About Pilli
Pilli didn't start in a boardroom. It started on my apartment floor, with a black cat named Terra sitting on top of my physics homework refusing to move, and an orange cat named Window losing his mind over a shoelace three feet away.
Window isn't named after the windowsill, by the way. That's everyone's first guess. His purr sounds exactly like a window AC unit.
That's the whole company. Me, Terra, and Window. Terra mostly supervises.
For years we did the thing everyone does. Buy the $30 toy with the nice box and the great reviews, watch Window sniff it exactly once, then watch him go lose his mind over a shoelace on the floor instead. Terra usually wouldn't even get up. We ended up with a drawer full of expensive toys that each got about one afternoon before rolling under the couch forever.
So at some point we flipped it around and started watching what the cats actually chased, not what looked good in a product photo. Cats could not care less about cute packaging. What gets them is whether a thing moves like it's alive, and whether it sounds right, and whether it's genuinely worth getting up for.
Now every toy has to clear both of them before it goes in the shop. Window decides if it's fun. Terra decides if it's worth his time, which is a much harder test to pass. It's an absurdly high bar for a cat toy. That's kind of the point.
Chief Skeptic
Terra is a much harder sell. He'll watch a new toy from across the room with his whole face saying no. When he finally gets up and commits to the chase, that's the only review we trust. The rest of the time he is on my physics homework, refusing to move.
Head of Fun
If it darts, he's already committed. Window is the one who tells us whether a toy is actually fun or just looks fun in the box. He also stress-tests gravity, the curtains, and the inside of every paper bag in the apartment.
Cats don't lie.
Window has never once faked interest to be polite, and Terra's disdain shows up fast and without apology. So we don't guess what cats want. We watch what these two actually do and build from there.
Play isn't downtime.
It's the closest a house cat gets to being the small predator he still is under all that fur, and the right toy is what switches that back on. The wrong one just sits there looking cute.
Simpler usually wins.
A cat toy doesn't need an app or a subscription or a manual. It needs to move right and hold up to a cat who bites first and asks questions never.
Right now Pilli is one product and two extremely opinionated inspectors. Everything we ship has been chased flat by Window and grudgingly approved by Terra. That's not a slogan we made up. It's just how it works around here.
Thanks for stopping by. Window would say hi, but he's mid-zoomie. Terra already saw you come in.
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