10/20/2026
There are certain moments in business you never forget. Our first Global Pet Expo is one of mine.
Chelsea here 👋
When Pet Releaf was first getting started, my mom and I were doing just about everything ourselves. We rented time in a commercial kitchen to bake our products, brought everything back to the office to dehydrate overnight, applied every label by hand, and packaged every bag ourselves.
Eventually, we decided to take a pretty big chance on ourselves and sign up for our first trade show, Global Pet Expo.
Our booth was nothing fancy. We had a pixelated backdrop, a couple of folding chairs, and an information sheet I made in Microsoft Word. We were surrounded by established brands and we were really just hoping people would stop long enough to hear what we were trying to build.
Thankfully, they did.
Some of the first retailers and distributors to support Pet Releaf met us at that show. More than a decade later, many of those relationships are still part of our story.
I think it’s easy to look at a business after it’s grown and forget how many people saw something in it before there was much proof that they should.
Those early believers meant more to us than I think those retailers and distributors probably realized at the time. They gave a small family business a chance and became part of a story we’re still writing today.
I’m still incredibly grateful they stopped at our little booth that day.
Talk soon 🩷
Chelsea
