Sprinkle on top: a new high-end dog food brand is coming for the 1%

The pet food aisle has never been so crowded, which is exactly why Hillary Coles says she was skeptical when Atomic Labs came calling.

“I had the same reaction as you,” Coles told me in a call Monday afternoon, a day before his new venture. golden childopen to the public. “Surely that 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” who came to the healthcare sector. The dog food was not “on the bingo card,” as she put it.

The argument that convinced her was based less on dog food specifically than on a 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 those tests in the pet food space, the interest was clear. The team then studied 11,000 reviews of existing fresh dog food products and found recurring complaints: inconvenience, dogs getting sick, food that seemed like a chore to prepare and serve. “We started peeling the onion,” Coles said.

What they found, she and her co-founder Quentin Lacornerie maintain, is an industry that hasn’t innovated in about 12 years, a claim that strains credulity, given how crowded has become the premium, human-grade segment, but they say it’s tied to 11,000 customer reviews showing persistent complaints about existing fresh food options, even as the humans who feed their dogs have dramatically changed their expectations.

Lacornerie, who was part of the founding team at Hims & Hers and spent years leading its custom growth strategy, says there are many parallels to that company’s early days. “Wellness has eclipsed Big Pharma by quadrupling its market capitalization,” he noted. Pet owners who take collagen for joint health, read ingredient labels, and monitor their own nutrition increasingly want the same rigor applied to what goes into their dog’s bowl.

Golden Child is launching with two “five-star” products that are sold direct-to-consumer for now: a fresh frozen food system and, most intriguingly, a “drizzle,” a shelf-stable liquid dressing that can be added to anything a dog is already eating, whether it’s Golden Child food, kibble, or anything else. The drizzle sells for $19.95 a bottle. The meal system starts at $3 per day and is primarily sold by subscription, although a starter box is available for people who want to get started.

Drizzle is the newest idea and, presumably, the one with the greatest margin. I asked Coles if the company had considered focusing solely on that product. “Like all entrepreneurs, we have many opportunities to build worlds,” he responded. “This is just the first entry.”

The foods themselves are made in the United States through multiple manufacturing facilities, using human-grade supply chains, which is harder to establish than it seems, Lacornerie said. The recipes were developed by a doctor in animal nutrition; Megan Sparkle, one of approximately 80 certified veterinary nutritionists in the country; and (naturally) a classically trained chef, who has working ties to Ina Garten and Guy Fieri, Lacornerie says.

The company also developed what it calls a “protein block,” a way to provide chicken and beef with an improved amino acid profile that standard cuts of meat alone do not provide, Coles says.

Golden Child today announces a total funding of $37 million, as it emerges by stealth: a seed round and Series A led by Redpoint Ventures, with participation from Atomic and A-Star. That’s a significant amount for a company that sells dog food, but Lacornerie says getting it right requires real experts who don’t just mark up. In fact, among the company’s 12 employees, the nutritionists and the chef are all staff members, not consultants.

The brand is broad by design. When I asked if Golden Child could eventually expand into shampoos, travel items and even some form of veterinary access (getting medication for a dog is its particular bureaucratic headache), Coles didn’t deny it. “There is a lot of interest and enthusiasm on the part of pet owners to involve their dogs in all aspects of their lives,” she said. The goal, ultimately, is to earn a place as a household brand, not just a food company.

Atomic has had notable successes along with some setbacks. Hims & Hers, now 10 years old, is a publicly traded company with a market capitalization of nearly $7 billion. OpenStore, the e-commerce roll-up co-founded in 2021 by Abraham and venture capitalist Keith Rabois, tells a different story: After years of splashy coverage and more than $150 million in venture funding, it recently closed.