Our Mission
We're fostering a movement around a simple idea: love your dog the way they love you. Wholeheartedly, thoughtfully, without conditions, starting with what's in the bowl.
The truth behind why we're building Unconditional.
I've been an entrepreneur for twenty years. It's a challenging life with a long list of sacrifices - but it is also a strange addiction and borderline obsession. Everybody sees the highlights. Nobody sees the lowlights, the blood, sweat and tears that go in before you can hoist a trophy.
This is the life I chose. And I'd choose it again, because I've never been able to sell something I didn't believe in.
Here's why. I have twin daughters, both with severe peanut allergies. When they were young, one went into anaphylaxis and we had to call 911. We still carry shots everywhere, because that fear never fully goes away.
I didn't know anyone with a peanut allergy growing up. I didn't see dogs with allergies to beef and chicken either, or the chronic itch and skin problems we now treat as normal. Somewhere along the way, we traded quality for cheaper and bigger, and we're all still living with what that cost us.
This isn't just a business to me. It's personal. So here's my line in the sand: I will never sell poison. I'd rather walk away than put my name on something I wouldn't feed my own dogs. Good dog food exists, it's just rare and usually priced out of reach. Unconditional is my answer: proof you don't have to choose between feeding your dog real food and keeping a real budget.
On the hard days, I remind myself this is the life I chose. I want my kids to say their dad built something that mattered, and to know we brought a little more love and joy to families and their dogs along the way.
That is why we're building Unconditional.
-Avrum
How a pug named Espy led to owning a factory in Fresno.
A twenty-year arc that, honestly, we couldn't have planned if we tried.
It starts with Espy.
Lauren and I got our first dog together, a pug named Espy. The excitement at the door after a hard day rewired something in me. I had a thought that wouldn't let go: I have to get into this business.
bestbullysticks.com launches!
We launched back when almost nobody sold dog products online. Way before Chewy and BarkBox. You couldn't growth hack with algorithms; you just made things that needed to exist.
Plato comes on board.
Plato was the first brand I carried beyond my own. It was made in a small factory in Fresno by the owners themselves. It was limited ingredient and organic and I said if they ever wanted to sell, please give me a call.
The phone call.
Seventeen years later, the wonderful folks at Plato called me and said: "You told us back then, if this company is ever selling, call you. Well, this is that call."
Unconditional.
Seventeen years ago, I was already betting on the process, the mission and the air-dried food at Plato. That same foundation is what Unconditional is built on today.
The factory: We never outsource what matters most
Walk into our factory and the first thing you notice is the aroma of real meat. Chicken, beef, duck, lamb, the smell of actual food being made. This is a place where people take real ingredients and turn them into something nourishing, and it's where every bag of Unconditional begins.
The scale surprises most people. Over a hundred workers, across multiple divisions, with hands on the food at every step. In a time when it seems that nearly every story is about artificial intelligence, a hundred people making something real together is a rare thing to see.
It runs on committed people who've been here for years, like Claudia in shipping and production and Nichole in operations. They know this place down to the smallest detail, and that experience ends up in the food.
The story starts with the land itself. Fresno sits in the middle of some of the most productive farmland in America, and for more than twenty years, this family-owned factory has been air-drying real food right here at its source.
Real food. Gently crafted. Within reach.
Most dogs in this country are fed ultra-processed, highly refined food. It quietly takes time off their lives: inflammation, allergies, problems that compound. It's the same thing that happened to our own food. We traded quality for the sprint toward more and cheaper, and we're all paying it back with interest.
We make food the other way. Real ingredients, gently air-dried to keep them close to what they actually are. Single and limited ingredients because the shortest honest path between a dog and real nutrition shouldn't run through a lab.
Good food like this usually costs a fortune. It doesn't have to. By owning the factory and selling only through the pet stores that earn your loyalty every day, we make air-dried food about 40% more affordable than comparable brands. Same unconditional love. Honest math.