Former LineRate leaders launching Balanced Blends line of pet food

BOULDER — Balanced Blends — two of whose founders helped guide Louisville-based tech company LineRate Systems to a $125 million exit in 2013 — on Tuesday is launching its line of pet foods aimed at providing cats and dogs with their “ancestral” raw diets.

Boulder-based Balanced Blends, which raised a $500,000 seed round of funding last summer, is using a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign that begins Tuesday, April 26 for the initial introduction of its products to market. Backers will get discounts on the first shipments of the food sold.

LineRate cofounder John Giacomoni and Tim Snipes, who led business development for the firm, founded Balanced Blends last year along with Yik Tan, a veteran of the restaurant and food industries.

Snipes, the Balanced Blends CEO, said it was Giacomoni, who serves as chairman, who had the idea for the new startup. The two had become friends while traveling together on business for LineRate, which developed software that made data centers and networks run faster prior to being acquired by F5 Networks. The two men connected over their affinity for their own pets.

Giacomoni for four or five years honed his skills at making raw, meat-based food for his cats at home, but quickly realized how time-intensive it was.  The idea for Balanced Blends is to remove that hassle for pet owners seeking to provide a similar diet for their pets — and deliver it right to their homes ready to serve.

After the Kickstarter campaign, Balanced Blends’ plans to sell its food directly to consumers via only its own website. Snipes said selling in brick-and-mortar stores is great, but noted that it can be expensive to get in initially and that the trend is toward more and more online shopping.

“Those are all very good venues today,” Snipes said of grocers and pet stores. “We just think if a lot of pet parents are thinking of ordering online, we should make our product available that way.”

Balanced Blends’ products are heavily meat-based to more closely mimic what dogs and cats in the wild would consume compared to traditional pet food — with a few vegetables and other nutrients added in.

“People seem to be very busy these days, and if we can help them feed their pet family members a very healthy meal, that’s our mission,” Snipes said.

Snipes and Tan are the only two full-time employees currently for Balanced Blends, which also has a part-time bookkeeper. Snipes said the next addition would likely come in customer service.

Manufacturing he said is likely a ways into the future if it comes as the company currently uses copackers in Denver and Wisconsin.

Correction: The original version of this story indicated Balanced Blends’ Kickstarter campaign begins April 19 instead of the correct date of April 26.

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