Sprinkle on Top: A New High-End Dog Food Brand Is Coming to the 1%

The pet food aisle has never been busier, which is exactly why Hillary Coles says she was skeptical when Atomic Labs approached her.

“I had the same reaction I had,” Coles told me in a phone call Monday afternoon, the day before she joined her new company. Golden childopen for business. “Surely this can’t be what people need.”

Coles co-founded Hims & Hers with Andrew Dudum, Jack Abraham and Joe Spector in 2016 and spent seven years there overseeing the brand, physical products and consumer strategy before taking a year and a half off to have her children. She describes herself as a “consumer-first person” and happens to be in the healthcare field. The dog food wasn’t “on the bingo card,” she said.

The idea that won her over was rooted less in dog food specifically than in methodology. Atomic, the startup studio founded by Abraham, conducts what it calls “painted door tests” — lightweight experiments designed to reveal what consumers will actually do, not just what they say they want. When Atomic conducted these tests in the pet food space, the interest was clear. Next, the team studied 11,000 reviews of existing fresh dog food products and found recurring complaints: inconvenience, dogs getting sick, and food that feels like a chore to prepare and serve. “We started peeling the onions,” Coles said.

She and her co-founder Quentin LaCorne say what they found is an industry that hasn’t been invented in about 12 years — a claim that strains credulity, given how it works. crowded It has become a premium, humane sector – but they say it’s linked to 11,000 customer reviews showing persistent complaints about current fresh food options, even as humans feeding their dogs have dramatically changed their expectations.

LaCornerie, who was part of Hims & Hers’ founding team and spent years leading its personal growth strategy, says there are a lot of similarities to that company’s early days. “Afiya outperformed major pharmaceutical companies by 4 times their market capitalization,” he noted. Pet parents who eat collagen for joint health, who read ingredient labels, and who track their nutrition, increasingly want to apply the same rigor to what goes into their dogs’ bowl.

Golden Child is launching with two “five-star” products being sold directly to the consumer right now: the Fresh-Frozen Meal System, and, most interestingly, the “Spray” – a shelf-stable liquid coating that can be added to whatever your dog is already eating, whether that’s their Golden Child food, their kibble, or something else. The spray retails for $19.95 per bottle. The meal plan starts at $3 per day and is sold primarily with a subscription, though a starter box is available for people who want to make the relationship easier.

Spray is the more modern idea, and presumably has a higher margin. I asked Coles if the company had considered focusing on just this product. “Like all entrepreneurs, we have a lot of opportunities to build worlds,” she replied. “This is just the first half.”

The food itself is made in the U.S. across multiple manufacturing facilities, using human-grade supply chains — which is harder than it sounds, LaCornierie said. Recipes were developed by a PhD in Animal Nutrition; Megan Sparkle, one of about 80 board-certified veterinary nutritionists in the country; And (of course) a classically trained chef, with working relationships with Ina Garten and Guy Fieri, LaCornierie says.

The company has also developed what it calls “protein block,” a way to deliver chicken and beef with a boosted amino acid profile that standard cuts of meat alone don’t provide, Coles says.

Golden Child is announcing a total of $37 million in funding today after exiting a stealth-seed and Series A round led by Redpoint Ventures, with Atomic and A-Star also participating. That’s a lot of money for a company that sells dog food, but LaCornerie says doing it right requires actual experts who don’t just call the shots. In fact, of the company’s 12 employees, the nutritionists and chefs are all employees, not consultants.

The brand name is spacious by design. When I asked whether Golden Child might eventually expand to include shampoo, travel gear, and even some form of access to veterinary services — obtaining medication for dogs is a bureaucratic headache of its own — Coles didn’t deny it. “There is a lot of interest and excitement on the part of pet parents to involve their dogs in all aspects of their lives,” she said. The goal, ultimately, is to carve out a place as a household brand, not just a food company.

Atomic has had notable successes, with some stumbles. Hims & Hers, now 10 years old, is a publicly traded company with a market capitalization of about $7 billion. OpenStore, an e-commerce store co-founded in 2021 by Abraham and venture capitalist Keith Rabois, tells a different story: After years of impressive coverage and more than $150 million in venture funding, it recently shut down.