013: From Kitchen to Amazon, Launching All-Natural Cake Mix for Dogs with Kelly Costello of Puppy Cake

Product Startup · 26 Jul 2016 · 55m

What this episode covers

Kelly Costello, founder of Puppy Cake, explains how she launched an all-natural cake mix for dogs in five months with under $5,000, manufacturing in-house from her kitchen. She details her strategy of lowering barriers to entry for retailers through small case sizes and free shipping, and how adding product lines like Puppy Scoops ice cream mix doubled her sales. Costello also shares a critical lesson from a near-bankruptcy event with H.E.B. grocery store, emphasizing the importance of never fulfilling orders without a legally binding purchase order.

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