Product Business of the Year 2016

Start-up name: tails.com
Founders: Graham Bosher, Joe Inglis, James Davidson, Steve Webster, Karen Freeman, Kat Linger, Mark Holland, and Paul Cooke
Started in: 2013
Based in: London
Business description: Dog food subscription service

Update: Read our tails.com 2017 Hall of Fame interview to find out how their Startups Awards win has benefitted the business…

Producing tailor-made dog food delivered straight to your door, tails.com personalises almost everything for your very special pooch and claims to be the UK’s first custom dog food subscription service.

Offering a two-minute nutritional consultation, tails.com analyses your dog’s health, lifestyle, life stage and flavour preferences to calculate the exact level of nutrients your dog needs.

With a founding team of eight, the founders have a diverse set of backgrounds in high-growth, consumer-facing and tech businesses. CEO James Davidson previously worked as head of operations at Innocent Drinks and operations manager at Unilever, while Graham Bosher is the founder of Graze.com.

The online-only business has recently expanded its offering with wet food and dental treats now featuring among its monthly offering.

With over 40,000 customers signed up, tails announced in May that it had enjoyed sales growth of 120% in the last six months and this grow is set to continue; the business is on track to achieve eight-figures revenues for 2016.

The judges were also big fans of product businesses Bloom & Wild – the ‘flowers through the letterbox’ delivery service – and fast-growing sausage brand Heck Food, named highly commended and commended respectively.