Today we’d like to introduce you to Patrick Pittaluga.
Patrick, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
My co-founder, Sean Warner, and I started looking into insects as a food source in early 2015. Our goal was to provide a sustainable food source for animals utilizing the black soldier fly larvae.
As neither of us had any background in entomology, biology, or agriculture, we hit the books and started researching everything about black soldier flies while simultaneously reaching out to every chicken and fish farm we could find to begin our customer discovery process.
On the insect side of things, we learned that breeding these flies was a large challenge, so we started setting up experiments in our laundry room attempting to breed them under various light sources and conditions.
Through our customer discovery process, we learned that farmers loved the idea of using insects in their feed but the quantities required even by the smallest farms was far greater than we could supply so we searched elsewhere for our first product.
This eventually led us to Grubblies, selling the whole dried grubs as a treat for backyard pet chickens. Over the past two years we have been growing our business selling the grubs as a treat and now are in the process of developing a fully formulated chicken feed.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
There have been lots of struggles. Our initial goal was to manufacture the insects ourselves however after 3.5 years of trial and error we have decided to cease all manufacturing and instead focus on sales, marketing, and product development utilizing the grubs.
This is because manufacturing is a high cost and low margin business and we have not been able to raise the money needed to fully build out a manufacturing line. Instead, we have partnered with companies who are producing the insect as a commodity. We see this as a much better road ahead for Grubbly Farms.
Grubbly Farms – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
At Grubbly Farms, we are making sustainable and natural animal feeds utilizing black soldier fly grubs. Our current products focus on the poultry market however as we continue to expand, we aim to make products for dogs, cats, and even fish.
I am very proud of how far we have come within the pet chicken market. We have had an average of 13% month over month growth for the past 24 months and believe we will be able to keep that up.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Sean and I are proud to be honored by being on the Forbes 30 under 30 lists.
Contact Info:
- Address: 1035 Donelly Ave SW
- Website: Grubbly Farms, Inc.
- Phone: 7708611578
- Email: ppittaluga@grubblyfarms.com
- Instagram: @grubblyfarms
- Facebook: facebook.com/grubblyfarms
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