Golden Child, a Miami-based pet wellness brand, announced today that consumer industry veteran Connor Stastny is its new Chief Executive Officer. Stastny joins the startup following a successful tenure scaling high-growth direct-to-consumer brands, bringing extensive experience in operational execution and financial growth to lead Golden Child’s expansion.
Stastny most recently served as President and CFO of Grüns, a DTC nutrition and supplement company. During his tenure, Stastny built out the company’s financial and data infrastructure, leading up to its $1.2 billion acquisition by Unilever. Prior to Grüns, Stastny held C-suite leadership roles at Byte, a direct-to-consumer orthodontics company that achieved a $1-billion-plus acquisition within two years of its market launch.
In his new role at Golden Child, Stastny will focus on scaling Golden Child’s core product lines, expanding its team, and establishing operational systems for sustainable, long-term growth. He has moved to Miami.
Founded in 2025 by Jack Abraham, CEO of Atomic, and Quentin Lacornerie and emerging from stealth in April, Golden Child aims to redefine fresh pet food by combining veterinary nutrition science with culinary craft. The brand offers chef-crafted, vet-nutritionist-developed meals featuring custom “Mains” and nutrient-dense “Drizzles” designed to support gut health, joint function, cellular vitality, and coat shine.
That idea came about Abraham’s dog became sick while eating one of the market’s leading’s fresh food brands, resulting in a $5,000 vet bill. Inside Atomic’s venture studio in Wynwood where Golden Child was created, Atomic first ran “painted door tests” to measure consumer demand, then reviewed more than 11,000 customer reviews of fresh pet food products. The same complaints kept surfacing leading them to believe that premium pet food needs a total rethink. In April, the team raised $37 million in venture capital from Atomic, A*, and Redpoint Ventures, and at the time hinted at a broader pet wellness mission. Now with a new leader on board, Golden Child is a “next-gen wellness brand for pets.”
“When we set out to find the right person to lead Golden Child, we knew they had to both genuinely believe in our mission to make pet parenthood easier, happier, and healthier, and bring the right operational skillset to scale the business into a household brand,” said Lacornerie, Golden Child’s CPO, in a statement. “Connor understood our values immediately. His track record growing exceptional subscription businesses that require earning consumer trust and his vision for Golden Child made this an easy decision.”
Stastny emphasized the broader health implications of supporting dog owners as a key factor in his decision to take the helm. “What excites me about Golden Child is the chance to build something that improves lives for dogs and the people who love them,” Stastny said. “I’m a believer in businesses that support universal flourishing, and research shows dog ownership is associated with a 24% reduction in all-cause mortality in humans. If we can make dog ownership effortless with a solution like Golden Child, that impact compounds.”
Golden Child’s founding team includes industry specialists, such as a board-certified veterinary nutritionist, a nutrition scientist, a classically trained chef, and a fresh food supply chain expert. The team brings collective background experience from major food and pet care brands including The Farmer’s Dog, HelloFresh, Royal Canin, Nestlé Purina, and Pepperidge Farm.
With premium pet care continuing to see increased consumer demand, Golden Child positions itself at the intersection of nutritional science and lifestyle branding. The addition of Stastny signals a strategic push by the startup to establish a firm operational footprint in the rapidly evolving pet wellness sector, a sector where pet parents in the US spend roughly $158 billion yearly and 71 million households own dogs.
This story may be updated.
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