Dog food hasn’t innovated to balance health and convenience

You probably noticed the most widely eaten dog food today is dry kibble—a low-quality, ultra-processed product not fit for human consumption. While it’s cheap and shelf-stable, a growing market of dog parents believes industrial food manufacturing and the ultra-processed feed grade ingredients used to make it may be a growing cause of diabetes, cancer, and disease in dogs. 

In line with human diets moving towards paleo, keto, Whole30 and whole food diets, the customers of Yumwoof Natural Pet Food are those who believe dogs can benefit from an increased healthspan by eating a similar healthy way.

High-end dog food options on the market today come with a variety of challenges for the majority of Americans. Fresh food requires refrigeration and is prohibitively expensive for most pet parents. Freeze dried options are equally expensive and require an inconvenient rehydration process. The market demands hybrid products that are natural, shelf-stable, easy-to-make, minimally processed and affordable. And most importantly... dogs have to love it!

Our unique dog food balances convenience and natural ingredients in innovative ways

Yumwoof Natural Pet Food’s core mission is to extend the healthspan of all dogs. Our solutions combine clean ingredients, convenience for pet parents, and a taste dogs love.

Perfect Kibble is a one-of-a-kind “soft dry” dog food with natural ingredients. Launched in November 2020 to astounding success, it has a 1-year shelf life with no artificial preservatives.

Perfect Dog Food Mix has launched in conjunction with this crowdfunding—the easiest way to make fresh dog food at home with homemade dog food recipes on our website.

Yumwoof is also accelerating the pet food industry. Our co-founders have deep tech backgrounds; and we are building a blockchain-based platform for conducting feeding trials to help us expand our dog food product line rapidly. We intend to open source this software to the entire industry for free.

Differentiated products in the soft dry, homemade, and dehydrated dog food categories

Yumwoof is focused on creating differentiated products in high-growth segments of the pet food market. We use clean ingredients with functional benefits, with recipes created by a top-rated NYC chef—a graduate from The French Culinary Institute—alongside veterinary nutritionists.

Perfect Kibble

Perfect Kibble combines 14 natural ingredients into a science-backed recipe and contains more MCTs and antioxidants than any other dog food. All the ingredients we use are sourced in the USA, cold pressed, and then gently baked using a proprietary low temp cooking method.

 

Dogs love Perfect Kibble's look and scent: it has the appearance of fresh food and smells like dessert bread. It boasts a high amount of antioxidants in the form of polyphenol flavonoids to protect against free radicals—a cause of aging. We never use any inflammatory vegetable oils, gluten, soy, or meat by-products.

Unlike our fresh and frozen food competitors, Perfect Kibble doesn't need to be refrigerated. That makes Perfect Kibble extra convenient for customers.

Perfect Dog Food Mix

Perfect Dog Food Mix is our latest product addition, launched alongside this crowdfunding raise! Just like Betty Crocker did for dinner and desserts, Perfect Dog Food Mix aims to serve the homemade dog food market in a similar way.

This mix lets pet parents easily cook low-carb dog food with whole food ingredients. It has recipes for picky eaters like bacon and eggs, and our easy paleo-inspired recipes are some of the healthiest dog food on the market.

Google volume for homemade dog food and related terms sum to over 50,000 searches per month. We’re targeting a large, underserved market with this product. We also believe this dog food is well-positioned for an inflationary economic environment with supply chain issues.

Products in Development

Very soon, we intend to introduce personalized probiotics for dogs in addition to personalized dog food products with human-grade ingredients, which are currently in development.

Here are some of the products in our development pipeline:

• Perfect Kibble - Beef Recipe
• Perfect Personalized Probiotics
• Perfect Dental Treats
• Perfect Longevity Treats
• Perfect Dehydrated Dog Food
• Perfect Toppers

Achieved 6-figure monthly sales in just 8 months!

Yumwoof generated sales of over $114K in July 2021, only our 8th month of operations. We’re one of the fastest growing pet food companies in America!

Our high conversion rate of 5.1% is above the pet care industry average of 3.0% according to IRP Commerce statistics. We believe our high conversion metrics confirm strong product-market fit for Perfect Kibble. Furthermore, we expect our conversion rate and average order value to increase even further as we add more products to our portfolio, which is discussed further on.

72% of pet parents agree high-quality food prevents health issues

A whopping 38% of households in the US have at least one dog—that’s 90M+ dogs across all 50 states. Of these households, 72% of pet parents agree that high-quality food prevents health issues. 

There’s a massive shift happening towards clean pet food right now, following the human trends like keto, paleo, low-carb, and Whole30 diets. This shift has generated a huge increase in demand for natural dog food over the last few years. Yumwoof Natural Pet Food is supporting this market segment with clean label consumables. We’ve had strong sales growth since the day we launched, proving to be a fast hit and earning a 5-star cumulative rating from customers.

Scaling an already profitable DTC growth strategy

Yumwoof is growing with a direct-to-consumer marketing strategy that’s currently delivering a low double-digit CAC. Our products sell for $23-35/bag on our website, and for higher prices on Amazon and BUBBLE.

Yumwoof’s business model offers sufficient margin to scale at an upper-mid market price point. As we release the new products, we will be able to convert an even wider variety of customers at different price points and specific health goals for their dog.  

Our strategy will remain focused on scaling our direct-to-consumer sales through the remainder of 2021. We've already received inbound requests from independent pet food retailers and distributors. These partners will allow us to expand our physical footprint into brick-and-mortar retail establishments; and our plan is to supplement our DTC sales with a growing list of brick-and-mortar partners beginning in 2022.

Ride the $7B+ shift into online pet food sales

The pet food industry has begun a multi-year disruption period. The pet food and treat market in the US currently generates $34B annually. Within the growth in pet food, e-commerce sales are expected to grow substantially faster, increasing an additional $7B by 2024. Yumwoof Natural Pet Food is one of the fastest-growing companies in this market segment, riding the shift towards online purchases and healthy dog food.

Making high-quality dog food more accessible

Yumwoof’s dog food is the perfect intersection of dry kibble and fresh dog food. We provide all the nutrients, natural ingredients and look of fresh food with the convenience and accessibility of kibble. 

Whereas fresh food competitors need to be refrigerated, our products do not require refrigeration and have a long shelf life. This gives Yumwoof a strategic advantage with lower shipping costs as well as the ability to more easily sell into brick-and-mortar retailers in the future.

On price, Yumwoof Perfect Kibble costs about 40% less than dog food with comparable ingredients. Yumwoof Perfect Dog Food Mix offers a fresh food alternative for up to 70% less than other fresh food brands.

Feeding 100K+ dogs our natural food

We’re striving to have 100K dogs eating our food in the coming years, which would make Yumwoof Natural Pet Food a $100M+ company in annual revenue. Yumwoof is hard at work in R&D on several new products to support this growth. We’re planning on introducing several new SKUs in the coming year, including Perfect Kibble Beef, Perfect Dehydrated Dog Food, Perfect Treats, Perfect Toppers, and more. Over the next few years, we plan to expand into even more categories and expand into brick-and-mortar retail, ensuring that Yumwoof becomes a household name.

Initial $200K raised from strategic partners 

Invest in the consumer shift to healthy dog food through this crowdfunding raise. 

Yumwoof has already raised $200K from strategic partners whose leaders have management experience in large-scale food and beverage companies, PR and e-commerce brands. Our current investors include Black Star Investments, Foundera Labs, Birch View Holdings, JFDI Consultants, and Wachsman PR. 

We’re now raising a $250K crowdfunding round to support Yumwoof’s growth and build an army of evangelistic investors who join us in our mission. Over half of this funding will go towards supporting our inventory needs to meet customer demand. Other uses of this growth capital will include customer acquisition and growing our team.

Multiple startup exits and over $8M raised previously

Our founders each have over 10 years of startup experience, having cumulatively raised over $8M for previous startups with multi-million dollar exits to larger acquirers. We bring well-rounded experience in marketing, scaling operations and food innovation to Yumwoof’s DTC brand, implementing many of the same strategies that worked for us previously plus insights and relationships gained along the way.

Our founders are three long-time friends and dog lovers with an exceptional startup track record.

Jaron Lukas
Chief Executive Officer

• Cited by Fox Business News as a leader it’s watching
• Founder and CEO of venture-backed bitcoin exchange Coinsetter in 2012, acquired by Kraken in 2016
• Former J.P. Morgan investment banker
• President’s Honor Roll at Rice University
• Featured in WSJ, Financial Times, Bloomberg, CNBC, TechCrunch

Yo Sub Kwon
Chief Operating Officer

• Awarded as Inc. "30 Under 30" entrepreneur
• Co-founded LaunchKey, a cybersecurity company acquired by TransUnion
• Co-founder and former CEO of Hosho, a high growth blockchain cybersecurity analysis firm
• Recently developed technology to increase operational scaling for e-commerce
• Widely regarded as one of the world's top full stack software developers

Raymond Bailey
Chief Product Officer

• Graduate of The French Culinary Institute in New York City
• Former gourmet chef at a New York Times-rated restaurant in New York City
• Certified web developer
• Ran web development agency specializing in e-commerce
• Trained in pet food formulation