How a small team turned source–verified protein into a movement – and helped build the foundation for the natural pet food industry we know today.
A Mission Before a Product
Pet Promise never set out to be a pet food company. The mission came first: help farmers and ranchers who were doing things the right way – committed to quality, sustainability, and the humane treatment of animals – and find a real market that rewarded them for it. The pet food company grew out of that mission, not the other way around (Petfood Industry).
None of it would have happened without the people who actually built it. Myron Lyskanycz coined the phrase that became the company’s whole philosophy in four words: “Let byproducts be bygones” – a direct rejection of the rendered-protein foundation that had quietly underpinned commercial pet food formulation for decades. Dave Carter ran operations, procuring meat and overseeing the co-packers who turned the mission into an actual product on shelves. Julie Mueller led marketing and got the “Promise of Purity” message in front of the people who needed to hear it. Deb led sales – she was the one out building the relationships that got Pet Promise onto shelves and turned trusting retailers into genuinely happy customers. And the whole thing started on a $300,000 budget provided by a friend, Bill Nicholson, who believed in the idea before there was anything to point to but conviction. The only real job left was making sure each of them had room to do what they already did best.
As Dave put it at the time, “We are a mission-based company that’s dedicated to educating consumers on ingredient quality and where their ingredients come from. Our mission led us to establish a brand based on source-verified protein coming from U.S. family farmers” (Petfood Industry). Pet Promise wasn’t positioned as another bag on a crowded shelf – it was part of a broader natural foods movement whose product happened to be pet food, rather than a pet food company that happened to use natural ingredients.
The Promise of Purity
Everything the team built centered on one commitment: the “Promise of Purity.” Pet parents would always know exactly where their pet’s protein came from. Instead of leading with what was in the bag, the brand made its name on what wasn’t (Petfood Industry):
- No animal by-products – lungs, spleens, brains, blood, beaks, feet, or feathers
- No added growth hormones No antibiotic-fed protein
- No rendered meats, such as beef, chicken, or by-product meals
- No factory-farm meat or poultry
- No artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives
Myron’s line – “Let byproducts be bygones” – captured the whole philosophy and gave the team a rallying cry that outlasted any single product formula (Petfood Industry).
Julie Mueller summed up why the message worked: “Attracting new users to our brand by our ‘Promise of Purity’ message and excellent product performance. Once consumers try our products, they tend to be very loyal” (Petfood Industry). That loyalty was her doing as much as anyone’s – she’s the one who turned a sourcing commitment into a message consumers actually trusted.
Sourcing as a Competitive Advantage
Delivering on the Promise of Purity was a lot harder than writing a slogan for it, and that burden fell squarely on Dave Carter. As he explained, “One of the most difficult challenges is that because of our high standards for ingredients, we have to work with smaller suppliers and develop strong relationships” (Petfood Industry). Every ingredient earned its place for a specific nutritional reason – natural meat, poultry, or fish as the lead ingredient in every formula; brewer’s rice for digestibility; egg product for amino acids; oatmeal for sustained energy; pearled barley for soluble fiber – and Dave was the one in the field building the supplier relationships and managing the co-packers that made that discipline possible.
That discipline paid off. Pet Promise became the number-one brand in the natural pet food channel, and the team kept expanding – a large-breed formula with natural glucosamine for joint support, and a full line of new wet-food varieties for cats and dogs (Petfood Industry).
Building the Base for a Category
When Pet Promise started, the entire natural pet food category was worth somewhere around
$40 million. By the time the brand was handed off, that category had crossed a billion dollars – and it’s kept climbing into the tens of billions since, with brands like Fresh Pet and Blue Buffalo building on the “natural, better-for-your-dog” foundation that Pet Promise helped establish (Zolezzi, “The A–Z of Business: Dismantle“; The CEO Magazine). Nobody set out to build a category. The goal was to keep a promise to farmers and to pet owners – the category came because enough people believed the same thing Myron, Dave, Julie, Deb, and Bill had already put their names, their work, and their money behind.
Sold to Stay True
In 2004, Pet Promise was sold to Nestlé Purina, in a deal that industry accounts credit with helping pave the way for today’s multi-billion-dollar natural pet food category ( anthonyzolezzi.com; Wikipedia – Twinlab). The sale wasn’t the point, and it isn’t the part of this story worth dwelling on. What’s worth remembering is who got the brand there: Bill Nicholson, who put up $300,000 on nothing but trust; Myron Lyskanycz, who gave the mission its voice; Dave Carter, who made the Promise of Purity real, supplier by supplier; Julie Mueller, who made sure pet owners heard it and believed it; and Deb, who sold it in and kept those customers happy.
The mission came first, the product came second, and the category that exists today – worth billions, and still growing – started with a handful of people who just wanted farmers treated fairly and pets fed honestly, and one person willing to bet on them. Pet Promise proved that authenticity could be a business model, not just a marketing line – a lesson that carries through from Pet Promise to Twinlab to everything since (WholeFoods Magazine).
