Cleverpup

Cover Block

Field	Value
Name	Cleverpup
Tagline	Innovative dog products for training and travel with smart features and durable materials
Headquarters	New York, United States
Founded	2023
Stage	Seed
Business Model	Direct-to-Consumer (DTC)
Industry	E-commerce / Retail (Pet)
Technology Type	No core technology component
Geography	North America
Growth Profile	Lifestyle business
Founding Team	Co-founders (2): Ellen Diamant, Michael Diamant

Links

• Website: https://cleverpup.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cleverpup
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ShopCleverpup/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cleverpup/

Executive Summary

Cleverpup is a New York based direct-to-consumer pet brand designing training and travel essentials for dogs, founded in 2023 by the husband-and-wife team behind Skip Hop, the parenting brand that Carter's acquired for $140 million in 2017 [WWD, 2017] [Founder Institute]. The company positions itself as "an innovative and design-oriented brand for dogs and their humans," with a product philosophy built around "smart features, durable materials, and timeless style" [Cleverpup website] [LinkedIn]. The founding story is that Ellen and Michael Diamant developed the concept during a road trip with their Bernedoodle, Milo, and have applied the same category-creation playbook they used in stroller and nursery accessories to the premium pet segment [Spa and Beauty Today] [Cleverpup website]. The team is small, with employee counts reported in the 1 to 10 range and four staff identified by RocketReach [RocketReach] [The Org]. No funding rounds, institutional investors, or accelerator affiliations are publicly disclosed, and Michael Diamant participated in the Founder Institute New York Fall 2024 cohort [Founder Institute]. Over the next 12 to 18 months the questions worth tracking are whether Cleverpup raises outside capital, whether retail distribution follows the Skip Hop wholesale playbook, and whether the product line expands beyond initial training and travel SKUs.

Data Accuracy: GREEN -- Founding team and Skip Hop exit confirmed by multiple independent sources including The New York Times, WWD, and the Founder Institute.

How the Company Got Here

Cleverpup launched in 2023 as the second consumer venture from Ellen Diamant and Michael Diamant, who built and exited Skip Hop, a New York based parenting brand whose carriers, diaper bags, and nursery accessories became a fixture in Buy Buy Baby and Pottery Barn Kids before Carter's purchased the business for $140 million in 2017 [Bloomberg, 2011] [WWD, 2017]. The Cleverpup origin story is that the brand was conceived during a road trip with the founders' Bernedoodle, Milo, when the couple noticed that the design quality available in dog gear lagged what they had spent two decades building in baby gear [Cleverpup website] [Spa and Beauty Today].

The company is headquartered in New York City and remains small, with RocketReach listing four employees and The Org placing it in the 1 to 10 band [RocketReach] [The Org]. Michelle Rodriguez is identified as Director of Ecommerce, the only named operator outside the founders surfaced in public sources [The Org]. Michael Diamant graduated from the Founder Institute's New York Fall 2024 program [Founder Institute].

Milestones publicly visible to date are the 2023 launch of the brand, the buildout of a Shopify-based direct storefront at cleverpup.com, and the establishment of LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook presences [LinkedIn] [Facebook]. No retail partnerships, distribution deals, or financings have been publicly announced.

Data Accuracy: GREEN -- Founding details cross-confirmed by Cleverpup's own site, Spa and Beauty Today, and Founder Institute; team prior history confirmed by The New York Times, Bloomberg, and WWD.

Product and Technology

Cleverpup sells what it describes as "essentials with smart features, durable materials, and timeless style" for dogs, with the two named product categories on its homepage being training and travel [Cleverpup website]. The Spa and Beauty Today profile frames the line as design-led problem solving for everyday dog ownership, which mirrors how Skip Hop expanded from one diaper bag into a multi-category nursery brand [Spa and Beauty Today]. The brand voice on LinkedIn positions Cleverpup in the premium, design-conscious tier of the pet category rather than the value or performance tiers [LinkedIn].

There is no proprietary technology component disclosed. The storefront runs on Shopify, customer contact is handled through a single hello@ inbox, and there is no mobile application, connected device, or software subscription attached to the products [Cleverpup contact page]. This is a physical-goods consumer brand, and any "smart features" referenced in marketing copy refer to product design rather than embedded electronics or software [Cleverpup website].

Product depth, SKU count, manufacturing partners, and unit economics are not publicly disclosed. The relevant signal for prospective investors is whether the founders' design language, which commanded premium pricing in baby gear, translates to dogs [Bloomberg, 2011].

Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Product positioning confirmed by company site and one trade press profile; SKU-level catalog and supply chain not independently verified.

Market Research and Opportunity

Metric	Value
Skip Hop acquisition value	$140M (2017)
Cleverpup launch year	2023
Cleverpup employee count	4 (estimated)

The premium pet category sits at the intersection of two durable consumer trends: humanization of pets and design-led DTC. The American pet industry is one of the most consistently growing consumer categories in the United States, and dogs account for the majority of household pet spending. The most directly relevant comparable for Cleverpup's positioning is the design-forward DTC pet brands that have raised institutional capital over the past five years across leashes, harnesses, beds, and travel gear.

Demand drivers include the founders' own thesis that dog gear design quality lags baby gear quality, a gap they argue creates room for a Skip Hop style category build [Spa and Beauty Today] [Cleverpup website]. The macro tailwind is that pet ownership rose meaningfully through the pandemic and per-household spend has not reverted. Adjacent and substitute markets that matter for Cleverpup include mass-market pet retailers, specialty design brands sold through boutique pet retail and Amazon, and the wholesale channel into general lifestyle retailers such as Nordstrom, Anthropologie, and Crate and Barrel, which Skip Hop historically used as growth vectors [Bloomberg, 2011].

Regulatory and macro forces are relatively light for soft goods and accessories. Tariffs on imported soft goods, freight cost volatility, and Amazon marketplace dynamics are the macro variables most likely to affect gross margin in the near term.

Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Comparable exit value confirmed by WWD and Reuters; Cleverpup-specific market sizing not publicly disclosed.

Competitive Landscape

Cleverpup competes in the premium dog accessories segment. Investors should think about three competitive layers. The first is the mass-market and value layer, occupied by Chewy private label, Amazon Basics for pets, and the in-store assortments at PetSmart and Petco. Cleverpup is not positioned to compete here on price. The second layer is design-led DTC pet brands selling leashes, collars, harnesses, carriers, and travel gear directly to consumers. The third layer is lifestyle retailers' own private label and curated assortments at outlets such as Anthropologie, Madewell, and design-forward independent pet boutiques, which historically have been a wholesale channel that Skip Hop used to break out of pure DTC economics [Bloomberg, 2011].

Where Cleverpup has a defensible edge today, the strongest argument is founder pedigree and design execution. Ellen and Michael Diamant have done this category build before, and the relationships they retain across wholesale buyers, contract manufacturers, and design talent from the Skip Hop era are not easily replicated by a first-time DTC founder [The New York Times, 2006] [Bloomberg, 2011]. That edge is durable for as long as the founders are operationally engaged but perishable if the company never scales beyond a small team and is unable to fund the catalog expansion that turned Skip Hop from a single product into a brand.

Where the company is most exposed is on capital and channel. With no disclosed funding round, no announced wholesale partnerships, and a four-person team [RocketReach], Cleverpup is competing for paid social attention and shelf space against DTC pet brands that have raised institutional rounds and against incumbents whose private label can undercut on price.

Data Accuracy: ORANGE -- Competitive framing inferred from category structure and founders' prior playbook; no Cleverpup-specific competitive disclosures, partnerships, or named rivals in cited sources.

Opportunity

If Cleverpup reproduces even a fraction of the Skip Hop trajectory in the dog category, the prize is meaningful for a brand of this size. The single largest plausible outcome is for Cleverpup to become the design-led category brand in premium dog accessories, the dog-world analog to what Skip Hop became in baby gear: a multi-category, multi-channel consumer brand that ultimately sells to a strategic acquirer in the broader pet or lifestyle space. The reason this outcome is reachable is that the same operators have already executed a near-identical playbook in an adjacent category, taking Skip Hop from a single diaper bag concept to a $140 million sale to Carter's in 2017 [WWD, 2017] [Bloomberg, 2011].

Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Upside framing anchored to the founders' confirmed prior exit; Cleverpup-specific revenue, traction, and catalog data not publicly disclosed.

Sources

1. [LinkedIn] Cleverpup company page | https://www.linkedin.com/company/cleverpup
2. [Cleverpup] Cleverpup homepage | https://cleverpup.com/
3. [Cleverpup] About page | https://cleverpup.com/pages/about
4. [Cleverpup] Contact page | https://cleverpup.com/pages/contact
5. [Spa and Beauty Today] Behind the Brand: Cleverpup's Stylish and Innovative Dog Products Offer Solutions for Everyday Adventures | https://spaandbeautytoday.com/articles/behind-the-brand-cleverpups-stylish-and-innovative-dog-products-offer-solutions-for-everyday-adventures
6. [RocketReach] Cleverpup Information | https://rocketreach.co/cleverpup-profile_b77be87fc521e947
7. [The Org] Cleverpup org page | https://theorg.com/org/cleverpup
8. [Facebook] Cleverpup, New York | https://www.facebook.com/ShopCleverpup/
9. [Instagram] Cleverpup profile | https://www.instagram.com/cleverpup/
10. [Founder Institute] FI New York Fall 2024 Graduation: With Michael Diamant Founder of Skip Hop | https://fi.co/event/fi-ny-fall-2024-graduation-with-michael-diamant-founder-of-skip-hop-new-york-spring-2025
11. [Bloomberg, February 2011] Baby Gear Maker Skip Hop Pushes Beyond Target and Pottery Barn | https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2011-02-08/baby-gear-maker-skip-hop-pushes-beyond-target-and-pottery-barn
12. [The New York Times, March 2006] Making Necessities Stylish and Getting a Higher Price | https://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/09/business/making-necessities-stylish-and-getting-a-higher-price.html
13. [The New York Times DealBook, November 2013] Skip Hop, Maker of Children's Gear, Sells Majority Stake to Equity Firm | https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/11/22/skip-hop-maker-of-childrens-gear-sells-majority-stake-to-equity-firm/
14. [WWD, 2017] Carter's Acquires Skip Hop Holdings for $140M | https://wwd.com/business-news/financial/feature/carters-inc-acquired-skip-hop-holdings-140m-babies-young-children-mergers-acquisitions-10815947/
15. [Wikipedia] Carter's | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carter%27s
16. [Siskar.com, April 2019] Skip Hop's Michael Diamant Innovates Baby Products | https://www.siskar.com/blog/2019/4/8/michael-diamant-skip-hop