We’re looking forward to introducing you to Paul Mott. Check out our conversation below.
Paul, so good to connect and we’re excited to share your story and insights with our audience. There’s a ton to learn from your story, but let’s start with a warm up before we get into the heart of the interview. What are you most proud of building — that nobody sees?
The manufacturing equipment that makes CoyoteVest possible.
‘Cut & Sew’ is pretty straight forward. If you want to make a vest, you cut fabric and then sew it together. Cutting machines and sewing machines are relatively easy to come by.
But try making a mile of our beautifully perfect spike strips every week. Each spike centered perfectly 1″ apart. We started with a ruler, icepick, and a hammer. It immediately became apparent that we would have trouble making a lot of these spike strips. So I started from scratch designing and building machines that could do the job better and faster than human hands. It took me 5 years of prototypes and revisions to figure it all out. Today those machines continue to run everyday and they’ve already produced enough spike strips to protect many thousands of pets.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Paul Mott and I’m the CEO and co-founder of CoyoteVest Pet Body Armor. We make products that help protect pets from coyotes, birds of prey, and aggressive dogs. Our company was created out of tragedy when our dog Buffy was killed by a Coyote in 2014 and I became determined to find a way to prevent it from ever happening to us again. This lead me to an invention that immediately received a lot of attention. It soon became apparent that we had an important business on our hands. We started in the garage but grew quickly and in the last ten years we’ve manufactured a lot of vests, right here in California, and shipped them all over the world. These days we’re sending them to Amazon as fast as we can make them. The best part of this journey has been the many testimonials we’ve received, When people tell us how, in the moment of truth, the CoyoteVest actually worked, and a life was saved — nothing could be more rewarding than that.
Great, so let’s dive into your journey a bit more. What’s a moment that really shaped how you see the world?
That would be the moment our dog Buffy was attacked by a Coyote. It was brutal and I saw everything that went down with my eyes wide open. Suddenly, in that moment I reluctantly became a domain expert regarding coyote attacks.
Before Buffy was killed, I knew that coyotes were around and they were a danger to small dogs. But I was so convinced that If I ever actually saw a coyote I would have no trouble scaring the hell out of it and chasing it away – a real macho don’t f with me attitude. I was always with my dogs and I really wasn’t very worried about a coyote getting past me to hurt them.
But it never occurred to me that the coyote was smart enough to avoid me even knowing it was there, carefully stalking us, ready to pounce at the first opportunity. And once that happens, and the coyote actually sinks his sharp teeth into your dogs neck, your dog is seriously injured or dead. It happens in an instant, just like a car accident you never saw coming. That was a profound lesson for me and I could not stop thinking about what I might have done to prevent it. Unbearable guilt from one stupid moment that I would have given anything to undo. It sure got me thinking.
What’s something you changed your mind about after failing hard?
One thing I’ve learned over the years is what seems like a total failure today might help you in the future. It can be hard to understand, in real time, how the events of your life are weaving together and where it’s leading. But looking back you can see it.
Looking back to 2002 my neighbor Rob Benson and I started a company named Xtreme Revolution. We sold custom Motorcycle parts online. It was a great partnership because Rob, a Wharton MBA, knew exactly how to setup and operate a corporation perfectly. As an engineer I knew how to build a sweet e-commerce website with sophisticated back-end logistics and I also designed cool parts that we manufactured and sold. We were doing great by 2005 riding the ‘American Chopper’ wave.
But then the great recession of 2009 hit, and sales of discretionary custom motorcycle parts just collapsed. We started losing money fast. It was hard to give up and admit failure, but it was the right thing to do and we did it. It is a painful process to kill your own company. After that smackdown I really didn’t think I’d ever own another company again.
But years went buy and one evening a coyote killed our dog. I went through all the stages of grief. But eventually that grief transformed itself into purpose and I realized that CoyoteVest was my destiny. It was time for me and my wife Pamela to take one more leap of faith and start a new company. However neither of us ever took a business class in our life.
But no worries we knew exactly what to do, because we learned so much from Rob back at Xtreme Revolution! I was always looking over his shoulder watching and learning about accounting, insurance, financing, leases, etc. Pamela was learning all about customer service, purchasing, and HR, etc. Those invaluable lessons really helped us get CoyoteVest setup right for the long haul and I’m proud of us for building a strong business together.
So all of that time and money I ‘wasted’ at Xtreme Revolution wasn’t wasted at all! It was an education that was preparing me for an important job coming in my future. Perhaps nothing is a failure as long as you’re always learning and growing and doing better the next time.
Alright, so if you are open to it, let’s explore some philosophical questions that touch on your values and worldview. What do you believe is true but cannot prove?
That would have been a great question for me back in 2016 when we first started selling the CoyoteVest to other people. It was big claim to say this product could save your dog from a coyote — knowing full well just how dangerous they could be. Before making this claim we tested the materials and the basic principles every way we could think of. We were so confident we started using them on our own dogs. But of course we had absolutely no way to prove this claim! Everything required a great leap of faith based on Myth Buster’s style testing, logic, reasoning, and my newly found domain expertise. I was pretty sure it would work.
And the demand was there, and we started selling a lot of them. All the while we waited with baited breath for that day when we would get the message about some dog having a life threatening encounter with a real coyote – while wearing a CoyoteVest. We knew it was bound to happen sooner or later, and everything was riding on the outcome.
And to make matters more tense, while we’re waiting for that news, we’re getting viciously attacked on social media! So many ‘coyote experts’ accusing of being stupid, naive, and even deceptive. We constantly heard things like “that stupid jacket wont’ stop a coyote for a moment, your just ripping people off!”. It was hard for us and our potential customers to ignore.
Sure enough one day the news did arrive. It was an amazing story from a woman taking her garbage out late at night with her small dog, and suddenly finding themselves surrounded by coyotes. The CoyoteVest worked and they got away unscathed! She was very grateful and credited the vest for saving her dogs life. Hearing that news was one of the best feelings I’ve ever had.
Since then the testimonials have kept rolling in, describing various encounters and attacks where our product saved the day. Now we even have Ring video showing the CoyoteVest working exactly as expected. Although nothing can guarantee the absolute safety of your dog, I think we’ve finally proven that the CoyoteVest does work. And we know we’ve saved a lot of families from a very painful experience.
Thank you so much for all of your openness so far. Maybe we can close with a future oriented question. When do you feel most at peace?
Pamela and I became empty nesters when our youngest left for college back in 2008. The house seemed empty, our motorcycle parts company was in serious trouble, and Pam was having a very serious health scare. After giving it much thought, I decided I needed to get a dog to help cope. So we got a little miniature poodle rescue named Sparky and we immediately fell head over heals in love with him. This began a period in our lives I like to call our ‘dog years’. A few years later we got Buffy and then Scooter. I have so many great memories of us all together.
And the best thing we did together, every day, was to simply go on a walk. We started out small in our neighborhood, but over the years our territory spread out for miles. It was such a thrill to discover all the fantastic open space trails in our community — together. We would go for a walk every day, still do! Neighborhood, dog park, nature trails, we have wonderful options and great weather. It’s been really great for my overall health to develop this habit. And it’s been those simple moments walking with my dogs when I feel most at peace.
But on September 2nd 2014 a coyote shattered that peace. Buffy was gone and so was my peace. Anytime I would take my two remaining dogs out I was scared to death it would happen again. I felt like we were being stalked all the time. The best thing in my life had been taken away.
I knew something had to be done to get our peace of mind back. I’m happy to report that something got done.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.coyotevest.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coyotevest
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pmott
- Twitter: https://x.com/coyotevest
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/coyotevest
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CoyoteVestVideo/videos
Image Credits
These are all our personal pictures
