From Certified Organic Pioneer to Industry Provocateur: Phivo on Building Augustine Approved
Pet Business DisruptorsShow Notes
In this episode of Pet Business Disruptors, host Clayton sits down with Phivo, founder of Augustine Approved and creator of the Canine Masters natural pet health event in Melbourne, Australia.
Fivos shares how he stumbled into the pet industry after his own dog fell ill, and how that led him to become the first in the world to certify a dog food/supplement range to human organic standards — a process regulators initially thought was absurd. The conversation ranges widely: the shift from "pet food only" to "human-grade" marketing (and how that term has since been diluted), the realities of selling into big retail chains, the launch of his new "Great Dog Health Debate" podcast series, and this year's Canine Masters lineup including Dr Judy Morgan and fermentation expert Billy Hoekman. They also get into meatier (literally) industry issues — MDM vs. whole cuts in pet food, the overuse of flea/tick and probiotic products, the limits of AI-generated content, and why "natural" and "sustainable" have become close to meaningless as marketing terms.
Building the First Certified-Organic Dog Food Brand : Phivo explains how Augustine Approved began as an attempt to make fresh, home-delivered, fully certified organic dog food — a category that didn't really exist in Australia at the time. Getting certification and factory approval took roughly 12 months and required convincing regulators a rigorous human-grade standard was even worth applying to pet food.
The Problem With "Human Grade" and Other Marketing Buzzwords : Having helped popularise "human grade" as a pet food term, Phivo is candid about how far the phrase has drifted from its original meaning — pointing out that technically, hot dogs and chicken nuggets are "human grade" too. The same critique is applied to "natural" and "sustainable," which he argues have become marketing shorthand with little real regulatory teeth behind them.
Meat Quality, MDM, and Why Labels Don't Tell the Full Story : A deep-dive into how industrial meat processing (e.g. mechanically deboned meat/MDM vs. whole cuts) changes how pet food behaves nutritionally, even though ingredient panels may simply list it all as "beef" or "chicken" — making label-reading alone an unreliable guide to quality.
Personal Branding and Building Customer Trust : Phivo discusses why he chose to put his name and face to Augustine Approved rather than stay behind the brand, and how two decades of direct, personal customer relationships (in his prior 22-year wholesale business) built long-term loyalty in a way anonymous e-commerce struggles to replicate.
Launching the "Great Dog Health Debate" Podcast : A new video podcast format where the industry nominates natural-health vs. conventional-veterinary figures to debate respectfully, aiming to inform audiences rather than "win" arguments. Dr Nick Thompson is lined up as an early guest.
Canine Masters 2026 : Details on this year's natural pet health expo in Melbourne (Capital Theatre, October 31st), featuring Dr Judy Morgan as headline speaker, along with Billy Hoekman, Caroline Ingraham, and Lee Carroll ("the mushroom guru").
Skepticism Toward Studies, Regulation, and AI-Generated Content : Phivo and Clayton discuss how commercial incentives shape which studies get funded (and which don't), the gap between "legally safe" and "actually safe," and the risks of relying on AI to generate health content without the underlying expertise to fact-check it.
"I felt like to get out there and for people to have trust, I needed to put my name and face to it — so they know that if there's an issue, they can contact someone."
"Safe in the legal term means that the regulators have said 'you need to tick these boxes' — and if you tick those boxes, it's approved. But at the end of the day, it's only once those products go to market that we really find out what the real-world consequences are."
"If you actually know what you're doing and you're really good at what you're doing, there's absolu
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