A Chat With Paal Gisholt, President/CEO, SmartPak Equine

CS: What sets your company apart from others?
PG: The No. 1 issue is people, and it sounds trite because everyone says that. But this is by far the most talented, energetic, committed, passionate group of people I’ve ever had the chance to work with. And we’ve approached building this business with the same kind of missionary zeal that you do when you’re trying to revolutionize an industry. And in this case, for people who are not horseback riders, what we do seems trivial. Revolutionizing the administration of vitamins for horses? It’s almost comical. But if you know anyone who is a horseback rider, and you have a sense for their relationship with that animal and how much they care about that animal, you realize its importance. And it’s not just caring for them as a pet, this is their partner in their sport, and they’re passionate about it. If the horse winds up suffering from joint problems, the rider could be right back at square one, having to train a brand-new horse. That can set you back by years. The stakes for these people, our customers, passionate horseback riders, are very high. They’re very concerned when their horses are not cared for properly. And this allows them to eliminate one very major headache, one major source of stress when caring for a horse when you can’t be there to take care of it yourself. The fact that we’ve got superb, hyper-smart people who are committed to going the extra mile for the customer is just one thing that sets us apart. Looking around at the service experiences that I have, it’s very seldom that I feel I have a great service experience on a repeated basis with the companies I’m dealing with. And that’s a real shame.