Purr-fect for Feline Fans! Cat-Themed Products That Will Charm You

• Q. Do you remember the moment that led up to the creation of The Curious Cat Co.?
• I started this company on July 1, 2020. The idea for it came while I was travelling in February. I had recently gotten married and we were on our honeymoon in Europe. I saw someone carrying a very nice grocery bag with a cat’s picture on it. Cat cafes are popular in Europe and I found myself wondering why we don’t have them back home. I had been wanting to start something on my own. I love drawing and doodling and there was so much time during the lockdown that I started drawing cats. Some of these turned out really nice. There was still time to spare so I started making a website. I then spoke to vendors to see if such a venture could be commercially viable. I started posting on Instagram and got a great response. So it was a series of things and all that free time at home that led to this; the lockdown was very productive for me!


• Q. Are you a cat crazy person yourself?
• Absolutely! We had a Persian cat back at my parents’ place and after marriage I have converted my husband also into a cat person. We have three cats at the workplace whom we have adopted. We also take care of and feed 5 other cats in the neighbourhood.


• Q. What has the response from customers been so far?
• The first response is, wow, we always wanted something like this. The second are requests for faster deliveries. We are faster with deliveries now but we are a small company and cannot compete with the hyper funded companies. We work on demand and many products are printed after orders are placed. It is a small business with two other people working and there is a lot of hard work and behind the scene hustle.


• Q. How long do deliveries take on average?
• We have some items in our inventory, such as limited edition pieces, jewellery. Other things, like clothes that are size based, are impossible for us to stock inventory. These get printed when an order is placed and take 7 to 10 days to be shipped, a total of 12 days for it to reach the customer.


• Q. What is your process?
• We are very active on Instagram and so are many artists, that’s where we often connect. We also have a program where artists can fill up a form and share their work with us. But at the start I made a lot of the artwork, I was also reaching out to artists individually. I follow a lot of artists and would approach people, asking if they would be interested in collaborating with us. Many of them collaborated with us even though we were not selling much at the time. For instance, in September we had about a hundred orders. Artists are often very supportive of new artists. For ceramics we buy the products upfront and then list them on our website. Other artwork we adapt to different products and give the artist a share of the sales. We give credit to the artist for all the artwork on our products.


• Q. How do you ensure quality?
• We haven’t yet reached a stage where we cannot gauge quality. We have 20 to 25 pieces of each product that we buy upfront, so the scale is small and quality easily assessed. We also work with artists who are really good at what they do. But for some products comfort and size are subjective, the face masks for instance. We were selling a lot of face masks but they weren’t always a good fit for our customers. Our deliveries are slower than average and to make matters worse, our shipments were delayed due to the lockdown and people would be more frustrated if they didn’t get the right size after waiting so long for it. So if we are okay if someone is unhappy and returns the product; we would rather refund them so they are happy rather than bad mouth us.


• Q. What is your biggest challenge?
• The fact that this is really niche, thus making it expensive to get the word out. Cats aren’t the popular pet in India the way dogs are. Many manufacturers have shut down during the lockdown, making it difficult to source products at reasonable prices. Some products such as fashion accessories which were exclusively sourced from China earlier are no longer available and we are unable to find local manufacturers who can make the same thing.
  
  To top that the expectations set by hyper funded e-commerce stores who offer heavy discounts on mass produced items and quick deliveries make things extremely tough for us. These are artsy products produced in small quantities and yet people still expect discounts.

Where Can You Find Them?

• Q. Tell us about your background.
• I studied and graduated as a civil engineer and worked as a structural consultant for 2-3 years. Art was a hobby, not something I ever pursued. After that I was to do my masters and I even had a confirmed seat at Columbia Engineering but I couldn’t see myself doing all my life that so there was no point in wasting so much money.
  
  I wanted to do something creative and fun and I wanted to start my own business but to do that I needed experience and thus I joined a startup called Saffron Stays. I worked there for about 3 years. They were into holiday homes and I was their second employee. I got a lot of valuable experience from there. After that I explored vertical farming and it's application in improving productivity for marginal farmers. I spent over a year researching and speaking with farmers to assess whether it was commercially viable as a business model. However, upon conducting experiments, I realized that it wasn’t entirely viable currently. Soon after, I got married and then the lockdown happened.


• Q. What are some of your other interests?
• I love reading and used to be a voracious reader but now any free time is spent on improving the website or the brand. I love adventure sports and would make at least one annual hiking trip to the Himalayas; I am a licensed paraglider and would go paragliding almost every weekend. I also love cooking & enjoy food immensely. But now, everything including even drawing has taken backstage and I am always working on this!

• Q. What do you hope to achieve, and how?
• I want to make this an artsy brand, a way for people to flaunt their love for cats. Cats are different from dogs, not as openly affectionate, being around them changes your expectations from different animals and helps you respect the concept of individuality. Eventually, we want to expand to include other animals to spread love and awareness. Currently we have pledged to cat welfare organisations, perhaps we will also pledge to other animal welfare organisations. I also want to have my own chain of cat cafes like the ones in Europe, maybe across multiple cities. We'll get there one step at a time, building our product base gradually and focussing on design and unique offerings.


• Q. What are the upcoming products that you're most excited about
• A comic series based on all the cats around us in Curious Cat's office
• Cat essentials such as food, litter, sustainable litter trays & other products
• Cat themed handmade jewellery in collaboration with an artist

• Q. Your personal favourite products or series.
• I use the 9 lives mug. I love our sweatshirts, they are of really good quality. I also use the lego cat tote bag and whisker face mask.


• Q. What would you recommend to customers?
• Go for the face masks for sure! It really depends on the personality and what they like. We have a newly launched bookish cats jigsaw puzzle, and coasters that make for great gifts.