Meet Amy Kim of KindTail in Venice

Today we’d like to introduce you to Amy Kim.

Amy, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I began my career at Ford Motor Company, where I was one of the first female automotive designers at Ford. After leaving Detroit, I moved to New York City, where I led product development for clients such as Motorola, P&G, Gucci, and Microsoft.

I was living in NYC with my dog Monkey when I was looking for a pet crate for him. I didn’t like the wire crates on the market because I felt bad about putting my dog in there. I was surprised to find that there was absolutely nothing on the market! So I set out to design the best looking and functional pet crate for him.

A few years later, I moved to LA and decided I was going to start my own company because I believed in my product/idea so much.

Has it been a smooth road?
Starting your own business is not for the faint of heart. There are challenges I face daily.

Producing a brand new product from China takes many iterations to perfect. You face quality control issues, logistics, fulfillment and etc. One time, I ordered 2K units from China and had it shipped to a warehouse in Utah. I have three units shipped to myself so I can check the product out and noticed that two of the units had a defective part.
I freaked out and got on the next flight to Utah at 6 am went through many of the inventory double checking all the parts.

The first year of the business is the roughest. I had many breakdowns along the way. But I changed the way I viewed the challenges. Instead of seeing it as a problem and asking myself, ‘why is this happening to me?’ I turned it around to ‘what can I learn from this?’ this small change in thought process has helped me tremendously.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
KindTail reinvents pet living one design at a time. We launched with a small pet crate that is beautiful, collapsible, and light-weight. Next, we’re launching the medium size crate this coming November. We specialize in giving your pet the best life pawssible.

What I am most proud of as a company is a product we built. It took many iterations and we’re still in the process of improving. Our product is distinctive and there is nothing close to what we have on the market.

I am proud to have many happy pawrents/pets that love our product. When I get a positive review or a note from a customer, I print them and put them on my desk so that I am always reminded of why I started on this journey from the first place.

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Los Angeles is perfect for my business because of the pet & entrepreneurial community around. I would highly recommend any entrepreneur to start in LA because LA is full of positive energy. There are many small pockets of different communities you can tap into to build your network.

Pricing:

• PAWD 129
• PAWD Pad 25

Contact Info:

• Phone: 8002956627
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/KINDTAILCO/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Kindtail/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/kindtailco

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