Over the last 14 years, Chewy has grown from a pet food and supply start-up to a Fortune 500 company, offering pharmacy services, pet insurance, telehealth, and several veterinary practices across the United States. In recent years, Chewy has tripled its annual revenue to $12 billion, a reflection of its operational fitness, customer obsessiveness, and attentiveness to shareholder return, which have been deeply embedded in its culture since day one.

As a part of McKinsey’s C-Suite Growth Talks, Chewy CEO Sumit Singh met with McKinsey’s Greg Kelly to discuss the mindsets and actions that have guided the company throughout its tremendous growth and the role technology has played. The following is an edited transcript of their discussion.

Greg Kelly, McKinsey: You’re a classically trained engineer, having started your career at Dell and then Amazon before going to Chewy. How did you make that move?

Sumit Singh, Chewy: When Chewy first approached me, it wasn’t for a CEO role, nor was there any promise it would be. I sought the advice of friends, family, mentors, all of whom advised me against this opportunity. Yet I was intrigued. My research into the company and industry suggested that Chewy had a strong customer focus, good financial discipline, and the pet industry seemed to have a large opportunity ahead. I believed I could help scale the capabilities and business considerably, and I wasn’t afraid to fail trying to achieve that goal. I even told my wife, “There’s a 50 percent chance I’m either going to get fired or this opportunity is not going to work within 12 to 15 months.”

A few months into my role, I was appointed CEO in March 2018. Seven years later, we’re a Fortune 500 company and a nationally beloved retailer of choice. This experience reinforced some valuable lessons around taking smart risks and saying yes to opportunities that most people will say no to.

Greg Kelly: How has Chewy’s mission driven your expansion beyond a food and supplies retail company?

Sumit Singh: In 2018, we rewrote our mission statement to “Be the most trusted, convenient destination for pet parents and partners, everywhere.” As you might agree, the word “destination” is meant to signify the various gaps we can bridge for pet parents and service providers, such as veterinarians, groomers, and boarders. Beyond food and supplies, there is a large healthcare segment, services segment, and everything else in between. We saw that nobody was bridging this gap.

In the summer of 2018, we entered into pet health, and that has grown to become a significant portion of our revenue mix. This includes our telehealth services launched during COVID, our veterinary software platform, and Chewy Vet Care practices. We began opening Chewy Vet Care practices last year and now have 11 locations across South Florida, Atlanta, Austin, Denver, Dallas, and Houston.

Greg Kelly: Throughout such expansion, how have you continued to keep the customer front and center?

Sumit Singh: Being deliberately mindful about the service approach and the technology that delivers this service plays a major role. Chewy operates on its own platform, fully integrated with pharmacies and payments providers so we can deliver a seamless experience.

As for our service approach, Chewy’s customer care support is 100 percent US based, and our goal is human connection. We don’t overly train our care team. In fact, we don’t even have metrics on productivity for our call centers. Yet we do have the best metrics on speed and reliability for answering the phone. We answer nearly every call within two rings—about four seconds.

The secret sauce is that we hire happy, pet-loving people and give them the freedom to bond with customers. This passion runs deep through the core of Chewy’s culture. It’s part of who we are.

Greg Kelly: How have you been able to get the mindsets and behaviors of your team to deliver the great growth story that you have?

Sumit Singh: We’re relentlessly customer oriented and operate with a healthy sense of urgency—and fear that we can quickly be replaced by the next thing. Anticipating needs of your customer and partners is equally critical. Once you do that, you can figure out whether the solution exists or you need to build it yourself. We’ve built 95 percent of what we’ve launched in the past five years because it helps us control and elevate the customer experience.

Greg Kelly: Realizing that growth looks different for every organization, what advice would you give leaders to best prepare for the level of scale Chewy has seen?

Sumit Singh: It is important to note that scaling is inherently messy, bringing complexity and constant change. In order to succeed, you have to genuinely enjoy working through it all.

At Chewy, we’ve nearly doubled in size year after year. That pace of growth put enormous pressure on our infrastructure, which couldn’t keep up. Over five years ago, we had to completely rebuild our supply chains and our tech—migrating to the cloud, dismantling monolithic systems, and creating decentralized platforms to drive speed and agility.

Growth at this scale also forces evolution in leadership. The person you hire at $100 million might not be who you need at $1 billion, and the leaders who got you to $1 billion may not be equipped for what comes next. Each phase demands sharper operational rigor, broader strategic vision, and a more mature leadership mindset.

Enduring companies stay clear-eyed about what the business needs at every stage and have the courage to evolve their teams accordingly. As a leader, you have to live in the future, constantly scanning for what’s next and running premortems before challenges arrive.

In conclusion, Chewy’s growth story is a testament to the power of customer obsession, strategic risk-taking, and technological innovation. By constantly pushing boundaries and stepping out of comfort zones, Chewy has transformed into a Fortune 500 company with a diversified portfolio of services catering to pet parents and partners.

As leaders in the pet industry, Chewy’s success underscores the importance of staying agile, anticipating market needs, and evolving organizational structures to support rapid growth. By prioritizing customer centricity and fostering a culture of relentless innovation, Chewy has set a benchmark for sustainable expansion and operational excellence in the sector.