"How I Got into Walmart"

Issue #129

December 10th, 2024

Quick Hits:

🐈 Ummm, Stuart Little producer says cats ass fell out

☹️ This dog is not pleased with his human

🐶 The story and the pup behind the giant replica that was floating in Chicago

🌲 This Xmas tree is a little bit different

🏀 This tiny dog plays basketball better than you

🐑 The story of Lamb Chop, America’s most popular dog toy

This week, we spoke with DogSauce founder and serial entrepreneur Dakota Sheets. He recently landed a deal with Walmart and we wanted to learn more about it.

Tell us about yourself, what were you doing before you launched Dog Sauce? 

My name is Dakota Sheets. I’m 30 years old and have lived in Colorado my whole life. I went to CSU for construction management but I’ve been a founder for 10 years and this is my 2^nd start-up after selling my first in 2020. I also run a boutique digital marketing business and have brought half a dozen companies to 7 figures through performance ad spend. 

What is DogSauce and why did you decide to start it?

One thing I wanted to target with my 2^nd business was to connect with a larger population, I knew I could accomplish that with the pet space. DogSauce is a meal enhancer made up of bone broth and sweet potato puree. DogSauce was made to enhance dogs’ meals; but, more importantly, to bring joy to dogs that have had the same kibble for most of their life with no changes. I knew going into the pet space was a north star for me. This is a community I could wake up excited every day excited to be a part and could contribute to.

After 3 years of working on formulation, we had our first production run in March of 2024. We knew with these scarce units we needed to focus on putting them in people of influence hands and collect honest feedback. The initial response has been great and seeing 1000’s of dogs enjoying the product has been one of the best parts of my entrepreneurial career. 

What is Walmart’s Open Call Event? How did you prepare to present there and how did it go? 

Walmart's open call is for businesses that manufacture and produce products in the United States. It’s an incredible opportunity for US businesses to be seen by the largest retailer in the world. I spent weeks crafting the pitch deck that we used to pitch our merchandisers. I’m sure my girlfriend could recite it by the time we got our opportunity in front of Walmart.

What does it mean to win the golden ticket?

Receiving a golden ticket from Walmart means that you have an opportunity to sell in Walmart stores across the country depending on capacity and your company’s capabilities.

Was it intimidating pitching in front of Daymond John from Shark Tank? 

Pitching in front of 700 people and Daymond John was one of the most terrifying and exciting moments of my life. Knowing the president of Walmart was watching me and every merchandiser responsible for buying products inside Walmart made my head feel like it was going to fall off my shoulders. Once I got a couple of laughs though it felt like pitching my product to anyone passing by at a tradeshow.

What are your focuses right now? 

With having a small team my main focus right now is on logistics, finance, and making sure that all the moving parts are ready for our first large-scale production run. Switching my brain from e-commerce to retail requires a different attention to detail because it’s less of an attention game and more of a strategy for getting folks to grab our products off the shelves. We are very excited to roll out our sidekicks in the best stores of the 1000 locations we are launching in.  

What is the Walmart onboarding process like? 

The onboarding process was a lot more technical than I expected, utilizing Walmart’s Retail link was a bit like taking a college class for the first time. This is where the dynamic product data lives that allows for seamless purchasing from their locations and connects our warehouse to stay on top of POs. We have much to learn but making sure we understand this system is crucial. From a human standpoint, it has been fantastic. Realizing Walmart buyers/merchants are just like buyers from any retailer has been a huge unlock for me knowing the goals and margin negotiations are still the same.

Why did you decide to approach Walmart vs putting ad $$ into online marketing and going all in on D2C as many brands do?

The goal for DogSauce was always to get into a large retailer like Walmart. This is a bit of a finance hack that allows for a start-up that has no backing to start driving revenue that is meaningful. This is important when trying to lower production costs with volume. We also spent money on Facebook and TikTok to grow last year but I have always valued ecommerce as more of an awareness tool that helps drive retail sales by allowing consumers to understand your product already when seeing it for the first time.

It’s not often that we get to speak with founders as they’re building, whats your advice to someone who is in a similar position as you were a year ago?

I’d say my biggest piece of advice is to just start and not overthink your initial launch. Building a brand has a lot of twists and turns and takes many years- until then you are only a product looking to get better. When you are a bootstrapped founder people buy into you and it’s up to you to show up and become known for the category you want to make an impact in. This will be dismissed many times in the early days/months even years but if you show up with consistency while innovating you will earn the respect of the community you wish to be a part of. This is why the sooner you get involved the better. 

Accomplish More. Juggle Less.

When you love what you do, it can be easy to take on more — more tasks, more deadlines, more hours – but before you know it, you don’t have time to do what you loved in the beginning. Don’t just do more – do more of what you do best.

BELAY’s flexible staffing solutions leverage industry experience with AI systems to increase productivity without sacrificing quality. You can accomplish more and juggle less with our exceptional U.S.-based Virtual Assistants, Accounting Professionals, and Marketing Assistants. Learn how with our free ebook, Delegate to Elevate, and leave the more to BELAY.

Download now

PAWS right there!!! Don’t forget to subscribe 👇👇

You reached the end, you deserve a treat 🍖

Be part of the pack - For more news, links, and entertainment follow us on social media (links below) and fur - ward this to your best human friend.

Finally, What happened to the dog who ate nothing but garlic?

His bark was worse than his bite!

See you Friday!