Courage Over Comfort: What Ending My Startup Taught Me About Leadership

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A founder's honest reflection on closing BARKON — and the powerful lessons in integrity, growth, and letting go.

This one's hard to write.

Since 2021, I’ve been building a functional hydration brand for dogs — BARKON. What started as an idea for a “dog beer” in our Toronto condo kitchen grew into a functional, proactive hydration start-up co-created and formulated with veterinarians — ready to launch in Prince Edward County in summer 2025.

It’s been a labour of love — and like most labours of love, it came with moments of deep pride, frustration, breakthrough, and heartbreak.

After a lot of reflection — and taking the summer to process — I’ve made the difficult decision to wrap up this chapter.

As a leadership coach and consultant, I often encourage the leaders and teams I work with to talk not only about their wins but also about the times when things didn’t go as planned. Innovation doesn’t come from perfection — it comes from trying, failing forward, and owning your story.

This post is my way of walking that talk, celebrating all that we created, and letting go after ending my startup.

What We Built

I’m incredibly proud of what we created through BARKON. This wasn’t a hobby project — it was a fully developed brand and suite of innovative new products brought to life through countless late nights, experiments, and collaborations with some of Canada’s best.

Mentorship & Seed Funding

"No one builds alone."

I was lucky to learn from mentors, entrepreneurs, and investors who shared their wisdom, opened doors, and helped me navigate an industry that’s as complex as it is inspiring. Their belief made me bolder, their encouragement helped me play bigger, and their guidance helped me secure seed funding for product and brand development.

A huge thank-you to Dr. Ana Cristina Vega-Lugo and her team at Niagara College’s Food & Beverage Innovation Centre, and to the mentors and entrepreneurs at Boundless Accelerator, Bioenterprise Canada, CQCC, and Tricia Ryan and her teams at Food Biz Mentoring and Culture Advisory Group.

Strategy Development

"Dreams need a blueprint."

From our business model to our go-to-market plan, every page of the strategy was about making wellness for dogs both meaningful and scalable. Spreadsheets, pitch decks, late night work sessions where your dog falls asleep on your notes — the unglamorous side of entrepreneurship that nobody posts about, but everyone lives. 

BARKON non-confidential strategy pages

Thank you to the lead mentors and teams Bill Bookout & Jennifer Gornnert from NASC, Kaiti Valm & Loren Brown from SGS Nutrasource, Jason Wong from Elutris, Canadian Innovation Corportion/IRAP, MaRS and David Montpetit from Gestion Deep for helping guide us forward.

Branding & Communication

"We built a brand based on intention, ritual, and love."

We got to work with the lead design team at Polygraphe Studios to create an iconic brand that would stand out in the CPG seam of sameness found across pet aisles and stores nationwide. Our message was simple: your dog's water bowl isn't just about hydration - it's an act of love, a daily ritual of proactive care, and connection.

Polygraphe is a company that walks their talk. They're true partners who speak from their gut and care deeply about co-creating a shared vision for the brands they work with. I'm incredibly proud of this work and love how they used pieces of our logo to create our lead icon "Toby" and all of his friends.

A big thank you to the many other brand and comms experts that helped us forward. Jason Levine from Jason Levine Creative, Gymnase Web Studio, Will Eagle, and Gary Watson

Product Development

"From kitchen counter to functional formulation."

Working with incredible PhDs in canine bioscience, food and beverage scientists, and veterinarians, we tested dozens of prototype recipes and sampled with hundreds of dogs.

After years of R&D, we created a line of functional hydration products approved by Health Canada as Veterinary Health Products — clean, intentional, and proudly Canadian.

I could not have done this without the mentorship of Dr. Kate Shoveller and Navreet Gandhi and the Animal Bioscience team from the University of Guelph.

BARKON sampling with a visually impaired dog named Uno

Thank you to all of the friends and vet clients who trusted us and helped us with product sampling. Thank you as well to our ingredient partners — Phileo Lesaffre, Trouw Nutrition, Stratum Nutrition, Essentia Proteins, ADM, NP Nutra, and Dempsey — for helping build a new vision for proactive wellness for dogs.

Co-manufacturing

"Around the world and back again."

We were fortunate to work with some of the best packaging and co-manufacturing partners across the U.S., Mexico, and Italy as we moved from R&D to commercial scale-up. Then, a full-blown trade war forced us to start again — a blessing in disguise that led us to incredible new Ontario and Canadian partners.

Thank you to North House Foods, Initiative Foods, Catalyst Development, Giraffe Foods, T.H.E.M., GFR Pharma, Cheer Pack, Gualapak, and Grounded Packaging for helping bring our products to life in the most sustainable way possible.

A Community of Support

"Bold moves take a village."

I didn't want to do this alone — and I never had to. I took the advice from other builders to ask for help, invite collaboration, and build with people who bring their own magic to the table. I learned that we are always being guided; we simply need to ask and be willing to receive.

• Friends - thank you to all the friends who helped us with product sampling and were there to encourage and support along the way. Thank you Nadia Bechai, Lynn Sivec, Isabel Lee, Gilles Charette, Geoff Capelle, Mark Mahoney, Robbie Walters, Mark Hesse, Kevin Lockwood, Carson Arthur, Darrell Schuurman, Zach Pendley, Muqu Pacheco, David Brown, and Rob Steckling

• Mentors - thank you to the wonderful business mentors, leaders, and entrepreneurs who helped support me and guide me forward along this journey. Thank you Leandra Harris & Stacy Parker and the entire team at Blu Ivy Group, Michael Szego, Luisa DiMarcantonio, Carol Johnston, Gaurav Bansal, Mike Williams, Jordan Hunsperger, Tom Nagy, Reda Fayek, Dave Shambrock, Andy Macaulay, Stephen Brown, Mic Berman, Andrew Bridge, Kendra Reddy and Roz Mugford

• Coaching & Consulting clients - thank you to my incredible clients who inspired me with THEIR courage as they formulated, started, refined, and grew their own visions forward. Learning and growing together is always a two way street.

• David - the biggest thank you to my biggest supporter, thank you for all of your ideas, encouragement, trust, and love.

The Hard Part

Every entrepreneurial story has a moment that tests you.

For me, that moment came when a close, trusted partnership came apart.

It was a devastating blow, both personally and professionally. But it also forced me to stop, breathe, and listen to what life was trying to teach me:

• That integrity matters more than momentum.

• That alignment matters more than attachment.

• And that sometimes the bravest move isn’t to push harder, but to let go.

What I Learned

BARKON taught me more about leadership, alignment, and courage than any “success story” ever could.

Growth isn’t neat or predictable. It’s messy, humbling, and often asks more of you than you thought you had to give. But it also gives back — in lessons that shape who you become next.

Here are a few that I’ll carry forward:

• Listen to your body. Your intuition is powerful data. A whole leader pays attention to both the masculine and feminine wisdom that we all have access to. When something feels off, it usually is. When something feels alive, pay attention. The body always tells the truth — the mind just takes longer to catch up.

• Know your worth. Partner with people who have a similar growth mindset, share your values and have real skin in the game. Not everyone can walk beside you for the whole journey — and that’s okay.

• Integrity and authenticity often require conflict. Healthy conflict is a requirement for growth. Faking good hurts everyone. Give yourself permission to have the uncomfortable conversations that keep you in integrity.

• You can do anything — but you can’t do everything. The entrepreneurial myth that you have to carry it all is a fast track to burnout. Commit, take the leap, swing for the fences — but make sure you and your partners have the capacity and capability to bring the vision to life.

• Small business and startups are about action. Surround yourself with people who roll up their sleeves, pivot fast, and push through friction to find traction. Grit and grace matter more than polish or plans. Entrepreneurship isn’t a boardroom game where the best talkers win — it’s about making smart decisions, adapting, and getting it done.

• Sometimes things fall apart. This isn’t failure or rejection. It’s redirection — a setup for something bigger. Sometimes things fall apart so something truer can take shape.

Through all of it, one truth stands out:

Growth doesn’t always look like expansion. Sometimes it looks like release.

Courage Over Comfort

When I look back on this journey, what stands out most isn’t the outcome — it’s the courage it took to begin. This is the courage that I honour in myself, many of my mentors and coaches, my coaching and consulting clients, and in all of the entrepreneurs and small business owners who believe in themselves enough to try something new.

Starting something from nothing changes you. It asks you to get comfortable being uncomfortable, to make decisions without guarantees, to lead yourself when no one else is watching. It asks you to believe — in the idea, in the process, in yourself.

And that belief doesn’t disappear when the business ends. It evolves.

What I’m walking away with is deeper than a product or a brand. It’s a renewed understanding of what it means to lead courageously:

• To follow what feels aligned, even when it means closing a door.

• To be proud of the risks you took, not just the results you got.

• To trust that endings are simply part of the larger design of becoming.

BARKON was never just about hydration for dogs — it was about connection, care, and doing something that mattered: for me, for my family, for the dogs who bring so much joy to our lives. That part lives on, even if the company doesn’t.

So here’s to everyone who’s ever taken the courageous leap and swung for the fences.

To those who risked comfort for purpose.

To those who loved and believed in an idea enough to give it everything they had.

That’s what leadership looks like.

That’s what growth requires.

And that’s what I’ll keep doing — just in new ways.

Here’s to growing forward.

Are you ready to lead with courage over comfort?

Building something bold takes courage. Ending something that no longer fits takes even more. At humanKIND, we help leaders and entrepreneurs do the deep work that fuels both — navigating growth, change, and alignment from the inside out.

You are not in this alone—we can help. Explore more of our resources for leaders or book a free discovery session