don dish soap on him, which was absolutely insane.

So, um, like I've seen the ads of like people, like being able to watch a dog or something, but there's just no way I was going to use it on my dog. So I did a bunch of research. I went onto Amazon, I looked around, um, you know, pet stores, um, and I just couldn't find high quality, good products to use on him.

Everything looked like they were designed like 15 years ago. Um, I also found out the FDA doesn't regulate dog grooming products. Um, unless they're medicated. So a lot of these big legacy players, they don't have to be transparent. Um, they use vague language like coconut based cleansers to hide harsh ingredients.

And so I decided that I wanted to start my own brand, um, specifically for caring for a dog skin at home, mimicking the formulas that are at Sephora and whole foods, making sure everything is clean. Um, and so I partnered up with our vet dermatologist who's, um, you know, had more than 20 years of practicing experience as a vet dermatologist.

Um, and people actually don't know, they're only like less than I think, 150 vet dermatologists Wow. In the us. So, um, it was pretty hard to find the right person. And I actually just reached out to her on LinkedIn. Her name's Jennifer Siler. So cool. Um, and yeah, she, she really wanted to, she resonated with my idea and, and the brand that I wanted to build.

Um, we worked for around a year and a half formulating all of our ingredients. We wanted everything to be from made from scratch. Uh, we partnered up with beauty chemists and launched Floof in July of 2023. So it's been a bit over a year and a half now. Um, been, it seems longer than that, but yeah, it's been so much fun.

And I think the best part of it so far is like hearing from dog parents about how much of our, how much our products have affected their dog skin and made it better. And yeah. It's so exciting to like, you know, add so many new products to our lineup. Um, we want to eventually get into oral care, ear care, um, other types of external care products.

So yeah, very excited. Oh my gosh, that is awesome. Yeah. Well, it's really sounds like Floof was born out of this, like, you as a consumer living this problem and living this experience and I mean I personally with all the work that we do with emerging and disruptive brands. Those are the brands that like succeed because you know that you know the problems that the consumer is living right?

Yeah. But all to say if you could summarize what your brand's mission is after everything you just said like what would you say? Yeah, absolutely. I think we really want to change the way that dog parents perceive at home care. Um, so the number one reason why people take their dogs to the vet is due to external care issues.

So skin, ear, um, eye, oral. And there aren't that many things that we do as dog parents at home to care for that. I mean, we go to the vet and, you know, we'll give them, you know, shots or medicine, but then once they get better, these problems reoccur because we're not taking care of their skin at home. So for example, with skin issues, doctors, allergies, when they go on walks, there's pollen that sticks to their skin.

And if we're not wiping that off on a regular basis, it can trigger the allergies. So we want to really change the way that people approach at home care, motivate them. Sometimes people can get lazy because it's not fun. Okay. We want, you know, to bring that excitement to, to at home dog care. Just like if we get our own new skin care products for our own skin, we get excited about having our own routine.

And we want to bring that same concept and excitement over to dog care. I love that. Yeah, I totally resonate on the skin care. It's like you get a new product and you're like, Oh, I want to see it. I'm going to use it so consistently because you're so excited about it. And so how are you doing the same thing for, you know, your pet, who you really care about?

Exactly. And like the legacy products that, you know, we would buy at a Petco right now, just isn't as exciting. Like you just get it and it's kind of a chore and you use it for the first week and then you stop using it. But we like, uh, By making the process exciting and sort of motivating the owner to do it more.

Um, it'll allow them to have less visits to the vet and just overall see a healthier and happier dog. And that's really our goal. I love that. Yeah. So cool. Awesome. Well, I want to ask you now, it's related more so to your brand and product development journey. And the question is, how do you balance meeting the emotional needs of your of pet owners and creating a functional product for a pet.

And before you answer, sorry, I just want to share an example that I was talking with a Highlight coworker about. She has recently been to the vet and the vet has recommended this new food for her cats to improve their dental health, but the cats really hate the food. So she's saying that every single time she goes to the vet.

Uh, feed them, they're really sad, are exactly her words. And so, naturally, there's kind of this emotional response of, ugh, I know that this is something that I should be doing, like the benefits of this product are really good for my pet, but it's something that, um, you know, emotionally, I'm seeing them not enjoy, you know, mealtime.

And, and really having to balance out the fact that you're making that decision on behalf of your pet. So I'm not sure if you have any thoughts there or how you would, um, think about that delicate line. Yeah, absolutely. I think it's something that I deal with all the time. Leo hates going to the vet and he hates getting shots, but it's just like as his caregiver it's something that I feel like I have to do and it's for the ultimate benefit of Leo's health.

You know, for example, when I go to the vet and I know he hates it, I just, I feel good about doing it because I know ultimately it's, it's good for his health. And I think that's the same thing for any care products for dogs. Um, you know, he hates brushing his teeth. I still do it every day because I know it's for his health.

And, um, I think it's just like, you know, having a baby or, um, you know, taking care of, of, of anyone. It's, it's, uh, sometimes the things that are good for you aren't always the most pleasant. So, um, I think that's, you know, really what I, what I think about, especially with our products. Um, um, you know, sometimes dogs, we have like our best selling product is our soothing cream.

So it's a moisturizer for dry paws and noses. A lot of dogs get uncomfortable when you put something onto their paws just looking a lot of it off. Um, but it's, uh, it's just so important to keep their paws moisturized because if they get too dry, they can crack and bleed and get infected. Um, and so as like the dog owner, um, I think it's important to do what's best for your dog, even though your dog may not like it and then ultimately it'll make them healthier.

So I think, yeah, that's, that's sort of my perspective on it. And yeah, um, we try to educate our customers about the importance of it. So they sort of get that same mental space of like, even though my dog doesn't like it, I'm going to do what's, what's best for my dog to make them healthy. Yeah. Yeah. And I think something really interesting is that there's actually a lot of data that backs this up and is something that highlight does is that, um, in order to be a thought leader in the CPG space, we do a lot of original research and this comes with putting together consumer reports.

So in line with this discussion that we're having today, we will be releasing. Um, a whole consumer report around kind of the state of the pet parenthood, um, space, which is going to be really exciting. But one of the data points that I wanted to share was around how important health and safety and just overall product benefit claims are in a pet parent's decision making process for a product and so over half of pet owners say that health and safety is a top priority.

56 percent and only 25 percent of pet parent owners actually choose a product based on what a pet likes, which I think is really interesting because you do see that there's definitely this trade off that's being made. Um, so not sure if you have any thoughts to follow up on that too, but yeah, it's interesting that the data shows kind of what we're seeing qualitative too.

Yeah, absolutely. I think the most important thing to note is like, we can't communicate with our dogs and so they can't tell us if they don't like something. I mean, they can express it, but, but I think, you know, that aspect, uh, makes us as dog parents more worried about the products that we use on them.

You know, if we were going to buy something for a toddler, they'd be able to communicate with us why they don't like it or. this aspect was not good about it, but our dogs, they can't communicate with us. So, um, I think, yeah, it just makes parents, pet parents a lot more concerned and I guess more picky with the products that they're going to choose.

And that's why we, we had flu. If you want to educate our customers about why our products are safe, why they are, uh, formulated by a vet dermatologist, um, making sure that they know that we aren't using harsh ingredients. Um, and whether it's through our socials or on the labels or, you know, creating content, educating the customer about our product, I think, um, yeah, that's one of our main, main goals is we want to sort of lower that barrier of, um, you know, concern and just.

Gain that trust with, with the customer. I think that's been very important for us. Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah. And I think on that note of your dog cannot communicate back to you, obviously that's one of the biggest differences between other CPG categories that people are innovating products in. So I'm curious if you have any other differences that you see as it relates to pet care versus other parts of CPG where, you know, there there's this kind of gap and kind of what that looks like for you as an innovator.

Yeah, I think, um, I guess like compared to like food and beverage or any other category. Yeah, I would say there's that difference between buying a product that I'm going to use on myself versus buying a product that I'm going to use on my pet. I think, uh, there's a bit of that like when you're buying a product that you use on yourself, like you  You're, I feel like you're more apprehensive to use something that you're not going to like because like you're the one who's experiencing the negative aspects of it, but then when you're doing it on your dog, like you can ultimately give them the best care because you, you kind of like feel like they're, they can deal with it. 

Like, for example, like brushing their teeth, like, um, dogs, you know, obviously don't like brushing their teeth, but if you, you know.  truly believe that it's going to benefit their health, then you'll feel more motivated to, to, to do that. So, um, I think, I think that's where it really comes down to is like purchasing something that I myself am going to use versus something that my pet's going to use.

I think you're more likely to, do what's best for your dog, um, versus like for your, yourself, like you might want to like stray away from something that might not taste good. Or does that make sense? Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Like you, the benefits sometimes don't outweigh kind of the, I guess, the experience for a consumer.

Like I want to eat better for you, but I also want it to taste good, you know? And so that's a decision that I can make for myself. But if you know a product is better for your pets, Um, you know, that's a trade off that you will just make, but you might not feel the consequences of, Oh, I don't necessarily like this experience as much.

Exactly. That's exactly it. Yeah. Yeah, I think, um, yeah, it's just so interesting that kind of, that goes back to what we were talking about earlier, right? About this, what is the sort of, um, responsibility that you have as a pet owner and how does that change the way that you think about the products that you're buying on a day to day basis?

Yeah, exactly. I think it's similar for like baby products as well. Um, cause you know, babies obviously can't communicate just like dogs can and you want to do what's best for your baby. And I think it's the same thing for your dog. Um, and there are sacrifices that like. You know, the dog or the baby might have to make like, they might not like doing certain things like brushing teeth or wiping their paws down, but you know, it's for the greater good of the dog for their health.

And so I think as the parent, um, you know, whether it's for a baby or for a dog, you want to provide them with what's best for them. Yeah. Yeah. Love that. So to follow up on that, how do you see the pet care industry evolving in the next few years? And I think just to jump off of what we were talking about in terms of this question around.

I think, uh, personalized wellness and longevity is something that we see so much in other parts of CPG, whether it's for yourself or, you know, setting up your child or your baby for success. Um, how do you see different trends like that kind of play out? Either appearing within pet care or other just things that you're, you're seeing that are moving the, the pet care space forward.

Yeah. Um, I think after the pandemic, so many millennials, um, adopted, um, dogs. And I think millennials are, um, more, more millennials have dogs than any other generation. And that's sort of changed the sort of, uh, the way  dynamic of the pet care industry. I think, um, millennials are seeking solutions for their pets that they would be seeking for themselves.

Um, and we really pay attention to that when we create our products. Um, you know, that's why we want to use clean ingredients and we want to create modern branding and modern packaging is because, um, we want to really appeal to that millennial dog owner who's, um, Who wants our product to look good next to their products in the bathroom and who wants, uh, you know, the products that they're going to use on their dog skin to Be as clean as the skincare that they're going to be using on their own skin and so I think Um, you know as a lot of pet care brands realize the importance of millennials and now even gen z as dog owners Um, they're going to have to step step up Um, sort of the qualities of, of their business, like whether it's sustainability or, um, modern branding and packaging, um, education, um, social media, building that community.

It's some, it's something that, you know, I feel like pet care brands have not paid that much attention to over the last two decades, but, you know, over the last six, seven years, you've seen, um, a lot of these, you know, new brands come up, um, you know, creating modern products that sort of mimic what we would use on ourselves.

Um, I think That will progress into, yeah, just, just more modern brands. Um, more sustainable packaging. Um, more transparent transparency in the industry. Um, yeah. Love that. I want to circle back to what you said around education and social media and building this community. What do you think the role of technology plays in innovating?

Um, a brand for the future because I think one thing is just in this kind of overload of information and accessibility to knowledge, um, again, back to kind of like that personalization and like specialization within, um, your own wellness, your pet's wellness. You can start to think. Oh, I have, you know, a very specific dog breed.

I want to make sure that they're getting the specific care. I have a friend who just got a Dalmatian puppy and I had no idea that there's so much specificity that you can get to in terms of the products that you're giving your dog. So I'm curious as you kind of mentioned those things that are so important to building the brand, how are you personally leveraging and how do you think, you know, other brands should be leveraging that tech technology aspect as well?

Yeah, absolutely. I think there's a lot of new hardware coming out. Um, yeah. I forgot the name of the brand, but it's, it's some sort of, um, hardware that you can put onto a dog and it'll tell you like, um, metrics and data about their health. It's like a Whoop for a dog. Yeah, it's kind of like a Whoop for dogs.

Like an Oura ring for a dog. Exactly. Yeah. It's a really cool concept. Cool. And there will be more sort of technology that tracks the health of your dog. Mm hmm. There's also like some software that you can take photos of like your dog's skin, upload it and it'll diagnose. Um, what sort of issues that they're having, um, and so recommend a food product and recommend products to use on it, to treat it. 

We haven't talked directly to companies like that before, but I think as we scale, there will be a lot of opportunities to partner up with partners like that. Um, for example, like somebody can come onto our site, upload a photo of their dog's paws, which are inflamed. And then we could have some sort of AI diagnosed the problem or suggest certain fluff products that might be good for solving an issue like that.

So I think, yeah, as, as more, uh, as technology progresses and, and diagnosing and, um, uh, tracking your dog's health. There are different ways that, um, us as like a product brand can, can leverage that. Yeah. I think, well, I think on that point of uploading photos, it's almost like I remember I would, what is that?

Like maybe like seven to 10 years ago when Curology was really blowing up. And that was where, you know, You know, you as a consumer would upload photos of your skin and that's when you would get recommended certain products to, you know, help with your skin issues. It's almost like you see like, this is an opportunity where maybe pet care is following in those footsteps.

And so the expectations that we have for as consumers, we also have those expectations now for our pets. Exactly. But I see it as a huge trend. Like I have. a friend who has two Great Danes in New York City. Like they're over, they're over 175 pounds. Like I don't know how you have that in New York City, but apparently they're great apartment pets.

But there's so much specialized care that goes into that. And so like the education required to care for them properly, I feel like it was just not even a forethought for people in, you know, 10, 20 years ago. And now we've moved into this age where Information is so accessible that you almost feel guilty as a pet owner or a pet parent for not, you know, doing everything in accordance to the specific needs of your dog.

Yeah, absolutely. I think there's definitely that emotional aspect of wanting to give your dog the best care possible. And it makes you feel good as, as a dog owner. Like, um, for me, like if I'm, if Leo's just sitting there and I'm looking at him, I'm like, Oh, I see, what can I do more for you to make your life happier?

And like, um, I feel like a lot of dog parents are sort of in a similar mindset. It's like they just want to give their dogs like the best life. Because dogs, they give us so much. Like, um, just from like emotional support to just always like being, um, so happy when we walk home. They're just like truly our best friends and they do so much for us.

And we want to do the same things for them. And so I think that's why a lot of, um, dog owners now are, are spending more on their dogs to give their dogs the best life, you know, whether it's giving them the best food possible, the best supplements, there's so many interactive toys that are coming out that are pretty pricey, but people feel good about, you know, you know, spoiling their dogs because, um, you know, it's just sort of giving them the same love that they give back to us.

Um, and I think that's like a really big trend within consumer behavior. I actually. Um, we have like a viral post on our Instagram where like I wrote, um, dog care in the 1980s versus dog care in 2000s versus today. And then like the amount of products that we buy for dogs today, like is like significantly more from what, you know,  Two generations, three generations ago would, would buy for their dogs.

Like they're not, they're not just like dogs that like live in your backyard and like some dog house and then you like see them like a couple hours a day and then just give them like a bone. Like we truly give them like the most care,  exactly. Um, whether it's like getting them a nice expensive bed or providing with them, with the highest quality food possible or the best treats.

Um, where it comes to skincare, like providing them with, you know, a full skincare routine. It's something that people wouldn't have imagined doing like 10, 15 years ago, but it's just, it's like kind of the standard now. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And another data point that we have from this report that we'll be putting out is that the majority of consumers across all generations, so not just, uh, millennials and Gen Z, where I feel like there's been such an uptick there, um, are making just for fun purchases monthly.

And the majority of them are spending between 101 and 300 a month on their pets. And so I think that when you pair this with the data that, um, only 5 percent of consumers say that they're, um, Decisions about the products that they're buying for their pets are price driven So that's 95 percent of people saying that price is not even the biggest factor when I'm deciding what pet products I'm gonna buy and and we're seeing such a high monthly spend  And then when you take into the fact like the economy that we're living in where Spending in general is on the decline.

Um, this is my plug for our 2024 holiday consumer trends report that we put out last month, um, where we're deep diving more into what some of those spending habits are. But I think as we see many categories on the decline, it's seemingly that pet care is so much more on the uptick. Yeah, absolutely. Um, people love spoiling their, their, their pets and their dogs.

Um, it just makes you feel, feel good. Um, yeah. And I, I think, you know, a lot of people say that, um, pet care is sort of a recession proof, um, industry category, um, because I think  sometimes people spend more money on their pets than they do on themselves and they'll cut back on, you know, buying that new shirt that they want to buy and instead spend that money on their pet.

Um, and so, yeah, I think it's, uh, it's, it's really interesting, like, you know, how that behavior and the customers changing. And, um, I think it'll continue to change as we have. Newer, you know, better products come out for, for dogs. Um, I think, uh, you know, there's a lot of opportunity for, for that. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. That's awesome. And a great transition into the next question that I wanted to ask, which is around, how do you utilize feedback from consumers and data in the process of innovating new products? Yeah, that's, that's a very, um, important part of formulation and why we worked with, with Highlight. I think there are two aspects to.

Two main aspects to this. Number one is the customer experience. Um, and then two is the effectiveness, but we want the customer to enjoy using the product. And so that's like one thing that we were really debating about in the beginning when it came to our shampoo.  Dog owners really like when the shampoo foams up a lot and it lathers up a lot, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it's doing a more effective job of cleaning.

And a lot of the times it's because there are harsh surfactants in the shampoo that are causing it to foam that much. And so we, you know, sent out a bunch of samples initially to a lot of different dog tester, dog parents, and they said it was effective at cleaning, but it just didn't lather up enough.

So that was like one reason why they might've not purchased that product if there were. I think I had the opportunity to, and, um, that's sort of where it clicked to me is like the user experience is also so important in addition to the effectiveness of the product. Um, and so, um, the reason why that sort of shaped our idea into creating our soothing cream.

So most dog balms on the market that, uh, moisturize dogs, paws and noses. like a waxy, greasy chapstick and they're really difficult to use. You have to like, you know, get it out with your finger. And then once it's on the paw, it sits on the surface. The dogs end up licking it all off and then it gets all over your floors and your floors get greasy.

Your bed gets greasy. Um, and so that was like one pain point for customers. Like maybe that, you know, the, the waxy bombs might have actually performed well, but just because of the inconvenience of using the product, they might not repurchase that product. Right. And so that's why we created our soothing cream as a quick absorbing cream that you can apply into the paws and will quickly absorb in deeply penetrate the paws and it won't get over the floors.

It won't cause any risk for your dog to slip or injure themselves. Um, I think, yeah, that's like one big focus, um, that we have when we are formulating new products is like, is the user, the dog parent actually going to enjoy using this process and the more they enjoy it, the more often they will use it, which ties into our mission of like, we want dog parents to be excited about using our products at home.

Um, and then the second aspect of it is, of course, like how effective the product is going to be like, is it actually going to provide long term moisture for our soothing cream or are our wipes actually doing an effective job of cleaning the dog? Um, but yeah, those are our two biggest pillars and through testing with, um, highlight, we were able to get all those data points that sort of shaped, um, the entire process like we, for example, for our soothing cream, maybe, you know, some testers could have been like, Oh, it's not absorbing as quickly as we wanted to absorb.

And so we go back to our R&D and say, How can we reformulate this or tweak a couple of things to make it quicker absorbing? So that the customer experiences is overall better. I absolutely love that. I think the importance of yes, of course the product needs to show efficacy and it needs to do its job, but if it's not a enjoyable experience, if there is that kind of friction point, again, what we already talked about earlier around, you know, um, kind of creating this habit of pet parents to care for their pets in a certain kind of way if it's not something that is easy to do and it also, you know, evokes a certain emotion in the parent, like it's not something that they're going to do consistently and so if that experiential piece of, oh, this is something that I look forward to in the future.

You know, whatever my wellness routine that you're not going to get kind of the uptick and the regularity of that. So I love, um, how, you know, it's not just all about the efficacy for you. It's pairing that with the customer experience. Exactly. It all ties into like our mission, like, and our mission is like, we want people to create regular at home care routines for their dogs.

If we want to motivate the dog owner to do that, we need to make the experience like good and we want them to enjoy using the product. And yeah, like when we had that, um, we actually tested two products with highlight and through that process, I think, um, the way that the data was organized, like it, it exactly like pinpointed what, issues people were having while using the products, it was just like very easy for us to see like in like the nice charts and the graphs.

Um, and so like I was able to send that directly to our chemists. And like we got in a meeting and like we discussed like all the different pain points, um, and like we had like actual numbers to back it up, which made it a lot easier to make decisions. Yeah. Because I mean, I think that is something that is so true just about being a consumer and you talking about how you are the target consumer of flu, you're living the experiences that it can be so emotional.

And so in some ways you almost need to take the emotion out of it and say, you know, as we think about this from a data driven perspective, what are the, what are the decisions that we have to make and the trade offs, um, in order to make the best possible product. And it might be that, you know, we want this to be as safe as possible and as clean ingredients.

And so, you know, we have to sacrifice a little bit on the leather ability, but is that maybe where we talk a little bit. On our packaging, or we talk about it in our kind of positioning our messaging around the product that, you know, the reason why it doesn't lather is because, you know, that I'm not sure of the exact science behind it, but you know, there, there's a reason why it doesn't lather.

And it's because we're using, we're choosing the ingredients very carefully that are safe for, for the product. Yeah. And like we, we kind of find like the, the true, like happy medium of like, um, making sure the product is clean and safe and effective while also being easy to use and fun to use for the, for the pet owner.

And I think we've successfully done that for all of our products. Um, as we develop new products next year, we want to launch, um, like a paw cleanser. We want to launch, um, you know, toothpaste, toothbrushes. And I think, you know, we'd obviously go through the same process again of, you know, sending it out to different dog parents and seeing what they like about certain products and what qualities they're looking for.

And I think, you know, being able to work with a Highlight would make that process so much easier and streamlined for us. So, uh, we want to pair those two aspects in that. Is what I think allows us to create, um, a really successful product. That's awesome. Yeah. Well, I want to ask now, are there any trends that you're seeing pet care that you're really excited about? 

Trends. That's, that's a tough one. I think there are, um, uh, tons of trends. I think, um, one is something I mentioned earlier is, um,  just making the brand modern, um, and I think there are a lot of different aspects to that. Uh, one being transparency. Um, I think a lot of, um, new millennial dog owners really prioritize transparency, which is something that, uh, wasn't really required or still isn't required by the FDA.

Um, uh, It's a differentiator now. Exactly. Yeah. Especially within like dog food, like, um, you know, there's like, uh, raw dog food brands that like show the entire process of, Um, how their their food is made in the facility, um, to gain that trust from the customer. That's something that, you know, a lot of these legacy dog food brands would have never thought of doing.

Um, so I think transparency is a big one. Sustainability is also another big one. Um, building a community, um, I think that, um, a lot of, you know, the  recent dog brands that have really been scaling over the last three or four years have built really strong communities around their products. Um, which is something that wasn't really prevalent in, in, you know, legacy dog pet care companies.

Um, and so, yeah, I think overall just building a modern brand that, um, sort of upholds the values that you would see for, you know, modern products that we'd use on ourselves is, is a really big trend within the, you know, pet care market. I think consumers overall now are just, they're a lot more aware of, you know, different marketing tactics and that's why they want that transparency and they want like. 

Like the brand to like truly explain like why their products are superior or like if they make a claim like our product can do it XYZ, then like they want to know why or how is it gonna do XYZ or it's like how it's gonna, how is it gonna benefit me?  And so yeah, I think that's something that we really focus on  You know, whether it's content that we upload on organically or you know as brand we run ads like in our ads We always make sure that like We provide that information on our website or on the ads themselves.

Um, yeah, because there, there are a lot of dogs, there are a lot of brands, like in any industry that like make crazy claims and don't have the evidence to back it up. But, um, I think, yeah, that's really important for us to like, is, is to be transparent. Um, And like really provide value to the dog owner.

Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. I mean that kind of moves us back into this other, uh, a macro trend that I am seeing in society that I just want to get your take on is that people are having less kids. Um, and so people are seeing pets essentially as a replacement for this. And so my husband has this theory where plants are the new pets and pets are the new.

And so, yeah, I'm curious your thoughts on that, especially because we have some data from this report that backs this up, that 70 percent of all the, of the respondents from this report said that my pet is like my child. And we see that this percentage is even higher when people actually don't have a child already themselves.

So again, like data that's saying this, my, you know, my pet is my child and are treating them as such. And that's again, um, coming out of a place where you're more likely probably to spend on your pet or your child than you are for yourself. Yeah, exactly. And I resonate with that so much. So I'm not surprised that, you know, um, people responded like that.

I'm not married yet, but I think, um, I treat my dog as if, you know, he's my child, that means, you know, I want to buy the best products for him. I want to give him the best care possible. And I think because dogs can't communicate with us, um, we are constantly worried about them. And so like, um, for example, like if there's like a slight something like with his stomach or like if he feels, he seems like a little bit more tired one day, like, I will like go on my app and like start chatting with my bed and like asking my bed, like, is something wrong with my dog?

And I think a lot of dog owners are similar to me. Like we're just very hypersensitive to our dog's health. Um, and so, um, Yeah, I think, uh, they, they really are just like our, our new kids and like we want to give them the best care and we're always constantly worried about them. We want them to be healthy and, um, that really creates, um, an opportunity for brands to like provide dog owners with the right products to, you know, take better care of the dogs at home, just like they would take care of their kids.

That's awesome. Yeah. One of the last questions I want to ask you is around what other brands, whether in pet care or in CPG at large, um, have inspired you. I know you've mentioned a lot around kind of the modern take, the modern look of wellness. Are there any that you can point to that have been influential in how you've approached Floof?

Yeah, absolutely. I think we look a lot towards, um, human skincare brands because, you know, we are a skincare line essentially for, for dogs. Eventually we want to get into other external care products as well. Um, I think one brand that I really look up to is someone like a Drunk Elephant or Glossier.

I think they just really made their products, um, so fun to use. Um, you know, whether it's from like a community standpoint, um, Um, uh, from their branding, um, but also their ingredients are great. Um, especially like someone like a brand like drunk elephant, I think their ingredients are great and they provide so many different products for different use cases.

And that's sort of what we want floof to be is like, we want to continue launching products that like, if somebody is like, Oh, my dog has this issue, then they'll be like, Oh, I'll just go into flu website because I know they'll, they'll have a solution for that. Um, and so I think, um, yeah, like those, you know, really. 

Successful science backed human skin care brands are brands that we really look to for reference whether it comes to  branding or new product development or  Like any formulation exactly experience of using the products. Yeah that's awesome. Yeah. Um, okay. Well, I would love to learn a little bit more about Leo.

Can you tell us, tell us a little bit about him and if he could talk, what would he say about your products? Yeah. So he is a pretty crazy French bulldog. Um, and he's very stubborn when I take him out on walks. Um, like he remembers where the dog park is. He remembers. Like, where the squirrel that he saw five days ago, which tree that squirrel was in, and he'll go back and like, no matter how much I beg him, like, please, like, we have to go this direction, he will not follow me.

Um, and I love that about him because, like, it gives him, like, character, you know what I mean? He's got a personality. Yeah, he has his own personality, he has his own thoughts, and, He's so smart. Like people like sometimes don't realize how smart dogs are. Um, and so, um, yeah, I think, you know, that personality is what, it's what made me like love him so, so, so much.

Yeah. That, that's why I do, like, I'm like my target demographic target demographic. Like I want to provide him with the best care products possible. What he would say about flu's products is that. He would say thank you for creating this line because it's truly helped his skin so much I like genuinely use all of our products daily from our spray because you know He would have a lot of like yeast infections in his paws He would get a lot of rashes and hot spots and after you know using this the spray on him daily like his skin is improved like significantly and like it would hurt me so much like see him like always like licking his paws itching because like there's nothing more that they can do about it.

Like they're, they can't like walk to the CVS and like purchase the cream that they need or like make an appointment for their own vet. Like as their caregiver, like it's our responsibility to like recognize these problems and treat it for them. And so I think Leo would be so thankful that like I created this line of products that can make his life happier like with the fact that he's not like constantly licking his paws and scratching when he's like out playing makes him so much of a happier dog and so, yeah, I think he would say thank you and that he loves the products and hopefully that's the same sentiment for every dog that uses Floof products. Awesome.

Yeah. Love that so much. Oh, I wanted to ask around, I know we've touched on education and learning more about dog specific needs. Did you, you mentioned that he was a rescue? Did you know going into having a French Bulldog that he was going to have so many of these different issues or was this something where you saw he was itching, you saw that he was licking his paws, and you said, you know, I need to I need to learn more.

And then, you know, kind of went down this journey of discovery around what products were available in the market. Yeah, absolutely. Um, so I had a friend who had a French bulldog and that's why I fell in love with French bulldogs, but, um, I had never had my own before, so I wasn't ready for all the issues that, that he would have, um, like outside of just his skin, like he's had, um, surgery for like a cervical disc, like he had surgery for his heart.

So. Yeah. Like French bulldogs, like do have a lot more issues than typically normal dogs do. And so, um, yeah, it was something that I wasn't prepared for. And, um, you know, within that first six, seven months, um, like I realized like first skin, which was probably the biggest problem when he was young. It's like, there has to be something that I need to come up with, um, to, to fix this, whether I'm going to create it or I'm going to find the brand that's created it.

And it didn't exist. So that's why. I created Floof. Yeah. Amazing. Yeah. So cool. Well, thank you so much, Michael, for joining us today. Everyone, you can learn more about Michael and Floof after this event. We'll be sending along more information, but for now, stay tuned as we'll join you on zoom for a live Q&A. Thanks everyone.