Smalls is one of the fastest-growing fresh cat food brands in the US, with over $100M in annual revenue and 200% year-on-year acquisition growth. Will Youm is Senior Growth Manager at Smalls, leading the growth strategy behind a brand that is actively trying to dismantle a century of pet food industry misinformation.
In this episode Ryan sits down with Will to unpack the full Smalls growth playbook. How they are closing a 77-point brand awareness gap on Fancy Feast. Why brand is treated as a company department rather than a marketing function. And the \"pink and shrink\" analogy that explains why the entire pet food industry has been failing cats for a hundred years.
If you are a DTC founder, growth marketer or brand builder operating in a category dominated by legacy incumbents, subscribe for new episodes every two weeks.
00:00 Introduction
00:54 What Smalls actually is: fresh food you would recognise as a human
01:34 The founding story: cats, humans, and 10,000 years of symbiosis
02:47 What \"Big Pet\" really means and why Smalls is built to dismantle it
04:56 The three growth levers: brand, product diversification, customer-led growth
05:51 When to diversify product, and the risk of doing it too early
08:00 The marginal CAC trap most DTC brands fall into
09:12 Increasing TAM through new SKUs vs deepening existing cohorts
09:55 Why brand building is the strongest LTV lever
11:51 Why podcast and affiliate channels lead Smalls' top of funnel
13:01 The contrarian view on TV: go big or go home
14:26 Brand isn't a marketing function, it's a company department
16:26 Why AI slop is killing DTC creative and Smalls' response
17:58 Adapting strategy for Andromeda and the new Meta era
18:59 Field research and the customer-led growth pillar
19:54 Neophobic vs neophilic cats: insights only the quiz funnel reveals
22:09 How retail is becoming a credibility play, not just a sales channel
24:59 Why pet food brands are leaning so hard into brand differentiation
26:24 The biggest challenge: changing pet owner beliefs and habits
29:53 How Smalls justifies a premium price in a price-sensitive category
30:57 The one growth lever Will would keep if he had to pick one
31:22 Why people don't buy with logic, they buy with emotion
","author_name":"Ryan Walton"}