People’s Champion finalist 2017: tails.com

Start-up name: tails.com
Founders: Mark Holland, Steve Webster, Karen Freeman, Kat Linger, Paul Cooke, Joe Inglis, Graham Bosher and James Davidson
Started in: 2013 (launched in 2014)
Based in: London
Business description: Dog food subscription service

Shortlisted category:

Service Business of the Year

The tails.com story:

Dog food subscription service tails.com already has a fair few Startups.co.uk accolades to its name including a win for Product Business of the Year at the Startups Awards 2016 and two appearances in the Startups 100 (it broke the top 10 in 2017). And after an exciting year of growth, the company is hoping to add another to its collection…

Following a two-minute consultation, tails.com creates a fully customised meal plan and daily menu with food blended to each individual dog’s nutritional and dietary needs. These bespoke meals – which use factors such as your pet’s age, weight, condition, and activity levels to gauge “perfect quantities” – are then delivered to the owner’s door. The customer pays monthly and is able to delay or cancel their deliveries at any time.

tails.com has now grown from eight founding members to a team of over 60 in 2017 and has launched four new products this year alone on the back of customer recommendations, including dental chews, good dog treats, poo bags and grain free salmon biscuits.

These are just some of the many examples of the business responding to customer feedback with service improvements: when they asked for a way to try a new tailor-made blend if their dogs wanted a new flavour, tails.com launched a “reblend” tool on the site.

It claims to now deliver four million meals every month, covering an estimated 1% of all dogs in the UK. And with a 9.6 score on Trustpilot, it seems the company’s thousands of customers are happy with the service.

In a bid to enhance its service further, this year has seen tails.com meet with veterinary professionals across the country to help understand the challenges they face in recommending optimum diets for their clients’ dogs; resulting in nutritional training and a vet recommendation programme.

Why tails.com made our shortlist:

tails.com has seen exceptional growth over the last few years, all the while continuing to innovate and is creating an ever-better service by listening to its customers’ suggestions. As a result, its customer base has swollen exponentially and it is garnering rave reviews online.

Where to find out more about tails.com:

Website: www.tails.com
Twitter: @tailsdogfood