Former Chipotle exec launches raw dog food line.

• Author: Taylor, Mike
• Position: SMALL [biz]

Jim Adams used to head up marketing for Chipotle Mexican Grill, the burrito chain known for emphasizing natural ingredients and meat from humanely raised animals.

Now he's taking that ethos to dog food, with his Redbud's Raw Premium Dog Food featuring antibiotic- and hormone-free chicken and beef.

Adams, 49, worked for Chipotle from 2000 to 2008, took a year off and in June launched Redbud's, named for one of his two dachshunds, Red. The former Chipotle exec started off selling his product line Saturday mornings at the Cherry Creek Farmer's Market, with promotional help from the dachshunds that he or his wife, Paula Haddock, would parade down the market aisle wearing miniature sandwich-board ads touting Redbud's on their torpedo-shaped torsos. Adams has also gotten Redbud's into three Denver retail stores so far.

"The genesis of it was my love of dogs," Adams said of his new business. "But what I learned and was involved with at Chipotle was critical. That changed a lot of things in my own life about how I looked at food and what I ate, and who was producing that food and how they took care of their animals. So it was only natural that I would extend that into my dog food business."

The afternoon of Sept. 30 found him pitching his product line and business model to a crowd of about 100 and four judges at the Naturally Boulder Days "Pitch Slam." Naturally Boulder Days is an annual expo intended to nurture startup natural food companies and promote Boulder as the epicenter of the natural-products movement.

Adams was one of 22 fledging entrepreneurs who got two minutes to explain their business plan and then faced questions from the judges. The judges were friendly but unsparing, a case in point being when Adams was asked about the price of his Redbud's Raw dog food.

"Well, dogs eat a lot less of this (than conventional dog food)," Adams responded. "About 1 percent of the dog's body weight, twice a day."

"That's not an answer," one of the judges snapped.

Adams finally said his chicken (mixed with organic fruit and vegetables) goes for $5.99 per pound and his beef-based food for $6.49 per pound at the farmer's market. This elicited an elongated whistle, apparent sticker shock, from the audience.

But in the Denver area where plenty of people treat their dogs like four-legged kids, Adams hopes to have 250 regularly subscribing customers within two years and, if all goes well, expand...