First-time local entrepreneur launches new dog food brand. He’s calling it HumanFood

Rafe Wilkinson Jr. has just founded a kibble startup called HumanFood. (Photos courtesy HumanFood)

Though the startup scene may be a dog-eat-dog world, Rafe Wilkinson Jr. is diving in with both feet for those with four furry paws.

The 25-year-old Richmonder has just launched a dog food brand called HumanFood.

Marketed as a gut healthy, real ingredient alternative to major pet food brands, the kibble company began sales this month both online and in a local Richmond pet shop. 

A Richmond native, Wilkinson is the son of Rafe Wilkinson, a local Richmond venture investor and partner at Miami-based business consulting firm CEO Coaching International, as well as a former NFL player for the Denver Broncos. 

Before launching HumanFood, the younger Wilkinson, a University of Alabama alum, spent his early professional life in both the startup and tech sales worlds, working at places like logistics platform Rising Tide and at local consulting firm S10XR, according to his LinkedIn profile. 

Last year, Wilkinson said he found himself becoming increasingly interested in branding, and after what he described as long nights spent on Reddit and YouTube doing market research, the idea to found a kibble brand began to come to him. 

As a dog owner of a shepherd mix named Rufus, Wilkinson said he noticed the landscape for kibble brands can often be homogeneous, with not much variance between brands’ strategies. 

“It’s all portrayed as the perfect pet, the golden retriever jumping through a field of daisies,” Wilkinson said. “But I’ve never seen my dog do that.” 

With that thought in mind, he began formulating what has become HumanFood. The marketing strategy, which is targeted primarily toward Gen Zers and young, often single people with pets, is “crass and humorous,” he said. 

“Built for great poops, shiny coats, and all your dog’s nonsense,” reads one slogan on the startup’s website. “HumanFood is for the imperfect pet,” reads another. 

As for the name, that one didn’t take Wilkinson long. He said that after trying out a couple of ideas, he thought of HumanFood for its online searchability and for its subversion of the expectations people may have for dog food. (HumanFood is safe for humans to eat, though Wilkinson doesn’t recommend everyday use for noncanines.) 

“So many people are Googling ‘What people food, what human food can I feed my pets,’” he said. “And as I started thinking down that path, I thought I could name it HumanFood.” 

Wilkinson got the kibble brand started through incubator Startup Virginia’s Idea Factory, a seven-week program for early-stage entrepreneurs looking to develop their business ideas. 

Wilkinson’s dog Rufus poses with a bag of HumanFood.

He participated in the incubator’s fall 2024 session, which, amid meetings with mentors and pitching the company, gave him the gumption to keep going with HumanFood.

“I napkin-mathed some ideas and showed up with a rough draft of HumanFood and what I thought it could be,” he said. 

He later attended Global Pet Expo, a pet industry trade show based in Orlando, Florida, which, after chatting with competitor brands and distributors, he said made him feel confident that his kibble brand was different from other, often much larger and more buttoned-up, pet food brands. 

“Coming out of there and still having a fire to want to do this, even after looking at some of those huge brands, I think just pushed me to make it (through) these 12 months and eventually to launch,” he said. 

Now, HumanFood is officially a go. The brand launched its first product on its website last week, and this week launched in Dig, a local pet shop at 322 Libbie Ave. in the West End. 

HumanFood is selling a chicken and brown rice flavor in an 11-pound bag for roughly $55. The kibble contains no additives, and has real chicken, lamb meal and salmon meal along with brown rice and other ingredients, including flaxseed, carrots and cranberries. 

Wilkinson said he worked with veterinary nutritionists in Indiana to get a formula that would both taste good and be a multifaceted, healthy option for dogs. The kibble also includes freeze-dried chicken hearts, liver and sweet potato for some added texture. 

“A lot of people are buying toppers and meal supplements to go onto their kibble, and this does it all in one swoop,” he said. 

He told BizSense that his goal is to launch both a beef and a salmon variety of his kibble by the middle of next year. 

Wilkinson declined to comment on the current scale of his production. HumanFood is produced at a manufacturing facility in Indiana, warehoused in Ashland and fulfilled by Wilkinson himself. He chose the Indiana facility because of its flexibility in producing for smaller brands, he said. 

“They have the facilities and the equipment I can then use to manufacture my product at a scale that I think makes sense currently,” he said. 

Wilkinson also declined to comment on how much money has been invested in HumanFood, but noted that he has financed the company thus far through family and friend support. 

“I have not raised institutional capital at all,” he said. “That is something that could possibly take place in the next year or two.” 

Running HumanFood is a full-time gig for Wilkinson, who said that although he is flying solo for now, he will likely look to hire some help in the near future. 

Though HumanFood is technically still based at Startup Virginia’s building at 1717 E. Cary St., Wilkinson often works remotely. 

And though Wilkinson said he’s received a positive human response to his ingredients and his marketing thus far, it’s the opinions of their furry friends he’s really watching. 

“Dogs can’t talk, which is unfortunate, but they lick the bowl clean, which is all we can look for,” he said. 

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