Smalls has been elevated a total of $34 million for his cat food subscription. But how does the company stand out from the competition in a competitive pet food market?
The cat food industry is an extremely competitive market, with numerous brands and products vying for the attention of cat owners. The industry is characterized by constant innovation, but largely on the marketing side, rather than the product side. So where does a company like Smalls fit in? How does it know it can keep growing? Let’s find out!
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Contents
Slides into this deck
Raised Smalls with a 24-slide deck, who shared it with us in full with some minor edits: “Information that has been redacted includes specific details about the company’s valuation and current earnings,” a company representative told me. , but said no slides were skipped completely.
- Cover slide
- Market slide
- Problem slide
- Mission slide (“We’re here to make 9 lives 10”)
- Competition slide
- Product slide
- How it works slide
- Why now interstitial slide
- Scroll business statistics
- Slide milestones
- Team slide
- Use of funds slide
- Performance interstitial slide
- CAC slider
- Scroll to market/growth channels
- Value Prop Dia
- Churn Analysis Slide
- LTV slide
- Future Plans interstitial slide
- “From Cat Food Brand to Cat Brand” — Market Expansion Slide Part 1
- Market expansion slide part 2
- LTV extension slider
- The Slide Questions and Target Milestones
- Thank you slide
Three things to love
Some really great things caught my eye in this pitch deck, and I’m not just saying that because it has cute cat pictures.
We get it, cats are picky eaters
[Slide 6] Well played. Image Credits: little ones
It’s not uncommon for companies to discover opportunities for more aggressive growth, and it’s possible that’s why it’s decided to raise more money.
Smalls explains why it has a perfect fan base. The remarkable proliferation of formulations (with hilarious names like fish, bird and other bird) and textures (smooth, ground) ensure that there is something for everyone. It may not have been logistically easy to have 14 different SKUs to manufacture and stock, but here’s a company that understands that animals don’t always eat what they don’t like, especially finicky cats. If all these formulations are already on the market, it is a kind of moat; it’s not easy, which might be useful for keeping competitors at bay.
Smalls’s way of hooking pet owners is through its seamless order flow:
[Slide 7] A sample pack ensures that the cat is dialed in. From there you can choose to subscribe. Image Credits: little ones
Solid stats
[Slide 9] Many of the numbers have been redacted, but there’s still a lot to learn here. Image Credits: little ones
I like a good metrics slide, and while the company locked down a lot of its actual numbers, what’s fascinating here is the growth chart on the right and what metrics the company cares about. Even without knowing the exact numbers, you can tell a lot about a company from what it considers its KPIs.
It’s great that 86% of sales are recurring sales, and doubling sales in the past six months is incredibly encouraging. Clearly, the Smalls team has found a formula (see what I did there?) for success. Tracking CAC, profit per box, LTV, AOV, and ARR are the key metrics you should expect from any subscription company, and in this case, the company is experiencing extreme growth.
It is a small curious that it specifically raises $12.5 million (why not $12 million or $13 million or $15 million?), and in hindsight it raised $19 million in this round anyway. It is not uncommon for companies to discover opportunities for more aggressive growth or larger market expansions during the investment process, and it is possible that this may have required more money.
Impressive top-of-funnel
The company has diversified its acquisition channels, which is a great way to reduce risk:
[Slide 15] Evolving channel mix. Image Credits: little ones
That less than 33% of acquisitions come from a single channel indicates that a company has not put all its kittens in one basket. What this slide tells me is that Smalls has a robust and relatively sophisticated view of growth — exactly what an investor would want to see before pouring a giant bag of sauce-covered dollar bills into Smalls’ bowl.
In the rest of this teardown, we take a look at three things Smalls could have improved or done differently, along with the full pitch deck!
Janice has been with businesskinda for 5 years, writing copy for client websites, blog posts, EDMs and other mediums to engage readers and encourage action. By collaborating with clients, our SEO manager and the wider businesskinda team, Janice seeks to understand an audience before creating memorable, persuasive copy.