AUSTIN, TEXAS — Bow Wow Labs, a veteran-owned pet industry business offering dog chews and safe, interactive chewing devices, announced May 14 it had been listed among Inc. Business Media’s Vet100 list celebrating the 100 fastest-growing American businesses owned and operated by veterans.

The Vet100 list started in 2020 as the Vet50 list, and is made possible in collaboration with Syracuse University’s D’Aniello Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF). Bow Wow Labs was ranked No. 684 in the 2024 Inc. 5000 ranking of fasted-growing private companies in the United States, earning it the No. 63 spot on the Vet100 list.

“In almost every industry, we see veteran-owned businesses excelling by applying leadership and management skills they learned from their military service and having tremendous impact in their communities,” said Mike Haynie, Ph.D., vice chancellor at Syracuse University and founder and executive director of the IVMF. “Veteran entrepreneurs are a critical component of the small business landscape.”

Michael London, a veteran of the US Marine Corps, founded Bow Wow Labs in 2016 and employs several other veterans including Brian O’Neil, president and chief operating officer who was a former nuclear submarine officer with the US Navy.

“There is an important similarity between my service in the Marine Corps and my experience launching innovative, disruptive companies throughout my career,” London said. “To ultimately succeed in both worlds… you have to have a great team that is all on the same page, prepared to accept pain and risk, and with a clear commitment to succeed. And the team has to be prepared to go over, under or through obstacles to reach our destination, and this is the exact type of team we have at Bow Wow Labs.”

Scott Omelianuk, editor in chief at Inc. Business Media, added, “Economic prosperity is so important to so many aspects of American life, from home and main street to even our standing in the world. Given that prosperity is driven by small business, and given, we now know, the impact veteran founders have on that small business, we can only continue to recognize them and say, again, thank you for your service.”

Veteran-owned businesses listed in the 2024 Vet100 will be recognized at the Vet100 Dinner and Awards Ceremony in Dallas, Texas, held during the IVMF’s next Veteran EDGE Conference.

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