Today we’d like to introduce you to Brian Hoffman.
Hi Brian, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
When I was in my early 30s I had a good job, making decent money working for the man. I was travelling constantly, working too hard, caught up in the rat race… and it was sucking my soul. Then one day I got an opportunity to start over from the bottom, doing a job that I loved, working on boats.
I started out as a journeyman and learned all about working on boats. 5 years later I started my own shop managing and repairing seagoing yachts for private owners. Working on boats is a great real world skill to have and combines a lot of different disciplines. One of those disciplines was working with metal.
I got inspired by my metal artist friend Jon Koehler, and I started turning boatyard trash into lamps and yard ornaments. Then in 2013 a tragedy made me think a lot about what the world actually needs. I witnessed a dog get hit by a car, and I fixated on the problem of dog safety in modern “automotive” society. I sat with this problem for weeks, thinking what could I possibly do to make this less of a problem. I went over to Jon’s shop with an idea and some scrap metal and I walked out with the first 5 “Doghooks”.
Building the business took years after that. The struggle of running a small, ethical, product based company was and still is, very real. It wasn’t till about 10 years in when I hired my new team that we really started building momentum around the Doghook brand. Only now are we getting to a place where we can effectively scale our efforts to address a much larger market.
The experience of bringing Doghook from a problem, to a solution, to a product and now to a movement around keeping dogs safe has been difficult but very rewarding. It also gave me the confidence to think about what else the world needs and to experiment with simple, real world solutions to other problems.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
As with most early stage companies we are constantly struggling to manage our limited resources. It is really easy to get out over your skis and end up in real trouble. Having a good team and people around you who are willing to reel you in and speak truth to power can be the difference between success and failure.
Bootstrapping a business like we have done with Doghook takes an incredible amount of care and commitment and also a lot of luck. Over the years, we have been extremely lucky to meet people and collaborate with aligned companies who have been able to open doors and make important introductions.
When doing business in the digital age, the rules are always changing and the little guy is getting squeezed from every direction. Copycats and widespread anti-competitive business practices have certainly constrained our growth and limited our profitability.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Doghook is a premium pet safety hardware brand redefining how dog-friendly spaces operate. Our mission is to make the world safer and more welcoming for dogs and the people who love them by providing secure, aesthetically designed tethering solutions for residential and commercial environments.
Doghook operates at the intersection of pet safety, convenience, and the rapidly expanding pet care economy. As businesses increasingly cater to pet owners, Doghook provides an elegant infrastructure solution that enables safer and more welcoming dog-friendly environments. They are also great for around the house.
Our core product line includes wall-mounted, fixed tethering devices designed for safety, durability, and aesthetics. Beyond our anchoring products, we are actively expanding into innovative dog leashes, harnesses and other pet safety accessories. Our goal is to build out the safety infrastructure necessary to make dogs safe, loved and included in a dangerous world.
We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
Success is simply accomplishing a goal. I think that using that word to categorize people with wealth and fame is problematic. My goals are based on creating better long term outcomes vs short term income.
At Doghook, we set achievable goals and have small successes every day… but our larger aspirational goals, the things that drive us, are achieved incrementally. Defining success and failure is interesting, Einstein once said “A person who has never failed has never tried anything new.”
I think that it is really important right now that we have creative people thinking outside of the box and trying new things to solve deep societal and ecological problems that we are faced with.
Pricing:
- Doghook $32-42 retail
- Belay Leash $55-75 retail
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.doghook.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doghook
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61576732515337
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/doghook/posts/?feedView=all
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@doghookinc130
