XLK9 BASECAMP
INVEST IN XLK9


More Adventures.

More Years Together.

Large dogs aren't small dogs scaled up. They eat differently. Travel differently. Age differently. They put different loads on their joints, organs, body, and gear. Yet the pet industry largely serves them through size extensions - a bigger bed here, an XL harness there, a higher-dose supplement somewhere else.

Large dogs are a SKU inside thousands of pet brands. XLK9 is building the brand around them.

Basecamp acquires the customer.

XLK9 Dogtor turns that relationship into significant recurring revenue.

$250,000

Raising

$3M

Post-Money SAFE

$25,000

Minimum Investment

~$75k

Early Investors Pool · $5,000 minimum

THE MARKET OPPORTUNITY
$147B

U.S. Pet Industry

Total 2023 expenditures - projected to top $250B by 2030. (APPA, 2024)

10.8%

Large-Breed Market CAGR

Large breed dog market growing at 10.8% annually through 2030 - one of the fastest-growing pet segments. (Citius Research, 2024)

Underserved

Large-Breed Owners

No brand has been built from the ground up around the large-dog household - from adventure gear to daily wellness. Adjacent products exist across dozens of categories. No one owns the relationship.

The large-breed owner is high-spending, deeply loyal, and underserved by existing brands. That is the specific opportunity XLK9 is purpose-built to claim.

THE PROBLEM

Large Dogs Are a SKU Inside Thousands of Pet Brands. XLK9 Is Building the Brand Around Them.

Large and giant breed dogs are one of the fastest-growing segments of the pet market - and one of the most underserved. Almost every travel system, feeding solution, and wellness product on the market was designed for small and medium dogs and scaled up. The result is gear that fails, feeding routines that increase bloat risk, and supplements that ignore the distinct needs of dogs 80lbs and up. Large-breed owners don't have bad gear - they have very limited gear built for them. XLK9 is changing that.

The Gap Is Real

A Category That Barely Exists

Most large-breed owners don't have bad gear - they have limited gear. Products built for 80-200 lb dogs are nearly nonexistent. What does exist was designed for smaller dogs and scaled up. It fails fast.

Purpose Built Basecamp

Big dogs need more water more food and the right gear. This purpose built product replaces water jugs, plastic bags, duffel bags and food bowls while putting everything you need in one adventure ready, self--contained package. Basecamp also brings a built-in elevated feeding station with them, so owners don't have to choose between adventure and the habits that keep their dog comfortable.

Supplements Built for the Wrong Dog

Most supplements on the market are formulated for dogs under 50 lbs and simply dosed up - ignoring absorption rates, palatability at volume, and the specific conditions large breeds face. The category is broken and largely open.

No Brand Has Claimed This Owner

Large-breed owners are passionate, high-spending, and deeply loyal - and no brand has built specifically around the full relationship from adventure to long-term wellness. That is the opportunity XLK9 is purpose-built to claim - starting with Basecamp and compounding through Dogtor, treats, and accessories.

This is not a niche. It is a differentiated category - and the specific combination of a modular large-breed travel system paired with a recurring large-breed wellness line has not been built before. Until now. Near-term distribution is direct-to-consumer via Kickstarter, founder-led sales at overlanding and outdoor events, and a passionate sales team ready for wholesale.

WHY WE BUILT THIS

Built From Necessity. Not a Gap We Spotted - One We Lived.

Alex's own large dogs were the problem. Every trip meant a truck bed full of plastic bags, duffel bags, spilled kibble, water jugs, large bowls, and gear with no home. Nothing was built for a dog that eats 6+ cups a day, drinks twice what a small dog needs, and needs to be fed at elevation to stay safe. Large-breed owners don't leave their dogs behind - they camp, road trip, overland, and spend weekends outdoors. And every single trip exposed the same gap: there was no gear built around the reality of a 100lb+ dog. So he built Basecamp.

Big Dogs Have Big Needs

A 100-lb plus dog eats 4-8 cups of food a day and needs significantly more water than smaller breeds - especially on the road, in heat, or after hard activity. No travel product was ever built around that reality. Basecamp was.

One Package Replaces the Chaos

Basecamp replaces the plastic bags, loose kibble containers, water jugs, collapsible bowls, and scattered gear that large-breed owners currently piece together for every trip. Everything in one adventure-ready, self-contained unit. Pack once. Go.

Basecamp Is the Wedge. Not the Boundary.

Large-breed owners are passionate, high-spending, and deeply loyal. Basecamp gives XLK9 a differentiated flagship, a natural Kickstarter platform, and a reason to acquire the large-dog households. It is Chapter One - not the full story.

XLK9 BASECAMP

The world's first modular travel system engineered specifically for large and giant breed dogs. Four purposeful tiers that lock together into one rugged unit. No set up required, just pack and go.

Retail $299 · Kickstarter early-bird $150 · At-scale factory COGS target ~$53 (first runs expected higher) · Patents pending in US, EU, Canada, Japan · Prototype complete and field-tested.

  • 15"W × 18"T × 11"D - sized for large-breed reality, not a scaled-up small-dog product.
  • Every component removes, washes, and reassembles independently
  • Durable food-grade plastic throughout - safe for food, water, and direct dog contact
  • Impact-rated, weather-resistant construction. Designed for the weight and force of a 200 lb animal, not a 40 lb one

Lower Tier - Gear & Essentials

Built-in water storage, leashes, meds, first aid, treats and accessories. Everything has a home. Nothing gets buried.

Middle Tier - Food Storage

Durable 40-cup weather-resistant storage. Enough for multi-day overlanding, RV trips, car camping, boarding and more.

Top Tier - Elevated Feeding Station

Flips open into an elevated slow-feeder station. Keeps the healthier feeding position on the road - critical for bloat prevention in large breeds.

Exterior Shell

Weather-resistant, impact-rated, with accessory mounts. Fasten your waste bags or leash to the exterior quick release points.

XLK9 DOGTOR

XLK9 Dogtor

More Years With the Dogs Who Deserve Them.

Basecamp gets the dogs out there. XLK9 Dogtor is built so they can keep doing it for years.

Most supplements are formulated for small dogs and simply dosed up. XLK9 Dogtor is the opposite: large, meaty, chicken-free, sugar-free soft chews sized for 80-plus lb. dogs - made for dogs who need them.

DAILY SUPPLEMENTS SOFT CHEWS

Adventure Powders

Two powders that pair directly with Basecamp and extend the same adventure use-case into functional nutrition. Part of the Dogtor platform - built for the field.

BASECAMP HYDRATE

Clean, sugar-free pre/during hydration powder sized for large-breed fluid loss. Mixes directly into Basecamp water systems for trail and heat use.

BASECAMP RECOVERY

Post-activity recovery powder. Creatine + amino support for large-breed dogs after hard work on the trail.

INNOVATION

Built to Execute. Designed to Evolve.

This raise is focused on Basecamp and XLK9 Dogtor — and so is the team. Capital, energy, and execution stay locked on both products from day one.

THE BUSINESS MODEL

The Four-Stage Flywheel

A large-dog household doesn't have one large-dog problem. It has a lifetime of them. Travel. Feeding. Joint health. Recovery. Mobility. Aging. Nutrition. Today, those needs are served across dozens of unrelated brands. XLK9's opportunity is to become the trusted brand that understands this customer better than anyone else - and serves them for the life of the dog.

Basecamp

Customer Acquisition

$299 retail · At-scale factory COGS target ~$53 (~82% gross margin on factory cost at $299 retail; first runs expected higher) · Owns the high-intent large-breed owner from day one

XLK9 Dogtor

Recurring Profit Core

Clean-label soft-chew supplements + Adventure Powders for dogs 80+ lbs · 75%+ target margins · Four core soft-chew SKUs (Foundation Gut & Oral, Vital Heart & Lung, Mobility, Calm Stress Resilience) + Basecamp Hydrate and Basecamp Recovery powders that pair directly with Basecamp in the field.

Treats

Revenue Lift

Large-breed specific consumables that extend the relationship and add purchase frequency on top of Dogtor. Incremental revenue from a customer already acquired.

Accessories

AOV Expansion

Day bags, harnesses, saddlebags, toys, and modular add-ons built for big dogs · ~$40 avg order lift · Near-zero incremental CAC - the customer is already ours.

Acquire the household once. Serve it for years. We don't need to become the largest pet company. We need to become the most important company to the large-dog household.

EARLY VALIDATION

Early Demand Signal Is Encouraging. Kickstarter Will Validate Purchase Intent.

Before committing a dollar to production, we ran a lean Meta test to validate the audience and sharpen the message. $937 in ad spend. 449 emails at a blended $2.09 CPL ($0.73-$1.13 across ad sets). 25 reservations at ~$37.50 each. CTR 6.3-8.9% against a 2.5% industry benchmark. Winning message: Design + Peace of Mind + Lifestyle. The Kickstarter campaign is designed to convert this proven audience into backers and customers.

"Storage is limited, organization is everything, and gear that serves multiple purposes is worth its weight in gold. Exactly the kind of product the van life, RV, overlanding, and skoolie communities have always needed."

- Full-Time Nomadic Traveler

Skoolie Life with 3 Large Dogs

The $1 Reservation Funnel - How We Build Demand

The $75k Kickstarter media budget is not building a free email list. It is building a high-intent VIP list via $1 reservations that lock early-bird pricing. A $1 deposit is a meaningful intent filter - industry data consistently shows 20-40%+ conversion from reservation holders to actual backers, compared to 1-10% for plain email lists. That is the difference between a launch and a stall. nwcDIGITAL (fixed fees already paid separately) executes the campaign architecture. The $937 Meta test proved the CPL and creative; we now direct that playbook toward reservation-qualified traffic. Campaign targets already include a realistic efficiency adjustment relative to the $937 test - we do not assume the same CPL at full spend. Reservations are a high-intent subset; the majority of volume is expected from native Kickstarter traffic and organic once live. Full funnel and sensitivity analysis live in the financial model / data room.

$150

Early-Bird Price

Reservation holders lock this rate. Retail is $299 - a compelling delta that converts qualified intent into committed backers.

$300-450k

Modeled Raise Range

At $150 early-bird across 2,000-3,000 modeled units. Stretch goal pushes higher with add-ons and later price tiers.

Three year Financial Snapshot

THE TEAM

The Right Team for This Opportunity

Three people. Each one the right person for a specific job. Together they cover the full stack - product, wellness formulation, brand, capital, and execution.

Alex Cahoj

Founder & Product Innovator

Alex doesn't pitch products - he builds them. He put ~$400,000 of his own capital into XLK9 before asking a single investor for a dollar: design, prototypes, IP, and field testing across real-world conditions with real large dogs. He founded Evolab and developed the innovation hardware, extraction technologies, and consumer products that made it one of the most recognized names in regulated wellness. That same combination of hands-on hardware development and formulation depth is what produced both Basecamp and XLK9 Dogtor. Design and utility patents pending in the United States, European Union, Canada, and Japan.

Nicole Smith

Partner - Brand, Capital & Growth

Nicole has built brands that didn't exist into brands that couldn't be ignored. She founded Mary's Medicinals - one of the first and most trusted names in cannabis wellness - then served as CEO of Evolab, where she led the company through a successful sale to Harvest and scaled manufacturing across nine markets in under a year. She is an inventor on two patents for transdermal cannabinoid delivery (patch and gel formats), which means she knows what it takes to bring a novel delivery system to market in a skeptical category. At XLK9, she leads brand architecture, capital strategy, and go-to-market - the person who makes sure the right people find this company and believe in it.

Rob Betts

Partner - Program Leadership & Digital Execution

Rob has spent 15+ years at Coca-Cola and Google doing the thing most startups can't: making complex, multi-stakeholder programs actually ship - on time, on budget, and at scale. He's led initiatives at the intersection of strategy, creative, and execution for two of the most operationally demanding organizations in the world. At XLK9, he owns Kickstarter campaign execution and launch operations - the person responsible for turning the plan into a funded campaign with units in the field.

Why This Team Wins

Alex builds it

Hardware expertise + formulation background = the product AND the recurring revenue layer are both in-house. ~$400k of personal capital already deployed before asking a single investor for a dollar.

Nicole scales it

Proven track record taking wellness brands from zero to trusted. Leads brand architecture, capital strategy, and growth planning.

Rob ships it

Multi-million dollar program management across global brands. Integrates strategy, creative, and execution into one disciplined operation. Timelines hold. Commitments are kept.

THE ASK

Join the Round

$250,000

Raising

$3M

Post-Money SAFE

$25,000

Minimum Investment

~$75k

Early Investors Pool · $5,000 minimum

Use of Funds

The Capital Stack

This Round

Tooling + Kickstarter + Dogtor pilot

Kickstarter

Non-dilutive production capital

Post-Proof

Inventory/PO financing + retail activation

FUNDRAISING STRATEGY SUPPORT

Why the $250k Pre-Seed Investors Structure Is the Right Model for Basecamp

The Core Thesis

Raise a modest amount of equity capital now to (1) place a meaningful deposit on tooling, (2) run a capital-efficient $1 reservation-first Kickstarter that generates non-dilutive production capital, and (3) seed the first XLK9 Dogtor pilot - soft chews and initial Adventure Powders (~$25k) - so the recurring revenue layer is live when Basecamp customers arrive. This sequence is more capital-efficient and lower-risk than either a pure Kickstarter with no tooling commitment or a larger pre-product equity raise.

More Capital-Efficient

Avoids the "raise big then hope" pattern. The Kickstarter funds production - not investors - keeping dilution minimal and ownership preserved.

Lower Risk Sequence

Tooling in motion before campaign launch shortens lead times, narrows the copy window, and enables realistic delivery date commitments - a major backer trust signal.

Reservation Funnel De-Risks Day 1

$1 reservation holders convert at 20-40%+ to actual backers versus 1-10% for plain email lists. Building a high-intent VIP list before launch is the primary demand validation signal - not a vanity email count. Kickstarter's own data shows that 78% of projects that raise more than 20% of their goal are ultimately successfully funded. (Citation: Kickstarter, as cited in Jason Levi, "The Crowd-sourceress." Goodreads) The reservation list is the mechanism that makes Day 1 momentum credible.

Demand Validation First

Kickstarter success publicly proves demand before a larger equity raise is needed. A funded campaign with real backer numbers, manufacturing underway, and subscription revenue initiated positions any follow-on equity raise from a point of demonstrated demand - not projected demand.

STRATEGY RATIONALE

Why Fund Tooling Before - or Alongside - the Kickstarter

Hardware manufacturing advisors and successful campaign operators consistently recommend reaching tooling readiness before or in parallel with crowdfunding for injection-molded or multi-part products. XLK9's manufacturer specifically recommended placing a deposit now. This aligns with best practice for products with meaningful tooling costs ($203k total in this case). The Ideambox Crowdfunding-to-Production Playbook states that tooling commitments should be "in hand - not in negotiation" before campaign launch, and that the realistic window from campaign close to last reward delivered is ~12 months for hardware with custom tooling. (Citation: Kickstarter, "Announcing Hardware Studio" (kickstarter.com/blog) and "How to Launch a Product on Kickstarter, Part 1" (updates.kickstarter.com).)

Dramatically Shorter Lead Times

Tooling-ready campaigns typically deliver in 3 - 5 months post-campaign vs. 6 - 9+ months for those that start the tooling process after funding. Backers notice. Reviews reflect it. Industry data shows post-campaign to delivery is 9 - 15 months for hardware with custom tooling - tooling-ready campaigns compress this significantly. (Citation: Kickstarter, "Announcing Hardware Studio" (kickstarter.com/blog) and "How to Launch a Product on Kickstarter, Part 1" (updates.kickstarter.com).)

Realistic Delivery Dates on Campaign Page

The ability to publish credible delivery timelines is a major trust signal for prospective backers. Campaigns without manufacturing commitment cannot offer this honestly. Kickstarter's own creator guidance explicitly flags delivery date credibility as a top backer trust signal - and notes that campaigns making commitments they cannot keep are a leading driver of backer dissatisfaction and platform-level reputational damage.

Avoids the Common Failure Mode

Raising demand capital, then discovering tooling quotes, DFM changes, or factory capacity issues, is one of the most common causes of late fulfillment and backer dissatisfaction in hardware crowdfunding. The Coolest Cooler raised $13M on Kickstarter in 2014 - the largest campaign at the time - without tooling committed. They later discovered manufacturing costs exceeded projections, couldn't fulfill 36,000 outstanding orders, and needed an additional $15M just to ship. (Citation: Kickstarter/Wharton School research, as reported by TechCrunch, "Kickstarter launches tools for creators, because hardware is hard." NBC News / TechCrunch) This is the exact failure mode XLK9's pre-tooling approach is designed to avoid.

Timeular Parallel

Timeular (hardware startup) raised €200K in pre-seed funding specifically to cover fixed tooling costs before their Kickstarter launch - so that Kickstarter proceeds could go directly to production, certification, and shipping. XLK9's structure mirrors this exactly: equity capital covers tooling; crowdfunding capital covers production and fulfillment. (Source: FinSMEs, 2016)

SUPPORTING PATTERNS & CASES

Industry Benchmarks & Best Practice

Hardware Crowdfunding Best Practice

Multiple manufacturing and crowdfunding advisors - including sources focused on injection molding and hardware startups - state that the highest-success campaigns either already have tooling underway or raise a small pre-campaign round specifically to fund the tooling deposit and DFM. Launching with only a prototype and no manufacturing commitment is repeatedly flagged as a top cause of late delivery and backer dissatisfaction.

$1 Reservation Funnel Data

Kickstarter's own data shows that 78% of projects that raise more than 20% of their goal are ultimately successfully funded. (Citation: Kickstarter, as cited in Jason Levi, "The Crowd-sourceress." Goodreads) $1-style reservation funnels convert at 20-40% to backers versus 1-10% for plain email lists. This conversion differential is the core de-risking argument for building a high-intent reservation list rather than a broad free-email audience. XLK9's modeled targets sit in the realistic range needed to support a $300-450k campaign at the $150 early-bird price.

Pet / Dog Product Crowdfunding Benchmarks

Säker Ascension - $733k

All-in-one harness. Multi-function product with strong community and clear production story.

SeatMate (Pet Furniture) - ~$489k

$1 reservation funnel + pre-launch list drove $216k on Day 1. Heavy emphasis on qualified waitlist before launch.

Bristly (Dog Toothbrush) - $1M+

Agency-led, most-funded dog campaign. Full multi-channel pre-launch machine.

Typical Dog-Gear Campaigns - $15-80k

Six-figure results almost always require a high-intent waitlist, strong product story, or professional campaign support.

CONFIDENTIAL

Confidentiality & Forward-Looking Statements

Confidentiality Notice

This presentation has been prepared by XLK9.DOG, Inc. ("XLK9") solely for informational purposes and is intended exclusively for the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. This document is confidential and may not be reproduced, distributed, or disclosed to any third party without the prior written consent of XLK9. By receiving this presentation, the recipient agrees to treat all information contained herein as strictly confidential.

Forward-Looking Statements

This presentation contains forward-looking statements, projections, and estimates that involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied. These statements reflect management's current expectations and are based on assumptions believed to be reasonable at the time of preparation. XLK9 makes no representation or warranty, express or implied, as to the accuracy or completeness of the information contained herein, and nothing herein shall be relied upon as a promise or representation as to future performance.

© 2026 XLK9.DOG, Inc. All rights reserved. This document does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities. Any such offer will be made only by means of a formal offering document.