Small Brands, Big Impact: Emerging Brands & Innovations from SUPERZOO 2025

Episode 65 • 24th September 2025 • Barking Mad • BSM Partners

reneurial energy. At SUPERZOO: 2025

I mentioned this in our initial SUPERZOO episode, which we've linked in the show notes for today, but while there are a few big names in pet nutrition, there are also a ton of startups and entrepreneurs. And most of the innovation we see across the industry actually comes from these smaller, more agile brands. And what better way to get a pulse on innovation than by speaking with emerging brands about their innovations and ideas?

Today, you'll hear from founders and innovators who are reshaping the way we think about pet food ingredients and wellness. From fresh food pioneers to sustainable ingredient developers, get ready for stories and insights that shine a light on where this industry is headed. Let's get started.

Dr. Stephanie Clark: Welcome to Barking Mad, a podcast by BSM Partners. We're your hosts, Dr. Stephanie Clark—

Jordan Tyler: —and I'm Jordan Tyler. Kicking off today with a couple first-time SUPERZOO attendees who attended the show to browse what's hot, what's not, connect with potential partners, and spread the word about their brand. Michael O'Rourke and Mason Fox, co-founders of Wynwood Dog Food, came to the show to do just that.

This Miami-based company started out in farmer's markets and has since grown into a direct-to-consumer provider of fresh vet formulated diets for dogs. Their model blends hands-on entrepreneurship, veterinary partnerships, and a commitment to therapeutic diets, making them one of the early movers in the fresh pet food movement.

Michael O'Rourke: The real story, you know, I was living down in California and I saw, you know, this fresh dog food movement taking place. And, but you know, there's really nothing going on the East Coast. And my family was down in Miami and wanted, you know, to be a little bit closer to them and thought that'd just be a great opportunity.

So, moved down to Miami, kinda started putting this together. There was actually a company in Orlando that I reached out to that was doing this on a, you know, very, very small scale. I said, “Hey, you know, can we do this on Miami?” They said no, so then we just started putting it together piece by piece and kind of one of the first pieces was asking Mason if he'd, you know, want to join up and help me do this thing. And, you know, he was stupid enough to say yes. And yeah, here we are.

Mason Fox: Yeah. And so, I moved from Orlando to Miami, and before long I was regretting my decisions—sweating, lugging frozen dog food, a small freezer, the table, the tent to sometimes up to four to five farmer's markets every single weekend. We were working seven days a week, cooking all week then selling it on the weekend. We were cooking out of your mom's kitchen, making like 50 pounds of food at a time.

Michael O'Rourke: We called it this army of dehydrators. So, we had these, like, little, I don't know, $30, $40 dehydrators on Amazon, but we hadd, like, a dozen of them or so. So, we'd set them all up, run them overnight, and then we got a board-certified veterinary nutritionist as part of the company. And so, he developed all the diets. We started with, I want say like, three or four balanced diets and then an allergy diet to begin with.

Yeah, yeah. But you know, in: 2016

But yeah, we just kind of kept at it. We've always focused on veterinarians, so we really have used them as a driver of our growth. And we managed to, you know, get to where we are now, which I think is a, you know, respectable revenue number, with zero marketing. So, we've never done advertising. We've never done really any significant thing with social media, and we've really relied on our product to do the heavy lifting for us.

Jordan Tyler: You came in at the right time.

Michael O'Rourke: Yeah. No, so we were a little bit early and that's also why we were able to kind of lock in the nutritionist that we did. Yeah, we were just a little bit quicker than everybody to, you know, start going at it.

Mason Fox: Yeah, yeah. And, and the freshness, right? The play on words of the category. But that was part of that challenge where people thought we were a dog restaurant because if they associated this, you know, fresh food for your pet as a treat—

Dr. Stephanie Clark: Yeah.

Mason Fox: —as something you do every once in a while. And it, it showed too—there was the local paper, the Miami Herald, came by to do a story. We were really excited. They interviewed us and they took some pictures in the kitchen and they printed the story and the headline was, I think it said, Pamper Your Pooch in This Canine Kitchen. And we're like, Oh. Wait, what?

Dr. Stephanie Clark: Missed the mark?

Mason Fox: Yeah. We didn't know we had to, you know, head that off and yeah. They completely missed it. And we're like, there was so much explaining to do in those early years.

Michael O'Rourke: Well, and even our name, you know, our original name was actually Dishes for Dogs. And, you know, we quickly realized though, that the word dish invokes, you know, you go to a restaurant, you eat a dish, right? It's not, you know, you don't have a dish every day. Right? It's, you know, something a little more special than a regular meal. And we realize, like, I think people, you know, they look at fresh foods as this, you know, very premium thing. It is just a whole food ingredient. It's how mammals were kind of meant to eat. It's nothing special. It's nothing gourmet. It's, you know, it's just real food.

Jordan Tyler: Yeah, absolutely. So, what does the future hold for Wynwood Dog Food? You guys have obviously come a long way already, but you've got prescription diets, you've got non-prescription... What's next?

Michael O'Rourke: The one that we always get is cat, but, you know, we used to have a cat diet. It was super cool. It was like a true carnivore cat diet, you know, just protein fat, it was awesome. But you know, cats are a whole different animal, so we feel like we definitely want to do cat, but if we do it, we want to do it right. We are excited to come up with a weight loss support diet that is, you know, truly functional, you know, elevated nutrients, so you come pretty hard with the cal restriction, and then a true pancreatic support diet are the top two.

Mason Fox: We're focused and we've invested pretty heavily on the therapeutic line and our veterinary partnerships, mostly because we feel that we've got some differentiation there and we have some, you know, proven excellency, let's say, in that area. I mean, because we own manufacturing, I can make as little or as much food as we want for any SKU that we want.

So, we have 12 SKUs, you know, seven of which—so actually like more than half of our number of SKUs—are therapeutic diets. And we can do that because we own manufacturing. We can have these things that are much more specialty and, and more niche. And that's helped us, you know, get the attention of these veterinarians, because we do feel like it solves a problem for them when they have clients who want to feed the fresh format, the fresh category, but their dog is diagnosed with, you know, kidney disease, for example.

Dr. Stephanie Clark: So, we keep calling it therapeutic, prescription. Do you need a prescription to purchase those diets from your vet, or how does that whole thing work?

Michael O'Rourke: Yeah, well, so the “prescription,” you know, I like to usually put quotes on it.

Dr. Stephanie Clark: Absolutely.

Michael O'Rourke: You know, it's not actually prescription, it's not regulated by the FDA, it is not a drug. So we call it a veterinary recommendation. We really don't want people self-diagnosing liver disease. Right? Or kidney disease. We like to make sure that these diets are actually recommended by vet. And, you know, that people are following their, their veterinarian directions.

Jordan Tyler: From Miami to Los Angeles, our next story highlights the passion of Amber Stanford, Founder of Ambeezy’s Organics. This jerky-style dog treat company was born out of a personal mission to help her own dog overcome severe allergies. What began in her own kitchen has grown into a brand focused on simple organic, functional treats, and her passion for pets shines brightly through the brand.

Amber Stanford: So, my name is Amber, as I mentioned, but so all of my friends and family since I was a little kid, they called me, Ambeezy, and I really wanted this to be like a personal extension from myself. So, I have three dogs and I just got five baby chicks. And um, my Pekinese, King—his name is King—he's like my “why” as to why I started this business because he suffered from severe allergies.

And so I have over 17 years of healthcare experience, so, as a nurse, I'm very adamant about like educating my patients, telling them the importance of like how diet really does impact, you know, your health. Some veterinarians and also physicians are medication driven, whereas I've always been more like, let's take a holistic approach about this. And so after, even in the veterinary space where there were, you know, it was a lot of, “Oh, try this topical medication, or this oral medication,” and it wasn't getting to the root of his problem. That's when I was like, “You know what? Let me just take matters into my own hands.” I remember this day exactly: I went to Whole Foods, I got all fresh ingredients, so I started making his food from scratch, doing a lot of research, and then making his treats, and then his health immediately improved. And that's when I was like, “Okay, it truly is his diet the same way it is for humans. It also applies to our furry family members.”

And then, of course, organically, my friends and family started wanting some for their dogs. And then one of my friends was like, “Amber, I've seen such a huge difference in my dog. Like, I will pay you for this.” Like, it was kind of a subscription without me even like realizing what I—because I wasn't in the business space. And then that's when I was like, “Oh, hmm,” I had an aha moment. Like there really is a need. I can help other animals, and that was the first time that I thought maybe I could turn this into a business. And then, here I am at SUPERZOO.

Dr. Stephanie Clark: That's awesome. Very cool. So, are you still making them in your home or have you, uh, branched out into having someone else?

Amber Stanford: Yeah. Oh yeah. So, I am in a commercial kitchen. It's actually a human grade commercial kitchen in downtown Los Angeles. And I'm trying to, as much as I can, keep things in house.

Dr. Stephanie Clark: Mm-hmm. Are you still nursing? Like still working as a nurse and—

Amber Stanford: Yeah, that's, so that's helping to fund this business.

Jordan Tyler: Oh my gosh, but like, are you just working like 24 hours, day after day?

Amber Stanford: Pretty much, yeah.

Jordan Tyler: Girl…

Dr. Stephanie Clark: You’re like, this is actually a vacation.

Amber Stanford: Yes… Yeah. But hopefully not for long. You know, my goal is to transition out.

Jordan Tyler: So, tell us more about your, like, product line. Like, what SKUs do you have so far? Do you, I know you're, you're like getting started, but like, do you already have expansion plans in terms of, of your ingredients and products?

Dr. Stephanie Clark: Talk about format?

Amber Stanford: Yeah. So, retail-ready right now, I have two SKUs and that's the thing with me—I'm more about, like, quality over quantity. So, I have my organic like beef and rosemary, so it's just like those two ingredients. And then I have chicken and rosemary. And then I also have like a vegan line, which is like organic sweet potato and peanut butter. And then I will be expanding also to like more like functional ingredients such as like Ashwagandha and sea moss and valerian root and things like that. And so, yeah, so that's kind of like my goal. And then I also am going to have a ventricle line of like a feline market, as well as like backyard chicken, like, live feed as well.

Dr. Stephanie Clark: Yes. And they are like jerky style?

Amber Stanford: Yeah, jerky and, um, I will be having freeze dried soon.

Dr. Stephanie Clark: Awesome.

Amber Stanford: I'm like working on like getting a machine again, just to be able to have control and do everything in-house. I have to give credit to like my grandparents. Actually, since I can remember as like an infant, my grandmother put Old Yeller on, so I grew up on that movie and that's like the first time I fell in love with dogs. But then also my grandparents, especially my grandfather, I feel like he was advanced in the way when it came to food. So, he wouldn't allow me to eat anything that had artificial colors or flavors. He was so advanced, like especially, you know, because some of the family that I have, like they are from the south and so it's, everything's just like fried and like not good for you, you know?

Jordan Tyler: My husband's from the south, so I feel that. Yeah.

Amber Stanford: Yeah. And so, like, I didn't appreciate it then, but he also taught me like even as a young age to like check for the labels.

Dr. Stephanie Clark: Yeah.

Amber Stanford: And so, it's always just been like ingrained in me. And so, it's something that like now I really appreciate because even for him, he was able to live until like 94 years old. He passed away two years ago. So, I mean, but I feel like he lived such a great life and he was healthy, he didn't suffer, and it was due to how he fed himself. And I just want to bring that to, like, the community—that diet is truly important. Like, we can't stress it enough, you know?

Jordan Tyler: In the pet world, it's not uncommon that personal experiences inspire new businesses, but innovation is also happening at the ingredient level. Cico Rodriguez, who has graced the Barking Mad podcast before, with inspiring tales of regenerative agriculture, is moving into his next venture, Amplified ingredients, an ingredient supplier working with regenerative outputs that have the power to transform not only the nutrient profiles of pet foods, but also the way we think about agriculture.

Cico Rodriguez: Yeah. So, Francisco Rodriguez, everybody calls me Cico, and I'm the president of Amplified ingredients. We're an ingredient developer and distributor, and we like to say we develop or distribute ingredients that transform, because at the end of the day, you want ingredients that are driving a benefit to nutrition, both humans and animals.

Dr. Stephanie Clark: I'm going to cut in real fast. My curiosity is killing me. Amplified Ingredients—what kind of ingredients are you focusing on? Like, specifically, if you can?

Cico Rodriguez: Well, the idea of amplifying an ingredient is probably a fun story to talk about.

Dr. Stephanie Clark: Yeah, let's talk about it.

Cico Rodriguez: So, there are different ways to amplify an ingredient that people have been doing for decades, even hundreds of years. Right? And the, the first step to amplifying an ingredient is really how do you grow it? If it's an ingredient that comes from nature, or how do you raise it, if it's something that comes from an animal? And so, the growing conditions, you know, we've seen data that shows that growing, for example, turmeric in organic soil versus regenerative organic soil has a vastly different phytochemical profile. So, we look at amplifying ingredients from the farm to the fermentation tank to the extraction facility, and obviously all the way to the delivery of the end product. So, we we're looking at amplify ingredients in a number of ways.

So, we have our first amplification going back to the kind of the agricultural side, starts with regenerative organic organs, so liver, heart, and kidney from regenerative organic cattle. And we work with a large producer, a large agricultural partner, that basically was looking for an outlet for these organs. So, we partnered with them. They actually sought us out, so we identified that there's about a 2x increase in some of the micronutrients inside of regenerative organs versus the conventional counterparts. So, we went ahead and moved forward. We helped launch a few finished product brands with regenerative organs. We're including them in as many formulas as people want to include them, and they're being commercialized on a regular basis. So, that's one category.

Jordan Tyler: Very cool. I think it's like something that more and more people are becoming aware of, as, you know, organic and regenerative agriculture really start to become more mainstream—you know, obviously it's still a long way to go there, but we have come a long way already—is that, you know, the way that we've been doing agriculture for the last, you know, whatever, many hundreds of years has just been slowly degrading like the actual nutrient content that we get from the the food that we grow in the ground, you know, on trees and bushes, whatever, that a lot of the food that we eat now is fortified, you know, that's where the whole GMO thing comes from. Just like, you know, a lot of things that we eat are supplemented because there's not enough nutrients in just the base thing, you know, and in that carrot and that apple in that insert, you know, vegetable or food item here. And so, when you talk about regenerative organic offering 2x plus nutrient density. That's insane. Like, that's crazy. And everybody, I think everybody should think that's crazy, but like…

Dr. Stephanie Clark: And still claiming non-GMO, right? Like, yeah, you're amplifying them, but you're not genetically modifying…

Cico Rodriguez: Nature, in that scenario, nature's doing the amplification. It's really allowing nature to amplify those ingredients is a major piece. And you know, to your comment on fortification, that's not a like-for-like difference, right? If you have an organ that contains a nutrient versus a nutrient that's added in, it's very rarely like for like. If you're eating a rock mineral, a mineral that's a mineral salt, versus one that has been integrated into the protein of the organ, it's very different for the animal or human that's, that's consuming it.

After organs, which have, you know, minerals that are normally part of the, the animal's makeup, the, the organ makeup, we have a group of minerals that instead of doing single amino acid chelates, which are extremely valuable, we went with multi amino acid cates. So, we take organic spirulina and we hydrolyze it, and then we introduce the mineral. So, it reacts and catches not just one amino acid, but multiple amino acids from organic spirulina. And that transforms how effectively it absorbs in the gut.

Jordan Tyler: Okay, wait, let's break that down. Minerals, like Cico is talking about here, can be difficult for the body to absorb, so sometimes we partnered them up with a buddy—particularly amino acids, the building blocks of proteins—to help them get absorbed in the pet's body. This buddy system is called chelation. A single amino acid chelated mineral is like the amino acid and the mineral are dating. They're exclusive, they're not interested in other potential partners. And this is pretty much a gold standard, but it's also expensive and not as commonly used across the pet food industry.

On the other hand, you have multi amino acid chelates. These are like a friend group. Maybe one friend is a good listener, maybe one is your accountability partner at the gym, maybe another is your old roommate from college. They're all your friends, but each friendship is a little bit different. What Cico is talking about here is taking spirulina, which is sort of like green algae, breaking it down into tiny parts or amino acids through a process called hydrolyzation, and then they add minerals. The spirulina gets hydrolyzed broken down into amino acids that become this mineral’s friends. So, because that spirulina has been broken down into many, many amino acids, those amino acids stick to the mineral in different ways, making them more readily able to be absorbed in a pet's body.

So, in high quality pet foods, you might see these friend groups listed on the label as things like zinc proteinate or copper proteinate. These are multi amino acid chelated minerals—minerals hanging out with their amino acid friends. And using hydrolyzed spirulina can also offer a clean label on top of making sure the body can actually use those minerals.

Cico Rodriguez: And so it's a very exciting area. It's called our Verdamins line. So, you know, green minerals.

Dr. Stephanie Clark: And this is all natural?

Cico Rodriguez: All natural, enzymatically digested. So, we're not doing any sort of unique GMO process or anything like that. At the end of the day, that's our amplification process that drives a transformation in nutrition.

Jordan Tyler: Speaking of ingredient breakthroughs, our next guest, John Cullen with Petbeing, is tackling one of the biggest challenges with functional ingredients: cost. You've probably seen green-lipped muscle listed on various joint supplements. But it's expensive, and often underdosed. John's team is introducing Blussels, a branded alternative that delivers the same glucosamine and Omega-3 benefits, but at half the price that opens the door to seeing this powerhouse ingredient not just in supplements, but in everyday diets, too.

John Cullen: it's really like a direct competitor of green-lipped mussel, and has really a lot of the same properties in terms of glucosamine, Omega-3. It's all harvested in southern Chile and it's all eco-sourced and they grow it, they process it, they have proprietary freeze drying and can turn that into powder, and it's about half the cost of green lipped [mussels].

So, that's been a huge part of our business right now and we actually use it in our own supplements, but we're also now, because of the price point of green lipped mussel and how expensive it is, it's been really difficult to add it to a food, whether a wet food or a kibble. So, with the blue mussel, we can manufacture it at such a cost that now it's opened the doorway to people using it in wet foods and even, even potentially in a dry food.

That's really, really exciting actually. It's a really exciting new area of business that we're in. You know, green lipped, we're not saying green lipped is not a great product. It is, but it's just, it's expensive. It's expensive, and now there's some heavy metal issues in New Zealand, and so, you know, we're addressing some of those as well.

Dr. Stephanie Clark: And nutritionally, relatively one-to-one, right? For green lipped?

John Cullen: Pretty much, yeah.

Dr. Stephanie Clark: Like, you're not missing anything by the price point being lower. That's innovative. We like that ingredient. We like to see it on the ingredient deck. We like the benefits that it comes, but in today's economy, and I mean. Right? It's just, it's not feasible. We're trying to make things at least affordable so we can keep feeding our pets. But so, I mean, I think that's really innovative.

John Cullen: Well, and then again, opening new doors and new delivery methods. Right, right. If you can put it in foods, a lot of what we're trying to do is really just create convenience for consumers. Because they don't—there's a lot of confusion. I mean, they don't understand the labels. They don't understand what they should be giving their pets. If this is a great way to add a great high-quality protein plus glucosamine, plus, you know, the Omega 3s with a viable ingredient that's, again, affordable. So, it's not to, you know—to really get to the active ingredient levels, it's only adding really pennies on the dollar to a wet food or a dry food or, you know.

There's so much innovation and you know, kind of delivery of what types of foods in this, that, the other, that now all of a sudden it's opened that, you know, really a massive doorway for blue shell mussel, where green lip just couldn't do it because it would add so much cost to a canned food or you know, wet food or a dry food that it just wasn't viable from a consumer demand standpoint.

If you saw the factory in Chile, it's just incredible. I mean, it's state of the art, all eco sourced. I mean, it's all about sustainability.

Dr. Stephanie Clark: Yeah.

John Cullen: It's just been an incredible, incredible journey. And it was really, it was interesting because the company in Chile tried to do things with this before, but they just couldn't figure out the market.

Dr. Stephanie Clark: Mm-hmm.

John Cullen: So, you know, the owners of Petbeing, all of a sudden they were like, wait, we could do something with this. And then all of a sudden, like, the whole—it just exploded. I mean it's been really, the growth has been explosive.

cts from our initial SUPERZOO: 2025

So, Steph, I'm super curious to get your take on what I'm about to ask Rick here. He was telling me about a new product that you guys have or are coming out with, and it is something you told me about it and I was like that actually might be like a novel product. Which is like, Steph and I had just, we talk a lot about, you know, imitation versus innovation. Is it just marketing or is it actually like, you know, the next big new thing? So, tell us about what Phelps has been working on and why you're so excited about it.

Rick Ruffolo: So, Stephanie, I'm going to blow you away with this idea. I'm just gonna tell you right now.

Jordan Tyler: Really built it up. Sorry about that.

Rick Ruffolo: No, it's, we're very excited. It's called H2GO! Are you familiar with Go-Gurts? Right? You’ve got a four-year-old, you know what a Go-Gurt is, right? So, think of that same tube concept or maybe even the lickable cat treat.

Dr. Stephanie Clark: Yeah.

Rick Ruffolo: So, it's a gel format in a tube that is three times more effective than water at hydrating, and it's intended for dogs. And it's a much smaller tube. It's not like the big, long ones.

Dr. Stephanie Clark: I know, in my head I was thinking like a very big, I was like, they're going to be very hydrated. Awesome.

Rick Ruffolo: Not that long, but it's a gel format. You can feed them directly out of the tube where you can, you know, let them have it on the ground, however you want, and it's great for walks, great for just every day. The big aha, if you will, is, you know, it's built on the idea of humans, humanization, right? Humans are chronically under—dehydrated, under hydrated.

Dr. Stephanie Clark: Yeah, chronically…

Jordan Tyler: Currently.

Rick Ruffolo: You know, you see me with a diet Dr. Pepper and all you guys have got your big water bottles. But, um—

Dr. Stephanie Clark: We’ve been talking a lot.

Rick Ruffolo: —it is definitely something that humans are aware of, right? Definitely more so than 10 years ago. Like everything else in the human world, it's going to find its way into the pet world eventually, and I think people recognize actually dogs and cats are actually chronically dehydrated as well. And so, this is an easy way for them to do it, to get hydrated without necessarily either carrying water bottles and bowls around with you everywhere. Or even if you have those, sometimes the dogs are just not acknowledging their dehydration. Right? So they're going to ignore the water bowl for a while. This is gonna be, it's flavored.

Dr. Stephanie Clark: That's what I was about to ask.

Rick Ruffolo: It's convenient, and it packs a punch. It's three times more effective in terms of the way the water is absorbed through your cells, and don't ask me a lot of science stuff because I'm not a scientist. But it, the operative word is hydrocolloid. Hydrocolloids.

Dr. Stephanie Clark: Yep, absolutely.

Rick Ruffolo: So anyway, that allows for the absorption of those water molecules much more efficiently than just drinking water.

Jordan Tyler: A little science lesson: hydrocolloids work by binding with water molecules, which allows them to be absorbed in a person's or pets bloodstream more efficiently. That makes them actually more effective than simply drinking large amounts of water or loading up on electrolytes. It's a smart way to address a real health need, especially for pets prone to heat stress, dehydration, or urinary issues.

Rick Ruffolo: So what do you think?

Dr. Stephanie Clark: No, I think it's cool, honestly, that you said hydrocolloids. My brain was like, “We would need this in the vet practice.” Mm. You know? Especially—so again, from St. Louis, and it's been a hot minute, but I used to work in a vet clinic and the amount of like heated exhaust and dogs are, you know, heat stroke, and you're trying to pump in so much fluids, but like you can only do it so fast. I'm like, we need this in the Midwest, for real.

Rick Ruffolo: That's a, you know, it's really interesting just the feedback so far. Because this was sort of our big reveal moment just a few hours ago, and the feedback has been, “Wow, I could use this every day.” Yeah. But, wow. For chronic or acute issues. Yeah, like heat stress or, or heat exhaustion or whatever it might be, you know, that would be actually a really appropriate, you know, use of it.

Dr. Stephanie Clark: Yeah. I mean, I used to take my dogs hiking. I lived in Nashville, Tennessee on the outskirts, kind of Brentwood. And I would take them hiking and I had like a water bottle in the car and like a little pop-able bowl, but like, by the time you get back to the water, it's warm. They're looking at me like it's, it's bad temperature water. Like, they're not doing this. So, I'm like, okay, well you're going to have to wait till, you know, 30-minute drive home. So, I think that's really neat. Can you use it for cats and dogs or is cats coming?

Rick Ruffolo: Well, you know, because of the feedback we're already getting, we had focus it on dogs to begin with, and it's a beef flavor, but we can—you can put many different flavors if you wanted. And I think we may have to adjust the tube a little bit. More specific for cats. But the concept should clearly work for you. Right? Yeah. So we're pretty excited about it.

Dr. Stephanie Clark: Yeah, I mean, I think for cats, hydration is huge, right? At least in a clinic, we see a lot of like stones, a lot of bladder stones because cats aren't getting enough, or hydration. And so, this is, I think would be really, again, tying it back to that vet med, but this is a solution for a lot of problems that pet owners and veterinarians are dealing with. So, I think it's very cool. I'm really interested to see as a nutritionist, the ingredient deck and like all the science behind it, but I think it's very novel.

Jordan Tyler: Hydration isn't the only area ripe for innovation. Skout's Honor has been known for cleaning and grooming products, but they continue to push the boundaries with new functional formulations. Founder Pete Stirling shared how the company has gone from green chemistry cleaning solutions to probiotic shampoos that support and preserve the skin microbiome, and now into wellness wipes infused with hyaluronic acid. This is a great example of a company applying both science and sustainability to pet care.

Pete Stirling: So, I'm a big nerd. I love it. And I love being able to dive into stuff and just, you know, keep learning about it, keep learning about it, keep learning about it, and figure it out. Especially when it starts leading down that path of something that is unexpected.

So, when we were looking to build this brand, we needed to build this brand around that concept, not necessarily that particular technology. Instead of building a brand that was based on technology, we started finding technologies that we could put underneath the brand. And just continue that story and progress. As we started recognizing these new problems, developing new solutions, a few years later we ended up really kind of stumbling across the concept of a topical probiotics to deal with the pet's topical microbiome, which is incredibly important.

And especially if you think about grooming a pet, like look at it from a groomer's perspective. Because we're in a grooming show, right? A person's bringing in their dog and the dog has all kinds of skin issues or things like that, and maybe they know, “Hey, a lot of it has to do with the diet or the environment they live in,” but there's not a whole lot they can do to change that. But if they can use a product that actually helps to provide a solution that can make the dog more comfortable, helps support the natural microbiome and make sure that the dog is feeling better over the long term… Hey, why not? Right? It's a great solution.

That's, now, I wouldn't say it's a new technology for us, but we just got it certified by MyMicrobiome, which is a group out of Germany, and they go and make sure that that product does not disrupt the microbiome on the surface of the pet skin, which is fantastic when you talk about shampoo, because by definition it's supposed to clean everything off of the surface of the skin. So, you know, we've all grown up washing our dogs and they're like, “Hey, don't wash it more than every two to four weeks.” That's because it's disrupting the microbiome. You can potentially end up with the issues of like overgrowth of pathogenic yeasts. You can end up with all kinds of dermatitis. And then you get dogs start smelling bad. So, now you're in a situation where you can wash your dog pretty much as frequently as you want, because you have a product that does that without disrupting that microbiome. And we developed a whole line of products that support that microbiome.

We took that and segued into wellness. Most recently, we're in the process, in December, we're going to be hitting shelves with a new line of products. We wanted to do something for wipes because it's just the most boring category ever. I mean, it's a wipe. COVID probably made us all wipe resistant at this point, right?

Jordan Tyler: No more wipes.

Pete Stirling: But we started looking at what's going on in the human side of the market—what is biocompatible with pets? What could be useful?—and landed on hyaluronic acid. So you take a hyaluronic acid and you infuse a wipe with hyaluronic acid. Now you have a wipe that is basically taking a biocompatible molecule, something that's found throughout the pet's body and is used by the body to help retain moisture, and you're putting that into a wipe. So, it can be applied topically or it can be applied to the eye and to clean the eye out. It's something that already exists in the pet. It's completely biocompatible, very cool. Helps the wipes stay more moist, and it looks cool. It's something cool to talk about, you know, so it's just, as far as I'm aware, that's kind of the only cutting-edge technology that's been implemented in wipes in the space, which is something that we just constantly are striving to do. And then we got some stuff up our sleeves for the future too. So, you know, we're not going to stop anytime soon.

Jordan Tyler: And finally, we will round out today's conversation with WagWell, a brand that's bringing luxury beauty world experience into the pet wellness space. Founder Bill Smolen and his team have taken their backgrounds at companies like Chanel and L'Oreal and applied that rigor to pet supplements, paw care, and soon freeze-dried food. And even though this brand is young, their focus on ingredients like the use of Ahiflower oil as a sustainable source of Omega fatty acids is already gaining credibility among the veterinary community.

Bill Smolen: If you look at even ingredient stories and the way that Millennials shop over the past 20 years, we're looking at the ingredients list. We're not really trusting of what we've been told in the past, and we want more of that transparency. When we were researching building WagWell, we felt there was a lot of opacity in the pet space and wanted to bring that structure to the space. So, with WagWell, we were thinking, “Okay, how do we actually become this change?” What does that mean to us? It's the ingredient stories.

What we started with Ahiflower oil as a plant-based Omega source for our supplements. Supplements are a scary place to start, right? So here we are entering with this. I knew we needed a point of difference and to build that out, but I also love that we're a platform brand and we're innovating across product category to build that trusted bit.

It's about the ingredient story being differentiated, the manufacturing processes, not skimping on that. Ensuring it's all made in the US high quality ingredients that are placed in, and then the testing to support the claims. We have a great space in Brazil that we've used before. We are really trying to build out something that's different and better. And we've gotten there.

You know, building food we've been working on for probably a year and a half, and we'd wanted to do that from the start, but that's the toughest thing for someone to change. We're also not kind of real until you do it, right? So, but it was important. We build our community through that awareness of supplements and ingestibles and Ahiflower and understanding different ingredients, and then building into our freeze-dried process, which we have this differentiated source that allows the steam kill process. So, there's no fear of E. coli or Salmonella. So, we tested that in treats and really built a community that was interested in ingredients and aware of what was happening. So, we felt now food is the right time to launch that.

Dr. Stephanie Clark: I want to circle back to Ahiflower. You guys are well known for Ahiflower, you guys have been called out in the veterinary community, which is like a hard community to penetrate, let alone get, you know, a nod to. So, you want to talk about Ahiflower? You guys were very adamant about making sure that it was in your food.

Bill Smolen: Thank you.

Dr. Stephanie Clark: And, and this is relatively novel in pet. Like, there's tons of studies on humans and mice, but not pets.

Bill Smolen: Thank you for bringing that up. It's what inspired the brand in the first place. We saw this ingredient and we thought we were crazy. We're like, “Wait, we've found a gold mine here. Why isn't anyone doing this?” But I really call our Ahiflower oil liquid gold. We have this wonderful blend that really is an Omega 3, 6 and 9 source that is just as good as what you get from salmon or fish oil. But it's also so clean. It doesn't have the bad breath. It doesn't expire as quickly, and our one 8-oz bottle of this is equivalent to 600 fish saved from the sea.

Well, it's nice to say on a podcast about sustainability, I could go off for hours about overfishing and the problems that causes, but even like, the cost of fish oil has increased 4x in two years. It's not tenable for all of our competition. So, for a number of reasons, we were so excited. It was a clean, effective source. We felt that was a rational way to go build into supplements and, you know, we don't own it. Others can have it.

I feel like I have kombucha 15 years ago. It's like, we're kind of first on a big scale to speak of it. But I feel like a rising tide lifts all boats. I want others to incorporate this. We're not like the only ones who can have it. I think it's a relevant, smart thing to bring in. So, we ended up partnering with the Ahiflower people who own it, and they've just been wonderful partners, but it's the perfect way to speak about that innovative ingredient that's can land, where you're comfortable, that you learn about, we're doing this in food, we're doing this in human beauty. From like innovation on skincare and all of it. So, it's just another ingredient that we felt was a relevant place to put a stake in the ground.

And again, we're small, but I think the more people research it, like scrutiny makes truth stronger, right? We're not hiding anything. It's limitless. We want others to adopt it. So, um, it's not a hill wolf, you know, we don't have it in every product. It only makes sense we're appropriate. It's not inexpensive, but we kind of have that as our luxury product in serum. It's more than fish oil. It's also a much better product to put in.

Even my partner who's a scientist, like, he's like, “What is this a secret thing?” And then we have it on our pug and weekly he's like, “This is the softest fur she's ever had.” Like, that's what we can feel like. We all know the value of Omega and what that does for your body, but I feel good about where that comes from.

Jordan Tyler: From all these brands, a common message comes through: innovation in the pet industry doesn't come from one singular place. It happens on multiple levels, through formats, through ingredients, and most importantly, through science. This is what makes SUPERZOO such an exciting stage because it's where year after year emerging brands bring new energy and fresh ideas to the market.

're sharing from the SUPERZOO: 2025

Dr. Stephanie Clark: Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Barking Mad. If you want to learn more about BSM Partners, please visit us at www.bsmpartners.net. Don't forget to subscribe on your favorite leading podcast platform or share it with a friend to stay current on the latest pet industry trends and conversations.

Jordan Tyler: We'd also like to thank our dedicated team, Ada-Miette Thomas, Neeley Bowden, Kait Wright, Cady Wolf, and Dr. Katy Miller. A special shout out to Lee Ann Hagerty and Michael Johnson in support of this episode, and to David Perez for our original music in the intro and outro. See you next time!

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