How One Chef-Turned-Founder Grew Her Dog Food Business 67% in a Year and Found Funding Without All the Stress!
Meet Jack & Chelo
Jack & Chelo was founded by Esther, the proud mum of two little Maltese Shihtzus named Jack & Chelo.
Esther is a qualified Chef who has worked in a number of top restaurants around Australia, New Zealand and London and she strongly believes that the nutrition of our pets is just as important as it is for us humans.
A diagnosis of Cushings Disease in 2018 for Jack prompted Esther to dig a little deeper into the commercial dog food industry.
She was extremely concerned by some of her findings.
Largely unregulated with vague minimum standards, most factory mass producers and some smaller scale dog food brands only manage to ‘meet’ these very basic industry requirements by creative reporting on the nutritional value and content in the fine print, and the use of fillers with little to no nutritional value.
Armed with the findings of her research, Esther was determined to improve the quality of Jack & Chelo’s diet, using her skills and qualifications to create delicious and nutritious food for her two pups.
Upon seeing the obvious benefits, Jack & Chelo was born.
The Jack & Chelo Growth
journey
Website: www.jackandchelo.com.au
Core business: Healthy dog food online subscription
Team: 5 FTE (full-time equivalent)
Industry: eCommerce
Location: Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
#1 Growth Pillar Focus: Funding - to grow with less stress
“Without Troy’s guidance,
and especially knowing my
numbers back-to-front,
there is no way I could have kept up with the fast growth of my business, and helped many more dogs. The 10 year financial model, scorecards and other strategic documents we put together have helped us raise the funds to take the stress out of the growth.”
Esther, Founder
AT A GLANCE
Jack & Chelo transformed from a small kitchen operation into a fast-growing dog food subscription business, tripling subscribers, boosting sales 67% in a year, and expanding into a retail space. With a sharp strategic plan and clear financial model, Esther raised $100K from loyal customers and secured grants and loans to fuel stress-free growth.
Jack & Chelo transformed
from a small kitchen
operation into a fast-
growing dog food
subscription business,
tripling subscribers,
boosting sales 67% in a
year, and expanding into a
retail space.
With a sharp strategic
plan and clear financial
model, Esther raised
$100K from loyal
customers and secured
grants and loans to fuel
stress-free growth.
Creating a human resources
plan in the 10 year financial
model: this allowed Esther to
plan when to add new team
members, especially for the
various hats she still wears.
And, it showed when she hit
certain subscriber and sales
milestones, it was time to hire
the next person, which would
allow her even more time to
spend on marketing the
business
#1 Growth Challenge: funding to grow.
By early 2024, with the new location set up, and business booming, other growth challenges started to emerge, including:
No cash to invest in paid marketing
The website and other systems were buckling under the pressure of such great growth, and
Esther was still wearing too many hats.
The business needed funding to keep growing, otherwise Esther would have to slow things down. The first funding success was to help with the fit out of the shop and production facility in the butcher Esther purchased, she was able to secure a 5 year loan from the State government. Their advisers said “we’ve never seen a financial model so comprehensive, or a business that tracks so much useful data with their scorecards”.
And the business has secured a number of grants, thanks to how professionally Esther presented the need for grants to support their growth.
The next exciting funding milestone came in mid-2024, with Esther successfully raising $100,000 from 11 happy and loyal customers.
Again, all the work Esther and Troy had done around the numbers and strategic planning gave the investors confidence to join Esther as minority owners.
How else did our Strategy Program helped Esther?
In mid-2022, Esther teamed up with Troy, Founder of Grow A Small Business, just as he wrapped the 4-week Strategy Program. They started where all smart planning begins, the numbers.
Together, they built a 10-year financial model, which revealed the real engine of Esther’s business: her subscription service. That clarity changed everything.
She doubled down on:
Reducing customer churn
Tracking key metrics like LTV (Lifetime Value) and CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost)
Setting a smart LTV:CAC ratio to guide investment decisions
The result? Esther gained the confidence to ramp up her paid marketing, which accelerated growth even further.
Since then, she and Troy check in every two weeks for a focused 30-minute session — reviewing scorecards, staying aligned on growth goals, and keeping life in balance (with plenty of Milo time, her new pup).
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