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

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