He took over a house-trained side hustle; meow it’s time scale the gourmet catnip brand 

Adam Larson might be severely allergic to cats, but he’s following his own advice — pawing away at a gourmet catnip side hustle and toying with the best market fit for the business (and his life).

Larson — who also is a network convener for MOSourceLink, the founder Decimal Projects, and a former program coordinator at Regnier Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at UMKC — has taken over Catnip Budz Gourmet Catnip, a family business started by an extended family member in 1996.

“This was just the right opportunity at the right time,” he said, “and I’m having a lot of fun with it.”

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The catnip is grown and harvested in Missouri and sold online and at popups, Larson noted.

“It’s a very potent product,” he explained. “It’s different from what you might see at PetSmart or Petco because it is that whole bud catnip. We’re taking a different approach by hand trimming the buds, drying those out, and packaging them.”

For a company taking the typical commercial route, catnip is grown, then mowed down, and left to dry and cure in the sun, Larson explained.

“But in that environment, the essential oils that actually trigger the olfactory response in the cat tend to dry up, get denatured,” he said. “It loses potency sitting out in the sun.”

Within that standard process, buds also are milled down into a ground catnip format, he added, further diluting the most potent part of the plant.

By contrast, the particular species used by Catnip Budz has a distinct lemon scent, Larson noted.

“It kind of reminds me of the scented highlighters from elementary school,” he explained. “But in a really nice, natural, refreshing way.”

Refilling the ambition

Almost 30 years ago, Jim Fandrei launched Catnip Budz after seeing how attracted his picky cat Bogart was to a catnip plant he had growing in his yard, Larson shared.

“He noticed that, ‘Man, this might be something,’” he continued. “‘If I can grow more of this and get more cats interested in it, then we might have something on our hands here.’ So he started a crop of catnip and got it into some retailers and pet stores throughout Iowa and northern Missouri, and had some success with it.”

For decades, Fandrei and his wife, Vickie, would assemble and sew the refillable budz bags — which are made of durable cotton duck canvas with a sturdy hook-and-loop closure — while watching TV at night, he noted.

Adam Larson showcases Budz Bags of Catnip Budz at Startland News’ 2025 Startup Crawl event at Spark Kansas City; photo by Haines Eason, Startland News

“My whole family has some sort of entrepreneurial venture going on at any given time,” he added, “whether it’s a long standing thing like this or just a fun side hustle we’re exploring. There’s always something new, which is really fun.”

The business recently started to take a backseat to other priorities in the couple’s lives, Larson said, noting the Fandreis reached out to him about taking over the business. 

“Jim approached me and said, ‘Hey, I’ve got this inventory sitting on the shelf,’” he recalled. “‘I need to start selling it, or else, after two to three years sitting on the shelf, it’s going to go bad. So we’ve got to move it. Do you want to buy the business?’”

Ready fur resources

Larson’s transition to catnip entrepreneur dovetailed with starting his new network convener position with MOSourceLink.

“It’s going to be my job to help entrepreneurs across the state figure out how to start a small business,” he continued. “That’s 90 percent of what we do. I should just do what I tell them to do and see how it works. It’s kind of a secret shopping experience for me, but I’ve had side hustles and small businesses since I was in high school.”

Right now, Larson said, he’s educating himself on what it takes to run an online business. 

“Most of my businesses that I’ve done in the past have been service based,” he explained, “so a lot of word-of-mouth referrals and just going out and knocking on doors and trying to move my service. This is kind of a new ball game for me.”

Adam Larson, Network Convener for MOSourceLink; photo courtesy of MOSourceLink

In the spirit of taking advantage of entrepreneurship resources, Larson noted, he is working with a mentor from SCORE Kansas City who had a long career in e-commerce.

Larson had been experimenting with social media ads — but if he’s looking to move inventory, his mentor recommended he try to sell on Amazon as there are already customers there looking for cat toys. 

“I think this is a market validation phase for us,” Larson added. “I think it’s a really cool product. At the pop-ups that I’ve done, people have been really receptive to it.”

Chasing away the risk

Larson enjoys experimenting with the brand, he said.

“I try to do everything as lean as possible,” Larson continued. “I’ve got no interest in taking on equity capital or debt capital. I’m really just bootstrapping this and trying to teach myself something new as I go along.”

Entrepreneurship doesn’t have to be intimidating, he said, extolling the virtues of trying it out as a hobby.

“A lot of people get scared away from it because of how much risk goes into it,” Larson explained. “It doesn’t have to consume your entire life. If you’re just curious or interested in what running a small business looks like, I would ask people to just try it. Try to be creative and lean and scrappy and not over leverage yourself.”

“But try to make something really cool and really fun,” he added. “Learn a new skill and try to help some people along the way.”

 

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