#58 - Meet the Start-Up for Cat Ladies (and Guys)

Are you a proud cat lady? And so are these guys.

So we really wanted to automate this for cat parents, and really that's why our customers love us, because we make this a super easy process for them. And at that point, I had to make a decision: move my family to Minnesota to keep on this amazing career path with an amazing company, or really take a chance to go do something.

Well, and in your role, you know that you're working about 24/7 anyway.

Yeah, I even joke that when we're talking to some of our partners overseas, it works out 'cause I'm up in the middle of the night anyways feeding the baby. So getting on an email or a call is no big deal.

Hello everyone. Welcome back to this episode of The Tech Optimist. We have a Meet the Startup episode planned for you today with the company BistroCat. Now on the AV side of the ball, the leader today is gonna be Greg Baker, managing partner here at Alumni Ventures, no stranger to the podcast. And then our guest is Cecilia Herron Carrera, founder and CEO at BistroCat. And again, you're gonna hear the same spiel over and over again, but my name is Sam. I'm the tech note writer, editor, and guide for this show. So I'm gonna give you a little bit of a sneak peek to, you know, the conversation that's gonna be had today right before you. So Cecilia and, you know, their company and their team at BistroCat are really in depth with the technological and the innovative decisions they make with their product. They have designed a cat feeder which utilizes AI technology. Yes, you heard that right. A cat feeder that uses AI technology to truly personalize the eating and just automated process of caring for your cat in your home. Now, I'm not going to spoil any of the technology or spoil how it works, but this is a really cool product. And, you know, the company's biases and their values and their morals are great. And it really shows in their company. Cecilia also Um, it's huge on you can also be a mother and you can be a founder and an entrepreneur. And I really love that. And I think they talk about that a little bit later on, you know, that sort of work-life balance. And it's just really refreshing to hear something like that. So I'm going to stop yapping. Let's get into the show. Hope you enjoy.

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All right, I'm ready to go.

All right, hello everyone. Um, welcome to another edition of the Tech Optimist Podcast. My name is Greg Baker. I'm a managing partner here at Alumni Ventures. I'm joined today with, uh, Cece Carrera, uh, founder and CEO of BistroCat. Welcome, Cece.

Thank you for having me.

Um, why don't you tell us a little bit about BistroCat? I think, I think I get it from the name, but, uh,

yep. So BistroCat is the world's first and only fully automated wet cat food feeder that doesn't require ice packs or refrigeration. The easiest way to get a visual of what we're doing is we are like a kitty Keurig. So the same way that coffee brands package their coffees into K-Cups, We work with different pet food brands in market to put their product into our pods. You preload the pods into the device, manage everything from your phone, feeding schedules, feeding tracking, and then our device will open, serve, and even self-clean wet meals for you. So we're eliminating the ick and mess associated with serving wet food and ultimately elevating healthcare for cat parents everywhere.

Okay. Yeah, I'm not— I haven't ever had a cat. I, I'm a cat grandpa, but,

um,

I have reputation cats are finicky eaters. Is, um, you know, tell me more about why you need the first ever wet automated wet cat food feeder.

Yeah, so you touched on a good point, which cats are finicky eaters, and I'll dive to that in a second. But why do cats need wet food? Well, cats are not like dogs in the sense that they're wired to go get water from their bowls every day. Cats are designed to get their hydration from their prey. But as we continue to domesticate cats and bring them fully indoors, they're really losing that opportunity to get the right amount of moisture in their diets. And if you're only feeding kibble to your cat, it could lead to dehydration, which can cause kidney failure, skin and coat problems, hairballs, urinary issues, the most common really diseases that we're finding in cats today. But with just 2 wet meals in your cat's diet, they can achieve up to 80% of those daily moisture requirements. Mm-hmm. But again, we know that opening cans of food is just a horrible process. How many times you've peeled back that can, the juice inside splatters on you, now you smell like wet cat food all day long. It's the worst. So we really wanted to automate this for cat parents. And really that's why our customers love us because we make this a super easy process for them. They download the Bistro Cat app, they can schedule the cat's feedings, learn when they want to eat, when they don't. We have a video and a microphone, camera, everything built into the device. But automation really isn't just where we stopped. We wanted to push our innovation for this device, and so we've actually built in an entire health Right. So while your cat's eating, we're actually tracking their consumption patterns. And this allows us to identify your cat's favorite flavor preferences, but also build out feeding trends. So if you have a picky cat at home, you know that you might be switching diets or brands a whole bunch, and you're wasting your money trying to figure out what it is that your cat likes to eat. Our device will actually call that out based on how your cat's interacting with the food. So we know exactly what flavors they wanna be eating, which brands they enjoy eating, and then we use this information to actually build your SmartShip program. So all of your deliveries, when you subscribe to our food, uh, kit service, we only send out the product you need when you need it. So it's all customized to your cat.

All right, we're gonna take a quick break. Hold on, don't go anywhere. We'll be right back.

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Hi everyone, it's Sam. I'm making my interjection here really quick for the first time for this episode, um, and I am going to share a video from BistroCat, which really exemplifies their product, the cat feeder itself, and how it works and everything. There's some really cool like animations that they rendered in here in this video, and the voiceover is great, and it's just a really well-rounded piece of mark— like an asset for their marketing team that I want to share because I think it is so concise and so clear on what BistroCat is doing as a company and what their product is. That I wanted to share it. So I'm gonna do that. Um, but really quick first, before I share that, on their website, um, CeCe, the guest today and the co-founder and CEO of BistroCat, sort of wrote a letter to all of their customers and everything. And that is, you know, written on their website. And so I want to read that because I think like hearing from her, um, you know, why they're doing what they're doing before we hear And before we talk about the actual product itself, um, I want to sort of read this so I can get everyone's mindset behind this, right? So the mission of Bistro Cat is simple: it's to improve the lives of cats and their humans. As a lifelong cat mom who spent years working in the pet industry, I was frustrated with the lack of innovation for feline care. Cats need moisture in their diets, but too many pet parents skip the cans and turn to kibble because of the mess wet food brings to A dry food only diet can be devastating to the health of cats. Knowing this was a huge problem in the market, I became determined to create a solution. As we began working on a prototype for Bistro Cat, I realized that we had an opportunity to take our innovation to the next level. Instead of just solving for the inconvenience and ick that comes with serving wet meals, we had a unique opportunity to help cat parents become proactive in monitoring their cat's health. Something that wasn't easily achievable before now. This is what inspired the integration of cutting-edge AI technology and smart features into our feeder. My hope is that BistroCat will become the new standard for feline dining, allowing pet parents to improve their cat's health one meal at a time. Thank you all for your support. Cece. Okay, let's hop into that video I was just talking about.

BistroCat is the world's first automated wet cat food feeder that doesn't require ice packs or refrigeration. Our patented technology eliminates the mess and hassle associated with serving traditional wet cat food by automating mealtime from opening, serving, and even self-cleaning meals. We also offer a personalized food subscription service that customizes deliveries based on your cat's unique flavor and feeding preferences. Here's how it works. The first step is to preload your cat's favorite BistroPods into the food canister. When it's time for your cat to eat, a BistroPod will drop down into the feeder's covered tray and rotate to our QR reader. This is where BistroCat collects the meal information so we know which brand and which recipe is being served. From here, the BistroPod will enter the preparation chamber where the foil lid is safely removed from the BistroPod. Once this step is complete, a customizable chime will alert your cat that a delicious meal is on its way to the serving area. When your cat approaches our feeder, the camera wakes up, allowing you the option to livestream and share the video right to your social accounts. While your cat is enjoying this fine dining experience, Bistro Cat is learning your cat's consumption patterns. Utilizing our smart scale, the Bistro Pod is weighed every 5 seconds during feedings. This allows us to learn how much and how quickly your cat is eating. Our system will then analyze this data along with previous feeding data to develop your cat's unique dining profile based on flavor preferences and eating behaviors. We take this information to customize food deliveries so you only get what you need when you need it. An hour after the meal has been served, the Bistro Pod is safely Safely discarded into the airtight disposal chamber that is protected with bacterial-killing antimicrobial technology. Once all 16 BistroPods have been served and discarded, simply remove the dishwasher-safe tray from the disposal chamber for an easy toss into your garbage or recycling bin. Now that's cat care reimagined.

Okay, now again, not being a cat person, um, but somewhat familiar with Keurig, there are multiple, multiple varieties. Dunkin' Donuts sells K-Cups, and you can get anything. How widely, uh, you know, what are the varieties of cat food that you can offer?

Yeah, variety is definitely important to us, and we know that cat parents are very brand loyal as well. So right now, if you go on our website, you'll see Cat Gourmet. That's the first brand that we've launched with. There's 4 recipes available with targeted health solutions. So there's a diet for brain health, immunity, hip and joint, and even gut and digestibility. But we don't wanna just stop there. So in the next few weeks, if you are following along with us, you will see we're gonna start rolling out new brand partnerships. Um, they are all brands that you will find in pet specialties, some that you would find in Walmart and more big box stores. stores, we'll have several of these brands launched by the end of this year. So if you're ordering your Bistro Cat, you'll be able to pick from these brands to get into your subscription. And we have several more brands slotted for Q1 of next year. So we definitely wanna have variety. There'll be different price points, different proteins, flavors, even different formats. We know some cats like pâté, some like shreds. So we wanna make sure that all the options there. are there so that your cat can get exactly what they want.

Okay. Now, um, you're just, you know, commercial launching your product. Um, a lot of stuff going on with that, but what's, what's next?

Well, we want to first get these feeders out, right? We've been doing really great. We have a ton of pre-orders. We're excited about the market demand that we're seeing. So my focus now is getting these out and delivering. But really what the next 12, 24 months looks like is us onboarding new food brand partners, again, to make sure that our customers have that variety that they want. We are currently working on building a smart scale for the cats themselves. And I think this is really important and something I really want to get launched in 2025. Over 80% of all US house cats are overweight. And what that means is you go to your vet, your vet says, put 'em on a diet, maybe they recommend a specific food, but the follow-up isn't really there. Because if you've ever had to put a cat into a carrier, it can be a process. You might get clawed out. I know my cats absolutely hate it. So you're likely not following up and taking your cat in every month for a weigh-in. So what we wanna do is have a platform where the cat easily walks up on this scale while they're eating. They don't know they're being weighed, but we can actually track the weight of your cat. So when you're on your weight loss or weight management diet, we can actually prove that your cat is losing X percent of weight over X amount of time. And then just like all of our data today, you can export it straight to your veterinarian clinic with the click of a button. So for us, it's continuing to really build on this health platform. We wanna make lives easier for cats and their humans. So automating as much as we can, getting as much data on the cat and tracking those health problems is going to be really important. And then also becoming available in brick and mortar is on the horizon too. Right now we're all D2C, but we have plans to get the hardware into stores so customers can interact with it before they purchase.

Great. You mentioned dogs earlier. Is that— also not a dog owner, dog grandpa, so there's no dog or cat person. Bias here.

Okay, that's all right. Um, definitely dog is in the future. For launch, we're focused on cats because they really need that moisture. But with dogs too, there's a high demand for wet food, especially when you look at senior dogs, puppies, um, even dogs maybe with disabilities. They tend to have a lot of dental issues. Small dogs fall into that category. So finding a way to automate wet meals for those dogs who we know need the wet food is going to be a really easy transition for us. And then eventually graduating into large dogs that are going to require much bigger pods. So that'll be more our Gen 2, Gen 3, but we're not forgetting about our canine friends. But right now the focus is FeetLive.

All right. So why your team and why now? What brought you on this journey?

Yeah, so we have an incredible team. So just a little bit about my background and how I got here. I've spent the majority of my career in the pet space, started with an amazing company called Bright Pet Nutrition Group based out of Lisbon, Ohio. They are one of the world's leading manufacturers for dog and cat kibble and super premium treats. I focused the majority of my time on marketing with them, everything from brand strategy, channel strategy, consumer research. New product development, also helped oversee all of our operations, both domestically and internationally, and really helped transform BrightPet from a manufacturing-based company to true CPG. Loved what I was doing there. I'm still really close with all of my team from BrightPet, but wanted to validate what I was doing with some bigger CPG work. That's when I transitioned to the J.M. Smucker Company to help lead their pet innovation teams. Worked with more mainstream brands like Rachael Ray's Nutrish, Kibbles and Bits. James Mucker ended up divesting the majority of their pet food brands to Post Holdings. I was one of 3 selected to go stand up this innovation arm of this billion-dollar acquisition. And at that point, I had to make a decision, move my family to Minnesota to keep on this amazing career path with an amazing company, or really take a chance to go do something. And for me, although the work in these mainstream brands was important, I just felt this need to do something bigger that was gonna have an immediate impact on the pet space. And I've also been a cat owner my entire life, grew up with 5 cats in the country. We used to joke that when one died, it was like a vacancy sign went up because we'd instantly have another cat on the back porch trying to come in. So I've always known the frustration of serving wet food to cats and how much cats need this in their diet. So the timing was just right to go and build this. And that's when I got connected with my co-founder, Peter Franklin. He was a first-time cat owner, comes from the software and tech space, serial entrepreneur, lots of successful exits in his history. And he was also frustrated. He says, you know, I have this cat for the first time and everything in my house is automated except wet food. Why is that? So we started talking about it and basically just thought the timing was right. Right now, everybody's talking about cat. It's the year of the cat, I say. And so it's a good time to be in pet. And we have the right team to go and build this. We have a chief product officer who's built and launched lots of hardware and tech products very successfully. And so we have him leading a lot of that development. We've got Aaron Taylor leading our pet food partnerships. He comes from Apple, spent some time in the pet space as well, has some history with Disney. So he's just great on relationship building and making sure that our partners are taken care of. And so we've just got an incredible team.

Great. Is there anything unusual or surprising about your company?

I would say probably the most unusual thing is that the way that our team comes together, we're kind of scattered all over. We're not all in one place. So it's a lot of Zoom meetings and team meetings. And I like to say we're kind of the modern worker. As I mentioned earlier on in this podcast, you know, I've got 4 kids, a 6, 5, 3-year-old, and then a newborn who's on my lap currently. And we're kind of breaking the status quo that you have to choose between a career or having a family. And our team is the perfect example that you can balance it all. My co-founder just got married and was on his honeymoon and While we celebrate all these big life events, we're all still very engaged with what's going on on a daily basis. I was in labor in the hospital answering emails. Maybe that's admirable, maybe it's crazy. I'm not quite sure, but I think that's a really cool thing about our team.

Yeah, I sent you an email right after your youngest was born, and it had a list of if this, contact this person. And, and so I did, and then you replied before they did.

Yep, sounds right.

Um, but I guess, uh, you have, um, when you get to your 4th, it's a little, a little more comfortable. And, uh,

exactly. At this point, I just throw them in my purse and we go out.

Yes, not really.

Don't call CPS on me.

Well, and in your role, you know that you're working about 24/7 anyway. In both of your roles.

Yeah, yeah. I even joke that when we're talking to some of our partners overseas that we're engaging with, it works out because I'm up in the middle of the night anyways feeding the baby. So getting on an email or a call is no big deal.

Yeah, and you don't have to worry about, uh, feeding the cats because that, uh—

Exactly. That's all done right from my bed.

Now, um, with multiple cats, do you need multiple feeders?

It all depends on how you're feeding your cats. You certainly could have multiple feeders, one for each. We also have customers who, they just feed their cats at different times now because typically if you just open some food, it can be a free-for-all. There tends to be an alpha cat, so there could be some battling. So a lot of cat parents are already separating them in different rooms and feeding them at different times. So you could control it that way. But we know that multi-cat households is something we really have to tackle and we have to do it the right way because the average cat owner has more than one cat in their house. So another piece of innovation that we're actively working on is Bluetooth technology where you can put a tag on your cat's collar, whether it's their daily collar, you maybe you have a flea collar on them, something that's lightweight and won't irritate them that you can clip on. And then our feeder will actually know which cat is at the bowl. So we'll only feed food at the right time to the right cat so we can help with that process. And we expect that to be rolled out within the next 12 months as well.

Okay. I assume with dietary restrictions there, that might become more challenging or not.

If your cat is on a prescription diet and the rest of the cats in your household are not, It would be probably good practice to have their own feeder to avoid that. And chances are you're already doing something like that today to make sure that the cats aren't getting into the wrong food. But all things that we're exploring. And of course, you can also set it up the way that you load the pods. And when the cat approaches the feeder, if it's not their time, with that Bluetooth automation, you will be able to still do the servings. But anytime there's medicine involved, you always should, should likely be there to administer that just from a safety standpoint. And Carmela agrees.

All right. That's good to hear. So what can the Alumni Ventures community help you with?

Really, I think for us, it's a lot of networking at this point, getting connected, you know, to Additional investors that, that you guys have worked with, that your other founders have worked with. Of course, we would love to engage with all the cat parents and pet parents out there, learn from them what food brands they're feeding today, what they want to see launched in our portfolio of brand offerings. We're really focused on, on building a strong community of cat lovers. So anybody who wants to get involved, test out our products, maybe be a food tester or a hardware tester, We'd love to get connected and help make their lives a little bit easier too.

And that's bistrocat.com?

getbistrocat.com.

getbistrocat.com. Yeah. Well, we're gonna take a quick break and we'll be right back.

Sounds good.

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Okay, welcome back. Um, we're with Cece Carrera of BistroCat. Um, Cece, you know, you, you recently launched the product in, um, We just mentioned getbistrocat.com. Is that the only place you can buy it?

Right now, that is the only place you can buy it. And if you're thinking about buying one because you want your life to be a little bit easier, you want your cat to purr a lot more, I definitely recommend you go on the website and order now. We have a presale discount going on. The Feeder is being sold for $145, but in the next few weeks, we're gonna, as we get closer to our shipping dates, that price is gonna go up to full price, which is $295 with the SmartShip subscription. So definitely take advantage of that discount.

Okay. And the food will be, you know, in different packaging. Is that an added price versus regular cat food or?

The cost per ounce is pretty similar to what you're gonna find on shelf today. So even when you see our brand partners launch, If you were to compare their canned price to our pod price, it's gonna be ultimately the same, but you're getting more. You're gonna get 64 pods in a case, which is around a month's supply if you're feeding your cat 2 to 3 pods a day. They are a bit smaller, they're 1.4 ounces, and this is intentional. We want your cats to be eating a little bit less at one time, but more frequently throughout the day. This helps with digestion and overall reduces food waste as well. But the cost per ounce is going to be comparable to what you're seeing. And if you're not sure which flavors you want to put on your subscription, you just send us an email at hello@getbistrocat.com. We're happy to send out free samples of the cat gourmet recipes. You'll get a full case so you can see what your cat likes, what, what you think you want to go with. And then your feeder will also ship with a free case of food with that first shipment before you're enrolled into the subscription process.

Okay, well, so you were in this large corporate fast-track executive type role, and you, you made the leap to doing a startup. What would you tell other potential founders, you know, Were you happy you did that? What didn't you know about what you're getting into? Anything along those lines?

Oh gosh. Well, to answer the question, am I happy I did it? Absolutely. This was the best thing I've ever done for my career. I remember coming home and telling my husband, like, look, I think I'm going to walk away from this very secure, very cushy job in big CPG where I could retire from to go take this huge risk. You know, I'm leaving a really big salary to come and do this. And I have to say, I married really well because he looked at me and he says, are you going to be happy? I said, yes. He says, are you passionate about it? I said, yes. He says, you have my full support. Go and do it. So first, make sure that your network, you know, is all supportive of you. And if you're not, use that as motivation to prove them all wrong if they're not. But also, I would say what I would tell other founders is be ready to not sleep and to really give it your all. In my experience, there's a lot of really big highs and there's a lot of big lows, and it really is an emotional roller coaster. So you have to prepare yourself for that, and you have to not let the highs get you too proud where you think it's easy sailing. But at the same time, the lows, they're temporary, and if you can work through it, Then you're going to be just fine. For me, I say there's never anything that's considered failure. Anything that goes off track or seems like it's going to be tough, I use that as a learning experience. What can we learn? How can we use this to improve the business? And if you can keep that positivity and find the silver lining in those low points, it will make your business stronger and better. And so it's really about keeping your head up and drinking way too much caffeine.

Well, um, you, you've taken, taken on a lot, but, uh, you seem to be, uh, excelling at all of it. So, um,

thank you.

Wish you continued best of luck, and, um, we're glad to be a little bit part of the journey. Um, for those of you, it's getbistrocat.com. And, uh, Cece, thank you very much for joining us today.

Yes, thank you so much. It was great chatting as always.

All right.

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