SKU alum Ruth Marriott reflects on the rebrand that changed her company’s trajectory, the realities of scaling a CPG business, and why sustainable growth rarely happens overnight.
When Ruth Marriott participated in SKU’s accelerator program in the spring of 2019, her pet food company, then called Grocery Pup, was selling in just over 20 Tomlinson’s stores in Austin, Texas.
Today, that same company, now known as A Pup Above, has grown into a nationally distributed pet food brand with a presence in more than 3,000 independent and specialty pet stores across the country.
The company is currently the fifth-largest frozen pet food brand at retail, according to Marriott, and is on track to grow approximately 30% in 2026. Its ambitions are even bigger: to become the number-one frozen pet food brand within the next three years.
But the journey from a handful of Austin retailers to national distribution hasn’t been a straight line. For Marriott, one of the most consequential decisions was also one of the simplest: changing the company’s name.
What began as a branding challenge revealed a much bigger lesson about understanding customers, removing barriers to growth, and recognizing when something that seems insignificant might be holding a business back.
We caught up with Marriott to discuss A Pup Above’s evolution, the challenges of scaling, and the lessons she’s learned along the way.
SKU: It’s been nearly seven years since you participated in SKU. Bring us up to speed. Where is A Pup Above today?
Ruth Marriott: When we were in SKU, we were in a little over 20 stores. Tomlinson’s in Austin was our first retail account, so we weren’t even widely distributed within Texas.
Today, we’re in a little over 3,000 pet stores nationwide, excluding Petco and PetSmart, which are considered a separate channel.
We’re currently the number-five frozen brand at retail, and our goal is to become number one over the next three years.
The gently cooked fresh food category has also grown significantly since we participated in SKU. It’s now the fastest-growing category in pet, with fresh food gaining share as more people add it to their dogs’ bowls.
So we’re doing well alongside a category that’s doing extremely well, which is always helpful.
SKU: What are some of the milestones you’re most proud of, and what’s driving the next phase of growth?
Marriott: We’re on track to grow about 30% this year, and we’re looking to grow at the same rate or higher next year.
We have about 22 employees today, and we’re a fully remote company. Javier and I are based in Austin, but most of our team is in the Northeast.
Our primary channel today is pet retail, but we’re expanding into new categories, including treats and shelf-stable fresh meals.
One thing that’s interesting about the pet category is that consumers tend to be very loyal to brands. They’ll purchase products across different categories from the same brand, which creates opportunities for us to expand beyond frozen food.
Innovation is going to be a big part of our growth strategy, along with increasing distribution and improving sales velocity in our existing stores.
We’re also planning to expand onto Chewy and Amazon in 2027, so e-commerce should become another meaningful growth channel for us.
SKU: As you prepare for that next stage, what’s your biggest challenge?
Marriott: Building our e-commerce capabilities.
We’re a retail-heavy business. We’re never going to be a DTC-native brand, but we want to mature our D2C capabilities because they’ll help us drive demand to marketplaces like Amazon and Chewy as well as to retailers.
Finding the right people with that expertise is going to be important. It’s a new area for us, and building new capabilities the right way will be important to achieving success.
We’re certainly open to introductions to people who are really good at DTC, Amazon, and Chewy.
SKU: Looking back, what has been the hardest part of building A Pup Above that you didn’t necessarily anticipate?
Marriott: I think the issue with founders is that you’re always optimistic. You always think things are going to happen faster than they actually do.
Even the things that seem like they should be home runs take longer than you expect.
Learning to accept that reality helps you plan better, especially when you’re thinking about how much runway you need and how much capital to raise.
You have to give yourself a cushion because things aren’t always going to go according to plan.
Building a business also takes repetition. You’re not going to get everything right on the first try. It’s a lot of small things that layer over time and eventually lead to a breakthrough. It’s not necessarily a couple of big swings.
Even the success stories that seem to happen overnight are typically ten-year overnight success stories. The media sometimes projects this idea of hockey-stick growth, but that’s not how it happens for most businesses.
SKU: Speaking of breakthroughs, what would you consider the single biggest business unlock for A Pup Above?
Marriott: For us, it was the rebrand from Grocery Pup to A Pup Above.
It sounds minor, but one of the things we learned was that a lot of pet stores don’t like grocery stores; they view them as competitors.
Even though we had a really good product, the name Grocery Pup caused friction. Retailers didn’t want to see that name in their freezers.
Once we rebranded to A Pup Above, we saw rapid growth. It was pretty astounding how much of a shift it created. We eliminated that friction at the retailer level. Once the name changed, people wanted to bring in the product because that objection no longer existed.
That was a big turning point for the brand.
SKU: That’s fascinating, especially because a name change can seem relatively small compared to other strategic decisions. How did you approach the rebrand?
Marriott: We actually used resources from SKU.
It was during the program that we started realizing we were probably going to need to change the brand, and we completed the rebrand shortly afterward.
We didn’t have the money at the time to hire an agency or a dedicated brand person. Instead, we worked with mentors and found freelancers through referral networks who could provide services on a project basis. We essentially pieced it together that way.
SKU: What’s one thing you know now that you wish you’d known when you first started?
Marriott: How important it is to get hiring right.
When you’re early on, you’re just excited to find people who want to work for your business. Sometimes you’re not as proactive about screening them or determining whether they’re a good fit. Other times, you just want to fill a role quickly, so you rush the process. But hiring the wrong person can really set you back.
If someone stays for six months and doesn’t accomplish what you needed them to accomplish, you’ve potentially lost six months. It might seem like you’re moving faster by hiring quickly, but over the longer term, you’re actually moving slower.
Getting the right people in the right seats is ultimately what allows you to move quickly.
SKU: Has your approach to hiring changed as the company has grown?
Marriott: Definitely.
For senior roles, and even some mid-level positions, we now use headhunters. We can afford to do that today, and it saves us a lot of time.
We also work with specialists who understand particular functions, whether that’s marketing, supply chain, or something else.
I’ve even brought in subject matter experts who don’t work for the company to help interview candidates. If you’re not an expert in a particular area, it’s really hard to know whether someone is good at their job. Having someone with that expertise help screen candidates for the technical skills can make a big difference.
Early on, though, you have to rely heavily on your network and referrals. It’s a grind, but finding the right people pays off.
SKU: Looking back at your experience with SKU, what lessons have stayed with you as you’ve scaled the business?
Marriott: There were two things that were particularly valuable.
One was the emphasis on brand strategy. Those conversations really got our wheels turning, and ultimately, the rebrand became a major turning point for us.
The other was the importance of not expanding distribution beyond your own backyard until you have the sales velocity to prove you’re winning there. That’s really important in retail.
You can burn through a lot of capital by expanding distribution before your velocity supports it. You’re spending money on inventory that isn’t turning. So, we learned to stay disciplined and not necessarily view distribution expansion as a win. Velocity is the win.
Make sure you’re succeeding in your existing market before you start expanding into new ones. That was an important lesson for us before moving beyond Texas and into the rest of the country.
SKU: What made SKU’s mentorship especially valuable, and what advice would you offer to founders going through the program today?
Marriott: When we participated, many of the mentors were operators who had built and grown their own businesses. That was incredibly helpful. They’d been there and done that before, so they could offer practical feedback based on their own experiences.
Austin has a really strong CPG community with a lot of experienced operators, and I think those are some of the most valuable people founders can learn from.
Having access to people who’ve actually built businesses makes a big difference.
Learn more about A Pup Above and explore how SKU helps emerging CPG brands build, grow, and scale.