Lil Luv Dog Skips Petco and PetSmart to Sell Through Goop and Violet Grey

Quick Facts

Lil Luv Dog closed a $1 million pre-seed round led by Ani VC, with backing from former Zesty Paws CEO Steve Ball and PrettyLitter founder Daniel Rotman.
The brand is on pace to hit $1.5 million in revenue in its first year, growing roughly 7.5x month over month.
With 85% of sales direct-to-consumer, the brand is deliberately avoiding Petco and PetSmart in favor of clean beauty retail partners like Goop and Violet Grey.

Lil Luv Dog is a premium dog grooming brand built by two veterans of the prestige beauty industry. Co-founders Cara Santana Leto, founder of The Glam App, and Stephanie Suganami, former COO of Kardashian West Brands, launched the Los Angeles-based company with a simple premise: dog care should meet the same ingredient standards as human beauty products.

The brand debuted with a plant-based dry shampoo priced at $36 for 1.41 ounces, available in compostable bamboo shakers or water-soluble travel pouches. Pet wipes at $24 for 80 wipes followed. All products are free from sulfates, parabens, dyes, and synthetic fragrances. Ten additional SKUs are in development.

Lil Luv Dog became the first EWG Verified pet care brand. The company’s packaging reflects the same ethos: sachets dissolve in the sink after use, and the brand uses compostable wood-pulp vessels throughout its product line.

A Retail Strategy Built Around Beauty, Not Pets

The New York Times described the brand as “Like Goop, but for Dogs.” Five months later, Lil Luv Dog landed on Goop’s website. That outcome was not coincidence. It was the plan.

The brand also debuted at Violet Grey’s East Hampton location, a luxury beauty retailer that carries no other pet products. It is available at Pop Up Grocer in New York City and Today George in San Francisco. At Pop Up Grocer, it has become the No. 2 pet product since launching there in September.

Santana Leto is not dismissing large pet retailers outright. But she is not rushing toward them either. “We’re built to scale. We could easily go into 900 doors at Petco,” she told Retail Brew. “But what type of brand awareness have we created at that point?”

Her concern is positioning. In a Petco aisle, Lil Luv Dog would sit next to lower-priced products without the same ingredient standards. The brand is “holding off on going into pet retailers that are exclusive pet retailers right now,” she said, but will revisit that decision as the company scales.

Strong Early Numbers

Lil Luv Dog entered the $246 billion global pet market and is closing out its first year with more than $1.5 million in revenue, growing approximately 7.5x month over month. The site converts at 6.5%, with an average order value of $80.

The $1 million pre-seed round included Halogen Ventures and Twenty Two Ventures alongside lead investor Ani VC. Angel backers include Daniel Rotman, founder of PrettyLitter, which sold to Mars Petcare for $1 billion, and Steve Ball, who led Zesty Paws to $150 million in annual sales before its $610 million sale to H&H Group.

Who Is Buying

About 85% of Lil Luv Dog’s business is direct-to-consumer. The primary customer is women ages 25 to 35 with an average annual household income of around $200,000, concentrated in coastal cities and metros including Chicago, Dallas, and Miami.

Santana Leto said the Pop Up Grocer traction signals what that customer wants. “They’re looking for convenience. They’re looking for premium.” The brand is betting that the clean beauty consumer and the premium pet care consumer are often the same person, and that reaching her through beauty retail first builds stronger brand equity than a mass pet channel rollout ever could.