Today we’d like to introduce you to Kanchan Singh.
So, before we jump into specific questions, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
At 23 years old, I had a good corporate job with a cushy paycheck. On the outside, I looked like I had a “successful” life – I worked in cities like New York and Toronto during the weeks, and traveled and partied nonstop on the weekends. On the inside though, I felt really low. I was making money, but I was not making a difference. I hated my job and I felt like I was wasting my potential. I wanted to do something I was passionate about; something I cared about deeply. Specifically, I wanted to be a social entrepreneur who helped animals through her business. I just didn’t know how and I didn’t have any ideas.
On my 24th birthday, on a backpacking trip in Thailand, I stumbled upon a cat café and I fell in love. This was it! The second I walked inside, I knew that I wanted to start my own cat cafe. It combined my love for animals with my love for art, design and business. It was my dream project! The idea honestly made me feel electric – I could feel the passion and excitement running through me. I hadn’t felt that way in years, and it was such an amazing feeling.
On my flight back to the U.S., I began working on how cat cafes in America could operate. We could partner with local rescues to provide a humane, caring environment for cats while bringing cat-loving customers in to hang out and enjoy the company of homeless cats. Customers could adopt cats if they fell in love, which would mean higher adoption rates and lower euthanasia rates for homeless cats in shelters. The cat cafe would provide an environment for cats where they could actually socialize and let their personalities shine, rather than being isolated in cages and shut down. The more I thought about the idea, the more I fell in love with it.
After landing back home, I quit my corporate job and started a Kickstarter campaign to test and fund my vision. I raised my entire goal of $15,000 within hours. Three months later, I opened the doors to Washington, D.C.’s first and only cat cafe, Crumbs & Whiskers. We attracted lines of excited customers that stretched on for blocks, and I couldn’t believe that my dream had actually came true! One year later, we opened our second location in Los Angeles, which attracted stars like Bella Thorne, Drew Barrymore, James Corden and Jennifer Garner. Earlier this year, we opened our third location, which is also in Washington D.C. It has been such a wild, unbelievably amazing ride!
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
It has definitely not been a smooth road. I started a very successful business when I was 24 years old because I was passionate about helping homeless cats, but I had no experience in starting or running a company.
When Crumbs & Whiskers first opened, we attracted so many customers that we didn’t know how to handle the demand. I hadn’t designed our operational model as thoroughly as I should have, and things started falling apart internally. I actually wished for all the success to stop because I had no idea how to handle it. Our reviews were awful because we were a mess, and we had no time to clean up our mess because we were always so busy. It took me months to clean up our operations and to put systems in place that ran smoothly.
We also grew too quickly. I opened two locations in two years, on opposite coasts. It’s really challenging to run two different locations that are so far apart well. I had to learn really quickly how to train, re-train, implement quality control measures, and motivate employees. I stopped growing Crumbs & Whiskers two years into the company because I had burned myself out, burned my teams out, and I was extremely unhappy again.
I turned things around by going back to the beginning. I asked myself why I started in the first place. I started because I wanted to build an ethical business that helped save homeless cats. So I started defining what an ethical business looked like for me – what were the values that I wanted to reflect? What was our mission? I traveled back to our roots, which was our mission and our values, and then built a company deeply rooted in those missions and values. It took a lot of hard work, dedication and self-reflection.
Crumbs & Whiskers – what should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from others?
We partner with rescues who save cats and kittens at risk of euthanasia in high-kill shelters and cats facing homelessness on the streets and house them in our cafes. Once they are at our cafes, we care for our cats and kittens and work to get them adopted until they find their homes. As our cats are adopted, our partners bring us more cats who are rescued from risk of euthanasia. One day, we hope to be a part of the reason why no cats are euthanized simply due to a lack of space in animal shelters. Since we opened, we’ve saved about 2,600 cats from euthanasia and $38.6K has been donated to charity.
What has been the proudest moment of your career so far?
Oh, wow! That’s a big question. I’d say my proudest moment is actually the beginning – opening my first location. Honestly, that was really scary and I almost quit multiple times in the process. Today, there are dozens of cat cafes in the US, but when I started, there were none. A lot of people, including my family, thought the idea was “crazy.” Landlords didn’t want to rent their properties to me, banks didn’t want to give me any loans – no one wanted to be a part of what I was doing. And often, I questioned myself. I wondered if this really was a good idea like I believed it was. I was also starting the company alone, which was really scary and daunting. I look back now and I sometimes can’t believe how much courage I had at 24 years old. So that is definitely my proudest moment because it took a lot of bravery, hard work, resilience, and believing in myself to do it.
Contact Info:
- Address: 7924 Melrose Ave,
Los Angeles, CA 90048 - Website: https://crumbsandwhiskers.com/cat-cafe-los-angeles
- Phone: (323) 879-9389
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/crumbs_whiskers/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/crumbsandwhiskers
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/Crumbs_Whiskers
Image Credit:
Crumbs & Whiskers
Suggest a story: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
