Million Dollar Grind

 Back in 1998, Marie Moody rescued Chewy, a  Shar-Pei and Airedale terrier mix, from an animal  shelter. Chewy had multiple health problems and  a weak immune system.  With the advice of her  vet, Moody researched raw food diets and started  making Chewy’s food at home with her food  processor. 

Chewy recovered in 6 months and convinced Moody that the right food made all the difference.  As the responsibilities and travel demand grew at her “real job” (a sales rep for Three Dots), Moody found it harder to make Chewy’s food and started to wonder why there was nothing like the food she was making for Chewy on the market.   Moody became less passionate about working in the fashion industry and more interested in making dog food. With that in mind she quit her job in the fashion industry to pursue making the best all natural raw pet food.

Moody started the first Stella & Chewy’s (named after her two dogs) distribution center in her one bedroom apartment on the upper west side and made deliveries from taxi cabs.  Because the food was required to be stored in a freezer, Moody took a $50,000 advance from her father to buy freezers in order to convince pet stores in Manhattan to sell her product (he told her she had to sell alot of dog food).  Moody then stood on the sidewalks handing out free samples (because most consumers were used to dry or canned pet foods) to jump start the sales of her product. 

In 2002, Moody moved her business to Wisconsin and opened a 12,000 square foot distribution plant that now supplies Stella & Chewy’s to over 500 stores across the United States.  Sales have doubled every year since Moody started her pet food business.  Stella & Chewy’s reached revenues of over $1 million in 2007.  Now that’s a lot of dog food, Dad!

Have you ever come up with a product solution to a common problem and thought “why isn’t this on the market?”