Zesty Paws $610M Exit
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A story about entrepreneur Ajay Patel who built and sold multiple successful businesses, with his biggest exit being Zesty Paws.
"Let me tell you about someone interesting - Ajay Patel. He's only 32 years old and started multiple successful businesses. First, he created Smooth Viking, a men's grooming business that he sold. Then he started Insta Naturals, a natural-based skincare business that did $55 million in 2018.
After that, he started Zenwise, a plant-powered vitamins and supplements company doing $5-8 million in revenue. He noticed customers kept asking for pet vitamins, so he launched Zesty Paws. The funny thing about pet vitamins is you have no idea if they work, but people buy them anyway.
His strategy was different - he spent a lot of money upfront on making the brand really good through a branding agency. His goal was to first dominate Amazon, then go to retail. On Amazon alone, they were doing around $8 million a month, plus another $7 million through retail outlets. With wholesale costs at $8 and retail price at $26, they were doing around $40 million in profit when they sold.
Zesty Paws recently sold for $610 million. Now he's doing the same strategy with his new company High Key Cookies - dominating Amazon first with low sugar cookies. They already have 61,000 reviews and it's a pretty new product."
Sam Parr
Host of MFM and fitness influencer
Sam Parr is a serial entrepreneur and business media pioneer.
In 2016, he founded The Hustle, a business news media company that started in his kitchen with just $12 and grew to eight figures in revenue.
Sam led the charge in making newsletters popular when few believed in their potential.
After four successful years, he sold The Hustle to HubSpot, a publicly traded company. Now operating as HubSpot Media, The Hustle reaches 3 million readers daily, employs a team of nearly 100, and has been the launchpad for dozens of its staff to found their own media companies and newsletters.
Sam remains the host of the popular business podcast, My First Million, and continues to start and sell companies. He also co-founded Hampton, a highly vetted community for entrepreneurs, founders, and CEOs, and teaches people to write better through his platform, Copy That.