Good Company

Good Company of the Week: Native Pet

The supplement brand that outgrew DTC: how a St. Louis startup turned a five-ingredient rule into 13,000 store shelves, a top-1,000 spot on the Inc. 5000, and a brand-new cat line.

By Good Company Editorial Desk

Native Pet logo

The Short Version

  • Native Pet was founded in 2017 in St. Louis by Dan Schaefer and Pat Barron, selling clean-label dog supplements built on whole foods and a hard rule: no more than five inactive ingredients in any product.
  • The company raised $17 million across two rounds led by CAVU (a $6 million Series A in 2022 with Mars' Companion Fund and Selva Ventures, then an $11 million Series B in 2023) and used the capital to push from direct-to-consumer into national retail.
  • The brand is now in more than 13,000 retail locations nationwide, according to the company, including a 2,200-plus-store Tractor Supply rollout in 2024. Revenue grew 390.7 percent over three years, landing Native Pet at No. 890 on the 2026 Inc. 5000.
  • On September 30, 2026, the company launched its first cat supplements, nine years after founding, with a nationwide Petco launch on October 19, 2026.
  • The lesson for the rest of the industry: in a US pet supplement market that Packaged Facts sizes at $2.9 billion with growth under 3 percent, format innovation and verifiable quality are what buy shelf space now.

The Company

It started with a sick puppy

Native Pet's origin story is the kind founders tell because it happens to be true. Schaefer adopted Louie, a 10-week-old puppy who arrived very sick, and nursing him back to health became the spark for the company, as Schaefer recounted on the Midwest Moxie podcast. He and co-founder Pat Barron looked at the supplement aisle and saw a category that talked about health while hiding behind long, unreadable ingredient decks.

The pair founded Native Pet in St. Louis in 2017 with a simple positioning: supplements should work the way human supplements do, as a deliberate way to customize a diet that kibble alone cannot finish. Schaefer made the case plainly when the company raised its Series A: "Ask yourself, if humans use supplements to tailor their nutrition, why shouldn't we also for pets?"

"Ask yourself, if humans use supplements to tailor their nutrition, why shouldn't we also for pets?"

Dan Schaefer, CEO and co-founder, Native Pet (Pet Age, 2022)

The five-ingredient rule

The company's founding complaint was about format. The pet supplement category has historically been dominated by the soft chew, and according to the company, a soft chew needs 10 or more inactive ingredients just to hold together, most of them starches and oils, with the majority of products coming from the same two manufacturers. Native Pet set its own standard, which it calls the Native Pet Pact: every product carries no more than five inactive ingredients, against what the company cites as an industry average of more than 20.

To hit that standard, the company formulates everything in-house, working with board-certified veterinary nutritionists (the company notes there are only about 40 in the United States) and food scientists. The active ingredients are whole foods a shopper recognizes: pumpkin, bone broth, real chicken protein, wild-caught salmon, grass-fed beef, organic chicken.

The flagship is The Daily, an all-in-one daily supplement for dogs. Around it sits a growing shelf: air-dried chews for Calm, Relief, Allergy and Bladder support, Hip + Joint and Skin + Coat chews, probiotic and pumpkin powders, omega oil, bone broths, and a newer GutWell line aimed at issues like itchy skin and stress. In 2025, The Daily earned Clean Label Project certification, which the company says verified it against more than 150 contaminants.

The Playbook

Invent a format, not just a flavor

Native Pet's breakout product decision was to leave the soft chew behind. Its air-dried chews, launched alongside the Series A in 2022 in Calm, Relief, Allergy and Bladder formulas, are built from up to five whole-food ingredients, chicken-based, with no flour, oil or artificial flavoring. Air-drying gave the brand something competitors could not copy with a new flavor: a visibly different product with a cleaner label and a story a retailer could tell in one sentence.

The format discipline continues. In 2026 the company launched Hip+Joint Advanced Care, a powder built around UC-II undenatured type II collagen rather than the glucosamine and chondroitin the joint category has leaned on for years. The company pegs the US hip and joint supplement category at $512 million in annual sales and calls it the largest in dog supplements, which makes it the obvious place to spend innovation budget.

Retail, in the right order

Plenty of DTC brands have died on the retail shelf. Native Pet sequenced the move carefully: prove demand online first, then take distribution in deliberate steps, with venture capital raised specifically to fund each stage. Schaefer described the approach during the Tractor Supply announcement: "We've been super selective on our partnerships to date," he said, adding that the focus was on supporting the retailers already carrying the brand.

The steps, in order:

  • DTC first: the brand built its early business on nativepet.com and marketplaces, proving repeat demand before chasing doors.
  • Tractor Supply, March 2024: the full line went into more than 2,200 Tractor Supply stores nationwide and onto tractorsupply.com, a deal the company said doubled its retail footprint overnight.
  • Then everywhere: Native Pet's own site now displays PetSmart, Petco, Target, Sprouts Farmers Market and Whole Foods Market among its retail outlets, spanning pet specialty, natural grocery and mass.

13,000 plus: the retail locations carrying Native Pet nationwide, per the company (PR Newswire, September 2026).

Make proof the marketing

Native Pet treats third-party validation as a distribution asset, not a press release garnish. Clean Label Project certification for The Daily, the NASC Quality Seal on its new cat formulas, and an in-house formulator with a veterinary nutrition pedigree all give retail buyers a defensible reason to hand over shelf space in a category where, as Packaged Facts notes, owners increasingly cannot tell products apart.

Extend the platform only when the machine works

For nine years, Native Pet was dogs only. The cat line that launched on September 30, 2026, five formulas covering Hairball, Multivitamin, Probiotic, Immune and Calm, arrived only after the dog business had the distribution to support it, and it was designed by the company's in-house formulator, Dr. Dan Su, in a dual-texture chew built to get picky cats to actually eat it.

"We've heard from cat parents since day one asking when we'd make something for them."

Dan Schaefer, CEO and co-founder, Native Pet (PR Newswire, September 2026)

The timing is not an accident. Packaged Facts' latest pet supplements report names cat-focused products as one of the category's clearest growth opportunities, in a market growing at under 3 percent. Native Pet is walking into the one aisle its own analysts would have circled.

The Numbers

390.7 percent: Native Pet's three-year revenue growth, earning No. 890 on the 2026 Inc. 5000 (Inc., via PR Newswire).

$17 million: total venture funding raised across the 2022 Series A and 2023 Series B (company announcements).

  • 2017: founded in St. Louis by Dan Schaefer and Pat Barron.
  • $6 million Series A (spring 2022): led by CAVU Venture Partners, with participation from Mars' Companion Fund and Selva Ventures, earmarked for retail expansion, online growth and new product lines.
  • $11 million Series B (August 2023): led by CAVU Consumer Partners, earmarked for category innovation and further retail expansion.
  • 2,200 plus stores: the March 2024 Tractor Supply rollout, which the company said doubled its retail footprint.
  • 13,000 plus locations: total retail distribution today, per the company.
  • Five: the maximum inactive ingredients allowed in any Native Pet product, against a company-cited industry average above 20.
  • 150 plus: contaminants screened in The Daily's Clean Label Project certification, earned in 2025.
  • $2.9 billion: US pet supplement sales in 2025, with growth under 3 percent and 2 to 3 percent projected (Packaged Facts, Pet Supplements in the US, 11th Edition).

"We've grown almost 400% over the past three years by staying disciplined about product quality even as we scaled fast."

Dan Schaefer, CEO and co-founder, Native Pet (PR Newswire, August 2026)

What It Means For You

  • If you are building a brand: format is strategy. Native Pet did not win with a better-tasting version of the same soft chew; it changed the physical product, which changed the label, which changed the pitch. Ask what the equivalent format break is in your category.
  • If you are raising or spending capital: sequence distribution. DTC proof came first, a single transformational retail partner second, mass distribution last. Each round of funding had a named job, and the jobs were in the right order.
  • If you sell to retail buyers: bring proof, not claims. Certifications, seals and published standards gave Native Pet a reason for buyers to say yes that did not depend on discounting. In a flat category, that is the argument that survives a line review.
  • If you run marketing: notice that the company's most quoted lines are about discipline and standards, not cuteness. In trust categories, restraint is a brand voice.
  • If you compete in supplements: the growth is in cats and in share-taking, not market expansion, per Packaged Facts. Native Pet just moved on both at once.

What To Watch

  • Cat line velocity at Petco. The five cat formulas launched at nativepet.com on September 30, 2026 and roll out at Petco nationwide on October 19, 2026. Whether a dog brand's credibility transfers to the cat aisle is the open question of the quarter.
  • Velocity per door. Going from 2,200 Tractor Supply stores to 13,000 plus locations in under three years is the easy part to announce. Whether sales per door hold as distribution widens will decide if the expansion was disciplined or just fast.
  • The Mars relationship. Mars' Companion Fund has been on the cap table since 2022. How that strategic relationship evolves, operationally or otherwise, is worth tracking.
  • The next format. Air-dried chews, then a UC-II powder, then a dual-texture cat chew. The pattern says the next launch will be another format, not another flavor.

Sources

  • Pet Age, Native Pet Closes $6M in Series A Funding Led by CAVU Venture Partners: https://www.petage.com/native-pet-closes-6m-in-series-a-funding-led-by-cavu-venture-partners-mars-selva/
  • PetfoodIndustry, Native Pet scoops up US $6 million in Series A funding: https://www.petfoodindustry.com/news-newsletters/pet-food-press-releases/press-release/15468722/native-pet-scoops-up-us-6-million-in-series-a-funding
  • PetfoodIndustry, Native Pet continues to support commitment to pet health (Series B announcement): https://www.PetFoodIndustry.com/news-newsletters/pet-food-press-releases/press-release/15544454/native-pet-continues-to-support-commitment-to-pet-health
  • Gaebler Venture Capital Database, Native Pet Series B record (August 10, 2023): https://www.gaebler.com/VC-Funding-0929BB35-8151-4B02-84BA-4E15D97F9DDA-Native-Pet-08-10-2023
  • Pet Food Processing, Native Pet enters Tractor Supply: https://www.petfoodprocessing.net/articles/18043-native-pet-enters-tractor-supply
  • PetfoodIndustry, Native Pet doubles footprint with Tractor Supply partnership: https://www.petfoodindustry.com/news-newsletters/pet-food-news/news/15667362/native-pet-native-pet-doubles-footprint-with-tractor-supply-partnership
  • PR Newswire, Native Pet Ranks No. 890 on the 2026 Inc. 5000: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/native-pet-ranks-no-890-on-the-2026-inc-5000-cementing-its-rise-as-a-category-leader-in-clean-label-pet-supplements-302847636.html
  • PR Newswire, Native Pet Launches First Cat Supplement Line: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/native-pet-launches-first-cat-supplement-line-answering-years-of-requests-from-cat-parents-302889527.html
  • Pet Food Processing, Native Pet unveils first line of cat supplements: https://www.petfoodprocessing.net/articles/20948-native-pet-unveils-first-line-of-cat-supplements
  • PetfoodIndustry, Native Pet unveils new branding (formulation standards): https://www.petfoodindustry.com/news-newsletters/pet-food-press-releases/press-release/15469483/native-pet-unveils-new-branding
  • PR Newswire via Chillicothe Voice, Native Pet Launches Hip+Joint Advanced Care: https://pr.chillicothevoice.com/article/Native-Pet-Launches-HipJoint-Advanced-Care-Targeting-Innovation-Gap-in-dollar512M-Joint-Supplement-Category/6a2960a95f1a3936678911a4
  • PetfoodIndustry, Report: Pet supplement sales near $3B as growth moderates (Packaged Facts): https://www.petfoodindustry.com/nutrition/pet-food-additives-supplements/news/15819954/report-pet-supplement-sales-near-3b-as-growth-moderates
  • Packaged Facts, Pet Supplements in the US, 11th Edition: https://www.freedoniagroup.com/packaged-facts/pet-supplements-in-the-us
  • Native Pet on LinkedIn, Midwest Moxie origin story post: https://www.linkedin.com/company/native-pet
  • Native Pet official site (product lineup and retail partners): https://nativepet.com