Brian Cheng | Co-Founder, HOLY CAP
HOLY CAP launched in Hong Kong in 2022 selling functional mushroom powders and learned fast that pet owners will not measure another supplement into the bowl. Co-founder Brian Cheng explains the pivot to lickable Squeezees, why in-person sampling beats Amazon at this stage, the operating cost of 14 SKUs split across dogs and cats, and the plan to become a complete-diet brand.
Brian Cheng spent a decade helping other companies build brands. Then he and his co-founder, Rosa Byun, decided it was time to build one of their own.
Frustrated by the ingredients they were finding in commercial pet food, the pair launched HOLY CAP in Hong Kong in 2022, initially selling functional mushroom powders and supplements. But they quickly learned that convincing pet owners to add another powder to their pets' meals wasn't exactly easy.
So they went back to the drawing board.
The result was Squeezees, a line of vet-formulated lickable treats for dogs and cats made with functional mushrooms, superfoods, and clean proteins. After making its U.S. debut at Expo West in March 2026, HOLY CAP has been building its presence through Amazon, specialty retail, and grassroots marketing.
But the ambitions go well beyond treats. With 14 SKUs already launched and a complete diet being explored, HOLY CAP wants to become a full pet nutrition brand.
In this interview, Brian discusses the challenges of building a pet CPG company from scratch, what he learned from launching in Asia before entering the U.S., the opportunity in functional mushrooms, and why getting pets to actually eat the product matters more than any marketing campaign.
Before starting HOLY CAP, you and your co-founder Rosa were running a branding consultancy. What made you go from building other people’s brands to deciding you needed to build one yourselves?
Creating our own brand with products we could really stand behind was always the end goal for us. Over about 10 years running WeSuperseed, our branding agency, we built brand foundations, strategy, and campaigns for clients ranging from startups to heritage businesses and consumer brands.
All the while, we were taking care of our aging dogs and getting more and more frustrated reading the ingredient labels on commercial pet food. A lot of pet food is marketed beautifully, but when you dig deeper, you find fillers, additives, and vague marketing terms. Coming from branding, we could see exactly how much heavy lifting the packaging was doing.
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