Aussie siblings quit jobs after ‘simple’ million dollar side hustle idea: ‘Think bigger’

It started as a pet project, literally. Sandra Abade was struggling to find a harness suitable for her “chunky” bulldog, Carlos and decided to make him one.

But while the former Qantas worker and Luka Maric, 29, hoped to harness Carlos they never expected to get on the radar of dog owners like Formula One’s Lewis Hamilton or Aussie presenter Sophie Monk or to make a career out of their side hustle.

“At 35 kilos there wasn’t anything out there that would sit well on him,” Sandra, 35, told Yahoo Finance.

“I was living with my brother at the time and we decided we could fix this problem.”

In 2019, Abade was working in design and operations at an airline while Maric worked at a marketing agency. It meant they had the skills to create and launch their own product but Abade said her brother was the driving force.

“I was comfy in a 9-5 job. I never dreamed life could be any different but Luka pushed me. He said we could do more and that’s why he went all in, quitting his job early on to invest all his time in the harnesses,” Abade said.

The plan was to provide a harness with quality and style, but a stroke of genius was what made their product really stand out.

When trialling their design they added a space to include Carlos’s name on the side of his harness. At the dog park, other pet owners couldn’t get enough of the simple idea.

“It was the time when people were putting their names on handbags and their phone cases so we thought, why not for pets? It meant people started greeting Carlos by name. It was great,” she told Yahoo Finance.

They realised that space could be used for other things too.

If an owner had an anxious dog, for example, that could be communicated on their harness. Or if the dog was up for adoption they could be a walking advert for that.

The siblings called their brand Dog Friendly Co.

They started with a range of harnesses and leashes suitable for a Pomeranian-sized dog up to a rottweiler-sized one.

“Most companies design their harnesses for a small dog and then scale it up but then you get thin, ill-fitting straps for the big dogs. We reverse-designed and fitted the harness for Carlos and then made smaller versions,” Abade said.

It wasn’t long before some famous pooches were seen sporting their brand on social media.

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“Lewis Hamilton’s dog Roscoe was the first. It was amazing such a huge celebrity was supporting us and now Roscoe is photographed everywhere with one of our harnesses,” Sandra said.

“Then Sophie Monk’s dog Bluey was pictured in one. It all really helps.”

Within the year, sales were exploding and Abade remembers that at one point in 2020, they sold out way before they’d predicted.

“It felt like the end of the world, emailing customers to apologise but these stressful things become massive learnings as a business owner,” she said.

“It was a lesson we were lucky to learn early. It’s so front of mind for us now and it hasn’t happened again.”

From day one they had a global business in mind, shipping all over the world but by 2023 the US demand was so great they opened a warehouse there at the start of 2024.

The company has been growing by a massive 100 per cent every year and now the siblings are seeing numbers like in November when they sold 100,000 products within the month.

“Since inception we’ve done tens of millions of dollars in sales,” Maric told Yahoo Finance.

“We’re hiring a team instead of relying on freelancers now and our US expansion is our major focus next year.”

Given the success of their harnesses it wasn’t long before Abade and Maric were using Carlos as their inspiration for new doggie gear.

Over the last few years, the brand has expanded into product areas including orthopaedic beds, lifejackets and cooling mats for summer.

“Luka and I both have a real passion and genuine interest in dogs so we go the extra mile to make the product the best it can be,” Abade said.

“I never dreamed we could be doing this together and I’m so grateful Luka pushed me to think bigger.”

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