Overlooked No More: How Smalls Is Building The Brand Cats Deserve

Cats are 40% of the pet market, but are somehow still chronically overlooked. Every innovation goes to dogs first. Even your vet’s office is built for dogs first. Matt Michaelson, cofounder and CEO of Smalls, and his team have built an incredible cat-first brand precisely because of that blind spot.

In this episode, I sit down with Matt to break down:

• Why the cat industry is structurally underinvested (which includes VCs simply saying “I don’t really like cats”)
• What “human-grade” actually means for pet food — and the sustainability trade-offs nobody talks about
• Ingredient splitting: the regulatory hack that lets pet brands disguise what’s actually in the bag
• “Wrestling in the mud”: a feedback culture where every hire is expected to disagree
• Founders Pledge, and why committing 5% early changes the giving conversation later

Big thanks to Matt for coming on the pod and sharing the playbook behind Smalls.