Today we’d like to introduce you to Pukar Pyakurel.
Hi Pukar, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
“I dedicate this company and its fair practices to my family, my wife, and our furry children Milo, Ginger & Buddy”.
It all started in 2015. After graduating from college, I had a month of free time before I started a corporate job at a Fortune 500 company in Houston. I decided to go on a trek to Nepal, my birth country that I hadn’t visited ever since my family moved to America when I was seven years old. I packed my bags and got on the plane on April 1st. I felt like something crazy was going to come out of the trip. As crazy as it sounds, I fell in love the first day I landed in Nepal when I met my now wife, Shristi. Fast forward to April 25th, I gathered up the courage to ask her to be my girlfriend. Little did I know that an hour later, our lives were going to change forever. A 7.8 magnitude earthquake toppling multi-story buildings hit Kathmandu, taking the lives of 9,000 and leaving more than 22,000 people injured. They say that in the midst of chaos, you see one’s true character and it was then that I got to witness the resilience, love, and compassion that the people of Nepal have to offer, even in times of disaster.
The birth of Yak9 Chews – The next week, Shristi and I volunteered to go on a relief effort to the earthquake-affected areas of Nepal. That is when we met Nawa Sherpa, a dairy farmer who had lost almost everything to the earthquake. Nawa took us to his yak chew farm and introduced us to his family, the farmers’ community, and the beautiful art of yak chew making. After spending a week with them and hearing about their stories, I learned that the farmers were being underpaid by the middlemen and were barely making enough to sustain their families and children. As an international business major and a pet parent who believes in feeding only natural and healthy foods, I saw an opportunity to bridge the gap between the farmers and pet parents in the US and help farmers like Nawa get a fair share of their hard work. With the purpose of creating premium cheese chews for dogs, in May of 2015, Yak9 Chews was born. We started by introducing the 100% Yak milk chews for the first time in the pet industry. Today, we work with over 800 farmers whom we collect milk from and manufacture eight different flavored yak chews on our private farms in Nepal.
Despite the big names in the yak chew industry, I feel fortunate that the farmers trusted the ‘Yak-man’ as they fondly call me since my last name P’YAK’urel has yak in it. Shristi and I are fortunate to have taken this journey together with a greater purpose of improving the lives of our farmers and furry friends with sustainable, healthy, and organic pet products.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
When we first introduced our all-natural Flavored Yak Chews in 2020, we received tremendous support from our partners and customers. Within a short amount of time, we grew from a small to a medium-sized business and had to expand our operations significantly to meet the growing demands of the business, all during the time of COVID-19. Moving out from our tiny garage to a 2000 sq. ft warehouse, growing our 3 people team to 13, and increasing our production capacity 3X during the pandemic kept us on our toes. We had created our flavored yak chews to differentiate ourselves from everybody else, but some chew companies started imitating our exact flavors and even our burlap packaging. It’s tough to see other companies taking credit for our creation but we take it as an opportunity to continue innovating our chews and focusing on enhancing our customers’ experience.
As you know, we’re big fans of .Yak9 Chews. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Yak9 Chews is an all-natural pet-loving company that manufactures premium Flavored Himalayan Yak Chews made with limited ingredients for dogs. Founded in 2015 by a husband-and-wife team, our long-lasting chews are human-grade, rich in protein, and sourced from the Himalayan regions straight from the yaks to K9s. What differentiates Yak9 Chews is our commitment to creating sustainable, healthy, and organic pet products that have nutritional benefits for dogs. Today, the company is recognized as an industry leader for innovating in the natural dog chew category by introducing eight nutritional flavored yak chews for the first time in the pet industry – 100% yak, turmeric, coconut, honey, flaxseed, blueberry, pumpkin, and yak & cow milk.
Yak9 chews are made with 100% natural ingredients sourced from organic farms in Nepal and the US, each with a unique purpose and story. We keep everything close to nature, from our yaks who graze naturally on what the earth provides to our environment-friendly and recyclable burlap packaging. We do business with a greater purpose of giving back to the communities that we work in. Five percent of our profits go to educating our farmers’ kids and supporting animal welfare organizations in Nepal.
Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
To my best friend Milo dog who taught me the true meaning of unconditional love. To our farmers, partners, customers, and loyal companions for believing in our brand and our mission to create premium pet products. We owe it all to you. Thank you.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.yak9chews.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yak9chews
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/yak9chews
