We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Meagan Yip. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Meagan below.

Hi Meagan, thanks for joining us today. Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.

Over the last few years, pet parents are becoming increasingly more interested in what they are feeding their pets and more willing to spend at a premium to make sure their furry friends are getting the best of the best – including myself. However big pet industries are still prioritizing profits over quality, while the daily consumer wants better options.

That’s why I started Snaggletooth, it was to solve a problem for my rescue pup Korra – who was extremely picky and was a small dog whom I wanted to train and give multiple treats to. There was nothing on the market that was single ingredient and small enough for Korra, so I had to painstakingly cut up freeze dried beef liver treats for her. So I set out to make single ingredient freeze dried treats that were only made with the best human grade ingredients and small enough for her to be a healthy, low calorie treat alternative to the other training treats in the market.

Additionally, independent pet stores and smaller indie pet brands are the reason that the pet industry is demanding higher quality products and pushing towards innovation. I hope Snaggletooth can be one of those brands, and because of my core values – I’ve decided that there must be a better way to grow and sustain a business. We are not in big box or corporate stores so that we can grow slowly and only make the best decisions with our pets in mind.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m Meagan Yip, a former Director of Growth Marketing with 10+ years of experience with high growth business in the DTC space. Having grown businesses to the $100M+ mark & consulted companies to hit their first $1M – I decided to turn my passion into solving a problem for my rescue pup, Korra, who I adopted in 2021 during the height of the pandemic..

While I grew up with pets, Korra was my first pet and I felt that it was important to train her. While training a 5 pound Korra, I felt that there weren’t many healthy options for smaller dogs. On top of that, Korra was incredibly picky and gravitated towards freeze dried proteins. Struggling to find any other options, I meticulously cut up treats for her training sessions and had my “aha!” moment. I figured, why not make treats smaller to begin with? And that’s the moment when Snaggletooth was born.

We spent the last 18 months developing a single ingredient, freeze dried treats, small enough for Korra and all her (little) dog & cat friends – who might need something tasty, healthy, and bite sized! We officially launched our business on September 30, 2024 and have been operating only on direct to consumer and with local independent pet stores.

Snaggletooth’s mission is to reward pets, pet parents, and their bond – one treat at a time.
We are a 100% bootstrapped small business. Woman & AAPI Owned. Proudly an LGBTQIA+ Ally.

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

I have always wanted to become an entrepreneur and own my own business, I remembered I would tell myself that I would quit my marketing job at age 25 and start a business and become a Forbes 30 under 30. Spoiler alert, none of that happened and I’m glad that I didn’t start Snaggletooth until I had 10+ years of experience under my belt.

Becoming a Director of Marketing at two different high growth companies allowed me to learn all of the different pieces of how to run a successful business by being in other successful businesses. It also offered me a perspective of how various businesses ran and helped me develop a point of view of what was important to me when I started my own business. You really don’t know what you don’t know.

At some point I did have to make a leap and take a bet on myself. So before I started Snaggletooth, I quit my corporate full time job and started my marketing consulting business where I got to help out even more businesses and learned how to start an LLC, do my own accounting, and be my own boss.

Every single career move allowed me the knowledge and learning opportunities to be here today and since Snaggletooth is still at it’s infancy, I am still running my consulting business and hustling to make both of them work! I have a ton of respect for small business owners, especially ones that are funded on their own because you have to do everything you can to survive. And one day your side gig becomes your full time gig! To be honest, looking at my current growth rate and understanding that slow and steady growth wins the race, I will be doing this double business for at least the next 5 years and I am totally OK with it.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

My favorite book that has really inspired me is Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara. While it’s a book about a restaurant, it’s really about juggling two ideals that seem to be in conflict with each other and still finding a way to achieve both. In his restaurant’s case, it’s balancing the highest level of fine dining with the fact that you have to run a successful business. In Snaggletooth’s case, it will be providing the highest quality pet treats & products to the customers while also running a humble, balanced, yet profitable business. I have always wanted to have a better business vision, and the only way to achieve that was to go and build one for myself and my dog!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.snaggletoothpets.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/snaggletoothpets
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/snaggletoothpets/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/snaggletooth-pets/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@SnaggletoothPets
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@snaggletoothpets

Image Credits

Photos by Sarah DeRemer (@dogtographer.la)

https://www.sarahderemer.com/