Shark Tank Update
Shark Tank Pitch
Puppy Cake Shark Tank Update
Published:
5m
Pittsburgh, PA
| Name | Puppy Cake |
|---|---|
| Main Presenters | Kelly Chaney |
| Presenter Image | |
| Product Image | |
| Last Known in Business | 9/1/2022 |
| Main Location | Pittsburgh, PA Loading Map |
| Order Shown in Episode | 3 |
| Final Deal | All Sharks went Out |
Puppy Cake Shark Tank Pitch
Sales is not really my strong suit.
Kelly Chaney was working in sales and marketing when a client created a cake mix that Kelly wished she could bake for her dog. Kelly made a cake mix with safe ingredients for dogs called Puppy Cake.
Puppy Cake has done $80k in revenue in four years, $23k from last year. Puppy cake is in 150 stores and is international. Kelly hasn't done any advertising and wants the money to buy inventory and attend trade shows.
Where I came from the dogs have it pretty rough. They were usually out in the yard. For their birthday we would usually just take the lid off the garbage can for them.
The sharks find that baking a cake for a dog is a hassle, and most importantly, after four years, the market has agreed. All sharks go out.
Offers
| Made By | Label | Sharks Part of Deal | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|
| Company | Offered | $50k for 25% of Company | |
| Sharks | Out | Robert Herjavec | Out |
| Sharks | Out | Kevin O'Leary | Out |
| Sharks | Out | Lori Greiner | Out |
| Sharks | Out | Mark Cuban | Out |
| Sharks | Out | Daymond John | Out |
Mark Cuban
Out
Daymond John
Out
Kevin O'Leary
Out
Lori Greiner
Out
Robert Herjavec
Out
Updates in Shark Tank Episodes
| Update Season | Update Episode |
|---|---|
| No Episode Updates | |
Puppy Cake After Shark Tank
In 2022 Puppy Cake is still in business and actively posts on its Twitter, @PuppyCakeLLC https://x.com/puppycakellc, with Tweets such as customers' dogs in front of their Puppy Cakes, and I must admit it's pretty cute. I now empathize with the customer and understand the value Puppy Cakes bring to an owner and his/her dog. Link Preview
@PuppyCakeLLC
I, like the sharks, thought baking a cake was a hassle, but now that I see dog costumes, Instagram, and the whole song and dance. Baking a cake is a fun event to do for and with your dog.
In a blog here https://blog.tdsbusiness.com/tips-advice/swimming-with-the-sharks, Kelly Chaney, now Kelly Costello after getting married, discusses the behind-the-scenes of getting on Shark Tank. Kelly could not fly her dog Izze out to LA, so Minni, the dog in the pitch, was a dog from the owner of an LA dog rescue group. Following the pitch, several workers on the set came and ate all of the remaining Puppy Cakes.Link Preview
here
According to an interview Kelly did with billionsuccess.com https://billionsuccess.com/entrepreneur-interview-shark-tank-contestant-kelly-chaney-of-puppy-cakes/, with the publicity from Shark Tank, Puppy Cake finished 2012 with $150k of revenue (double what it had done in its four years of existence). Kelly planned to expand Puppy Cakes into other treats and ultimately hoped to sell the company one day.Link Preview
billionsuccess.com
In a 2021 video interview here https://www.industrialsage.com/puppycake-kelly-costello, Kelly said Lori's advice to build a brand of products was useful because when Kelly called stores she realized they didn't want to go through the hassle of integrating a new brand only to have one product but rather want an arsenal of products.Link Preview
here
For some time Kelly wasn't profitable but the business continued to grow and her gut told her to stick with it. In 2013 BarkBox, one of the largest dog subscription box companies placed an order for 40k units of her new product Puptato Chips. Kelly decided to go into Puppy Cake full-time and the need to succeed to pay her bills put Puppy Cake on a more focused course to success.
Kelly always manufactured her products, from a kitchen mixer to buying second-hand Chinese-made equipment that her mechanically inclined husband was able to fix to modern machines that create significant economies of scale for Puppy Cake.
Kelly thought cookie mix would be a slam dunk but realized it's not different enough from the typical dog treat. After finding people bake less in the summer, in 2013, Kelly created an ice cream mix, which increased her summer sales and didn't require the expensive frozen space a finished ice cream requires. The ice cream product almost overnight doubled Puppy Cake's business.
In 2020 Puppy Cakes outgrew its factory and relocated to Portersville, Pennsylvania, where Kelly oversees and tastes the products to maintain safety standards. Kelly and her husband have utilized tools to maximize efficiency and profit, such as discontinuing Puptato Chips, not because they were failing but rather because using the labor on machines for powder products maximized profit.
Google highly recommends Puppy Cake on Amazon to people searching to bake a cake for their dog. Puppy Cake even became the top-selling baking mix on Amazon of all baking mixes for several months. Puppy Cake mix sells for a higher price on Amazon than in the retail stores to encourage retail sales.
Kelly was surprised that it took until her business hit $1 million in annual revenue to become profitable. In 2022 Puppy Cakes is doing over $1 million in yearly revenue. Kelly continues to use high-quality human-grade ingredients and regularly eats the products to maintain safety standards.
In 2022, Puppy Cakes sells mixes for cakes, ice cream, and cookies, party supplies, and apparel on its website, puppycake.com https://puppycake.com, and in stores across the country. One of the newest products is a no-sugar line of ice cream mix called Hoggin' Dogs, a play on the popular ice cream brand Haagen Dazs (Kelly was happy to get the trademark for Hoggin' Dogs). Link Preview
puppycake.com
Kelly lives in the country with her husband and has five rescue dogs and two three-legged cats. If you want to do math and are clever, there is probably a joke about the cat situation.
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