Insights & More

Three business models compete in veterinary telemedicine: subscription, marketplace, and insurance-bundled. None has proven sustainable at scale. This analysis examines who's positioned to win, how state-by-state regulation creates moats, and what the vet shortage means for category trajectory.

The pet health monitoring market is projected to hit $6.65 billion by 2031, but most companies in this space are still losing money. The hardware is commoditized. The real opportunity, and the real challenge, lies in turning sensor data into clinical outcomes that vets trust and insurers price.

The pet wearables market is projected to hit $6.65 billion by 2031 — but the category keeps breaking the companies trying to capture it. Mars paid $117 million for Whistle and shut it down nine years later. This is what founders and investors need to understand about the structural business model challenges.

The pet AI market is projected to hit $2.5 billion by 2033, but most applications fail. The pattern that works: AI that augments veterinary professionals wins; AI that tries to replace the vet visit loses. Here's how to separate signal from noise.

Most pet tech coverage lists who's funded. This analysis examines which business models actually work — from wearables to insurance to veterinary tech — and identifies the patterns that separate survivors from well-funded failures.

Every pitch deck cites the $150 billion pet industry number. Sophisticated investors have seen it a thousand times and aren't moved. This breaks down what the top-line figure hides about segment dynamics, growth rates, and competitive reality—and how to use market data strategically.

BARK and Wag are the only pet companies that went public via SPAC. Both destroyed shareholder value. The lesson: exit method doesn't fix broken unit economics.

Pet M&A hit 532 deals in 2025, but volume hides selectivity. This is the founder's guide to who's actually buying, what each buyer type optimizes for, and how to position your company before you're ready to sell.

Valuation multiples in pet swing from 4x to 16x EBITDA. The difference isn't your revenue or margins. It's the operational characteristics that buyers use to assess risk and growth potential. This is what actually moves the number.

Pet industry investors aren't a monolith. VCs, PE firms, corporate strategics, and angels each operate on different timelines with different return expectations. This is the map to who actually funds pet companies and how deals get done.

Pet supplements offer a faster, cheaper path to market than food—with lower MOQs and simpler regulations. The real costs, timelines, and the health claims trap that catches first-time founders.

Sustainable packaging is a positioning decision with real cost trade-offs. The actual costs, certifications worth pursuing, and the mistakes that turn sustainability claims into greenwashing liability.

The gap between "alternative proteins are interesting" and "here's what you can actually buy at scale" is wider than most founders realize. A practical guide to insect, plant, fermented, and cultivated proteins—what's commercially viable today.

Your co-packer choice shapes margins, timeline, and product quality for years. Here's how to find the right manufacturing partner, vet them properly, and structure a relationship that scales.

Formulation is a constraint management problem, not a creative exercise. Learn the real costs, timelines, and which decisions you make versus delegate to your formulator—before your first production run.

Pet brand CAC ranges from $15 on Facebook to $148 on Google Display. But the benchmark that matters depends on your stage, your retention, and your unit economics. This guide provides context most benchmark articles skip.

Most DTC pet brands expand to retail before they're ready, trading margin for reach without understanding the true costs. This guide covers the five signals that indicate readiness, the real economics of retail expansion, and when staying DTC-only makes more sense.

Pet subscription boxes look compelling on paper: recurring revenue, emotional engagement, a growing market. But BarkBox's public filings reveal the brutal reality. Monthly churn runs 5-8%, CAC payback takes nearly four months, and better retention can't fix a model where most customers leave before you profit.

Pet influencers get 5-7% engagement rates and 63% of pet owners follow at least one. Yet most brand campaigns underperform. This guide covers what influencer marketing actually costs, how to calculate real ROI against your paid media benchmarks, and the specific conditions where it doesn't make sense at all.

Most pet marketing advice is useless tactics from agencies. This guide covers what actually matters: channel economics with real numbers, stage-appropriate strategy, and honest analysis of what BarkBox, The Farmer's Dog, and Chewy did that you can (and can't) replicate.

Most pet brands approach retail the wrong way. They lead with product when buyers lead with numbers. This guide breaks down what Petco, PetSmart, and independent store buyers actually evaluate, the capital requirements nobody mentions, and why proving demand online first has become the new prerequisite for shelf space.

Every guide to China sourcing is written by someone who profits from your decision. This is what sourcing agents leave out: the 29% tariff impact, the trust deficit from the melamine scandal, and why the math doesn't work for everyone.

Every scaling pet brand faces the manufacturing question: stick with co-packers, build your own facility, or acquire existing capacity. This guide provides the decision framework operators actually use, with real costs ($50K-$1M+ for equipment), timelines (months vs. years), and the criteria that determine which path fits your stage.

The 3PL-versus-in-house decision shapes your margins, customer experience, and flexibility for years. This guide breaks down real costs, volume thresholds, and pet-specific requirements like heavy product surcharges and lot tracking to help you make the right call for your stage.

The U.S. pet food industry draws from 600+ ingredients across dozens of countries — complexity that becomes liability when something breaks. This guide maps the four failure points in pet food supply chains and the tactical fixes operators use to build resilience without killing margins.

The average pet food recall costs $10 million in direct expenses. This guide walks through what the next 72 hours actually look like from inside a company, the financial stakes operators face, and what preparation separates brands that survive from those that don't.

The FDA issued warning letters to pet CBD companies in June 2025. Section 781 takes effect November 2026. State requirements are multiplying. Pet CBD isn't becoming illegal—it's becoming regulated. Here's what operators need to know.

Every pet food label needs eight required elements, but most founders get three of them wrong. This is the practical guide to AAFCO naming conventions, guaranteed analysis formatting, and what state regulators actually look for before you print 50,000 bags.

The FDA investigated grain-free dog food for four years and closed the case without proving causation. That tells you everything about how FDA pet food oversight actually works: reactive, safety-focused, and narrower than most founders assume. This is the enforcement reality.

Most pet food founders treat regulations as a checkbox until they discover 50 different state registration processes and a newly split FDA/AAFCO approval system. This is the operator's guide to what actually gets enforced, what's changing, and which decisions deserve your attention.