Farm to Pet Simplifies Dog Treats

Farm to Pet's Story, from Jackson Jones, founder and CEO of Farm to Pet

I was working for a large financial company and had always spent time in and around manufacturing. We didn't really have a go-to treat for our dog, Rooney. A friend had casually mentioned some simple-ingredient treats the dog loved, and I thought I could make something similar. I had no background in the pet business or food manufacturing, and I couldn’t find any single-ingredient options for dogs. They all had additives, and most of the additives were not healthy for the dog. Also, protein was a very low percentage of what was in the treats. So I worked to make something that would be the simplest, healthiest protein treat you could give a pet.

How does Farm to Pet’s product stand out?

We have beef, fish, turkey breast and chicken breast. From a vision perspective, we are very lucky to be able to say that our product portfolio is very slim compared to many other companies. We produce four primary products. We're not putting in additives or changing our formulas, so we've been able to lock in production techniques and sourcing to make a nice, consistent product.

What were some of the early challenges for Farm to Pet?

The first challenge was finding the chicken supply and a facility to make the product. I found a very, very small facility next to a poultry business and purchased a couple dehydrators. My operations manager, Frankie — who's still with us today — and I started making these in batches, and we had to figure out how to build a company out of that. Growth is hard when you're self-funded, using money you're making from your operations with very limited investment — making sure you manage the cash flow and the investment side to keep up with the growth that you have and that you want.

Were there any challenges with creating the new varieties that you’ve rolled out?

We thought sweet potatoes might be something we could make into our chip format, and I was very adamant about wanting the same final look for the product. But there were just challenges on the dehydration end and having the right equipment to cut the sweet potatoes. So we shelved that. To make our fish treats, which turned out really well, it took a couple iterations, but I think most challenging was beef. We had to get a very, very lean beef cut to make the dehydration work.

What’s the best advice you can give other food & beverage entrepreneurs?

You have to be very comfortable with being uncomfortable. When you start a company, especially as a single founder, you don't have a CPA or someone managing production schedules for you. So you really have to quickly learn all these different abilities. As an entrepreneur, if you enjoy that and you aren't afraid to learn new things, I think it's a wonderful opportunity.