What You Need To Know About Jay's Pet Butter From Shark Tank
If the success of businesses featured on "Shark Tank," like PetPlate, have proven anything, it's that there's a very real and substantial market for healthy pet food alternatives. With that in mind, it shouldn't come as any surprise that ABC's hit entrepreneurial show has continued to feature pitches from those looking to push the world of animal cuisine forward. One such business is Jay's Pet Butter, entering the Tank in Season 15, Episode 12 in the hopes of striking a deal with at least one of the Sharks.
On its face, the concept behind Jay's Pet Butter is quite simple: a healthier alternative to traditional peanut butter products aimed at dogs. However, delving a little deeper into the background of the company and its premiere product reveals some intriguing tidbits — including the fact that its founder is already a long-established celebrity in the bodybuilding circle. Here's everything interested viewers should know about Jay's Pet Butter.
The creator of Jay's Pet Butter is a famous bodybuilder
With a name like Jay's Pet Butter, plenty of would-be consumers of the product are likely wondering who exactly Jay is. As it turns out, the Jay behind Jay's Pet Butter is someone those with extensive knowledge of professional bodybuilding migh t be familiar with.
Jay's Pet Butter was founded by none other than professional bodybuilder Jay Cutler (not to be confused with former NFL star Jay Cutler). Cutler has attained star status in the athletic realm, having been crowned the four-time Mr. Olympia champion of the IFBB Professional League's Olympia Fitness and Performance Weekend bodybuilding competition. While the athlete has since retired from professional bodybuilding, he's still quite active in the fitness space and he maintains a massive online following, with over 5 million followers on his official Instagram account.
In recent years, Cutler has gotten involved in several ventures, including Four Crowns Apparel and his very own line of branded supplements. Jay's Pet Butter is simply one of the star bodybuilder's most recent ventures, partially born out of love for his own two dogs: Capone and Daisy.
Jay's Pet Butter comes in several flavor variations
Jay's Pet Butter is already marketed as quite the premium food experience for dogs, so it makes sense that such a product would feature a variety of options to fit the tastes of pets and their owners. As of this article's publishing, Jay's Pet Butter offers four distinct flavor options, each of which emphasize three differing main ingredients. One option features peanuts, sweet potato, and blueberry, while another offers flax seed, banana chips, and glucosamine, and the third contains peanuts, flax seed, and bacon bits. A fourth version, referred to as "dessert dough," includes cocoa butter, carob chips, and sunflower.
Regardless of a pet's preferred palette, all variations of Jay's Pet Butter emphasize the use of clean ingredients with no additives. According to the product's official site, Jay's Pet Butter is xylitol-free, sugar-free, and salt-free, and contains no hydrogenated oil, high fructose corn syrup, or palm oil. All told, it seems to be on the healthier side of celebrity-branded dog food ventures.
Humans can have Jay's Pet Butter too
Technically speaking, Jay's Pet Butter doesn't just have to be for the pets in the household. In an Instagram post from the official Jay's Pet Butter account, one user asked if the product was safe for humans to consume as well. The account's manager responded with the confirmation that people can safely eat Jay's Pet Butter as well, as the mixes use "food grade ingredients." Jay Cutler further reiterated this idea by posting a humorous skit in which he steals a jar of Jay's Pet Butter from his dogs to make his own health shake. As the bodybuilder exclaims in the video: "Good enough for them, good enough for me."
Of course, per its name, Jay's Pet Butter is still primarily marketed as food for pets. As such, consumers' mileage may vary on how much they actually enjoy the taste of the mixes themselves (that is, if they're not one of the men eating dog food on TikTok). Nonetheless, dog owners can take solace in being able to safely try out a Jay's Pet Butter scoop or two themselves, even if it's just as an experiment.
What happened to Jay's Pet Butter on Shark Tank?
Jay Cutler and Brandan Fokken muscle their way into the tank seeking a $50,000 investment in exchange for 10% equity in their relatively new business Jay's Pet Butter. After explaining why there's a need for pet-friendly peanut butter (it cuts out ingredients that are bad for dogs and replaces them with nutrient-rich add-ins), they dig into the numbers. Jay's Pet Butter has been in business for 10 months and during that time, they've done around $39,000 in sales. Additionally, the product has already made its way into retail, and they've even been contacted by a major big box store.
The initial success of the product and the fact that both Cutler and Fokken are social media influencers with considerable followings make for an attractive prospect. Yet, the sharks aren't all in on the vision. Mark Cuban goes out because he thinks it will take too long for the pet butter to catch on, while both Lori Greiner and Daniel Lubetzky decline to make an offer because the product just isn't the right fit for them. After Daymond John opts out claiming that the pair likely doesn't need a shark, that leaves only Kevin O'Leary. In typical Mr. Wonderful fashion, he pitches Cutler and Fokken on an offer of $50,000 but instead of equity, a $1 royalty on every jar of Jay's Pet Butter sold in perpetuity.
Sometimes, an unideal offer is better than no offer, but it's clear that O'Leary's royalty deal isn't what Cutler and Fokken are after. With O'Leary unwilling to budge, the pair respectfully decline, and leave the tank empty-handed (except for Cutler's dogs).