In this episode of Retaili$tic, Deborah Weinswig, CEO of Coresight Research and Kevin Bauer, CEO of Furvor, discuss the evolving landscape of retail, particularly in the pet nutrition sector. Kevin shares his journey from investment banking to entrepreneurship, highlighting the rise in pet ownership and the opportunities it presents. They delve into the challenges of building a brand from scratch, the importance of educating consumers about pet nutrition, and the innovative approach of using bone broth as a nutritional supplement for dogs. The discussion also covers digital marketing strategies, the role of AI in business operations, and advice for new entrepreneurs navigating the complexities of the market.
The video version of this podcast can be viewed here
Takeaways
Staying informed is crucial in retail.
Kevin transitioned from investment banking to entrepreneurship.
Pet ownership surged during COVID, creating market opportunities.
Building a brand from scratch involves emotional investment.
Education is key in promoting new pet nutrition products.
Innovating in pet nutrition can fill gaps in the market.
Digital marketing is challenging for new pet brands.
AI can enhance marketing and content development.
Exploring alternative sales channels is essential for growth.
Networking and building a team is vital for entrepreneurs.
Chapters
00:00 Kevin's Journey: From Investment Banking to Entrepreneurship
03:23 The Rise of Pet Ownership and Market Opportunities
05:43 Building a Brand from Scratch: The Emotional Journey
08:45 Innovating Pet Nutrition: The Case for Bone Broth
13:44 Navigating the Digital Marketing Landscape
18:39 Exploring Alternative Platforms for Growth
22:15 Leveraging AI in Business Operations
26:53 Future Growth: Omnichannel Strategies and New Product Development
35:30 Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs
Welcome to Retaili$tic, the official podcast of Coresight Research for August 5th, 2025. This week, our CEO Deborah Weinswig welcomes Kevin Bauer, CEO of Furvor, for an enlightening story of how a brand can grow from identifying an opportunity to generating millions in revenue in less than five years. But first, let's check in with Isla Meldon from the London office to hear what you can expect from Coresight Research this week.
In retail, staying informed isn't just an advantage, it's essential. This week, our research service delivers four timely reports to keep you ahead of the curve. First, keep an eye out for our continuing coverage of the US grocery sector, including our insights on current market themes and the sector's current themes and innovators. We'll also cover recent mergers, acquisitions and divestments that have occurred in the consumer packaged goods sector.
Our monthly StoreTracker Extra report will examine US retail real estate changes in July 2025. And finally, we'll continue to cover major retail companies' recent earnings reports in our Earnings Insights 2Q25 report. Subscribe now to access the intelligence retail executives rely on to stay informed, stay focused and stay ahead.
Thanks, Isla. Now let's join Deborah and Kevin.
Deborah Weinswig (01:18)
Kevin, thanks for joining us today. We really appreciate having you.
KB (01:21)
Excited to be here, excited to catch up.
Deborah Weinswig (01:23)
So it's been a while. think when we first met, you were doing something very different than you are today. Can you tell us about what you were doing, what you're doing now, and maybe a little bit of the journey in terms of how you got there?
KB (01:35)
Yeah, happy to. know, blessed with for sure, you know, different, different phases in my career. So I started out very early on in the investment banking industry and Manhattan and to San Francisco journey. And but I think it was the classic investment banker that was always curious about what was happening on the other side of the table.
So I always wanted to be an operator. And for the last 18 years or so before making this more recent pivot, had the chance to work with investment to grow companies at different stages, typically late stage venture to maybe early stage private equity, a lot in the professional service industry. And the last I was running, helped run was in the creative space. So a brand innovation digital agency that was growing from California across the country.
Definitely my background, established business models, having fun kind of pushing them through new gates, new hurdles. And as you know, Deborah, a big pivot for me, I've always had this itch maybe, this wondering what is it really like to be an entrepreneur? I finally decided to itch with a family-based idea all around pet nutrition.
We're about two and a half years into our launch with this company called Furvor, and it's all bringing nutrition to dogs through bone broth.
Deborah Weinswig (02:54)
I remember when we were talking, I think before you'd even gone live, was where you looked at the data around pet ownership, pet engagement, right? Kind of how much people were spending on their And you could just see kind of a really a global trajectory in terms the growth. from before you kind of like open the doors, if you will, how have different in terms just your thoughts around the opportunity and kind of what's missing in the market.
KB (03:24)
In the early days really thinking through the idea that initial walk with myself and the younger of my two boys was coming probably right out of the COVID days. And we saw some crazy growth in pet ownership during COVID. And I think treatment of animals, even though they were always part of families, it seemed like it kind of moved towards they are actually family members.
know, coming during and then coming out of COVID. And, you know, a lot of those metrics that we were studying, kind of taking this family idea, is it going to be a farmer's market on the weekend idea, or is there a lot of legs to this and to really build a business around it? one stat that I love coming out on the heels of COVID pet parents taking their dogs to vets more frequently than their own children. And sort of the care wrapped around it. so growth in industry,
size of US and global industry, think super easy check marks. But what really kind of brought my curiosity is, and in many industries, established industry, very little innovation, right? And so it was there an opportunity to come in, to take a small wedge, small piece of this pie to innovate a new product segment that hadn't been there before. And my view,
was there really had not been historically any brands that were talking about doing nutrition differently through liquids, in our case, bone broth. That walk four years ago was about why is there not an all-natural Gatorade for dogs? We've kind of evolved a little bit since then. And I would say that we still remain super enthusiastic where growth is. This segment that we're in, which is broadly defined as toppers, toppers at meal time, toppers for
hydration is one of the fastest growing segments in pet. I would say all of that still holds true. A lot of obstacles getting innovation right. lot of obstacles the right way to pet parents when there's a new product. the more of the same, but that was already there. Maybe just innovating around the edges, but when you have a completely new sitting on the shelf,
why they should sort of just pause and listen to us for a second.
Deborah Weinswig (05:28)
So back to what you had done before, and maybe it's always easier to be on one side of the table than the other, but you were almost helping companies think through branding and how did that kind of apply to when you tried to do it yourself?
KB (05:44)
It's really interesting, Debra. So like I always use this term when I've come part of executive management teams of existing I'd say like you're a steward, right? something's been up and running, call it for a three, a five, a 10, a 20 year period. And you had opportunity to grab the baton for the next lap around the But
branding, the core foundation has been around for a while. You might be evolving it, adjusting it, nothing can stay constant, but there's still some really important brand pillars that you're probably just evolving on. When you have a chance for the first time to create a brand from scratch and what those pillars mean and the foundation and the mission, it's interesting, right? Like the brand starts to mean a whole heck of a lot more than just a product set.
do think sometimes you can over it or over engineer it. But I do say this, like when you launch and in this case, probably a little bit different than maybe more just right off the bat, maybe an investment backed idea. This Genesis, there was a family element. so super bizarre for me. Typically, I'm sitting around a table with a board, an investor group talking about evolving a brand and past
the very early days, three and a half years ago, I'm sitting around a kitchen table with my wife and both sons and like we're having a naming and I'm walking through with them what I think is sort of the right approach to market for it. And so a lot of emotional maybe with launching fervor, which is a little bit different when things get that makes sense.
Deborah Weinswig (07:20)
That's a phenomenal way to explain know, it's interesting. mean, we had a, it's crazy. We had a personal experience. It was 2023. I was supposed to be speaking at this amazing family was off on vacation somewhere and I was, I was left working. I was going to do like a day one of our two dogs was just like completely And I'm like,
I mean, I gotta tell you, like, I just, I can't go, right? Like, I'm like, I felt that I was leaving her in harm's way. And so it was probably one of it was a hard decision, right? Cause you have a commitment, you're like, they're probably gonna be fine. I'm probably like over worrying. So anyways, I didn't go to the conference. I brought my dog to the vet and it turned out she was dehydrated. They recommended bone broth and it was, I mean, it like literally like, you know, she went from this completely like listless.
to by the end of the day having kind of like regained at least most of her regular self. And so I saw it in action, but I had never known about the product. First of all, not for dehydration or whatever she was going through, but certainly like just even in terms of like dog health. So I mean, it took a vet, right? Like who had to like sit down and explain it and how to do it exactly and not overdo or underdo it. And so I can see the education piece and then also ⁓
once you educate people, how do you find the conversion?
KB (08:46)
it's fun for the edge. I am so passionate about the product. I don't mind getting up on the soapbox and sort of shouting over and over. had a person come up to me just at a trade show a few months ago and I thought it was the perfect analogy. It was a guy a little bit older than And he's just like, it's almost like in the pet space. He's like, Kevin, do you remember when we were playing sports in high school? coaches would simply just say like, have your bowl of spaghetti the night before, Carboload.
and you're going to be fine for your baseball, your basketball, your football game, whatever it would And so he's like, he's like, arguably like that's still what's happening in pet. He's like the spaghetti the night before is just like all the varieties of kibble. Just make sure your dog has the kibble the night before. They'll be fine for whatever it may And there's no variation on that theme. you know, think about how far we've come from those high school days playing basketball. He's like, there's, there's a lot more sports supplements available for people.
a lot of those sports supplements you could argue are all bent towards hydration the type of nutrients we get through liquid hydration. again, if we're just like the weekend warrior or the mom and dad taking the walk during the day or the professional athlete, so much science coming through nutrition through liquids. And he's just like, and it hasn't happened in pet in the last 30 years. We're still stuck with our high school coach telling us to have the bowl of spaghetti. And you're one of the first guys saying, hey, think we've evolved a little bit from that.
And by the way, here's a really cool way to start thinking about all natural, limited ingredient. It's bone broth done the right way for dogs. And hey, yes, don't be scared. It's made out of a liquid. And many times during the day, whether it's at meal time or outside of meal time, your dog just needs more
Deborah Weinswig (10:23)
it's really interesting everyone's like, okay, they've got the bowl of water, right? Isn't that enough liquid for them? But as humans, we also have enough. But if we're going to perform, especially heat of the summer and whatnot, you find is that you string together? People are like, aha, right? What is it exactly?
KB (10:41)
Yeah, I, it bums me out a little bit because I tell stories about that a fair amount. And then I'd simply just say, the easiest way to think about like fervor is an all natural Gatorade for dogs. And funny how much people can relate to Gatorade and maybe much that has even evolved over the last 20 plus and how they incorporate Gatorade or a Gatorade like product.
in their diets. And so why that I think it works is the trend in arguably in many of these health areas is just lagging what's happening in the human CPG aisle by pick the metric, three years, five years, seven years. And so what people are kind of doing for their own health and nutrition benefit, they kind of look down at the four legged family member and say, I bet it might be good for them. And so,
if I can get them to think about how they may have been incorporating different forms of nutrition through liquids and Gatorade is just synonymous with the entire category, a light bulb goes And I would say that light bulb going off combined with, I think as you might remember, we first launched with bone broth and our chicken bone broth products about it, we're two and a half years into it, two and a half years new.
About a year into it, we launched with our Mobility And it was interesting to us. It was our beef based flavor, but we kind of super boosted it with amino acids, glucosamine and chondroitin, all of which by the way are naturally occurring already in bone broth, but augmented them to really tell the dog's bodies, protein synthesis, that we've got more nutrients in here to focus on muscle and hip and joint health. And just having on the bottle.
Right? Like as humans like to see, like the functional benefit of what this is more focused on for a given dog. They are like our consumers almost just want to be directed. Like look at this aisle, this segment of the vitamin aisle in Whole Foods, right? Is about This next segment over here is about gut health and that general trend in pet is occurring. We launched, I think in a very safe area. Our beef bone broth is still our
number one selling product, our mobility product is our fastest growing. that to your point, connecting with the consumer to think about what they've been using a similar product in their own life, and then kind of directing and telling them, hey, the functional benefit it could be having for your dog. And that one-two combo, we've seen a really big benefit in the last year.
Deborah Weinswig (13:13)
You had actually me understand because, right, you know, our clients will talk about we need help with this, that or the other, but you were super granular, which helped us understand things better how you're investing your marketing dollars. And it was for me, it was just like this great unlock to kind of see it and to hear some of the data from you. what's been your take? Because obviously a lot's changed since you started. And and how are you?
KB (13:37)
Yeah.
Deborah Weinswig (13:39)
How do you stay on top of incredibly MarTech environment?
KB (13:45)
Yeah, so overly simplified things. And I know we've connected, we've joked from time to time, right? So I am sole venture backer to the idea, but I think that's always forced a decision making habit with me, which is in these first two years, I not to fight multi-front
And so I was going to try to find and talk to my customers kind of one swim lane at a time. So some capital constraints that, but I didn't want to do a shotgun approach and I wanted to kind of swim lane or to learn more about my customer sets. In PET, I would say the cards are stacked against us, but it's challenging for new brands coming into PET from the D to C.
world of things because I'll just round up a little bit. 80 % of every dollar PET digitally runs through two platforms, Amazon and Chewy combined. Yes, there's transactions happening on the individual brand sites, the Shopify's of the world, but it's really, really, really hard to do that right out of the A lot of dollars would have to be.
fronted for that to grab enough brand awareness to make sure that a customer would ever want to transact on your site versus the simplicity of Amazon Chewy. So what are you forced to do? You're forced to pick one of those two platforms to show product market fit, to try to learn as much as you can about customers. Although Chewy and Amazon could kind of protect their customer set as much as they can, right? You're just renting their customers, they're never And then increasingly with Chewy, they are asking...
indirectly small brands that kind of prove themselves on Amazon first. And then if they see those and they're all, everyone has the ability to see what metrics are happening on Amazon. If they see the right success profile on Amazon, then you're invited over to Chewy. It's a brilliant strategy for Chewy, if you ask Just let things settle out for a year to two years. So we launched on Amazon only, I'll exaggerate, for the last.
two years roughly, 100 % of our advertising budget was going Amazon. And then once we started to get to a certain scale, it was interesting. Like all within a quarter to two quarters, we heard from Chewy, we heard from our first large distributor, and we heard from a top three big box retailer.
And I'll just like cut to the chase. They just want a brand to have survived a year to two years. And they want to see, think probably like an annualized run rate of about a million dollars. seemed like that's when my email or phone started to pick so it's now for me this year, kind of taking a deep breath. we for sure have had our hands full with a, with a variety of just getting manufacturing and our formula, right. As we've been sort of evolving what manufacturing partners we're working with.
Deborah Weinswig (16:26)
That's it.
KB (16:40)
But for me now, we literally just launched in Chewy about 30 days ago. ⁓ It's been really interesting to see that. We have an opportunity to launch with a two retailer in PET for two different types of trial. And all that paperwork still seems to be path for Q4 of this year. And we're probably like 60 days into our national distributor. So for me, it's been like steady in the boat after the first two years.
I feel really exposed, Debra? Did I feel, was it the right business strategy? Did I think that betting heavy on Amazon was the right thing to do? At times, I didn't know. But I do feel like for a startup pet brand showing viability of the brand, and if it can scale or not on Amazon, helps open up doors. What it doesn't do, and what I'm super excited about now is like, I've got some customers
on that platform that are buying $200 or more of my my average cost to get that customer is less than $20. make it very hard for me to really know who that customer is. Like if you said, you describe the like avatar profile that customer with Amazon? can't. And so I know that that universe exists for me out there. And so now it's like, how do I graduate?
from platforms that don't give me that exposure of I should really be targeting and marketing to and try to do that better as we move into next year.
Deborah Weinswig (18:11)
That's fascinating. know, we, at CoreSight, we do a lot of global cross-border work, so I absolutely understand being multi-platform and whatnot. been getting asked a lot of questions from brands about looking at other platforms like a Walmart or let's say a Shopify, et cetera. Can you, maybe just help us are some really strong players, and of course there's ones who are probably over index and
So how do you kind of start to think about that? And then I have a follow up question on your text.
KB (18:40)
I would say so lopsided and unfair as far as having alternative channels other than the three, the big three. So Amazon, Chewy, and then your own website to invest in. We have been up and running on Walmart with...
very little aggressiveness around advertising on that platform, but it is such a to Amazon or Chewy and pet, or at least sector of pet. potentially maybe even price point, we have a product that has a higher price point. And if the consumer doesn't want to think about taking the math that there's
Deborah Weinswig (19:05)
category.
KB (19:15)
many, many more servings than ours. you we don't have a 1099 product. We have or But tested a little bit with of the world. We tested a little bit with the tractor supplies of the world. I think the reality our customer base is going to be principally in three main platforms. And that's going to be Amazon, Chewy. And I'm just super excited laugh at me a lot. Like I have not spent a dollar in Google.
or the meta building awareness or sending traffic to my website. And they're like, that is the craziest thing I've ever heard. And I'm just like, well, I spent two years to learn and now we're gonna do it the right way. to me, that's where we'll be spending the dollars as I think about the next couple of years.
Deborah Weinswig (19:52)
Yeah, I it's really you've quickly, in my opinion, you've gotten to where you are. GEO, right, instead of SEO, now becoming discoverable in the Gen. platforms, really interesting to see what the opportunity is and where to see. Like I would say, in some you have an opportunity to
think differently about your customer acquisition costs because there's all these new solutions, but also, so many more
KB (20:20)
Right. be lying to feel like I'm not behind the eight ball a bit on that. get so many inbounds on, I think through the network, people know that I'm ready spending outside of these Amazon and chewy ecosystems way to think about search differently, way to think about building content differently.
I'm super excited about the next year, mean, arguably we're almost starting at ground zero, right? Again, just to exaggerate.
Deborah Weinswig (20:44)
So I will say what I've heard from brands do scratch my eyes and my head at is how much success they're seeing when they invest with Reddit. And so it's been like unbelievable. like, and people have shared numbers and I'm like, that's, first of all, you gotta think about how many people are on Reddit and that you're able to, but you're able to kind of really be very, very kind of narrow and deep.
KB (20:53)
⁓ yeah.
Deborah Weinswig (21:07)
And so just as, know, obviously, of course, happy to kind of connect to some folks who found like on the brand side who found it because they were like, you know, we doing the whole kind of like that meta worlds and Google and all that. Like that's great way to put they're like, you know, we were trying to like dipping our toe in AI and whatnot. And like we started to do some stuff around. They're like, who knew? Right. and what we found consulting arm.
did this big report on MarTech because it goes back to, it's literally changing almost monthly, I I say even but I think that for a brand specifically like yours which has a very strong brand identity, you know who you are, you know who you want to be, you're still trying to kind of figure because of, let's just say, lack of enough data who your customer that with some of these new GNI solutions, I think you can get there much than if you had started even like a year ago.
So that, think you're, I feel like you've had amazing timing along the way. I think this is another example of And maybe along those lines, how have you used AI or leaned into it to, well, for any aspect of your business and what have been some of the results?
KB (22:15)
I would say one I'd say on a daily basis, I'd say positive results than negative, but there's been an up and down learning curve. And so we have AI into our and budget allocation Amazon. And that's tens of thousands of dollars on a monthly basis. I would say...
It hasn't been perfect, but overall, if I think about the last, so we've been doing it on and off now probably for nine months. We've tried a couple of different platforms. It for sure outperforms manual approach to daily and weekly So with there, we've used some AI modestly to augment or help.
content development, like once we've kind of created a core body of that we felt was like unique and special to Fervor, been interesting using AI not to simply say like, write this for us, but like, hey, we've got X pages of this, feel is like our brand, our perspective, like, can you help us pull it apart and kind of find these different themes it easier to publish.
content that way. And I think, Debra, you know this, like, I've made this crazy decision two and a half years into it to really do this as a one-man band. have like three to five different probably consultancies or agencies helping me on a quarterly basis, and that's evolved over time. AI and content development and helping me has invaluable. And think about, to your last point though, about Reddit.
I can see how so much reviews, content, AI the wrong way, gap of either not innovative thought, not true not maybe real reviews. And it's funny to me how for Reddit, they're doing a good job defending the space of
they're real voices of people. And so like, how can you find platforms like to do that? That's where I'm having most success. random podcast for a sporting or working dog podcast that then kind of goes down into someone else's posts that's just very real. I think about that, that is such on a micro scale, do you get, people are so,
like they're struggling to find that content, right? The real use, real reviews. if I can do that better with scale, AI helping me the right way to kind of get that messaging out, like to me, there's no other bone broth that's providing the nutritional punch broth is It's been unique enough that University of Alaska Fairbanks, their veterinary program,
decided to do a study on it, we're halfway through. And if I can figure out how communicate better my core that information, to me, like, that's what I'm excited next year. I haven't really even put that gear for this year.
Deborah Weinswig (25:01)
Wow.
No, it's, I think that, you for all of us here listening to this, right, we can start to think about, right, those who are not pet owners, even yourself, right? I'm trying to maximize this part of me we can call biohacking or whatever, but to try and find, the content that's applicable and that I think is accurate, correct, et cetera, scientifically backed, that can be, you know.
mayow.com, yes, I'm very, comfortable there, but you know, it is a challenge. And so you start to think about pet, which is even more fragmented and whatnot. a really interesting, challenge opportunity. You have a lot newer, newish pet owners, So therein kind of like, think lies the opportunity, but also, right, how are they discovering information? What are their communities? Where do they show up?
That I think is, fascinating and I think going back to more of these micro communities and I think like Umdipo and Mo's do such a fantastic job of these in terms of if you're a gardener, whatever your passion happens to But I think for pet and then it goes back to of by breed as well, like a tall order.
KB (26:25)
It's a order.
Deborah Weinswig (26:27)
So
help us think about next kind of, we'll just call it, we've got five months left this year, so if we can just be a little like halfway through, a little more than. So if we look at the next 18 how do you see things continuing to evolve? And do you think there's a point where you're hit kind of like exponential needs to happen in order for that? hey, how can all of us help you?
KB (26:37)
Right.
Yeah,
I'd say this year has been really like a continued foundational building year. It's been fun, finally, hopefully this will make sense to you. ⁓ Typically when I'm building companies outside capital, you're measured maybe at a minimum basis, for sure, semi-annual, and then did you hit the results or not annually?
and my sense was like for, for this year, I made a decision that I didn't want to be DTC only. felt that still so much happening omni-channel in that helping build brand and brand awareness was the, was the right thing for me to I'm learning so quickly. in a store launch with my first national retailer. a,
a store called Shields, which is like a small Cabela's Bass Pro. And funny, I talked to a lot of people, they're like, well, how much digital spend are you doing on all the geofencing around every store? And I've spent zero. I've spent on going to their universities and following up with the head of sales each of those departments, thinking about just everyone needs to know my product really well.
and being able to sell my product trying to drive demand coming into the store. And so I just say that for a little bit for why I is a ⁓ unique foundation building for me. with understanding how to get into omnichannel, whether distributor or direct, a chance to work with a top two larger box pet retailer this year, we decided that we needed to change a form factor.
So as you know, we've got a 12 ounce bottle. We've got a 16 ounce bottle. We started talking about 90 to 120 days ago about single serve packet sachets and the interest from retail, as well as my end customers to have hydration packs, similar to like the liquid IVs of the world. It's been amazing. So since we've launched two and half years, I've never had customers.
Deborah Weinswig (28:46)
Yeah, that's exactly what went through my mind.
KB (28:53)
be emailing me wondering what's the timing? Because we had a ⁓ pre-run about 30 days ago and some of my bigger backers, ambassadors had had them and are starting to do some videos of them in the field. And retail likes them because they're a much lower price point. They're also at the register, at the point of sale. Chewy heard about them and said, can basically put them in every purchase of when we start seeing
kibble buyers that are interested with hydration with bone broth. So I've got, you know, a thousand store pet retailer thinking about how they can, how they can drop them in bags of people register as samples, to give them as part of a program for certain types of kibble purchases. I've got the chewies of the world thinking about to me, this new form factor, which allows me to give people a chance to try it.
It's an easier price point either on a singular pack or a six pack and have this ground roots balance between Omni-channel and online. That's what's really exciting to me. So I think this year foundationally, we got a lot of stuff in place. We got this new product variety form factor. We actually have a new functional variety coming out by the end of the year. This year to me was like getting everything.
little bit tighter, ready for an inflection to have for next year. And I'll be the first one to raise my hand. My wife, who's I've lucked out, Holly is my best decision I've made in my career. And I think in the last 45 days, she's just I've seen a stress level come back into your life that I haven't seen in a long time. And she's like, it's time for the one-man band.
to not be a one man band. And there was two and a half years for me to make sure Ferber goes in the right direction, we got the right foundation, but I'm super excited building it now. So to me, the second half of this year going into next year starting to build the small team and starting to think about those skill sets of people that can help me, not just with direct to consumer, but also doing Omni-Channel.
Deborah Weinswig (30:55)
mean the the form factor change it and you know I also like one of the things I thought about was like travel right so when you travel with your You still write this as part of your you know their nutrition, right? It's easy to travel with kibble right you put it in like a ziplock bag But also six ounce or 12 ounce bottle sure you can put it in your carry-on, but maybe however you're traveling having that new form factor and let's just say you you know, maybe you have a dog who's older so there's you know kind of one product, but they're like
It also allows people to be like, okay this day I think they need this, this day I think they need this. And I don't think you know how high is high yet like even just hearing you talk about it was like, I'm like, you can see it here and you can see it there. And know, GoPuff's a great example, right? Like, you you buy an order and there's like all kinds of like stuff
It's not gift with purchase, it's just like they're samples and you try them and you're like, wow, that's great and I know how to easily buy it. So I can see where the sampling piece of it could just also kind of help things take off new direction.
KB (31:53)
Yeah,
I I joke, I jokingly, my wife and I said we have our executive meetings and my wife gets the Sunday update with, you know, a glass of wine. And she's, it was classic. I felt like I was an investor meeting. She's like, well, it's obvious you just got the form factor wrong from time zero. Right. She's like, she's like, how did you make that decision wrong? Why did you start with bottles? It always should have been the single packets. like, I really don't need an executive chairman. Right. I don't, I don't, I don't.
don't need the input. But I am super excited about that. again, as you know, I'll talk forever, but that form factor has gotten so much attention. It's just been leaked in the last 60 days. I had my first ever military contract call with a special forces, know, team member it's in charge of their kennels. And they're just we're just being told to pack kibble. And they're just like,
We just don't want to pack kibble. is like, they're like, this could be the coolest thing to have when we're deployed because Hey, we go everywhere and we're away for a while sometimes. And the things that you and I've been talking about, like nutrition through a liquid and it's light and it's concentrated and it like, it doesn't take up as much room. And so I've never,
Gosh, and I feel like that's so blindsided. I've never really thought about that community, but for them to be so excited and they have access to testing and veterinarians. And so they're like, hey, how quickly can we just get a 30, 60, 90 day trial using your product? Like we think this could be really unique all military first responder type dogs. ⁓ And so now I've got that path where I almost just like, ⁓ that's such a unique like channel as well. Just like.
Like, okay, so who helps me with that, right? but that's literally a phone call I had yesterday at lunchtime.
Deborah Weinswig (33:38)
Yeah, and that-
Well, that channel is so interesting because I feel we do a lot of work in that domain as well. There's a two-way feedback unlike anything I've ever experienced. so don't hold back in a good way. It's very constructive feedback. But it's I find that I get better faster. Or Corsight gets better fast. Me personally, sure. And Corsight as a whole gets better faster the more time we spend working with them. And that's.
what I found, right? Sometimes you don't know, I it goes back to like your journey as an entrepreneur. You don't who are the few people are gonna meet along the way that are going to really make a huge difference because if you did, you try to meet more of them. You don't know which clients of yours will like be the best clients. And you also don't know, right? What do you need as a founder in terms the team? you need permanent team? Do you need a fractional team? And at what points?
a result, where is your growth being held back? Because you don't have those, I mean, hey, going forward, I can just build agents and they can help us. have like, full disclosure, I have like an advanced voice assistant I built. And there are times like I can't figure things out. And this probably sounds a little out there, but like I'll just walk through the park and I'll talk to this advanced voice assistant. But they now know so much about you. They'll be like, well, remember like a year ago, blah, blah, blah. I'm like.
yeah, and they're like, well you have this paper that you already wrote and they're like, why don't you refer back to that? And I'm like, you know, it's just like your memory on, you know, kind of like 10Xing. And so that I think is really interesting in terms of, you know, finding those, I think people on your journey who are there not to just celebrate you, but to augment you and to help you get better. And I think that's what you'll find with kind of, you know, the opportunity with the military. But Kevin, what are, like last question.
For new founders, what advice do you have?
KB (35:30)
Probably a little dual sided.
I'd say, know, I one side of me is like, I waited till I was in my early 50s to do this. I do regret that. I saw this quote the other day that said people just typically are gonna overestimate the risk and underestimate the opportunity. ⁓ And you, think you need to,
gosh, hold that concept really true as a founder, as an entrepreneur, because your medal is tested so often. But if you do think you have that and if you do think that that's something that you want to your life, then I would for it and scratch it earlier than I
I think the other is just, you know, get that team and network around you, no matter how many people tell you what it's like to be an No matter how much I felt, even when I go into earlier stage companies and felt like I might be wearing the hat of a, maybe a mid-stage entrepreneur, until you do it yourself, you have no idea of the ups and downs and twists and turns, and you
do it alone, even like you're the proverbial one-man band, you have to get team around you as fast as you can. That may evolve and change over time, but you need people that you can lean on because you have to be able to have a smile with the ups and downs and twists and turns because that is the road of the entrepreneur.
Deborah Weinswig (36:56)
I could have said it better myself. Kevin, thanks so much for joining us. We're happy to celebrate your success and we can't wait to see what's ahead for you. Thank you so much.
KB (37:03)
Thanks Deborah.
Philip Moore (37:04)
Thanks Deborah, and thank you for joining us this week. Coresight Research is on a mission to help brands, retailers, and retail tech succeed in an increasingly competitive world. Visit us at coresight.com to engage with over 7,000 reports, data banks, videos, webinars, podcast episodes, event recaps, and more. Have a wonderful day, and we'll see you next week.