pet-food
(4)
Central Garden & Pet
It started as one man's distribution route in 1980. Four decades later, Central Garden & Pet quietly stocks the grass seed, dog chews and bird feed on shelves across America - roughly $3.1 billion worth a year.
Katie Spies
Katie Spies is the founder and CEO of Maev, the direct-to-consumer brand that made human-grade raw food for dogs a subscription. An MIT-trained engineer who quit tech to spend nearly a year as a full-time dog walker, she built Maev after her rescue dog's health turned around on a raw diet. Since launching in 2020 she has shipped millions of meals, raised roughly $19 million in venture funding, and grown the company by wheat-pasting posters across New York before scaling to paid channels.
Jonathan Regev
Jonathan Regev is the co-founder and CEO of The Farmer's Dog, the fresh, human-grade dog food company he started in 2015 with Brett Podolsky after the two met on a Birthright trip to Israel. A former Bain consultant and Rocket Internet entrepreneur-in-residence, Regev spent over a year planning the business before spending a dollar on infrastructure, building a subscription supply chain that ships pre-portioned, vet-formulated meals direct to dogs' doors. Under his leadership the company crossed more than $1 billion in annualized revenue, turned profitable, and won USA Today's Ad Meter with its 2023 Super Bowl debut.
Maev
Maev is an Austin-based direct-to-consumer pet brand making the first human-grade raw food for dogs. Founded by MIT engineer and Harvard MBA Katie Spies after her own dog's health scare, Maev sells frozen raw food, supplement bars, bone broth and freeze-dried treats built on USDA-certified protein, no fillers, and formulas vetted by PhD veterinary nutritionists. The company raised a $10M Series A led by VMG Partners in 2022 and expanded into retail via Chewy.