Hims co-founder launches Golden Child pet food brand, raises $37 million

Golden Child is trying to turn premium pet food into a recurring luxury habit, backed by $37 million and a pitch that affluent dog owners will keep spending even when households get choosier. The brand launched with two products, a fresh frozen meal system sold primarily by subscription and a shelf-stable “drizzle” that can top kibble or fresh food alike, signaling a business built not just on feeding dogs, but on selling convenience, status and reassurance at the high end.

The meal system starts at $3 a day, while the drizzle sells for $19.95 a bottle. Golden Child is selling direct-to-consumer for now, with a starter box for shoppers who want to test the category before committing. That structure matters: it lowers the barrier to entry, then aims to convert customers into longer-term subscribers. In a market where premium brands already compete for the same upper-income pet owner, the company is betting that the next layer of growth comes from making dog food feel more like skincare, supplements or meal kits, products that promise control, quality and customization.

The brand is led by Hillary Coles, who co-founded Hims & Hers in 2016 with Andrew Dudum, Jack Abraham and Joe Spector, then spent seven years there overseeing brand, physical products and consumer strategy. Golden Child’s co-founder, Quentin Lacornerie, was part of the Hims & Hers founding team and later led personalized growth strategy there. That background gives the company a familiar startup playbook: identify a consumer pain point, test demand cheaply, and use branding to turn a commodity into a premium subscription. Coles said Atomic Labs approached her with the idea, and Atomic’s “painted door tests” showed clear consumer interest before the company built the product.

Golden Child says it studied 11,000 reviews of existing fresh dog food products and found recurring complaints about inconvenience, dogs getting sick and meals that felt like a chore to prepare and serve. That matters in a category where the emotional case for spending more is strong, but the operational friction can be high. The company argues the industry has not meaningfully innovated in about 12 years, even as the premium and human-grade segment has become crowded with The Farmer’s Dog, JustFoodForDogs, Nom Nom, Ollie, Open Farm and We Feed Raw.

The timing reflects a broader consumer split. The U.S. pet food market remains large, and analysts expect fresh pet food to grow quickly, with one projection calling for a $3.2 billion increase from 2024 to 2029, a 21.2% compound annual growth rate. That kind of expansion underscores how pet spending has become a proxy for inequality as well as affection: when households at the top keep upgrading what their dogs eat, they are signaling both disposable income and a willingness to humanize pets in the same way they humanize themselves. Golden Child is wagering that this behavior is not a fad, but a durable, recession-resistant category.