Innovation

Eddie was inspired to start a cat cafe during his travels to Japan, where he saw the idea implemented everywhere he looked. He felt as if the idea would do well in Cleveland, and so he started his market research by visiting as many cat cafes around the country as he could. With each cafe he visited, Eddie took detailed notes on what he felt worked and didn't work for the venue.

From his observations, the most important factors Eddie looked to implement in his cafe were locally sourced and affordable food options, along with features that helped the cats feel comfortable in the environment. With his unique personality as a people pleaser, Eddie felt he was in a great position to be able to provide the best atmosphere for everyone involved at the cafe.

Initially open to friends and family, the cafe opened to the greater community in 2019, and has since become a staple for the cat-loving community in Cleveland. The cafe has facilitated hundreds of adoptions, kept customers coming back each week, and has raised awareness for the adoption effort in Cleveland.

Inspiration

Eddie was inspired by his business partner’s trip to Japan, where cat cafes were much more common. The two of them had always been passionate about animals, but felt like the cat cafe experience would take off back in Cleveland. With each cafe Eddie visited, he felt more and more pieces of his vision coming into place. “It was really easy for me to see what was and wasn’t working for the cafes, and as a people pleaser I saw it of paramount importance to do right by our customers,” he stated in reference to his market research.

As a Cleveland local and someone who believes the community has invested strongly in him, Eddie felt it was his responsibility to give back to the city through AffoGATO. “It’s important to me that people know that they aren’t overpaying or putting bad things in their body, so we keep food prices to a minimum and use locally sourced, organic ingredients for all our food and drinks,” he stated.

For Eddie and the rest of the AffoGATO team, it was always about putting others first, including the cats. He hosts different crowds for each day of the week, giving each kind of cat AffoGATO shelters their day to shine. The entire space of the cafe, from the lighting, the table arrangement, and the furniture, is thoughtfully crafted with the needs of the team’s furry friends kept in mind. “At some of the other cafes, we noticed that the shier cats were often tucked away because they didn’t have a space to be comfortable. We wanted to make sure that wasn’t the case here.”

Through every facet of his business, Eddie’s servant leadership and willingness to give back shines through, reflecting the overall mission of AffoGATO.

Overall impact

In the short term, the cafe has become a hub for cat lovers and prospective pet owners, creating a warm, inviting space where you can just hang out with cats and work or relax. The idea of enjoying a beverage or snack while mingling with adoptable cats has not only increased foot traffic but also depend the connecting between people and pets, resulting in a significant spike in adoptions.

Evidence of this success is seen simply and plainly in the numbers. Over a thousand cats finding homes in just a couple years speaks volumes. This figure is very high for any adoption establishment, especially for something that isn't an animal shelter. The enthusiastic reviews and stories shared on social media further highlight the positive experiences of customers and the joy of new adopters.

Looking at the long term effects, the cafe's model has the potential to inspire a broader movement, one of animal adoption and kindness. AffoGATO has recently started online cat hangouts on twitch, to much success. The ripple effects of its practice shows a shift in how communities can come together to support animal welfare. This cafe is not just a local novelty, its a beacon for change in how we view pet adoption.

Business benefit

One of the advantageous aspects of Affogato Cat Café’s structure is that there are multiple ways to quantify the benefit the innovation has had on its business structure, as well as some of its more far-reaching benefits. One important impact that Affogato Cat Cafe has had is that it created precedence for entrepreneurs aspiring to open similar commercial joints. By successfully operating this type of business, where animal lives are benefitted all the while serving as entertainment, it serves as a source of inspiration for other people who want to open similar animal-based businesses. Precedence also successfully allows for the expansion of Affogato Cat Café’s operations, and this allows them to benefit more shelters and rescue cats, and effectively have a bigger and more positive impact on the environment and society.

Another benefit Affogato Cat Café has noticed has been due to their notably low prices for food and drink. By being at such a low price point, it may seem that they would fail to make adequate profits, but this is not true. By being priced low, the number of people visiting and also interested in visiting significantly increased, and this allowed for profits and revenues to be increased. In addition, low prices incentivize people to come back more than once, and this creates a repeatedly visiting customer base, that allows for more reliability on their revenue source. Not only that, because Affogato Cat Café is the only one of its kind, people will always look towards Affogato whenever interested in this form of entertainment, which essentially gives them a monopoly over this specific niche.

Social and environmental benefit

One of the most influential things that Affogato does is advertise cats for adoption, facilitate the adoption process, and help people adopt cats. Affogato’s business structure has effectively increased the number of adoptions of rescue cats, and not only does this benefit the cats at the shelter by decreasing the amount of crowding, but it also allows for more stray cats to be picked up off the streets and given a home, which consequently helps the processing of this perpetual cycle. Recently, there has been a significant increase in the number of stray cats, and this has had a detrimental impact on birds and small mammals in the local ecosystems and has also negatively impacted biodiversity. By helping more adoptions occur, more cats are being removed from overpopulated environments, thus effectively improving biodiversity. Affogato has noted that it has facilitated the adoption of almost 1500 cats via their operations, and this is sure to have had a beneficial impact on the local community.

Another beneficial impact the founder of Affogato Cat Café noted was that by sourcing all their ingredients from local markets, they can keep money in the local economy and promote and help sustain fellow local businesses. This is an impact that significantly and beneficially impacts the local community, and also incentivizes other business owners to follow suit. By giving back to their community, they are helping make the local economy more self-sustainable, and this has many far-reaching effects, including cheaper goods, lower housing costs, more profits for business owners, and many more.

Interview

Eddie Crespo, Founder