Business is Baking: Unexpected success helped bring dog treat-making former teachers into the KLN family

To understand Finley’s mission, one needs to know how it all began. Long before Finley’s was even an idea, Angie and Kyle Gallus were special education teachers.

In 2010, Angie was working at a high school when she came to a realization.

“I noticed some of my students were lacking the work skills they were going to need in the future, so I wanted to come up with something that could help them learn those skills,” she says.

With the help of a grant, she started an all-natural dog treat business right there in her classroom and kept it going for roughly three years. Angie and the students would bake for three days and practice job skills on the others. They would deliver treats, punch in, punch out and budget.

Angie eventually left the high school and went back to teaching elementary students.

A couple years later, she and Kyle were sitting on the couch when some former students sent a Facebook message. Now 22 and 23 years old, they wanted to bake again, and Angie did not know how to handle the unexpected request. But on Valentine’s Day 2016, they came over to the Gallus house to bake some dog treats together.

“When they left, our hearts were super-full, but it was also bothering me knowing they were now adults and they were unemployed,” Angie says. “It just kept eating away at us.”

The couple started looking for a commercial kitchen. Kyle says they tried to get into roughly 50 different kitchens, but all of the owners said no, considering it as a liability to have people with disabilities in their kitchens.

Finally, one owner decided to take a chance on the couple and offered a commissary kitchen for just $75 a month.

“It was a steal,” Kyle says. “I think we owe that commissary kitchen our life. It was the only kitchen that would allow us to do what we wanted to do.”

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, after teaching all day, the Gallus duo would mix the materials at home, haul them to the kitchen and bake with five of their former students. Then, they would head to breweries, 5Ks and anywhere else that would allow them to sell the treats.

Their rescue dog Finley came along, and the company soon took the pup’s name.

Then, one fateful day in 2017, actor Ashton Kutcher posted on Facebook that what the couple was building was “a business model anyone can get behind.”

“That set us into motion where our sales started to increase,” Angie says.

Increase is an understatement. The couple found themselves in the kitchen four to five days a week and in need of more help. Kyle left the classroom to run the logistics side of the business and find manufacturing partners, while Angie kept teaching for two more years to pay the bills as they tried to grow Finley’s.

“I remember thinking in that moment: Yes, this is tough, but why are we really here?” Angie says. “That’s what kept us going.”

When Finley’s pivoted to a business model that included manufacturers, the Galluses needed a way to keep employing people with disabilities — the reason the company existed. So they started hiring ambassadors to run demo tables, hand out coupons and share the company’s mission with people at local grocery stories.

“It just really took off, and we’ve been really fortunate to have the support of our retail partners,” Angie says.

But she and Kyle were still two ex-teachers trying to find their way in the business world. That is where KLN steps into their story. It started with a gift basket of Wiley Wallaby licorice, which is produced by the sister company of Tuffy’s Pet Foods.

Angie and Kyle were confused when they received sweets from a company that could be considered a competitor.

“We were too in the weeds trying to keep the company afloat to really understand: What do we do next?” Kyle says.

But a second gift basket caught their attention, and the couple met with the company to see what they could learn. While there was no investment from KLN at that time, the Galluses received mentorship from the company.

The investment eventually came without a desire to change the mission that has driven Finley’s. Tuffy’s acquired Finley’s outright earlier this year, with Angie now serving as vice president of mission advancement and Kyle vice president of brand development. Kyle says they made the decision after realizing KLN was about more than just buzzwords and could truly support their vision.

“This was a no-brainer if we wanted to serve out this mission,” Kyle says. “It’s going to serve so many people above just the Finley’s and KLN family.”

“We are so grateful to them for choosing us,” Angie adds. “We couldn’t be more thankful and proud to be under KLN’s umbrella.”