Showing Up, Starting Small, and Building Something Bigger
There are moments that change the direction of a person’s life.
Sometimes they’re planned. Sometimes they arrive through hardship. And sometimes they begin as a joke between friends.
For Demario Williams, known professionally as Sewatu Muata, life has been shaped by all three. He’s worked as a chef for decades. He’s written a book. He’s navigated incarceration, fatherhood, entrepreneurship, and personal reinvention. Through every season, one value has remained constant: showing up.
Showing up for his son. Showing up for his customers. Showing up for his community.
Today, that commitment is reflected in For Your Bestfriend, a Detroit-based company creating fresh, handcrafted dog food that challenges how people think about caring for the animals they love.
But long before he entered the pet food industry, Sewatu learned what it meant to build something that mattered.
Learning Business Through Service
Entrepreneurship wasn’t something Sewatu discovered later in life.
It surrounded him growing up.
His grandparents owned a roofing company in Detroit, where he worked his first job, learning that business ownership meant responsibility long before he understood profit.
Later came another lesson from his uncle, who owned Dave’s Soul Food. Working in the restaurant introduced Sewatu to cooking when he was just 17 years old, but what stayed with him wasn’t only the food.
It was the generosity.
If someone couldn’t afford a meal, his uncle found a way to feed them. Leftovers weren’t thrown away, but were shared. Trips to Eastern Market became lessons in selecting fresh ingredients while conversations with neighbors showed how a business could become part of the fabric of a community.
Those experiences stayed with him. They taught him that the strongest businesses aren’t remembered because of what they sell. They’re remembered because of how they make people feel.
Becoming the Example
Sewatu doesn’t describe himself first as an entrepreneur.
He describes himself as a father. His son changed the way he viewed success.
He believes children pay closer attention to actions than words, which means becoming a role model isn’t about being perfect. It’s about staying in position when life becomes difficult.
“You keep going and you find a way,” he explained.
Today, he watches his son embrace that same mindset, finding neighborhood jobs mowing lawns and washing cars because he wants to earn his own money and create opportunities for himself.
Watching that happen reminds Sewatu that legacy isn’t only something you leave behind.
Sometimes it’s something your children begin building while they’re still watching you.
Choosing a Different Path
Sewatu’s story includes chapters he doesn’t hide.
His experiences with the carceral system became some of the most defining moments of his life.
Growing up in Detroit, he watched too many young Black men lose opportunities without ever having spaces to express themselves or imagine different futures.
Rather than allowing those experiences to become the end of his story, he decided they would become part of a larger purpose.
He wrote Unjust Justice: Are We Still Human, Despite Perpetual Inhumanity, a reflection on incarceration, dignity, and resilience. His hope is that one day the book will become part of college classrooms, encouraging conversations about justice, humanity, and transformation.
He wants people, especially those who have been justice-impacted, to understand that setbacks do not eliminate possibility.
They simply change the route.
The Business That Wouldn't Leave Him Alone
For Your Bestfriend wasn’t part of a lifelong business plan.
In fact, it almost never happened.
One day, a conversation with friends turned into a joke about starting a dog food company. Everyone laughed. But after the conversation ended, Sewatu couldn’t stop thinking about the idea. For an entire month, it stayed with him.
Eventually, he listened to his instincts. He filed the paperwork for an LLC.
“I just knew it made sense.”
As someone who had spent decades working as a chef, creating recipes and understanding ingredients already came naturally. The challenge became learning an entirely different industry—from regulations and certifications to animal nutrition and food safety.
It wasn’t easy. But neither was anything else worth building.
Food That Treats Dogs Like Family
Ask Sewatu what he sells, and he probably won’t answer with “dog food.”
He’ll talk about relationships.
To many people, dogs aren’t pets. They’re children. They’re companions. They’re best friends.
That’s why For Your Bestfriend creates fresh meals instead of traditional kibble.
Every recipe is designed around nutrition, using carefully selected ingredients intended to support digestive health and reduce inflammation. Ingredients like turmeric play an important role, and when customers have dogs facing unique health concerns, Sewatu offers free consultations to create recipes tailored to their specific dietary needs.
He has spent countless hours researching canine nutrition and listening to veterinarians, customers, and pet owners. That willingness to learn has shaped nearly every improvement the company has made.
His customers haven’t just purchased a product. They’ve helped build it.
Growing One Conversation at a Time
Before there was a website, retail partnerships, or subscriptions, there were dog parks.
Sewatu spent weekends introducing himself to strangers, handing out samples, answering questions, and simply talking with people about their dogs. He believes business grows through interaction. People need to know who you are before they trust what you make.
That philosophy continues to define For Your Bestfriend today.
Customers know they can reach him directly. Meals are often delivered by hand. Conversations don’t end after a purchase. Those relationships helped the business grow faster than he expected.
Within its first year, For Your Bestfriend earned shelf space at Premier Pet Supply and later expanded into Barkside Detroit.
For Sewatu, those milestones weren’t simply about retail growth.
They represented trust.
Two Careers. One Purpose.
Building a business hasn’t replaced Sewatu’s career as a chef. It’s added another full-time job.
By day, he’s cooking professionally. After work, he’s still cooking.
Preparing fresh meals.
Managing subscriptions.
Marketing the business.
Meeting customers.
Researching ingredients.
Developing new recipes.
The work rarely stops. But neither does his commitment.
He often laughs even when he leaves the kitchen, he never really leaves the kitchen.
Finding Family Through ProsperUs
Like many entrepreneurs, Sewatu discovered that building a business doesn’t have to happen alone.
He completed the ProsperUs Detroit Entrepreneur Training Program in Spring 2025, received technical assistance to develop his website, and earned a technology grant that helped strengthen the business during its early stages.
Those resources created opportunities well beyond business development.
They introduced him to fellow entrepreneurs, community leaders, and mentors while opening doors to speak on business panels throughout Detroit.
For Sewatu, ProsperUs became more than an organization. It became family.
“They put you in rooms and continue to support you,” he says.
Looking Ahead
Ask Sewatu how he defines success, and he won’t mention revenue.
He’ll talk about beginnings. To him, success starts the moment someone decides to begin. Everything after that is simply continuing the work.
Looking ahead, he hopes For Your Bestfriend becomes one of the Midwest’s leading fresh pet food companies while remaining deeply rooted in Detroit. He envisions stronger partnerships with neighborhood organizations, local farms, and community gardens that allow fresh ingredients to remain at the center of every meal.
He wants the company to grow without losing the relationships that built it.
Because for Sewatu, business has never been about selling products.
It’s about serving people, or in this case, serving the four-legged community members.
When people hear his story, he hopes they walk away with one simple belief.
No matter where you’ve been, or no matter how many times life changes your plans, anything is possible if you’re willing to start. And if you’re willing to keep showing up.
Learn more about For Your Bestfriend at foryourbestfriend.com and follow them on Instagram.
