Meet Kelly Haugen | Co-founder

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kelly Haugen and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kelly, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
Owning a startup is inherently risky. As an entrepreneur you have to acknowledge the risks and carefully consider how much you’re willing to accept at every milestone. Ultimately, there’s no reward without taking on some sort of risk.

When it comes to our lives and careers for both Erica (my business partner) and myself, the most important thing we’ve learned over the years is that managing risk requires constant attention and communication. For us, we regularly check-in and evaluate with one another how we’re doing, both financially and personally, knowing that every decision affects not just us but all our stakeholders, including our family and friends.

This communication has been key for our partnership. As we grow our business we know there’s newly associated risk that comes along with it. Together we try and constantly recognize this increase in risk at every step to make sure we’re aligned strategically moving forward..

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Our company Nobilis Aqua LLC started back in 2019 as a sustainable fish feed company that makes feeds from invasive carp. We’ve positioned ourselves against other companies as the only sustainable fish feed company in the market that solely focusing on invasive species as it’s primary protein source. To date we’ve can contribute reducing up to 40,000 pounds of invasive carp from midwestern rivers from our feed products. For us, in any product we make we want to stick to our core values of transparency, positively impacting biodiversity, and healthy products. With fish feed, we saw an opportunity in the market that no one was acting on and (after a lot of learning) we feel like we’re making a lot of great progress developing an innovative product for fish farmers.

Over the years we also started to notice a trend in both our dogs that they REALLY liked our fish feed samples. Our course both of us knew we had to try and create a consumer facing dog treat with invasive carp too! So we decided to develop a training treat for dogs and launched our newest brand Tailwater Treats in January of 2022.

Things have (definitely) not always have gone super smooth though. One of the biggest challenges we’ve continually come up against is around our supply chain. Whether it’s consistency in carp supply, timing production with materials, or managing cash flow due to quickly adjusting prices, it feels like there’s always some kind of fun issue we need to solve. Although it can definitely be frustrating, for us it’s really exciting to tackle these challenges head on. The best thing we’ve learned in the process of building a company is to truly lean on each other for our own internal support. In the end, we’ve overcome a lot of challenges by constantly analyzing our own risk, checking in on our own mental health (because things are stressful!), and ultimately making sure we’re being honest in the decisions we make with each other.

I’ll end with this. Over the years, the main lesson as an entrepreneur I’ve learned is that you’ve got to quickly get comfortable hearing “no” a lot, make sure you listen to and absorb advice from anyone who is willing give it to you, and in the end trust your gut. It seems to know best.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Anyone who visits me in Colorado is getting taken straight to Bonfire Burritos in Golden. Hands down the best, most glorious breakfast burritos to experience. After devouring (multiple) burritos every morning each day throughout the week, I’d take them to either go fly fishing on Clear Creek, bouldering up near Carter Lake, or maybe take them on a hike up in Golden Gate Canyon state park.

We’d end the day by checking out my favorite evening spots around Boulder including Southern Sun to experience the best fries ever, Cellar West for some artisan ales, or Acreage for ciders and front range views.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
First, I want to give a lot of credit to my business partner Erica. She’s a freakin rockstar. We’ve been working together for over 5 years and I feel honored to have someone who’s so passionate, energetic, and just overall fun to work with as she is. There’s truly not a better business partner that I could have asked for than Erica.

Of course I also have to give a lot of thanks for all my family’s support over the years, especially my wife! There’s been many of nights working well into the night (and many more to come) and I wouldn’t be able to keep going if it wasn’t for her patience and encouragement along the way.

Website: www.tailwatertreats.com

Instagram: tailwatertreats

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tailwatertreats/

Image Credits
Kelly Haugen