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🐶 Unleashing the $100B Pet Industry

🐶 Unleashing the $100B Pet Industry

What's happening, who's jumping on it and how to get involved

Joel Hansen
June 16, 2023

Hey Founders,

☕️ Welcome back to our Friday newsletter: where we cast aside our differing views of if cats or dogs are better to focus on our greater love for startup ideas.

🍽 Today's Menu:

🐶 The juicy startup ideas hiding in the pet world
📈 Who’s benefitting from the massive trend growth
🛠 Next steps to build out the ideas

Before we dig in, answer below so nobody gets in a scruff:

Dogs or Cats?

We need to settle a team bet. Pick your team:

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🐕 The Pet Industry is Exploding

Whether you own a pet or not, there’s a few things you should know:

they’re still cute as hell
they make the best companions
70% of households in the USA own a pet
In 2030, the pet industry will be worth ~$300B

Got one of your eyebrows raised? Let’s work on getting that second one up there.

Meet pet startup Zesty Paws: a pet supplements brand focused on making the highest quality ingredients to maximize your pets' health and wellness.

The graph below points out the massive hockey stick growth of search mentions they’ve had in the last 6 months:

It’s off the charts. But they’re not alone. And if you thought the health and wellness space for humans was on the rise, just wait until you get a look at the world of pets.

It’s exploding. And major players are getting in on the action.

Some startups making moves:

Butternut Box (5-year search growth: 733%): startup offering custom, grain-free, human-grade dog food with free delivery in the U.K; raised £20 million in 2020
FluentPet (5-year search growth: 3300%): DTC pet accessory startup selling 3 core SKUs, but are mainly known for their dog talking buttons (searches for “fluentpet buttons” exploed to 99X+ in the last 24 months)

Barkyn (5-year search growth: 1639%): with $12.4m in funding, they’re scaling to be the biggest personalized dog food startup in Western Europe. Key differentiators include food tailored to a dog’s exact needs, 24/7 veterinarians, and anti-aging supplement Oxi+ in their food
And as of late, pet supplements are flying off of shelves quicker than Harry-Pawter books! 🐩

The Data: the global health and wellness market was recently valued at $5T and is estimated to hit $7.6T by 2030. In case you flunked Math 12, that’s a sh*t ton of zeroes.

The Assumptions: the pet and wellness space is gonna follow a similar curve in the next couple years.

What should founders do with this info? Pounce on this trend and get building.

Wondering where to start?

Here’s a few golden areas to start digging 💎

📦 Personalized Supplements & Health Plans

Fact: demand for personalized human nutrition + supplement plans is growing off the charts
Our hunch? Personalized pet supplements will be next

How can you move on this?

Team up with vets to spin up personalized supplement plans
Develop an e-quiz or digital community to draw in email addresses and build rapport with pet owners

The bonus we haven’t told you about: Investors are lining up to put big cash into pet startups.

The facts:

Pitchbook claims $70B has been invested in European pet tech startups across 20 deals
VC firms like SoftBank and Sequoia are placing big $$$
Optimists predict the value of the pet sector currently valued at $100B will be worth $275B by 2030.
In USA/Canada, $2B+ of private health insurance for animals was purchased for 3.5m animals in 2020.

It goes to show: there’s money in the pet world for founders solving high-demand paw-blems. 🦴

Want a startup idea to build? Steal this one 👇

Imagine a “pet dashboard,” where owners can enter their cat/dog’s info and get a health score, forecast and vet recommendations. Like the idea? Post it on Kernal now to get a groundswell movement behind it.

Let’s dig into one more space before you hit your next email.

🧠 Pet Mental Health Space

Crazy Fact: ~3m dogs in America are on anti-anxiety medication (tweet out)
Our hunch: Owners want more tools/apps to manage their pets’ wellbeing 🤎

How can you move on this?

Build a list of the SWOTs for animal behavioural apps to see where opportunity gaps are hiding
The Dogonomist could be worth a peek.

Other signals that’ll make you paws your scroll:

If you look up “calming music for dogs” on Ahrefs it shows that ~6,000 people per month on looking it up on Google.
Also, some dog separation anxiety music is so popular it’s drummed up 41m+ views.
The natural next startup idea that should “paw-p” into your mind is a white noise machine for pets that helps owners calm their pets down for them. Share it on Kernal already. Nobody’s done it.

Okay, okay. Just one last idea riff before you get to your sangrias this weekend.

Alternative Pet Therapies & Spas

The blue and red lines say it all. There’s an undeniable spike in pet owners wanting dog chiropractors and pet spas. Who’s gonna build a solution to capture that market demand?

You are. Need ideas? We got your back.

Here’s some high paws-ability startups to run with:

Marketplace to connect pet owners to certified dog chiropractors: the app could include features such as booking appointments, pick-up/drop-off services, accessing educational resources, and progress tracking for appointments
Luxury pet spa and relaxation center designed exclusively for dogs. The startup could offer various services like dog massages, aromatherapy, hydrotherapy, and specialized grooming treatments to pamper furry companions.
Canine Wellness Club: a subscription-based service that drops off curated monthly boxes filled with premium wellness products for dogs. You could include things like natural supplements, massage tools, calming aromatherapy products, and vouchers for pet spa visits.

Like any of them? Get one started on Kernal.

Looking for more ins(paw)ration? Check out these startup ideas: