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“It’s such a coincidence you reached out today because it’s Coraline’s birthday! She’s my cat and the whole reason I opened manjapot!”
This definitely wasn’t the response I was expecting when I reached out to Tianna Avis Rajendra, a bubbly 20-year-old to share her story of how manjapot, a cat-centred playground in Subang, came into being two years ago.
But before we dive into business, we first have to know how it all began.
Deeply influenced by parents
For as long as she could remember, Tianna had long recognised that she possessed an “entrepreneurial mindset”, where she’d often find herself veering towards the business side of things.
“I’d say this is largely thanks to my parents, who are both entrepreneurs themselves. Growing up, I saw them manage several businesses of their own just to try out new things.
“Some of their businesses didn’t last, but it was inspiring to see that they never let that discourage them. They always bounced back with something new,” she recounted.
Thanks to her parents’ innovative personality and constant ability to think out-of-the-box, Tianna’s interest in establishing her very own business began to bloom, which first came into being in the form of her selling slime during her high school days.
To go college or not?
Like most teenagers her age, Tianna was faced with the age-old question: Should I go to college once I finish high school?
“I was really interested in pursuing an art degree as I had the dream of going to art school after watching tons of YouTube videos,” she said with a laugh. “I was looking forward to telling people ‘Hey, I’m going to art school!’ and the prospect of living overseas.
But as time passed, I realised it wasn’t something I envisioned myself doing long-term. Sure, I could do art as a hobby, but could I do it 24/7 without fail? My answer to that was ‘no’.”
As Tianna continued to search for a course that she was passionate in and would be worth her time and parents’ money, she found none that, in her own words, “spoke to her”.
“For me, the worst thing is going to college, picking a major that your parents want, and hating your life. It really pains me to hear stories from older friends who feel stuck in paths they didn’t choose for themselves.”
Determined not to go down a similar path, Tianna chose to forego college, effectively eliminating it for the foreseeable future.
Baking cakes for pets
In December 2021, Tianna kickstarted her home-based business named manjapot, which all began from her search for a cake to celebrate her pet cat, Coraline’s, first birthday.
“I went to several stores that offered cakes specially for pets but I realised none of them was what I was expecting in terms of looking aesthetically pleasing.
“Furthermore, some shops had sprinkles being added to the cake, which I personally felt was unhealthy due to its sugar content, ” she said.
Faced with this dilemma, Tianna took it upon herself to make and decorate the cake with the skills she had picked up from a few cake decorating classes and countless YouTube videos. And as time passed, she found herself yearning to make more pet cakes and turning it into a business.
“I did tons of research about the market and the ingredients that are considered safe for animals to consume. I even conducted surveys among my friends who had pets to gather feedback.
“There were even nights where I’d stay up till super late as I was just functioning on the adrenaline and excitement alone,” she recounted with a huge smile on her face.
After a month of intense research, Tianna formally launched Manjapot on Instagram. Although orders were scarce at the outset, she would often get giddy with excitement whenever an order came in as it was the public’s silent seal of approval towards Manjapot.
I was curious as to whether humans could actually eat the pet cakes for themselves if they wanted to and according to Tianna, it’s a definite yes.
“I use human-grade ingredients to make the cake so yes, technically humans can have a bite of it too. Even I personally eat them whenever there’s extra!” she commented with a giggle.
An indoor playground for cats
Aside from looking for cakes that pet owners could purchase to celebrate their fur babies’ birthdays, Tianna also noticed a gaping lack of places that allowed her pet cat Coraline to truly be a cat.
“There were numerous times where I wanted to bring Coraline out to parks, but it was super hard as there were many dogs there. I also searched on Google for places where I could bring her along, and the only results I got were ‘cat cafes’ or ‘pet-friendly cafes’.
“The problem with these two options are: 1) you can’t bring your own cat to cat cafes and can only interact with the resident cats, and 2) there are other animals roaming about at pet-friendly cafes and Coraline would stay put in her carrier instead of enjoying herself.”
Like the pet cakes, Tianna saw there was an opportunity for her to fill the indoor cat playground market gap and immediately began to brainstorm ideas on how it would materialise in the form of an actual building.
To fund manjapot’s first ever physical store, Tianna dipped into her savings of two years as well as some funds provided to by her parents. As for the store’s setup, it was mostly done by Tianna and her family.
“We chose not to hire painters, electricians, or interior designers to build manjapot so that we could save whenever we could. My dad even taught me how to install the lights and connect the electrical wires. It was very much a family DIY project,” she said.
After six months of conceptualising and building, manjapot’s first store was ready to unveil itself to the public.
But two weeks before the official opening in July 2023, an unspeakable tragedy struck.
Losing Coraline
Given the fact that Coraline was Tianna’s first ever cat and the reason why manjapot existed in the first place, it’s a no brainer to see that their bond is so strong that speaking about Coraline still brings Tianna to tears, even years after her passing.
According to Tianna, what made Coraline’s death more painful was the fact that she didn’t pass away due to old age or disease, but by protecting Olive, Coraline’s only sister whom she was very close to and always seen together with, from a dog which had slipped into the house.
“Coraline was a master escape artist, so it didn’t make sense that she couldn’t get away from the dog. Thus, we believe that most likely she tried fending the dog off before succumbing to intense shock.
“She died a day after my birthday and when I heard the news of her passing, I was in total shock and I kept wishing it was nothing but a dream,” she recalled tearfully.
In the midst of grieving over Coraline’s untimely passing, Tianna found herself slipping into a mental rut and was unable to fully focus on fine-tuning manjapot’s official opening.
“Throughout that period, I didn’t want to spend another moment thinking about or answering questions about manjapot. There were also days where I’d be in my room and cry my eyes out.
Losing Coraline was probably the worst form of emotional pain I had ever experienced in my life, and I found myself wondering whether I should even open the store at all,” she said.
It wasn’t until a month of grieving did Tianna finally gather the courage to open manjapot’s first ever store in August 2023.
When I asked what gave her the strength to move on with the plan, she said:
“I came to the conclusion that Coraline would still want to see me open manjapot. If she could talk to me, she’d probably say, ‘I want you to be happy and live out your dream. Even though I’m no longer around, open manjapot in memory of me.’
“It was definitely a hard decision to make, but I felt that Coraline would very much want to see manjapot come into existence instead of me running away and closing it down for good.”
‘Be true to yourself’
Having heard Tianna’s inspiring story of how she defied societal expectations and operating manjapot at such a young age, I naturally had to ask her to gift words of advice to others looking to do the same.
“Do something that feels true to who you are, and make sure you’re genuinely passionate about it. Don’t just chase what’s trending or in demand if it doesn’t light a fire within you.
“Also, don’t change yourself into someone you’re not for the sake of others. Just be yourself and you’ll find your own people along the way.”
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