Pet Industry Game-Changers: Courtney Honda and Slava Borisov on Redefining Pet Hospitality Commerce

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And we were so tempted in the beginning to add services like grooming, like daycare, all the other things where a lot of brands were looking at it and we have customers. Why don't you provide these things? Is because we wanted to be the best in the world, which we had the privilege and the honor of the entire nation voting on this. Pet Innovation Awards gave us Pet Retailer of the Year in 2025 is the innovative side of it being the experience and hospitality. Which is nothing special, nothing new, but it does, it's not simple to do, but it takes a lot of work with the teams in place and getting a lot of feedback. But you have to embrace hospitality through your bones, in and out, in your environment, 24/7. It can't just be something you talk about.

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It's not every day that I get to come on the show and talk about my dog, and today is going to be one of those days. I'm delighted to be here with Courtney and Slava, the founders of PupTeak, which is a really interesting business story. We're not probably going to get into some of the things about our dogs and their healthcare and all those parts of things. We're gonna talk about some fun aspects. But before we do that, I'd love to start at the beginning. Let's start with Champ. Walk me through Champ's story, the moment he flatlined. What were you both thinking and feeling?

Well, I mean, I, I'll do the background of it, but our dog Champ, he, is a Kishu Ken, which is a Japanese purebred dog. They're really meant for, when they come to the US and all over the world, as show dogs, but they're originally hunting dogs. So we got him as a puppy, 8 weeks old, and he grew up very healthy, but at age 2, all of a sudden, there's something that hit him. He was lethargic, he wasn't feeling well, he wasn't eating. So we went to 4 different vets, 4 different diagnosis. Nobody could really figure out what was wrong with him. And this was right actually pre-COVID. And so it wasn't a COVID dog we got because we were locked in. We always wanted to find something or find a special bond that pets shared with us. And we felt so that gravitational pull. And that's why we, we got a dog to start with. But we finally, you know, he got home. He wasn't eating at all for days. We had to feed him through literally a syringe and get broth and all that. So finally we went to another vet, which was a smaller vet, localized vet, community vet. And that vet diagnosed him with Addison's and he was going— during that period of time, it was so difficult and challenging. And that's when he flatlined in the hospital for about 30 seconds. We didn't know if he was going to be revived or not. Thankfully, he did get revived. And that process really kind of shook us to our core. And we wanted to figure out— dogs play such an important and vital role in our lives, and all animals for that matter. Um, and we wanted to do— what can we celebrate that? Because we're not the only ones that have this connection with pets, from pets, from physical, emotional, spiritual support that they provide for all of us. And everyone that's listening really understands that if you have a dog or a cat for that sake, or a horse or any type of animal. But for us, being a dog— being dog owners, and We know, said, we looked at the marketplace and everything that we saw was extremely transactional. Not that it was cold, but if you look up Petco, PetSmart, you know, Chewy's probably the most personable brand. When you call, they know your dog's name, they know the dog's birthday, but you know, they were missing the other senses, right? It's what you could hear on the phone and what you could get online. And then Petco, PetSmart, even independents, when you walk in, it was just purely like a transactional thing. Maybe some of the local ones had, knew your name, knew your dog a little bit, gave them a Milk-Bone or whatever it might be. So we wanted to do, what can we do to create create an atmosphere where community experiences and entertainment were all celebrated and all infused in. And that's how PupTeak was born. And it started all on purely online. It was more of a passion project. What can we do? And we started just selling Kishu Ken dad, mom, and hats and things of that nature. And people resonated, specifically those owners of Kishu Kens, and then other people as well, you know, Everything now, day and age, and even when we're looking at it, we're a storytelling brand and we're a brand just like Disneyland to capture moments, lifelong moments, and reshare those moments. And that's the short version of it. I know Courtney has a lot more, but that's really how Pup Peak was born. Understanding that there's more to specifically to pets the same way as humans that we have that we could connect with and share that special bond that we have with them for that short period of time they're here with us. And how much value and they provide for all of us.

So. Yeah. But amazing. And it's so true. I mean, I've seen people who cry more over a loss of a pet than over any human relationship they've ever had, right? I've gone to events where one of the auction items is a pet portrait and bidding wars happen, right? So they are near and dear to us, and mine is, over in the corner right now, hopefully not going to interrupt us while we have this conversation, but they are so, such beloved parts of our families. And you've really created an atmosphere where that can be celebrated and where people can get together in community. So like you said, it's the complete opposite of a lot of the experiences that we do have presently when it comes to the pet industry. But let's talk about your backgrounds a little bit. Slava, you've had a career managing portfolios worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Courtney, you've moved through brand and wellness environments. None of those backgrounds scream dog boutique. So what was the conversation that led you to decide that we're going to start a business to sell?

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Champ is the Chief Paw Officer, right? That's also a brand choice. So I'd love for you to, to talk a little bit more about starting the business. And you started, you started with a few items. How did that then progress into realizing there was a really huge opportunity here?

I think it started because one, it was just a passion project. It was something we really wanted to do to celebrate our special bond with Champ, but also there was a huge market for Japanese dogs and it was one of those things, and I have a background in marketing that I wanted to just create really cute things that took my mind off the day-to-day of what I was doing full-time at the time. So it was a creative aspect to just drive the authentic brand and bring more awareness to the Kishu Ken dog. And that started online. And then over the course of 5 months, we had a wedding and we got married. And during the wedding, Slava had told everyone that we had a surprise in 9 months. And briefly talked about a brick and mortar store, but we didn't know to the extent of what that brick and mortar store would be or what that concept would be. And we came back, we looked at places, we created a whole idea. We got to work together on this project. And in 9 months, exactly 9 months actually, we got married in February and our brick and mortar store opened in November. Pup Tea came to life and it opened in Temecula, California. So the thought process and our experience was kind of intertwined because Slava managing portfolio in construction as well as real estate and also his background in design and architecture that drove that experience to find the real estate really quickly and build a concept. And then my experience in, in marketing really, and memberships really helped push that sales aspect together and it, it kind of merged intentionally, unintentionally in a way that it came to life without the pressure of the experience because our experience actually did play a role parallel to what we were doing.

Well, and I think also being extremely thoughtful, intentional, and starting with a why, not a what and a how from the story. And I think it's easier said than done. I think a lot of people read books about it, get in front of stages, hear YouTube videos, whatever it might be, or on social media. But I think at the end of the day, that's really, it has to propel you forward and it has to be the headwind. And I think that's where we started. Yes, the backgrounds were extremely important and the experiences with them, my background in franchising, construction, design, Courtney's in marketing and working with tech companies. But I, I think as, you know, looking at that and saying what is not broken, but what's missing in, you know, in the US alone, $160 billion market in the pet industry. And it's really hospitality experience. It's not that people aren't caring, it's not that they're not intentional, but if you look at it, it's very fragmented. So we wanted to create a category, which we did with hospitality, which we call PHR. Pet hospitality retail. And as retail continues, it's not dying, but it's being repositioned all across the board. If it's in fashion, if it's in the pet, if it's, you know, supplies, whatever it might be, even grocery stores, they have to be experiential in a sense of you're coming in, you're feeling, you're touching, you're getting connected with the brand either through events, activation points, whatever it might be. You're seeing in high-end grocery stores with Erwan here in Los Angeles, Laurel Supply. This is just the beginning, but we're, you know, and that's what we saw in the pet category is there's nothing where you could come in, the products are integrated as part of the shopping experience, but they're not on the forefront. And that's what we did is create that environment, that experience where people come in just like Disney and they come in for the rides, they come in for the environment and they're obligated almost if they feel guilty if they don't buy something, right? Or stop at the shop. So that was really a category we created is, you know, the community experience entertainment, fused with the commerce side. You know, in the commerce side, we have how we make money is memberships through the physical products that you could come and buy in store and online. We do events, we do doggy birthdays, we do corporate events for an entire hour. We set everything up. You don't lift a finger. And that was really just a different category and it's been fun ever since. I think a lot of communities across the nation worldwide is something that's missing and that's something It's now with AI accelerating, it's almost required and needed.

Yeah, 100%. I work a lot in media marketing and AI, and I think we all need, we're seeing more of a need for that connection with each other, with our pets, right? And with both of those things together, meeting other pet owners. And you truly have created a unique experience. Like you said, it's a membership organization. It's not just a retail shop. You have a rotating menu at a pup bar. I've seen, you know, dog stores where you you can just buy dog food and they can eat there, but nothing that encapsulates all of these different elements of being a pet owner together.

But you know what's interesting with that, and I'll let Courtney add to this, is we took other industries. So me being with Menchie's Frozen Yogurt on the corporate side, growing that, you know, managing, you know, hundreds of stores with different teams involved, and different aspects of, of that process, but we took Well, we got the rotating menu was from Crumble Cookie, right? They rotate their cookies every week, but we wanted to do something fun, unique. We kind of looked at that category. Then we took the hospitality side and we went so far and obsessive compulsive, we moved into the Ritz-Carlton to understand what hospitality not just looks like, feels like, and experience that to our customers and our members. And, and so we took different really industries and we fused it together into the pet retail aspect of it and re— almost re— not redefined it completely and created a new category. And that's what's fun. From the world's first pup bar, rotating menu, we have beer and wine. That's our own beer and wine for dogs, non-alcoholic. It's like a vitamin. We have tequila for dogs. We have, you know, whiskey for dogs. Then we have a photo booth that has a Polaroid they could take home. We have a ball pit that dogs come in, take a picture and play. We have a dog house. So everything's designed to encapsulate you to have that special moment. Even if it's for 5 minutes, you get a free pup cup on us or take a photo to lift your spirit and really have a slice of Disneyland when you walk into any of the stores.

People always ask us, well, how did you come up with that idea? And we always say it was because of our dog Champ, literally. So he would always get us to take him to Starbucks, even if we weren't getting Starbucks, he knows where Starbucks is. And he would stop in front of the door on his walks every morning to get a pup cup. So we intentionally know that dogs enjoy pup cups, so we put that in the, in the store. As a dog mom, I am obsessed with taking photos of my dog all the time. So that photo booth, which changes every month, is to capture those special moments. And it's also intentional. So we have these moments all throughout the year to share and look back at. And you have like an album to go back over the years that they grow up so you could see the progress. And then we also have little sniff sections throughout the store. So the treats and the chew bars are actually some things that he really likes, but also because of his experience with Addison's disease, we switched to more healthier options. So those options reflect a lot of the brands that we do have in store too. So when people ask us, it's really because our, our experience with dog and us as dog parents to go through that journey and also relate to other dog parents as well.

Yeah, not every dog parent who walks in the door is going to have that specific ailment, right? But many of us have dogs who have allergies or have other things going on. And so knowing that there's a place that they can go commune with other dogs, get all the smells, do all the fun things, where we can also have human interaction, and that they're going to get healthy treats, that's fantastic. And also nod to the fact that you moved into the Ritz-Carlton so that you could get the premium experience in customer service and hospitality.

Well, we didn't have a choice, right? It became an investment. It still is. And the reason we had to do it is I can't tell a franchisee, which we're expanding nationwide, do this and this and this because we— and they've helped us out a lot, their management team, while we are not in that environment. So we have to live, breathe, walk, talk because hospitality as AI accelerates is a moat. That is what makes us special and unique. Can it be replicated? 1000%. And we actually encourage brands to provide more hospitality, customer-driven, customer-focused. Certain brands have adopted that even in CPG brands, clothing brands we're seeing across the board, but not everybody. And I think that is, that is some, a unique selling proposition. And we intentionally and thoughtfully said, we are not, we are going to be the Chick-fil-A and the In-N-Out regardless if you agree or not, but they're the leaders in their category. You know, Chick-fil-A doesn't sell hamburgers. And In-N-Out doesn't sell chicken. It's just that simple, 'cause they're the best in the world at what they do. And we were so tempted in the beginning to add services like grooming, like daycare, all the other things where a lot of brands were looking at it and we have customers, why don't you provide these things? Is because we wanted to be the best in the world, which we had the privilege and the honor of the entire nation voting on this. Pet Innovation Awards gave us Pet Retailer of the Year in 2025 is The innovative side of it being the experience and hospitality, which is nothing special, nothing new, but it does, it's, it's not simple to do, but it takes a lot of work with the teams in place and getting a lot of feedback, but you have to embrace hospitality through your bones in and out in your environment 24/7. It can't just be something you talk about.

So, what does that look like when it comes to, because you have over 700 members in one location, which is huge. The fact that you're, you've been able, and I love Temecula, but the fact that you've been able to take a, a specific place, I always think of it as wine country, right?

It is. It's a beautiful place.

Go when you wanna get out of LA for a little bit. But the fact that you've been able to take a place like Temecula, scale your business to 700 paying members, what is that special secret sauce that you train your employees on? What will people get Besides all the other bells and whistles that you've shared already, I think it's leading with story and connection.

We, we're a very community-oriented brand, but it's, you don't physically have to be there. So being in wine country, you have people visiting from all over the country, the snowbirds, you have people vacationing or just driving from LA for an hour and a half ride to go to the wineries there and, and bring your dog because it's dog friendly. But the aspect that we create in there is the fact that you don't physically have to be in that space to be a part of the community. So our offerings are not only just, you know, the bells and whistles of the discounts and also the perks of attending events, but you get to be a part of something bigger and you get free shipping. We, we send things from New York. We have members from New York. We have members from New Jersey, Hawaii, Texas, Florida. So they're all a part of that Pup Tea community. Within that one brick and mortar store.

Well, think about Amazon Prime, but for your dog, significantly more enhanced and more localized. That has a national reach. And it's much, the investment is much more affordable. It comes out to after, you know, if you get all your treats, which is our average membership, you get free treat bag up to $20 and it's all the healthy stuff, right? And then you get access to the events. If you are local, which is an added bonus, then you get 25% off all products. Which is awesome. So I think when you're looking at that, it's, we intentionally and thoughtfully, you know, we created a flywheel effect instead of what traditional marketing advertising does is what is the secret sauce is they'll run a bunch of ads on Meta, which we still do occasionally, or they'll get Yelp and Google to advertise for them. So if you Google, say, pet stores in Temecula, you'll see Petco or PetSmart, the advertising, but where one or two organically always in the searches, And the way to create that flywheel effect is obsessively compulsively focusing on the customer experience. 'Cause we understand that it's much, the cost of acquisition is much higher in the beginning. You know, it costs us 20, you know, about $200 to acquire that customer, but we're seeing lifetime values up to $6,000 for that customer. So a 30 to 1 ratio. And the way to create that flywheel effect, them coming back, telling a friend, referring a friend, We've had folks meet for the first time that they made an investment in a membership. They didn't know what the heck this, the space was. They stepped in a year later, they're getting married and now they got married and now they're having a kid together.

Oh my gosh.

So stories like that, and you're looking at that type of thing, that type of flywheel effect creating that, or it takes longer and slower, but it's more organic. And I do believe the inauthentic, inorganic customer acquisition cost, which was fueled by venture capital,— what we saw in the pet space, another thing. I, I think customers are more thoughtful with their dollars now with what's occurred in the economic conditions and everything else and uncertainty. People are still spending money, but they're more thoughtful and who they're spending it with and what they want to be a part of. And that, that's what we're seeing. And that's where this flywheel effect on a local store marketing for franchise partners and us works so well. And it's exciting.

That's truly exciting. Let's talk about the franchise opportunity a little bit. Somebody has a franchise in another state, but they have a membership, you know, but then the customer in that state has a membership at your location. Will they be able to transfer their membership or how do you see that working just from the customer side of things?

Yeah. So the membership's going to be allocated on a national membership that you could use if you want to in-store pickup. When, if they want to transfer their membership, there'll be opportunities to do that. There'll also be, you know, the memberships are going to be all centralized.— and centralized communication from the franchise or us corporate, which is really great because it's really clear and cohesive messaging. And we created it that way. And there's a lot of stuff we're getting back from franchisees and the marketplace as well as we really hyperscale this because the model is really simple, scalable, and extremely fun to run. So there's a lot of stuff we're still implementing, tweaking a little bit, and enhancing, improving, but they will be able to transfer. So if they move to for example, to Texas, Woodlands, The Woodlands in Texas, if they want to transfer that membership, they'll have the ability to do that.

And you have a, a goal of more than 200 locations by 2030. For context, that means opening roughly every 2 weeks for the next 4 years. When you say that number out loud, what does that feel like? Does it feel exciting, terrifying, both? How did you decide on a big audacious goal?

Well, look, it, it's a mission, right? And a mission gets, I think a lot of times you talk to brands, they have this mission that nobody knows what it is. It's very complex. Mission should be something that's achievable. It's a mountain type we're climbing, right? And it, it shifts and it changes and it should, especially in nowadays and age as everything really scales so fast. So believe it or not, that's not really a challenging goal or it's audacious goal, but it's not challenging. The reason being is we created that model for that reason. It's purely retail and spaces. About 1,200 square feet. And the reason why we could achieve these things is our permitting timelines are probably half the timeline that you would be for any restaurant that would come in or even big box retailer, as well as we're looking for second generation spaces. So there's a lot of availability across the country right now where there's a previous retailer or restaurant, whatever it might be, was there. So the entire infrastructure's in place, the HVAC, the plumbing, the electrical. We're really coming in, fixturing the store so we could fixture an entire store just like think of a cell phone store within 30 days. So when we're talking about these type of expansion plans, once we really hit hyperscale, we have all the vendors in place already nationwide for all the fixture, the millwork, the doghouse, the architect team, the fixture company, and everything else. So it's really meant to scale with simplicity, not with chaos. Most franchises, they start scaling, it's just chaotic, but we've been through it. We've seen it with other brands and we've been a part of it. And we've actually invested in our team before signing even our first franchisee. We invested into about 8 folks at corporate. They're still working in the store, different capacities. And because we believe training was the most important thing, systems and processes and support. So now when we do hit scale, we already have that in place instead of playing catch up. It was a huge investment and it still is, but looking at that, it's not really that big of a number, especially if we wanna achieve this categorical leadership position. It's a requirement because we believe this is gonna help so many people along the way and so many dogs, and there's, this is so needed.

And the best way to look at it from the outsider perspective is that we're a community hub. So I'm going back to the Starbucks example, but Starbucks, there could be a Starbucks in one corner and then, you know, not too far away there's another Starbucks, but it's a part of people's daily routines. And dogs are a part of our life. Every single day. You take them on walks, you do the daily walks, you take them out with you for car rides. This is just a part of their daily routine and a part of their everyday lifestyle, and it's their second home. And that's what we want as we start to grow PupTeak. It's that, it's that community second home for you and your dog.

And one of the things, you know, to get to that 200 number, the only way we could really do it is using franchising as a growth vehicle. If we use, you know, private equity or debt, debt or whatever it might be in all company stores. I don't, it would be much more challenging. You're right to do that. But using franchising and finding great partners that love dogs, that love to be community activators and they're invested into it and part of the system, that network, that's the only way it does work to hit that, our target that we've set.

Yeah. There are a lot of social clubs for humans, right? Soho House. Um, I have a friend in London who's looking at joining and there's million and one clubs depending on what you want out of those. But this is, so it's kind of also marrying, you've married a lot of models here. You've taken kind of the best of the best from parts of industry. And I see you doing the same thing with the social club memberships.

Yep.

Yep. Who wouldn't wanna go with their pet?

Exactly. And the product's built in. So we tell people all the time, we have customers that buy very few items from us, or if we don't have it available, We wanna be the source and the guide. We'll say, look, I think Chewy might have that, or this independent might have it. We don't carry freezers intentionally, and coolers, refrigerators in the store. So if they want some frozen, we'll refer 'em to, you know, Just Food for Dogs or whatever it might be. I think being a resource is way more valuable than just being, we don't have it and we have this as an alternative to that.

So. Yeah. What are some of the lessons that you learned going through the process of getting franchisees? Because I think you mentioned The Woodlands. I used to live outside of Houston as well, and that became your first out-of-California market. Are there things that you couldn't have learned from theory that came up that you, you know, didn't realize would come up?

Yeah, I think the biggest thing— I'll let Court finish this— is getting to the ideal customer or the ideal franchisee faster. And getting to know much faster. I think when you're franchising or even a customer, not everyone's going to be a dog lover that's going to come in for a social club. And that's okay. Like that's totally okay. And the same thing with their franchisees. Not everyone's going to be a community activator. Some people are saying, I don't want to be involved in the business. I want to be a passive owner, kind of like owning a 7-Eleven, probably not the best fit for us. So that's why I think the biggest thing to learn is 'cause being Pet Retailer of the Year, we have a lot of interest and a lot of leads are coming in. But just understanding, is this going to fit for us? But the community, more importantly, who you're going to serve. So I think that was the biggest lesson we learned when we started the franchising process is just getting the ideal franchisee, because we're getting married for at least 10 years, the franchise agreement, right? So you want to make sure that marriage is strong and we're going to have a lot of ups and downs. And can we weather the storm together when it's downs? And can we celebrate together during the high peaks? The high points.

I was actually going to say the same thing and learning that early on. We just started franchising, so I'm glad we learned this within the first 6 months of us launching the franchise, which is really important. As much as you want to say yes to everyone, there are some, you know, qualities that we're looking for, for leaders to live this brand and breathe this brand in their community. So like Slavo was saying, the community activator. And also something that I'm glad that we learned early on, and for anyone building a franchise, it's really important to actually learn not only your ideal customer profile, but also who you're working with as well. So early on, we decided we're going to work with a lot of consultants, brand activators, or franchise experts in the industry. And we realized, you know what, we actually should take this in-house. We're the best in knowing what our brand is, how to communicate that to the marketplace, and then also, we're just not another number to these companies. And they did provide some great insight to us. We had some great learning lessons, and also we are able to implement those things to what we're doing now. But now we have full control over our leads, our process. So, that's one thing that we got to learn in the last— I know it's only been 6 months or 5 months, but that's re— that was really important. We got to learn that early on. And as we start to scale, we could start bringing on more consultants, brokers, and everything else in between. But now Having full control of that is really important for us.

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Yeah, particularly with this kind of business. I mean, I'm sure you probably still get them too. Every time I open my LinkedIn, I feel like somebody's DM'd me about, hey, you should start a franchise. And I don't know where in my profile they got that I should start a franchise and they're not, it's not very specific, right? And you're tailoring to such a specific market. You wanna make sure people, like you said, it's a marriage that they really are invested and that they really are gonna love what they're doing. It's not just showing up to a job, right? It's not just owning a franchise. It is something that they have to really feel deep in their souls and involve their family and their friends and their pets.

Yeah. The investment that you need to put The investment, the financial investment, you know, with our, you know, maximum is at $300,000 with our franchise fee. That's the easy portion. If you really want to find a partner or you want to qualify for a loan, whatever it might be, that's an easier portion to solve than do you want to do this for the next 10 years and be forward-facing, like you said, in front of the community, drive the community, open other locations. That's the bigger question I think to ask is a lot of brands You know, they might have a high AUV, average per unit volume, say $2 million, but I look at it, it's a quick service restaurant and the break even is $1.7 million. So if you don't sell $1.7 million, it looks great on paper, but if you don't get to the $1.7 million, you're not making any money. You're actually in the red. So I think it's having your lifestyle nowadays in age as AI accelerates, you need to find businesses and lifestyles or lifestyle businesses that fit your lifestyle and your needs. More importantly than ever, uh, before. So, I think that's important when you're looking at that, evaluating and working together.

And let's talk about the dynamic, right? Co-founders, married, and Courtney, you describe yourself as fueled by the aloha spirit. Slava, you describe yourself as an immigrant entrepreneur who bootstrapped from zero to millions. Two different operating modes. So, where do they complement each other? In building this business, and has this created any friction in terms of the different personalities and different ideas that you're bringing to the table?

I like to call us the yin and yang. It definitely— and our, our team always says that as well. It works great that we are so different in our personalities and our styles, but also it brings it together where it, it works so well together. Yes, you know, there are conflicts that we have some disagreements, but we're all in the same, like, mission. We have the same mission, we have the same vision, we're aligned in that. And no matter how it take— what it takes to get there, that's what our goal is, to, to get to where we can build more communities, bring more franchisees on, expand, you know, change more lives in terms of, you know, the humans and their dogs and, and celebrating that special bond, which is really our mission there. But it, it works great cuz it's, it's It's, we see things differently, but also the same at the same time. And it's hard to explain, but it works.

And you have to have healthy dialogue and disagreement. And I encourage our team, if you're not having that, and we're any team that's too perfect, I always say, what is wrong with the team, right? You should have not this, not complete dysfunction, but you should definitely have healthy debates. And, uh, you know, to make a perfect omelet, you do have to break some eggs to get that perfect end result. So yeah, I, I think that's just to go echo that.

Someone actually asked me yesterday what my favorite part about running or working with Puptique or building Puptique, and it, I actually said it was working with my husband. Yes, from the very beginning we created something from nothing to where it's at today. And yes, there's been some ups and downs along the way, but it's actually strengthened our personal relationship. It strengthened the business relationship and it's also challenged us. And you know, there's one thing, if You're not growing, you're basically like dying or just staying stagnant. Right. And this challenges us every day in every aspect, which is very rewarding at the same time, not just in the business as well. And we get to celebrate with our dog.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think there's an interesting book of, you know, the folks here and they're listening to, I'm sure you have as well, Anika, but it's the Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Patrick Lencioni. You guys could look it up, but It's very interesting. It kind of goes through it. It's, it's not just, you know, you're debating, you're having healthy dialogue, and the dysfunctions are in a point where you're ultimately getting to a resolution that works, but you're getting, you know, everyone has different viewpoints and different dysfunctions. So, I think that's really, really important. And that's how, that's how great companies, great teams get built.

Yeah, 100%. Well, I would say that I wouldn't have started my, this podcast without my partner who's in the filmmaking industry and him saying that he would edit it and be kind of the— this get me started. So I love it when two people are in a relationship and come together and create something beautiful. So, and this is probably the first time in almost 800 episodes that I've interviewed a couple, so I'm glad it's the two of you and we're talking about fun topics with our pets. Slava, you have an approach that you call the 202 approach in your prior work. Does that thinking also live inside how Puptik operates? Did you build a new framework for this brand? How did you guys co-create that?

Yeah, so the 202 approach was really based on, you know, delivering 2 weeks early or getting 20% back and was in an industry that was Scheduling was such a high priority for that and it was such an urgency. And a lot of times where it created for us accountability, cuz so much healthy pressure that you have to deliver on 2 weeks early on a project. I mean, obviously the project has to be, can't be a, you know, 4-week project, but a project longer than, you know, I believe it was 14 weeks that would qualify for that. But what we did in Puptique, it was very similar. We took the approach called Super, which is a customer journey, and we looked at areas friction point areas within retail that were just created a lot of disconnect and distance. So for example, as simple as a greeting where, you know, 10 years ago is relevant, now is nonexistent in retail restaurant unless you're going to Chick-fil-A or Ritz-Carlton or Four Seasons. So we said, okay, that's zone one. It has to be flawless, clear, and consistent day in, day out on a simple greeting welcoming, because you don't know what people are going through and that could really lift their spirit and change their whole attitude and mood. And then we You know, looked at it. Okay, great. Where's the discovery happen? It happens for us, we call it zone 2, which is building and discovering about the customer. What kind of dog you have? Can I see a picture of your dog? Like badgering them, but creating an environment where it's very hospitable, like you're coming into someone's home. And obviously then the last zone we created was zone 3, which was the point of sale, which you create enough of a buying environment through all the elements in the store from the pup bar to the photo booth to the ball pit. To the doghouse that's custom built in, to everything built into the walls, you create such a buying environment that the investment into the membership or into a party, the value exceeds any price they would pay for that. And that's kind of where, you know, high level, big picture. And then that's where our, you know, we have a process called SUPER, which is surprising the customer, making it unique for the customer, personalizing it for the customer, engaging with the customer, and just repeating that. That's just a simple framework that we did. It sounds simple, but it takes a lot of training, practicing, rehearsing to really get it down. And it's just like watching your favorite show and your favorite movie. You cry, you laugh, you smile, you quote that, but people don't realize that that is all practiced, rehearsed, and trained for that script. And that's what we tell our team. It's really important to always provide that hospitality, but there has to be a process and a system in place. And that's what we tell our franchisees, follow the playbook. This playbook works. If you have feedback from the playbook, we will take it into consideration. But the reason why a lot of teams and brands have challenges, they have inconsistent customer journeys. And they have one time it could be flawless the other time because they don't have a process in place for that. And that's where we've really been obsessive over that for the last, I would say, 4 years now. Over that process.

Nice. Future forecasting. If you're looking at 5 years and you've done exactly what you hoped, you have locations, you have impact, what does that feel like and look like to you?

Well, I think for us as a team, you have the 80— Jeff Bezos says this, but I think it just in general, what are you going to ask yourself at 80 years old? All of us on this podcast in 50 years won't be here. Realistically, if we are, great, we won't be very functioning very well. You know, we're gonna be 85, 90 years old, whatever it might be. So I, I think is looking back and it's not saying what we did, but each of our stores services about 2 right now, about 200,000 population density. So if we open in that time period, 300 stores, the impact that we're gonna have is massive. If you, I think if you do the numbers, what, that's 60 million people that have dogs. Across the nation. So I think for us, you know, having that impact and carrying that and creating something more as we live in a very busy, disconnected world, and it's gonna become even more disconnected, finding a bridge to come back to humanity, reality, and connection. 'Cause AI will never provide that connection as much as we think it is short-term, and it does, and it gets us all the responses and the answers and the prompts and everything done. At the end of the day, it's the connection that we as human beings started with. And I think for us, if we see that accelerate and bring that together, I think that's how it's gonna feel. It's gonna feel very rewarding that we were the spark for that, specifically using, you know, Puptik as a vessel in each community. I know it's a long answer, but you know.

No, I mean, that's, it's a great answer and I love that you threw in the population density statistic in there too. I was thinking with both with the creative side and with the business side and marrying those two together. So I always ask my guests if you have a favorite quote, mantra, verse, poem, family motto.

I think Maya Angelou said it the best is people forget what you said, what you did, but it's how you made them feel. And I think that's so important. At the end of the day, we all, all of us, you know, listening to this, do this sometimes. We're like, oh, why did I say that? Why did I do that? Was my attitude like, ah, husband, wife, spouse, friend. At the end of the day, we're human beings. We— this is why I love where AI is going because businesses that are in hospitality and customer service have such an awesome opportunity because it's going to become more scarce and more rare than ever before. Those type of businesses and massive demand for them.

My mantra is is "vai aku ʻi lani," which means "take life as it comes." So it's more a reminder to just live life to the fullest, but also as you start to grow and you go through different ebbs and flows of life, is that just embrace it. And I think that's the most important thing in personal and then also in business is that it's always both growing and it's always both changing. And with every opportunity that you do it's to live it to the fullest and make the best out of it.

Both of those are beautiful sentiments, and not just sentiments, but truth. And I, I'd love to bring you back on 6 months, a year down the road, see where you're at in your business, what's changed, what's stayed the same, and if there are other things that you're pursuing at that time. So I hope that we'll stay in touch, and I really enjoyed having you on the show today. So thanks to both of you.

Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Yeah.

And to the audience, Courtney and Slava didn't set out to build the next great franchise brand. They set out to honor a dog who almost didn't make it, but in doing so, they discovered something most brands spend decades trying to figure out. People don't want just products. They want to belong to something. PupTeak is what happens when hospitality, community, and genuine love for what you do become the business model. We're gonna have all of their links in the show notes so that you can follow them and you can also reach out to them if you're interested in becoming a member, learning more about franchising, or just have questions about any part of the business. So thank you to everybody who's watched this episode or listened to it. I'll be back again in a few days with another amazing story, amazing guests. And until then, keep dreaming about what you want to do. Hal, a Slovakian Slava kept talking, and I do talk a lot about AI usually, but Slava kept mentioning how we live in this AI era that's making some parts of our lives so much easier, but it's also making the need for human connection so much more important. So think about how you're going to continue to weave that connection into your own lives. And with that, I'll see you again soon.

Thanks for listening or watching to this episode of Your Brand Amplified. Don't forget to subscribe. Don't forget to leave us a rating or review on your favorite podcast listening platform. And if you want to learn more, check us out at yourbrandamplified.com.

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