From Zero to Category Leader in 15 Months

0:00They say it's between four and eight times you see a brand before you make a first purchase. And if you're launching something now by 2025, it's a new game for brand awareness and your digital strategy and all these points. Hey, everyone. Thanks for tuning in. I'm Shuang Esther Shan, your host here at Shopify Masters, and this is your companion for starting and scaling your business. Today, we are joined by a true game changer in the pet industry. William Smolin took his expertise from building a beauty brand to create a premium pet care company that treats our dogs with the same care we treat ourselves.

0:38In less than two years, Wagwell has created its own category, pet wellness, bringing human great standards to everything they make. Bill's visionary leadership has brought to light products pet parents didn't even know they needed. Bill, welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. So happy to have you here. you had extensive experience in beauty, which inspired Wegwell. Tell me about that moment where you knew this would be a great business idea. So I used to work with one of the largest contract cosmetics manufacturers for many of the world's most recognizable makeup artists and luxury beauty brands.

1:15And some of my team now also had come from there. And we're really working on the latest innovation of skincare and tech-driven ingredients and know how to build products. We're thinking about clean ingredients, the future, sort of the best way to make the best thing possible. And simultaneously, my pug is itching and eating bad kibble. There's problems. We're going to veterinarians and other experts, and we're not getting the results that we need or any answer. It was all very opaque. And I just felt like, gosh, it could be so much better in that space. It's similar ingredients and similar manufacturing processes in ways.

1:50And I just felt like there was so much room for improvement. So I'd always wanted to innovate in the pet space. That was a while ago. It would take more time before we were able to make Wagwell come to fruition. But I'm so thankful I was even able to bring some of the team who initially wanted to do that onto this brand. Yeah. I mean, it has been a long period of thoughtful innovation and also preparation and development. So I believe it was a year and a half. Walk us through the process you took to differentiate each product and understanding the industry before you were ready to launch? Well, we did a lot of research, as anyone should, before launching a brand and landing on that product category.

2:32We launched in supplements, which is not the sexiest thing. And I always say it's usually a vehicle for licensing celebrity. And there is power in them if they're messaged in the proper format. But we found this incredible ingredient called aji flour oil, which is a plant-based omega source that gives you good omega-3, 6, and 9. Oftentimes, this is used as like a fish or salmon oil, but a lot of that is sort of not really an ideal format for the way there's overfishing, the smell of it, 0.5 % of the fish is used in the actual production and results. We just felt like we had this incredible ingredient and wanted to formulate a line of best-in-class supplements using that as the omega source.

3:17Purina had owned the rights in the horse space. We were bringing that to dog and the first brand to it. We knew there was value there and we wanted to meet the customer where they were to build upon supplements in a way and market them differently because they are valuable when it's part of a larger healthy sustainable diet. It's not an antibiotic and it won't sort of fix. But without going too much detail on supplements, it was important that we work with veterinary nutritionists, food scientists, and real experts to kind of make what I say is the best cocktail possible for each of these. If we're an unknown brand coming to the market, I wanted to address a space where we felt there was room for improvement to offer something for the pet and pet parent that we knew would be superior.

3:59So that's where we started. But the whole point was to innovate a cross product category to build that trusted brand. You don't really see that if you walk into some of the larger pet stores. It's a lot of disparate brands that do one thing specifically. And it was important to us to build Wagwell as a trusted source. So while we launched in supplements, we then added treats. And now we're working on food and we're grooming and working across product category with the main underlier being product innovation, where if we can't make something better or different from what's on the market, we're not going to do so.

4:35So it was interesting to start from scratch. It's a great opportunity on a new brand. But even some of, you know, when you do that research, where you think you're going to land will be different. And that's part of the beauty of it. But I'm really lucky to have top product developers and scientists working with us. It's not just my idea of something I'm making in a bathtub. I think if you're going to build a modern brand today. You have to start with a product that's, I believe, superior, but you can't fully rely upon that, right? So not having being licensed by a celebrity, it was really important to us that we come out of the gate with differentiated, worthwhile product.

5:12So cool to hear how thoughtful you are about the process, and you're truly thinking about the whole lifestyle of a pet and trying to enhance it in every way possible through these products. And I understand, you is a barrier for a lot of entrepreneurs, especially when it involves a lot of researching and product development. For your journey, though, you were able to work with a family office and build trust and bring them on board to invest in Wagwell before launch. Talk to us about developing that relationship. I didn't know them from anyone else prior to working together, but we met for many, many months to make sure that this would be the right fit.

5:52And I'm very thankful to have that investment because when you look at building not only Shopify but any omni-channel brand from scratch there are so many components required to add that legitimacy right you know every time you say it's between four and eight times you see a brand before you make a first purchase and if you're launching something you know now by 2025 it's a new game for brand awareness and your digital strategy and all these points so I'm really thankful to have had that investment beforehand so we could lay out what a proper launch strategy would look like. It takes a lot of time.

6:27And, you know, it's important that I'm there to manage the expectations and deliver upon what we say we will. And, you know, the world's changing bit by bit. And I think that's the only constant, right? So it's been really exciting, and I'm very thankful for it. But it was imperative to be able to launch something as specific as, you know, starting in supplements or the food we're building. It'd be one thing if I had a nice treat that I made from scratch that I could bake on my own, but a lot of what we're building with Wagwell is about ingredient innovation. A lot of ex-beauty and consumer packaged goods executives, we've come together to bring what I'm calling our human beauty standards to the pet space through innovative ingredients, superior manufacturing, and testing to support claims.

7:11All of that requires time and money, but the result is a really good product that, you know, takes time to put together that you're going to build upon. So separate from any marketing strategy, you need to start with that marrow and it took time to build that. So I do have a single funded source of a family office, which is really helpful. Of course, I'm on a very tight leash as anyone is building a new brand, but it does give us that opportunity where, you know, if a big retail opportunity comes up or whatever digital aspect, there are resources to help scale and build that. And it's tough for any entrepreneur.

7:46I have many friends raising money for brands. It's a terrifying time for that right now. And we'll probably end up doing so later on as well. But this has allowed us an opportunity to sort of, you know, prove the path and plan and make noise. You know, we launched, what, 15 months ago. It's every brand you're wearing has probably existed for at least five years, right? It takes time to get that together. And we've had a really great initial year and we're really optimistic about where we're going, but it's been necessary to have that investment to be able to deliver on the product and make that.

8:18Well, the fact that you were able to secure this relationship with this family office and have them trust you to innovate for a year and a half before launching, I think that is a reflection of your experience, your expertise, and also how you are building a brand? Thank you. I mean, it's really been quite a process. I think you go into something with good intentions and I'm so, I get along with them. I'm so thankful we have a great relationship, but it's real money being spent and people who want that back, they have growth expectations that are completely necessary and you kind of have to go there and work through it all together.

8:55I always say to my team, we have nothing to hide. Let's show the process and what's required and let's be open to changing that where appropriate. That doesn't mean run around. It just means, respond to the environment. It's easy to have that revisionist history after the fact of I could have, should have, would have done whatever. But you only have the resources you have and the options in the moment. You don't want to muddy the waters about what you could or could not do. You need to do the research, look at the data, align with the team and make a decision and own that narrative. And it's really tough to build a brand, right?

9:25A lot of venture capital, a lot of private equity investors, a lot of angel investors, they all have different needs of how to go about doing so, right? And it's important to solve for your DTC. That's getting really expensive. People push to Amazon. Omnichannel is necessary, but at the right growth point. I could go off for hours, but, you know, and each retailer wants you to have big social and DTC. Venture wants you in a single format channel to prove a process. If you answer all of them right away from the beginning, the result will fail. So you kind of need to work at what's right for you and take opportunities to improve upon everything to build that story.

9:59So it's not easy. And I was saying, I last launched my old beauty brand, what, 13 years ago? And it's easy to have that selective amnesia for how difficult it is. I love the building. I love the newness and putting that together and seeing how it's all connected. That to me is the most fun part of running a business. And when you're smaller, you're able to see those differences and how it affects everything. So to me, it's a lot of fun, but it's also an incredible amount of work and risk and, you know, new brands no one wants to deal with. They need to know that you need, you're going to really be somewhere, right?

10:31So it's traveling every week to manufacturers in different places around the country to build and convince and put together. And I'm so thankful to have a good team of experienced people who've done it. So I think we have a shorthand and we're on the same wavelength and there's a general understanding that I think has allowed us to move more quickly. But you look at the headwinds and it's pretty crazy right now to be able to build anything. And again, remember, these brands were never designed to be profitable and work right away. So you kind of have to like, bend processes and stuff to find the best way through, through everyone's expectations.

11:05And at the end of the day, I know we have real growth, we have really great product and good reviews. And it all comes back to these simple ideas of building that community and working with the customer. We were really intentional about launching Wagwell quietly as its own brand and then building in through that because we know it's a marathon and not a sprint. It may have helped to have one big celebrity at the beginning, but again, with the type of product we're making, it's ingestible, if it's innovative food or treats or supplements, you're really dealing with the problem for your dog. It's not just a fun lipstick or luxury item that you might enjoy.

11:39So we were really intentional about whether the UGC we use, our brand ambassadors, the partnerships we've taken on, ensuring that fits to a larger narrative. There's so many factors at play when you're launching and you secure this great investor relationship. On the flip side, you also invested in conferences and events. And I know that SuperZoo was such a great launching point for you. When founders are evaluating what kind of opportunities and events they should invest into network, what do you think they should keep in mind? Great question. And I've connected to a number of founders in the space who are always trying to decide, God, can I spend the money?

12:19Is it worth showing up? So SuperZoo is this big, you know, it's the pet conference in Las Vegas in August of every year. We went the year before we had the brand launch just to see everything. And it was really important. Like I left that maybe a little critical saying, I don't see it being terribly innovative. I don't see interesting ingredients outside of the norm. How could we as our brand be the change we wanted to see the next year. And I knew we built something great and people can love packaging or their ahi flower story or whatever specific adjective that differentiates the noun, right?

12:50But like at the end of the day, we were vulnerable. We're nervous. We set up a great booth. We committed to it for the next year. It was expensive, but I knew we had a good product, but now I need to go present that to the world. And it's a good chance to sort of analyze the delta between where you think you'll be and where you are. And knowing like, okay, great, you show up once. So many brands are a flash in the pan to get this and have unrealistic expectations as for what that's going to do immediately. Everything is a long-term period and it's just about like delaying that gratification, kind of knowing what you're getting into.

13:22So we show up and we were there every day. I had the whole team we use as a chance to get everyone together. Our team is based throughout the country. I'm consultant heavy, number of agencies. It was a good chance to see it all in real light. And we were really proud of the results. But from that, you kind of work with what you have, right? We met a number of retailers and got incredible feedback and ended up hiring our broker dealers from the trip and made a number of connections that I'm now following up to this day that have been really helpful as we launch, you know, retail planning and build out into that network.

13:53We do have some people on the team who've come from the pet world, but there are a lot of us who are outside of it. So now we need to ingratiate ourselves with a pretty tight-knit community where it's pretty tough for new brands to make noise. A lot of people have moved into pet and I speak of the human beauty standards. I'm not making lipstick for a dog. I'm thinking of the way in which you build a brand from really like a management style of like beauty and CPG brands work within this well from the ingredients, manufacturing and testing. So now we need to go meet everyone and find that right place within the space.

14:27It ended up being very successful. I'm so thankful, but it's not about going once. We need to go again and continually show up and realize that you're playing against the competition that's larger than you. Right. And it's scary. If a good friend who's a founder of a really great brand and pet just came back from Global Pet, she had an opportunity. I'm like, no, you show up, leave your comfort zone, meet people, be out there. Two or three things could lead you somewhere else, but it's that cumulative value that goes. So I always feel like what I'm feeling down or reticent or nervous is when you need to double down.

14:56I'm also probably really naive and good about just like putting blinders on and that kind of gets you through those dark points as you continue. Because if you think the success is a linear route, like you're crazy. It's always going to be something all over the board. It's about knowing that you have something good and sticking with that and not just judging it at that instantaneous point. So SuperZoo was great. And we just got back from GlobalPet and that was really helpful. And you need to show up to these community events and build people, especially if you have a new DTC brand and you're trying to get more involved within an industry.

15:29It's the time that everyone's going to be there and be open. And, but also like, did I have crazy orders come from one thing? No, but are there three relationships that will be built that will determine the next six months of our brand for sure. And I think the beauty of that is being open to seeing where that will lead. Yeah. I think what I take away from that is growth is never going to be just a straight hockey stick up. And a lot of the times, if we do take steps back, sideways, we need to still be motivated because it realigns us to move forward. And it's okay to not feel like we're constantly on an upward trajectory.

16:06And you do talk about, you know, coming into this new industry with your experience in beauty. How do you take the creativity and the inspiration and the experience from beauty, but still making sure that, you know, pet owners are feeling welcomed and interested in what you're creating? Well, that's a great question. Thank you. Especially with beauty and aspects of that in luxury fashion or where I was in luxury beauty is definitely it's the brands that smile versus don't smile, right? There's like the Balenciaga and all that you don't smile. We're like, you know, lower end you do. The whole point of Wagwell, it's happiness and wellness.

16:41It's like together we keep them wagging and well, it's the dog. Like this is one thing that transcends class, age, politics, religion, everything. Everyone loves their dog. So as much as we've put good effort into beautiful design and an approach, it's really important that when you land that, it's not just trying to be some really expensive dog fragrance or type of literal beauty bit. No, we want it to be something that's positive and fun. I mean, look at your social media feeds anyway. What a few things I have left, maybe it's just my own algorithm, are dogs that I trust more than human followers, right?

17:14It becomes sort of a point of joy. And it's imperative that I think you land that there because it's easy to, you know, get caught up in what it is we're building. But at the end of the day, it's about improving the lives of the pets. And, you know, we're seeing the results that come from that. If you look at how millennials and Gen Z, which is 51 % of pet owners now purchase product over the past couple of decades, we've learned to be more discerning about ingredient lists and call outs and the way that we're thinking about what we're ingesting, whether it's beauty or food or however we buy, that's transferred onto the pet.

17:46And we're seeing a lot of brands move there. I think with Wagwell, it's imperative that we meet the customer where they are. And while actually we did really fun photo shoot in Palm Springs, and we're having fun with that on social, and we're definitely higher end for a premium product, but we land that cost around all of our competition. And we want to present that in a way that's like clever, but funny, but engaging, but you can still do that while being taken seriously. And I always say you can be approachable without compromising integrity. I've definitely found to channel that within the pet space more so than where I've been in the past.

18:20Yeah. And I think like having that beauty experience is also really beneficial because you understand the practices of standards and testing, which you prioritize and bring into the pet space. What about that process that you've done differently to kind of enhance even more? Look, great question. Thank you. It's been really tough. It'd be really easy for us to launch the standard wipe that 95 % of the manufacturers make. No one needs another dog wipe. If I'm going to go do that, we need to ensure it's different and better from what's on the market, which is our mission. And luckily, my head of product and I are traveling around the country trying to force almost square peg round hole and how we'll get these ingredients, these call outs, the pH balance to match the dog to make a skincare claim that will actually work that will then test and then speak to.

19:07It's not about making the good product. It's how you're channeling that. And I always say that every product needs to have three points of difference on a low end of the funnel when advertising. That if it's like, again, if you don't need another brand, if you're going to do it, that's the marrow we're building to be able to differentiate knowing when you'll buy Wagwell down the road that it's going to have something that's good in there. And it's not about overcomplicating that either. You want to be simple and straightforward, but building that trust. To get the manufacturers to make it, it's tough.

19:33We're a new brand. We don't have the quantities that any of my competition does. And that makes it difficult even on pricing, but we do have that innovation. And luckily, you know, Susan from my team is a world-class product developer who's come from Chanel and L 'Oreal and worked with me at my contract manufacturer in the past who has really good relationships where people have taken on projects from us because they know that she's worked on many brands you would know and will deliver. So that's been really helpful. the two biggest things for the new brand are to be able to own and figure out your manufacturing process and even engage within the retail space so i'm thankful to have her alongside me as we speak to these places the fun part too is a lot of these manufacturers are getting into pet we're almost late to the game but to me it's like well how do we make it different and better and it's a lot of effort and physical meetings and because you know we're real people behind a brand it's important you show who you are and everything's a long-term relationship so it's better to start that from a good foot aligned from the beginning, it makes your life much easier later on.

20:35But beauty is interesting because of how you build the brand, how you test that, how you, you know, from forecasting to retail planning, it's all similar. And our whole team has good experience, not just in beauty, but working for brands of different sizes and launching that because it's very new to launch something versus where you are 10 years down the line. And it's really important. I don't need a million good products. I need a few very good ones. We're very intentional about how we're innovating on that. Like we've wanted food from the very beginning, but to be a new food brand from scratch is near impossible.

21:06So we built that through supplements and then treats and it's been innovating and then other aspects of grooming that help other terms. So we could amalgamate all of that when we get to food with a formulation that is just beautiful. And I'm really proud of that. It's different, but you need all of that, right? And it's not, here I am focused so much on product. now it's how are you placing it how are you cutting through the noise to get that traffic brought to even your DTC or Amazon or any of the wholesale partners the spend is real and like while hope I always say hope is not a strategy we definitely have it it's there and you got a plan for it there needs to be a much larger thought process in that and I've been the brand before that you build things through connections and there's that slow planning we have tremendous growth goals and we don't let those compromise the planning but it's really important you're looking at that through like a 360 lens.

21:56Hope is not a strategy, but it's definitely a very important component. The way that you develop these products in the order that they happen is really interesting because I would assume maybe you would have started with food because that's something that pets need every day. Why did you decide to start with supplements? Because I think it informed that we could actually do it. Food's really expensive and really complicated. And I worked on our formulation with our vet nutritionists and food scientists for gosh, at least a year and more than that. And they made the third most difficult recipe they've ever done, they said.

22:29And it's simple, but it's about getting all of that out there. I didn't know how well that would resonate. And food is one of the few things I've barely changed with my dog, right? That's a big, big spend and thought process to get there. So it was important, like supplements are part of a space of problem solution. They're ingesting. We built these single ingredient freeze-dried treats. They're incredible. Like we have these cheese treats that are great. I'm from Wisconsin, so maybe it even hits home differently, but they're really cute. Real Wisconsin cheddar, but that's dogs ingesting that and trusting it and seeing that it's working and it's a good product and that they trust and believe us.

23:05And we've built that community. So it's a natural progression into food. But even like with grooming, that sounds disparate. It's not. We made a product that's like a wax protector. It's called our paw protector based off of something that's famous in the market that's all mineral oil. Well, we have a wax guy and we had him remake that with all natural waxes and oils and present that instead of in a hot pour, a beautiful Propel Repel stick that you would use for yourself that I made from a manufacturer that makes half of the makeup at Sephora with really good standards. And then we got the first canine microbiome friendly seal, which was new in Doppette, but it's kind of already becoming a very well-known part of beauty.

23:42So it's like, we'll make a really good product. Now we'll position this and take these claims. Let's see how the market responds to that. Because while they're not eating it, the dog can't ingest. It's about being safe. It's about building that trust. So all of these things amalgamate into, is food worthwhile? Like, of course, we wanted to do it. It's so expensive. It's a big risk. That will be a lot of our marketing dollars. I'd love to be able to spend and talk about everything all the time. But you need to prioritize that given, you know, fixed resources. So I'm really optimistic. And the packaging and the story, it's all really fun.