July 2024 Animal Services Grant Awarded to Swell Gelato

Congratulations to Debbie Hendrickx, founder of Swell Gelato for Dogs for being the WomensNet $10,000 July Business Specific Grant recipient in the category of Animal Services.

Recently, WomensNet Advisory Board member Jama Hernandez sat down with Debbie for an exclusive interview. You can listen to their conversation and view the transcript below.

Video Transcript

WomensNet: Hi everyone. My name is Jama with WomensNet and we’re so excited to introduce our 2024 July winners. We’re excited to meet with our Amber Grant winner, Rebecca with Full Spectrum Learn & Play. And we also have with us Dot with CargoB. She is our startup grant winner. And then finally we have with us Debbie, with Swell Gelato for Dogs. And the category that we chose to highlight this month was animal services. And we’re really excited to see all the awesome things that Debbie is doing with our fur babies. So to begin Debbie, maybe can you explain a little bit about your business and what you’re doing?

Debbie: We make gelato for dogs. But we make it just like you make gelato for people. We use top of the line ingredients. Like all our gelato is coconut milk based, because it’s very creamy, yet very soothing for their tummies. And then we add limited real fruit and vegetables. They are delicious. I wanted to create something that was good and that owners can feel really good about giving to their dogs- and that it creates little moments of joy, if you will. So we have desserts, like a gelato. We have gourmet fruit and vegetable toppers. And then we have some new things in the works coming up for later this year.

WomensNet: Sounds amazing and delicious. Now, tell us a little bit about who or what inspired your business?

Debbie: Well, in my previous life I was in corporate fashion retail. I was a national buyer and I did all that for many years and loved it for many years. And then at some point I lost all the joy that was in it. So I knew that for my next gig I wanted to do something that brought joy. But that was, as much as I knew, I did not know more than that at one point. And then we were on vacation and went into this little gelato shop. It was actually in Panama and everybody there was so happy because it was so delicious. And I was like, this, this is it. This is what I want. This is absolutely what I want to do. I want to bring joy like this. But then I also really love dogs. Like, in the back of my head I always said like, I want to do something with dogs. And then just one night in the middle of the night, the two came together, like, I want to do this gelato thing. And I’m like, I’m just going to make the most delicious gelato for dogs and bring joy to the dogs and to their owners. And that’s literally how it came about. It was the middle of the night, a eureka moment!

WomensNet: Awesome. So amazing! Can you tell us a little bit about what makes your approach different than other people doing similar things with dog treats?

Debbie: What we do different is that we really embrace and encourage that whole idea that, it is okay to spoil your dog with the best of the best. We have some competition, there’s some frozen yogurt type things out there in the market, but I feel like they’re all more geared towards like discounts and low price. And we’re literally saying, no, we are using the best ingredients at a very good production process to make it absolutely delicious treat that comes in a beautiful package and your dog deserves it! And so we catered to having that direct connection with the customer. We’re very involved in social media, we really connect with our customers when people post about their dogs, which is just about the greatest thing ever because when you can’t meet her in person- it’s great to see it on there. And it creates this circle of joy! And I think that really is what sets us apart from, from similar treats.

Jama: And also your high quality ingredients! We know that especially the more and more we know about animal nutrition and how important what we give them is, it is a big need! Thank you! Can you please tell us a little bit on how do we find Swell gelato for Dogs if we want to order some for our fur babies?

Debbie: So go to the website, swellgelato.com. There’s a store locator there where you can put in your zip code and then you can see who’s closest to you. We were mainly on the west coast and southeast up until this summer- we just got national distribution! So we’re slowly expanding, like everywhere! So yes, if it’s not yet in a store near you, it can be, just let me know and then I can talk to the distributors and make that happen. But yes, we’re, we’re expanding everywhere and it’s very exciting.

WomensNet: Wonderful. Well, well there you have it. Our WomensNet July 2024 winners. Congratulations and we can’t wait to see what amazing things you will continue doing in the next few months and beyond. Thank you so much.