Interview with Josh Feinkind
Photos by The Refined Feline

How did your business get started?
Twenty years ago, I was living in a small apartment in northern New Jersey, and one of my roommates had an Abyssinian. The only cat furniture on the market back then was beige, shag-carpeted cat trees, but we wanted nice-looking things in our home. So I decided to create something that’s not only functional but also stylish.

I put out an RFP to designers and got responses from all around the world. I then shared the designs on Yahoo! groups—that’s how long ago this was—asking people to vote for their favorites and took the two most popular ones to factories in China to develop prototypes. Unfortunately, that didn’t work out so well. But someone in the pet industry recommended that I go to a trade show being held in nearby Atlantic City, where a Vietnambased dog furniture manufacturer told me they could make the items for us. That company has produced them ever since.

You mentioned prototype issues. What happened?
The prototypes were disasters. When we got our first, it was broken; the supplier didn’t package it for domestic shipping, so it was basically a bunch of wood parts thrown into a box with no packing materials. They also messed up the supports, drilling additional holes that made the product look like Swiss cheese. And the one from the second supplier was all green wood, which is inferior for furniture.

Did you face any other obstacles starting out?
Certainly—the prototypes were just a few of the many speed bumps I experienced along the way. Another was that we were getting products with warped bottoms, and I didn’t know why. It turns out that the moisture content of wood needs to be monitored before it’s painted and delivered. I also had to learn about importing, which isn’t necessarily common knowledge.

All in all, I faced a quick learning curve as a first-time business owner; I was a computer analyst when I started The Refined Feline, so I had to totally learn on the fly. It needed to be done, though, because as an entrepreneur, you are your company’s hub of information: it’s up to you to figure out how to set up an accounting system, get funding to pay for inventory, etc. There’s a lot involved with starting a business— you really need to know at least a little bit about a lot of things.

Who’s your typical customer, and why do they love your products?
Our customer base is cat lovers who prioritize aesthetics. In other words, our patrons want great-looking products that are also great for their cats, which is encapsulated by our motto: “Love your cat. Love your home.”

Chinese companies have been making knockoffs of our products for the past ten years, but they’re made from very cheap material that off-gases and absorbs odor. However, we won’t compromise on quality. Our stuff is well built and durable—real furniture made of real wood with beautiful, authentic grain. While it doesn’t cost fifty or a hundred bucks like those other options, it lasts so much longer. In fact, some customers still use the same tower they bought twenty years ago.

We also make upkeep easy with replacement parts for when a feature like carpeting gets soiled, scratched, or worn and have a very liberal return policy: after sixty days, if you don’t love it or your cat doesn’t love using it, send it back to us. Every cat owner knows that their pet will use a product, have zero interest in it, or play in the box it came in, and we don’t want our customers to be stuck with our product if it’s either of the latter two. That’s something they really appreciate.

What does customer feedback mean to you and your company, and what do you typically hear?
I love getting reviews—in fact, they all go right to my email. It’s such a good feeling to make a product that people want to spend their hard-earned money on and take the time to give feedback about. Our customers usually say their product was a breeze to assemble or looks great in their home or that they’ve had one for years and are now buying a second to complement it.

What steps do you take to acquire new customers amid a crowded market?
We want to make sure that we get our brand out there, so SEO is important to us. Optimizing it allows us to get in front of potential customers when they’re searching for cat furniture without having to spend tens of thousands on marketing. Additionally, because Google loves content, we generate four or five posts a month on various topics that are not only insightful for pet owners but also help The Refined Feline’s rankings.

How do you keep your product designs ahead of the curve?
It’s critical that we stay on trend. We constantly task our furniture designers with understanding what’s current with colors and materials, which partly involves going to furniture shows. For example, gold was hot for a while, so we made a line of metal cat towers that look very similar to bookshelves but have a cushion or faux-fur pad on each shelf for the cats’ comfort.

Also, we use some of our employees’ pets as our dedicated product testers. A cat’s needs always come first—after all, if they won’t use the furniture, it’s useless for both them and their owner. Once it’s tested, we’ll either make adjustments if need be or, if our feline evaluators are satisfied, determine what we can do to ensure that pet parents appreciate it as well. We’re making products for two separate groups with two separate needs, which is definitely challenging.

What is The Refined Feline’s next groundbreaking initiative?
We’re really excited about Symba, our automated, refrigerated wetfood feeder, which is going to be the Cadillac of its kind. Among other features, Symba keeps the food temperature at around 40 degrees, warms it before serving it, and allows you to set a schedule for it to be dispensed via the app whether you’re home or away. We put a lot of thought into this product and conducted over a year of customer feedback to make it the ideal pet food dispenser. Symba is the perfect example of our business mindset: We don’t just make anything and put it right to market. If we’re going to invest a ton of money in a product, we’re going to do everything possible to make sure it’s top-notch quality and universally loved.

For more info, visit therefinedfeline.com