The Business I Built From My Garage Was Weeks Away From Failure. Then I Had an Idea That Helped It Grow 6,000% in 2 Years. When Daniel Haarburger's dog Milo was recovering from surgery, the founder had a business breakthrough.
By Amanda Breen Edited by Jessica Thomas
Key Takeaways
- Woof, incorporated in 2019 with a focus on dog leashes, struggled to get off the ground amid pandemic pressures.
- Haarburger's decision to experiment with an innovative dog toy set the brand on an impressive growth track.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Daniel Haarburger, founder and CEO of Woof, a dog toy startup that experienced 6,000% growth from 2021 to 2023. The piece has been edited and condensed for clarity.
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Before I started Woof, I was doing design and licensing for other companies. I had what we like to call mailbox money coming in from inventions I'd developed, which was really nice, but it was frustrating not to be able to control the way that the products were brought to life. I thought I could innovate more effectively if I had greater control of the storytelling, marketing, messaging, customer education, etc.
Image Credit: Courtesy of Woof. Daniel Haarburger.
That coincided with me getting my dog Milo; he's a super cute bundle of joy. I realized, Wow, there's so much opportunity in the pet industry. This was the golden era of ecommerce and direct-to-consumer brands, but the pet industry was kind of a sleepy category at the time. There were a lot of needs that hadn't been met.
Image Credit: Courtesy of Woof. Daniel Haarburger and Milo.
I knew a little bit about the product design process and had a 3D printer in my house that I could use to create prototypes. I started with leashes. I envisioned a beautiful product, custom webbing with a buckle and a built-in bag holder was a big part — then collars and harnesses were meant to be companions to that, a whole set. But it turned out to be difficult to build a sustainable business around that.
I incorporated the business in 2019, and then in March of 2020, Covid happened. I'd raised some money from friends and family to be able to pay for the first round of inventory, but then the entire global supply chain ground to a halt, slowing me down by about a full year. It was difficult not having a revenue stream during the pandemic. Plus, so many direct-to-consumer brands were growing like crazy because everyone was at home purchasing while I was twiddling my thumbs.
Image Credit: Courtesy of Woof. Leash prototype.
Then, once all my inventory arrived, every single leash was broken — the entire batch of 3,000 had non-functional clips. They'd just snap off. So I had to manually grind off every single clip in my garage and fix it to see if people wanted to buy this product. And people did, but they didn't want to buy them enough to make the business profitable.
People might buy a new leash every couple of years, or even every four to five years. You're trying to catch customers in this small moment; it's not a product they'll repurchase on a regular basis. I had to learn what people did and didn't care about, which business models work and which don't.
We weren't losing money, but there was no clear upward trajectory. We might acquire a customer for $30, and they would spend $65, and we make $30 on that order. Making $200 a day wasn't enough. To complicate matters, about six months into launch, Apple stopped Meta from accessing its user data, so Meta's performance — and the ads Woof had on Facebook — tanked. All of a sudden, customer acquisition became more expensive, and profitability even worse.
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All the while, I was prototyping all sorts of different projects. I was working on bully stick holders, lighting attachments for your dog's collar and leash and new treat dispensing systems and toys. It was also around this time that my dog Milo got knee surgery. He was super young and wouldn't be able to play for the six months of recovery, which was sad for a high-energy husky. Sometimes I'd freeze 20 bones at a time to keep him entertained, so that's when I started prototyping the Pupsicle. I came up with the idea to freeze treats in advance and then have a pod that could open up and receive the treats. So I could give them Milo multiple times a day, and I could give very low-calorie options.
Image Credit: Courtesy of Woof. Pupsicle prototype.
I worked with different factories to test samples and make mold modifications; it seems simple, but it's actually really, really complicated. At the same time, the leashes weren't working out, and I hadn't paid myself in three years — the Pupsicle would be the last shot before I had to move on from the business. We had six, maybe eight, weeks of runway left.
Thankfully, when those products arrived, they were a hit: We put them on the website, put some ads behind them, and they sold out in two weeks. They had good profitability metrics, but the biggest piece was the demand — enough opportunity to pursue.
It's fun to look back on the first product samples and see how much the brand's evolved. Now, the company has great branding and personality, versus the more generic, off-the-shelf photos we used on the first products. Ultimately, the Pupsicle was the springboard for the business's growth, allowing us to build our team to about 75 people and introduce more products. Since then, it's been off to the races.
People love the Puspicle refills. That's the reason why they buy the product; they want to be able to open it up, drop in a treat and mix up their own healthy treats for their dog. So figuring out that model became crucial, especially as we expanded into retail. Then we had these retail touchpoints that encouraged people to buy the product over a competitor's. That flywheel has worked really well, complementing a solid direct-to-consumer model, allowing us to acquire customers and build brand awareness in a profitable way.
Image Credit: Courtesy of Woof
Looking ahead, I'm excited to have an amazing team that will continue to support Woof's growth — and we've already grown so much, despite not raising a lot of money. You usually hear, Company X raised $30 million to accelerate growth. We've raised about $1.5 million in our entire life, which is basically six years of business. That's a real testament to our team.
Of course, I'm also a product guy. I love designing products and innovating. Now that we have all these points of distribution and customers who can provide feedback, we can make products that make life better for pets and their people. We can make dogs healthier. Dogs are becoming such a crucial part of people's lives, and they're realizing that their pets' wellbeing really matters.
