Jen Melton

About Jen Melton

As founder of Cloud Star, Jen Melton grew the pet product company from an idea for one product to over 160 carefully curated SKUs, selling to over retailers, 36 distributors (specializing in pet, health food, and grocery), in 14 countries. In 15 years, under her leadership as President, Cloud Star reached sales goals in the multi-million dollars, and earned respect within the pet product industry, selling to independent pet retailers as well as national chains such as Target, Petco, Petsmart, Costco, Wegmans, and Safeway. Cloud Star was sold to a private equity group in 2014.In 2019, Jen founded Sam & Nala, a global handmade pet and home goods company. Sam & Nala works with artisan-entrepreneurs to design and create inviting and unique items for pets and their people. Inspired by a trip to Guatemala the previous year, Jen realized that artisans were being left out of the global marketplace simply because of their location. Sam & Nala offers conscious consumers beautiful and spirited wares that catalyze the power of artisan partners to create meaningful change in their communities.Jen excels at creating and leading teams to blend strategy, creativity, analysis, and fun to meet company goals and exceed customer expectations. Her background provides insight on scaling a business from both a ground-level idea or as part of a mature company\'s restructuring. With a passion for growing businesses, Jennifer empowers leaders to build strong teams, work through channel conflict, and bring new products to market. Jennifer lives in San Luis Obispo and enjoys hiking, paddle boarding, and volunteering with her daughters.

Experience

1. Founder

   Sam & Nala

   Nov 2019 — Present · San Luis Obispo County, CA, US

   Sam & Nala creates connections between artisan-entrepreneurs and you, your furry friend and your home. Together, we design and create inviting and unique global handmade goods that highlight your taste for beautiful and spirited design. We believe in doing good while doing well, so we like to think it goes without saying that we do our best to engage in fair, collaborative and respectful business with our customers at home and artisan partners worldwide. At the same time, weaving and textile crafts have an important place in history and culture…as we see it, it’s time to elevate what’s long been considered “women’s work” to its rightful place as art.

Education

• California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo

  Bachelor of Science - BS, Business Administration and Management, General

  1992 — 1996

• California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo

  BS Business Administration , Marketing

  1992 — 1996

Skills

• Business Planning
• Competitive Analysis
• Food
• Purchasing
• Business Development
• Negotiation
• Marketing Management
• Inventory Management
• Sales Operations
• Strategic Planning
• Retail
• Management
• Forecasting
• Account Management
• Consumer Products
• Pricing
• Sales Management
• Product Marketing
• Merchandising
• Social Media Marketing
• Brand Development
• Sales
• E-Commerce
• Marketing
• Brand Management
• Cross-Functional Team Leadership
• Marketing Strategy
• Key Account Development
• Market Research
• Key Account Management
• Customer Insight
• Trade Shows
• Advertising
• Market Planning
• Product Development
• P&L Management
• Marketing Communications
• New Business Development