We recently connected with Rich Jackson and have shared our conversation below.

Rich, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?

I chose the name Skinny Pete’s Gourmet Catnip for our company based on several criteria. First, I believe that a name should be descriptive. At a glance, your prospective customer needs to know what your goods or services are. We sell catnip. Second, the name “Skinny Pete’s” evokes the image of a mascot or character. In our case this was the name of our not-so-skinny cat, Pete. We are about fun and humor so the name juxtaposes nicely with our logo image of a fat cat. Finally, because we make a high-end product, I included the word “Gourmet”. In just a few short years gourmet catnip has become a sub category in the pet product sector. Because we coined the phrase, we have an SEO advantage over copycat, (no pun intended), competitors.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I started Skinny Pete’s Gourmet Catnip in 2017 with my wife, Lisa Jackson. As our name implies, we make and sell catnip and other cat-themed products. We identified a vacuum in the market for cat products relative to dog products. We wanted to focus on very high quality catnip and original cat themed apparel and art posters for the cat lover. Entering the retail space was a diversion from the usual work I have done during my career. I’ve always been an Artist, and I’ve always had the entrepreneurial bug. I never wanted to work for someone else. Because of those traits, most of my life I’ve been a freelance 3D Animator, along with doing other side hustles. I was a pioneer in the world of CGI (Computer Generated Imagery), and that lead to me becoming a Film Producer/Director.
Before starting Skinny Pete’s Gourmet Catnip, I had just finished production on my first Human Trafficking documentary with Lisa as the Producer. The film was a success, but the subject is horrendous and actually took an emotional toll on me. Of the four “survivors” that we filmed, one was murdered, and one committed suicide before I was even done editing the film. I knew it was time to pivot.
Art is a good escape for me. One day I was drawing some character sketches of our fat cat, Skinny Pete. Over the radio, a news story came on about the exponential growth of the pet industry. I love animals, and after some research and some brainstorming with Lisa, Skinny Pete’s Gourmet Catnip was born!
That first sketch became the art on the label of our “Blue Meowy Wowy” catnip tin. It’s part of our flagship product, the Three-Piece Gourmet Catnip gift set. As far as I know, this is the first and only catnip on the market that is flavored with mint.
Today we offer a variety of products unique to our company. We have cat-themed apparel that I designed, cat-themed art posters, and one product for dogs. Dog-Ezz is an all-natural, herbal anxiety remedy for dogs. It’s becoming an industry disruptor.
A big part of our business model includes us attending art/craft shows. Each weekend we look forward to meeting new cat lovers in person. It’s a great way to explain our products and recruit people into the Skinny Pete’s “tribe.” It’s really fun to talking to customers about their fur babies. There’s lot of people out there who love their pets as much as we love ours.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

I have the unique privilege of being married to my amazing wife and business partner, Lisa Jackson. We met about 20 years ago while I was giving a lecture on 3D animation. She was in the audience headhunting for for instructors to teach at the media school where she was president. Today we jokingly call ourselves a “meow & paw“ company. She has the business sense that keeps the company on course. I bring the art chops and creativity. Together we are a formidable team. We work very, very hard but I enjoy every minute. I’m blessed to have my soul mate as my business partner. I gladly work 70 hours a week so the I don’t have to work 40 for someone else.

Do you sell on your site, or do you use a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc?

Before launching our online presence I did a lot of research on Ecommerce platforms. I chose Shopify. It is a robust platform that has every feature that I need. The customer facing appearance is beautiful and intuitive to navigate. The back end allows me to easily customize the look of our store. Marketing, shipping and metrics are all readably available too. We also sell on Amazon FBA. FBA denotes fulfilled-by-Amazon, as opposed to fulfilled by merchant. The pros of FBA are that it makes our products available to people who are Amazon Prime members. Plus Amazon handles all of the packaging and shipping. In a sense, It feels like we are wholesaling to them. The con is the cost. There are a bunch of little fees that ad up quickly. During periods of slow sales, the monthly fees never cease.
In 2022 we were approached by Chewy.com. After some back and forth, we partnered with them. They are very easy to work with and they do a great job marketing. I believe that Chewy.com is the world biggest online pet store too. I kinda like the street cred that gives the Skinny Pete’s brand. The only con that I have is that to be a Chewy.com partner, we had become EDI compliant. EDI is Electronic Data Interchange. This was a whole new business process that I had to learn on the fly.
Besides our three online sales channels and our live craft shows, we are panning out to several local brick n’ mortar stores. I hope to get into more retail outlets this year.
From it’s humble beginnings, Skinny Pete’s Gourmet Catnip is becoming a recognized brand in the pet product sector. Several days ago I was in a Starbucks and saw one of our company logo stickers on a your girl’s laptop! That was one of the most satisfying business experiences to date.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.skinnypetescatnip.com
• Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/skinnypetescatnip/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/100063724563918

Image Credits
All photos were taken by Rich Jackson.