That failed pet food delivery startup in Austin taught me a lesson about packaging costs

I was reading about PetPuls from 2022, they raised $2 million and shut down after 8 months. Their biggest mistake was using custom eco-friendly boxes that cost $12 each, when standard shipping boxes would have been like $3. For a product that cost $25, that margin math just didn't add up. Has anyone else seen a failed startup where fancy packaging or branding killed the numbers?

2 comments

2 Comments

andrew6932d ago

My buddy in Denver ran a kombucha delivery thing and spent like $8 per bottle on those weird amber glass bottles with custom labels. He was charging $6 a bottle and wondering why he couldn't make rent. Sometimes you gotta just slap a sticker on a plain box and move on.

paige_west2d agoMost Upvoted

Feel for the guy @andrew693, it's rough when you put all that effort into packaging and then realize the math just doesn't work out...