It’s a common phenomenon that even the savviest entrepreneurs can stumble trying to take their businesses to the next level. Marco Giannini wasn’t new to entrepreneurship and he wasn’t new to failure. While an MBA student at the University of Southern California, he launched Clear Day, a natural beverage company designed to take advantage of consumers’ desire for functional beverages. That business failed in 2003 from a lack of customer validation and too much money spent on product development. Not one to dwell on failure, Giannini decided to take his experience in functional beverages to deal with health problems in the pet industry. His childhood dog had suffered from arthritis and hip dysplasia, so he began to study how supplements in dog treats might help. After finding a manufacturer to produce his first product—Happy Hips—Giannini began driving all around California visiting pet store owners to get them to try his product. He also handed out samples at sporting events. When a customer wrote to him to tell him that her aging dog was now able to walk normally after two years of Dogswell treats, he knew he had a hit.

In the first year of the business, 2004, revenues came in at $500,000, but by 2008, the company was on the Inc. 500 at position 101, sporting an annual growth rate of 1,800 percent, 21 employees and $17 million in revenues. Dogswell went from 4,000 independent pet stores to being picked up by Whole Foods Market and Target. It was now a national brand.  That’s when Giannini began feeling the pressure to grow the company and begin to compete with the large established pet food companies. To do that, he would need to develop a line of dog food. He determined that he had enough cash to do the product development and went ahead, coming up with a kibble that was preferred 15 to 1 by dog focus groups over the leading brands.

Now Giannini had to use TSG for more than just money. Daily conversations with his TSG partner, Jenny Baxter, gave him help in analyzing Dogswell’s market data and provided lessons learned from other products in TSG’s portfolio of companies. Giannini quickly learned that no matter how much it was important to grow Dogswell, it was even more important to take care of the core business that had made them a success.