Ryan could only take one dog home.

Chris adopted Nacho, then Nala. Ryan adopted Whisky. That is where most people's story with a shelter ends: you sign the papers, you drive home, and the gate closes behind you.

For them, it did not end there because of what they saw on the way out. Shelters in Hong Kong and Singapore run on donations and volunteer hours. Food is the single biggest recurring cost so the bowls get filled with whatever is cheapest at the supermarket that week: rendered meat meal, wheat and corn filler, far from ideal for most dogs.

Yes, a dog can survive on that. But it is a long way from thriving on it. And a shelter dog is already carrying more than most: stress, an unknown history, a gut that has been through several diet changes, and the anxiety of waiting for their forever home.

The two of them could not adopt 150 dogs. What they could do was build a food company where shelter support is the number one priority, not an afterthought funded by leftover profit. Enter Buddy Bites - clean, human-grade dog and cat food with meat as the number one ingredient, and 1kg of food donated for every 2kg bought.