Philipp Renner: From McKinsey’s Golden Cage to Building Dr. Shiba, an Eight-Figure Pet Wellness Brand – E631

" While many people accepted late-night edits without question, I started testing the boundaries. That unexpectedly worked well and earned me respect from senior people who weren’t used to it. I remember a senior partner, known to be intimidating, approaching me six or seven months in. He said, 'Hey, there’s this project, you’ll be a self-standing senior associate running this,' and then added the famous words, 'It’s a step-up opportunity,' which in consulting means you start running. It sounded absolutely terrible, and I knew it would be a complete disaster if I joined that project." - Philipp Renner, Founder and CEO of Dr. Shiba

Philipp Renner, Founder & CEO of Dr. Shiba, joins Jeremy Au to share his journey from a global childhood to building one of Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing pet wellness companies. He reflects on how eight years at McKinsey, the personal challenges of long COVID, and the limits of corporate consulting led him to take the leap into entrepreneurship. They discuss the realities of product market fit iteration and the decision to pursue a semi-bootstrapped model rather than a VC-funded growth path. Philipp also shares how his toughest teenage year in Shenyang shaped his resilience and why focus on what truly matters became his personal north star, guiding him as he built Dr. Shiba from functional supplement treats into a wellness ecosystem now serving millions of customers across Southeast Asia and the UK.