Los Angeles, California (The Hollywood Times) 4/18/2021 – Does your dog go to social gatherings like barkday pawties, bark-mitzvahs, and dog yappy hours? Petphoria is a modern lifestyle brand for pets and their people. An Asian-American woman owned-business that supplies luxury treats, toys, and apparel to our customers while providing job opportunities to people living with disabilities. You can learn more about Petphoria at shoppetphoria.com
What inspired you to launch your business?
My Dog, Beni. He’s been with me through my best times as well as my hardest times. When telling my story, I felt like many other pet parents had similar stories or felt the same way. I knew that I wanted to be able to do something to “give back” to dogs because of this. Petphoria came to me because Beni and I like to attend social gatherings together. When we do, we always bring a gift for the dog but we were unable to find a quality dog treat that was ready to gift. So that’s when I put my entrepreneur hat on and started to brainstorm ideas, which ultimately landed me to Petphoria! We launched on Beni’s golden barkday, Dec 7, 2020 with 4 flavors in 3 different pack sizes and have grown into a lifestyle brand since! Offering more than just luxury dog treats but also awesome human apparel and great toys with many additional product lines in the works!
Tell us about your Peanut Barker, Carrot Crunchies, and Quad-uple-dog products.
Our dog treat assortment were the first products we introduced! All of the flavors are created using flavor combos that Beni enjoys. Peanut Barker consists of Peanut BUtter + Banana, yum! Carrot Crunchies has carrots and turkey! Our bundles are great for those who can’t decide on one, it offers the ability to mix and match, or customize, the type of treats they want. We have two bundles total: double doggo, which offers two different choices and quad-uple-dog, which offers four different choices. Our double doggo is our best seller by far, people typically do the peanut barker and blueberry apple paws combo.
Your high-end treats have an altruistic component. Tell us about working with individuals with disabilities. Why is this so important to you?
This is an important factor to me. I knew that when I started a business, I wanted to be able to give back to the community and help others. Donating a percentage of sales is a standard these days, I still will donate of course, but I wanted to go beyond that and elevate/set the bar further. Simply because when you donate, you don’t truly understand the impact of how it helps benefit people. With our transparency and partnership, we are able to let you know exactly what your purchase helps us do. Each dog treat is individually made by people living with disabilities – offering them the ability to learn basic job functions to help them advance in their careers!
We love your apparel. How well do apparel products do for your business?
Our apparel business has skyrocketed! We have seen tremendous growth bringing in apparel. The inspiration behind all our apparel is Beni. We try to keep everything sassy and fun, because that’s Beni! You’ll also see that we don’t shy away from using an occasional cuss word or two!
What have you learned as a young entrepreneur?
Many things I’ve learned as a young entrepreneur. To start, there is never the right time to start so you just have to do it. In addition, I am a perfectionist and I quickly learned that the product will never fully feel “ready” but you just have to launch it and learn/adjust as you go.
IG: @petphoria | FB: @shoppetphoria