Heads Up For Tails: A happy place made with love for pets and pet parents

Heads Up For Tails began as a fledgling business in the home of Rashi Narang in 2008. Rashi was always head over heels for dogs and loved to indulge the youngest member of her family – a Labrador called Sara. The more Rashi shopped for Sara, the more she realised that the market then offered nothing to suit her requirements. She was looking for great design, plenty of choice and quality products. But there seemed to be a gap in the market. This set off the spark that led to the foundation of Heads Up For Tails.

It was Rashi’s first attempt at entrepreneurship and her drive to succeed was fuelled by a vision to create quality products for pets and parents. She did her own research, designed new products and gave them to Sara for ‘testing’. One of the first products that she produced was a comfortable bed for Sara. Today, Heads Up For Tails has a wide range of beds designed for puppies, adult dogs and even orthopaedic beds for senior dogs. She took her products to pop up exhibitions to understand what her customer base wanted. Happily, customers responded well and were excited about her approach to pet care. Based on their feedback, the Heads Up For Tails team developed their first line of products. Today, they have successfully developed over five thousand products for cats and dogs.

Customer-centric Product Design

The core of the company is quality. They’re intent on giving pets nothing but the best. And when it comes to pets, a single design doesn’t always work for all of them. This is why HUFT expanded later on to even curating products from internationally renowned pet brands. All in the interest of offering a wide variety of choices to suit every pet’s individual needs.

Heads Up For Tails’ own product line is developed with an unwavering brief of safety, innovation, empathy and utility. “These were the factors that drove our product design. We also wanted to make sure that we are delighting our customers with our products and empathetic interactions. We wanted to be trusted advisors for our customers”, said Rashi.

Rashi believes that these are the goals that will differentiate Heads Up For Tails from their competition. She envisions making a real difference in the lives of pets and their parents by providing them with products and services that offer real value and utility. With this as her main mission, she also stresses the importance of giving back. Heads Up For Tails does its best to contribute to animals in need, working closely with shelters like ResQ, CARE and Friendicoes.

Tough Times Don’t last, Tough People Do

As any entrepreneur does, Rashi too faced a number of hurdles. She had to learn from the ground up, how businesses operated, designs that worked and management. She put together a small team with the same goals and work ethic. This is how she was able to make a mark in the industry with limited resources. Heads Up For Tails was one of the first in the Indian pet industry to introduce customers to products that were not only indulgent but highly utilitarian.

One of her biggest hurdles was having to move overseas and manage the business remotely for 7 years. She moved back just 2 years ago and has seen the company grow substantially since then.

“Grit is very important.” Rashi says “And grit is just basically perseverance. I don’t think passion is enough, even though we are a completely passion-led business. I think passion is not enough to be successful. Lots of people are passionate about everything, but what you need is grit, where you just hang in there, and you are like I am going to make this work.”

Heads Up For Tails got a bigboost when they opened a kiosk in Select Citywalk Mall, Delhi. It has now been open for 10 years and being positioned with the top brands in one of the best premium malls in India gave Heads Up For Tails a big push and great visibility.

At the moment, Heads Up For Tails has twelve stores across India along with a strong online presence. Rashi is focusing on establishing another six stores in the next couple of months.

She realizes that being a leading brand for pet products has its own responsibilities, especially with regard to business ethics. Rashi believes strongly in keeping up with the latest developments in the pet world and educating customers on the same. In this regard they aim to be your pet parenting partners.

One of the main goals of the company is to change the perception of pets as passive members of the household. By providing an array of products and services that were previously unavailable, the company hopes to make it easier for pet parents to include their pets in more aspects of their lives. “It will be nice to have a more inclusive society which accepts pets because they add so much joy to our lives. So we are trying to really build on content and be knowledge partners to pet parents”, says Rashi.

“Pets are wagging tails and warm cuddles. They are also intelligent and empathetic companions who hold a unique space in every life they are a part of. We get this. And in return for their love and loyalty, we want to give them the best lives they can possibly have.”