Cats, Coffee, and Conscious Franchising with Sandra Cagan

Stephen Sakach (0:04)

The Bliss Business Podcast, the show about empathy, connection, and consciousness in business.

Sandra Cagan (0:09)

Today's episode is brought to you by Zero Company, your paid search, social media, and programmatic ad experts.

Tullio Siragusa (0:17)

Well, welcome back to the show, everyone. I'm Stephen Sakach here again with my co-host Tullio Siragusa, and we're going to have a wonderful conversation. And one of the areas we love talking about, which is the pet business. And so today, we're meeting with Orlando Cat Café, and we're going to be looking at how some businesses are built around kind of a simple but powerful act of connection.

And a cat cafe kind of brings together, you know, hospitality, animal welfare, community, and commerce all in one space, and guests come in for coffee, comfort for connection, and the cats receive the visibility, socialization, and the possibility of adoption. And, you know, local partners all come together around this shared purpose. And so we're going to dive into that today. Tullio, tell us about our special guest today.

Stephen Sakach (1:17)

That'll be my pleasure. Our guest today is Sandra Cagan. She is the founder and owner of Orlando Cat Café.

Sandra founded Orlando Cat Café in 2016 after seeing an NBC Nightly News report about cat cafes and recognizing an opportunity to combine her business experience with her lifelong love of cats and shelter support. The café became the first cat café in Florida. Orlando Cat Café partners with SPCA Florida and Minch Coffee to create a space where guests can enjoy a café experience while spending time with adoptable cats. Today, Sandra is also expanding the concept through a franchise model designed around animal welfare, community, and smart growth. Sandra, welcome to The Bliss Business Podcast. I was going to do the whole thing in meow, but.

Sandra Cagan (2:15)

Thank you very much and thank you for not doing it all in me.

Tullio Siragusa (2:18)

Yes, Tullio, thank you.

Stephen Sakach (2:19)

Yum, yum, yum, yum.

Tullio Siragusa (2:21)

Sandra, Tullio, and keep the puns at a minimum, I think, Tullio as well. I know we're going to have one.

Stephen Sakach (2:30)

We love Cat Café, so.

Tullio Siragusa (2:34)

You're a big fan. Sandra, if you could walk us through that moment when you first realized this could be the business you wanted to get into.

Sandra Cagan (2:43)

Sure.

That nightly news segment was on December 31st, 2014, and you know how at the end of the news, they always do the human interest story. This was about a Cat Café that had opened in New York City. In 2015, I was about to turn 50, so you guys can do the math.

I knew that I just wanted to do something a little bit different, something that might give back to my community. I heard once I was at a conference and I heard a speaker say that when you turn 50, you stop thinking about what you're going to put on your resume and you start thinking about what people are going to say at your eulogy. So I knew that I wanted to make some sort of a difference and I wanted to do something other than maybe write a check to a local animal shelter or whatever. So that story stayed with me for several days and I thought, I'm a lifelong lover of cats, I've got a lot of experience with property management, property development. This is something that I probably could do. So that's where Orlando Cat Café was born.

Stephen Sakach (3:45)

Very nice. Now, a cat cafe is a very unique experience. It's an interesting business. I've been to two of them with my kids and we love it. It's because people like different things, different experience.

It's not just a transaction, it's something very unique. What do you think guests are really looking for when they walk through the doors?

Sandra Cagan (4:08)

Well, I would say we have a couple different customers.

One is certainly looking for a quiet, cozy coffee house, a coffee house with a message behind it and a good cause behind it. We have many customers who just come for the coffee house experience. We have another segment of our population that comes visits because this is something that is truly unique. It's a relaxing experience.

There's a lot of stress in the world. There's a lot of devices that are constantly competing for our attention. There's something to be said about going into a quiet space with a bunch of kitty cats, where you can just come and unplug. Then of course, for serious adopters, this is the gold standard for finding a connection. So often people will go to a shelter, there are rows of cages and you say, well, I like the gray one or I like the orange one. That's not a way to choose a lifelong friend. So here you get to see the cats interact with you, with interact with other animals, with other cats, with other people, and you can make a better informed decision on the adoption.