BRIGHT CLIENT
KITTY POO CLUB
Monthly Subscription Service Is The Cat’s Meow
eco-friendly, recyclable box is made from re-
cycled cardboard and is covered with a water-
proof coating. A thin tray sealed inside the box
holds the litter and prevents leaks. To keep the
litter fresh, you simply stir the litter daily and re-
move the poo. Then, when the new box arrives,
just close up and dispose of the used box.
The Scoop On
Product Development
By Michele Linton,
practice growth manager,
[email protected]
(Cleveland office)
book advertising. Within three weeks, Kitty
Poo Club gained 1,200 customers. However,
because the boxes still had to be assembled
by hand and shipped every month, Chad
pulled the ads in an attempt to slow demand.
Their biggest hurdle was that, because the
design of the box is completely unique,
there were no machines capable of assem-
bling and sealing them. But by May 2018,
the company designed and built two ma-
chines that are each capable of building
2,000 boxes per day.
The finished product may be simple, afford-
able and effortless, but getting to this point
was anything but. Trying to find a kitty litter
that was lightweight and economical to ship, Advertising resumed and Kitty Poo Club add-
and that held moisture, controlled odor and ed 10,000 more customers in June and July.
From lugging a heavy box of litter into your would last 30 days was challenging. But after
“In August, we started to panic,” said Chad.
house, to keeping the litter clean, to keep- much trial and error, Chad and Porter discov-
“The orders were coming in too quickly, so we
ing your house smelling fresh … being a cat ered silica-based gel fit the bill. They went on
suspended the Facebook ads yet again.”
owner is a dirty job. But Kitty Poo Club aims to develop their own version of the gel which
To make matters more complicated, eight con-
to solve those problems – and more.
works even better and further differentiates
tainers of litter were delayed from China due
the product. Kitty Poo Club litter traps the
to typhoons, holiday shipping and hurricanes.
Building A Successful Startup
urine waste and odor while allowing water to
From The Litter Box Up
evaporate. With the litter portion of the prod- “We notified our customers. Even without
From dog toys to dinners, there’s a subscrip- uct in the can, Chad and Porter developed the ads, we are still getting almost 100 new
tion box for just about everything these days, a lightweight waterproof box. Now, all they customers a day,” Chad continued. De-
mand continues to be high. “We have 2,500
so when Chad Kauffman and his father, Por- needed was customer feedback.
ter, wanted to break into the industry, finding With the help of a $5 Facebook ad, the duo customers on a 45-day wait list right now,”
he said.
the right niche took some time.
reached out to cat owners in Wooster, their
It wasn’t long before Porter, a retired execu- hometown, to test the product free for 60 days. Eliminating The Problems
tive from Newell-Rubbermaid, came across Chad, Kitty Poo Club’s president, personally
a disposable litter box someone had pre- delivered litter boxes to about 50 residents to Starting up Kitty Poo Club has been a learn-
viously pitched to him – and was inspired. speak with them about the product. Anony- ing experience for Chad and Porter, but they
Even though the piece was heavy and need- mous surveys revealed that the litter was the continue to rise to the challenge. They hired
a director of operations, have a new 14,000
ed messy, clay-based litter, they didn’t give cat’s meow. The box, however, was not.
up. In fact, they had a pretty good feeling a After some additional testing, they finally got square-foot warehouse, are in the process of
monthly all-in-one litter box solution would it right. The new, unique box design reduces hiring more employees and have more manu-
be a hit, so they kept working on ways to rev- tracking and is easier to set up and throw facturing equipment on order.
olutionize the $3.5 billion kitty litter industry away. Today they hold two patents on the “We plan to never run behind again,” said
and tap into today’s subscription box craze.
box, and employees are asked to sign non- Chad. “There are 38 million cat owners in the
United States, most of whom have more than
disclosure
agreements.
The result was Kitty Poo Club.
one cat – not to mention all of the opportuni-
ties in Canada. We have a lot of opportunity
The Next Doody Was
What Is The Kitty Poo Club?
for growth.”
Getting
The
Word
Out
A monthly subscription service, Kitty Poo Club
delivers a chic, biodegradable litter box right to The Kitty Poo Club website was up and
your door. The box is filled with an odor-free, running by October 2017. With a couple
non-toxic, 100 percent natural mineral-based thousand boxes on hand, they were ready for To learn more about Kitty Poo Club,
litter and is designed to last for 30 days. Each business. All it took was a little more Face- visit www.kittypooclub.com
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