Meet William Rushmere, the business founder who gives 51% of his profits to rescue dogs.
It wasn’t hard to find Will (pictured above) at the launch of Lincoln Loves Dogs – the city’s campaign to become top ten UK dog-lovers destination – we just followed the wagging tails.
Will is the man behind Good For Pets supplement brand building a reputation for doing things differently in an industry he says is broken.
He is also a man who has walked away from a lot of money on purpose, having already made it once with his clothing business, so I pull up a chair at his stall at the Lawn event, curious to know why anyone would leave that behind.
"I had a taste of that life and very quickly became uncomfortable making lots of money without a bigger goal or passion behind it," he says. "I know people buying their fourth and fifth houses at 21 and I just think: for what?"
Good For Pets began in 2024, when Will had simply had enough of watching big pet brands cut corners while their customers footed the bill. He wanted something honest instead.
His pet supplement brand has an unusual business model - 51% of its profits go to animal rescue centres around the world.
It seems the idea struck a chord. Within its first year, Good for Pets had hit 10,000 orders, with more than 1,000 customers signed up to monthly subscriptions.
So why pet supplements?
The answer is personal. Will's brother had severe ulcerative colitis when he was younger, and probiotics helped him all but eradicate it.
The human probiotic market is crowded with giants, so Will looked at the other family members: the ones with four legs.
"There's a huge amount of evidence for both dogs and cats of the benefits of probiotics," he explained.
Will believes the market leaders treat supplements more like treats with extras than true supplements packed with active ingredients. He saw an opening to use human manufacturing techniques and take on the big names at their own game.
Working with vets and nutritional scientists with more than 20 years of combined experience, Good For Pets created a five-strain probiotic complex. Will is quick to point out that it is made without the heat-processing that can kill off the very bacteria a "baked" supplement claims to deliver.
It's human grade, he tells me, good enough for your dog's bowl. Good enough, in fact, that he tested it himself for a month.
The first orders shipped in October 2024, and by April 2025 the company had turned its first profit.
Will marked it the only way that made sense to him - not with a celebratory dinner, but with a £1,000 donation to Babworth Animal Rescue Kennels near Retford.
Every brand has an origin story and behind Good For Pets is Petra, the dog Will’s family rescued from Spain who was ever-present throughout his childhood.
Petra was far from an ordinary pet becoming the first mental health support and therapy dog in the region, working for around ten years alongside Will's mum at a secure Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services unit.
"She was groundbreaking in many ways; she helped my lifelong love for dogs flourish."
Sadly, Petra passed away late last year. When Good For Pets next rebrands, Will hopes to immortalise her on the packaging.
Good For Pets’ logo is ‘Helping your dog helps others.’ And for Will giving away such a chunk of his profits is the whole point of the business with its impact being felt around the globe - from the Soi Dog Foundation in Phuket to a small shelter on Koh Tao.
Closer to home, the brand partnered with Jerry Green Dog Rescue last Christmas. In total, it has donated £5,741.32, served more than 20,000 customers and reached over two million people.
Will donates his time as well as his money and spent six months travelling between shelters and walking the dogs his donations are meant to help.
His three-weeks at Soi Dog Foundation (below) saw him walk and groom around 20 dogs a day. The work was not easy at first, many of the dogs were traumatised and had little experience of human affection.
Will recalled: "Initially it was really difficult to get them to walk with you. They would cower or just lie down and refuse to move.
"It gave me a fresh hunger to grow the business aggressively, to help as many dogs as possible.”
Will also spent time at shelters for disabled dogs in Lombok and Vietnam, which he describes as eye-opening and, at first, shocking. Many of the dogs are paralysed from the waist down yet have a huge appetite for life.
Now he's arranging a donation with Pumpkin & Friends, the local charity for disabled canines that also had a stall at Dogs on the Lawn, to send around 20 doggie wheelchairs to those shelters as there is currently only one piece of equipment between 20 or more dogs, meaning each gets a turn only once every few weeks.
Back to business and Will is promoting the new 5 Strain Probiotic+, which he argues is the best on the UK market alongside a second formulated product for joints and skin and, after meeting members from the University of Lincoln’s Animal Sciences department at the Lawn event, he hopes they will conduct a study on his products.
The giving continues too - email subscribers through www.goodforpets.co can nominate five charities to share more than £4,000 in cash and product donations, while the business is working towards £100,000 in total donations.
Further ahead, Will wants to build a community of advocates, pass £1 million in sales and inspire other young entrepreneurs to build businesses ‘for good’.
For now, he’s building Good For Pets around a simple idea that doing the right thing and doing business do not have to be two different things.