It all started with a pug named Gizmo. At just seven weeks old, Gizmo was given his death sentence: he had two heart conditions, which were so severe that the vet predicted that he wouldn’t survive another week. 

Even if he did survive, he’d likely need an expensive surgery. 

But this wasn’t enough to stop Aaron Carty. Being the dog lover (correction: the pug lover) that he is, Aaron raced from London to Wales to adopt Gizmo. 

Now, four years later, Gizmo is healthy and living his best life. He shares a home with nine other pugs and spends his days frolicking along the beach or making an appearance at the CuppaPug cafe. 

The cafe is, in some ways, Gizmo’s insurance plan. But what started as a business to afford Gizmo’s surgery (should he ever need it) is now a place where people can walk in and be “consumed with pug love,” according to Aaron. 

Self-described as a full-time Pug Daddy, Aaron now finds himself on a mission to create spaces where both dogs and humans can thrive. “I already had four pugs when we decided to open the cafe, and it was a really selfish reason to be able to have more pugs,” he says with a cheeky smile. “If I had a cafe, I would need more pugs. 

“Little did we know that so many people were just as pug crazy as we were.”

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From pug meetups to full-time business

Before the cafe, there were pug meetups. The problem? They were often canceled due to weather. “So I thought, ‘I'm going to have my own pug cafe,’” says Aaron.

But years passed and “we hadn’t done anything about it.” That is, until Gizmo came along.

It all happened very quickly from there. 

“The day we opened, we were fully booked for weeks and weeks ahead—so we never had the opportunity to actually get used to the business,” recalls Aaron. 

From Day One, Aaron and his partner Matthew were flying by the seat of their pants. With just £15,000 (around $18,904 USD) in their pockets and zero experience running a cafe, the duo raced against the clock to do something that had never been done before (“No one in the world had done a pug cafe with resident pugs and pugs that you could rescue as well”). 

They consulted charities. Posted to social media. Received thousands of signups before an open date was even set. The first cafe was bare white—“that’s how unready we were”—a stark contrast to the signature pink that smothers the cafes today. 

Today’s cafes also offer pug-themed cocktails and snacks. They serve as both a place for play and for adoption, about which Aaron notes: “We knew that pug rescue was a huge problem, and we thought we had a solution to that.

“We have up to 300 people a day coming to one of our cafes. We can talk to them, we can ask them questions [and] we can see how they are with dogs…We are then able to facilitate rescuing and adopting so many more pugs.”

Behind the scenes of having four-legged colleagues

Of course, starting a business and running a space with four-legged creatures has its challenges. 

First, you’ve got potential investors writing off your business as a popup. Second, you’ve got people turning their nose up at the idea, saying they don’t want dog hair in their coffee. And third, you’ve got the responsibility of actually caring for the pups. (“We train them…they don't snort like other pugs typically do because they're well-exercised, they're well-looked after and they eat a whole foods diet.”) 

But to this day, Aaron remains committed to one rule of thumb: take those problems and tackle them head on. “People were giving me reasons why they wouldn't come to the cafe,” he says, “[so] I was finding solutions for them.” 

To the investors: CuppaPug now flaunts four locations across the U.K. and U.S. that greets 1,200 people a day, four days a week. Each cafe is a space where “I've got dogs that are so loved and are so intelligent that people want to come back to see them…we've got people that come every week—sometimes every day.” 

To the hygiene skeptics: The cafe has installed strict cleaning procedures and only serves hand-held foods, so there aren’t any plates for the dogs to lick. 

As for the home situation, Aaron, Matthew and their employees are holding down the fort. However, Aaron has an attractive offer for anyone looking to try their hand at being a “Pug Au Pair.” (“It’s the best job in the world.”) 

Taking the “pink paradise” online 

“Pink paradise” is the unofficial name of CuppaPug, as dubbed by its creators. It’s easy to see why. 

Whether you step foot into one of the cafes or click onto the CuppaPug site, you’re met with pink. Pink backgrounds. Pink bandanas (on the pups that are up for adoption). Pink decor. 

It’s the embodiment of “pug love” and no matter if you show up online or in person, you know you’ve arrived at the right place. “The cafe is a whole experience, and my website really has to capture the same magic,” says Aaron. “When I was building the website on Wix, I really wanted it to reflect my personality, my character and, more importantly, the dogs.”

As it regards the process of building the website, “it’s one of those things where I could only have done it myself,” he states. There would be no compromising on the branding, or the utility, of the site. 

With Wix, Aaron is able to change any aspect of the design whenever he wants. The system makes online bookings easily too, enabling customers to book, reschedule or add themselves to a wait list. Employees, in turn, can track bookings through the mobile Wix App while automating things like waitlist notifications whenever slots open up. 

“Every day I'm on the website updating stuff…It’s just as alive as the cafe is." - Aaron Carty, founder of CuppaPug

Another perk: As CuppaPug expands into new locations, it’s “very easy for us to duplicate the entire website and then just change what [we need for each] specific location.” The result: reduced costs and a bigger purse to spend on other high-priority activities, including marketing. 

Marketing on a budget

CuppaPug is marketable by design. Its website and cafes already lend themselves to plenty of Instagram-worthy posts. 

These days, there’s also the Pugs & Mugs podcast, the CuppaPug Instagram and TikTok accounts—and even merch, now available online by popular demand. The cafe’s online store ships worldwide, delivering Gizmo gear to fans in Australia and beyond.

Behind the scenes, Aaron uses Wix’s built-in email, dashboard and analytics tools to further spread the word about special events and offers. “We make fantastic money off our email campaigns,” he shares, “and seeing how much we've made from that one email is really important to me because it reminds me I need to do another one.”

“As creative as I am, I'm also a numbers man and I'm constantly looking at the website traffic, the bookings, the conversions.” 

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In it for the long run  

Like Gizmo, CuppaPug has beat the odds. 

“No one believed in [our idea],” says Aaron about the early days. “But we believed in it.”

Today, CuppaPug welcomes visitors from all over the world. The cafe is included in several company-run mental health programs. For some customers, it’s a lunchtime escape; for others, it’s a place to heal after losing a pug of their own. 

“It ends up being a really emotional place,” says Aaron, recalling a few customer stories that have stuck with him over the years. “It's a place where people can come in, spend some time with the dogs, forget about all of their troubles—[then] leave with a smile on their face and loads of fur, obviously.”

One thing’s for certain: it has and always will be about the dogs. 

“If there’s one thing [I want people to take away about my business, it’s] that the pugs are so loved and have the best life.” 

Lessons from Aaron 

With a clear knack for entrepreneurship and a soft spot for those looking to become an entrepreneur, Aaron regularly volunteers his time to speak with aspiring business owners. However, he’s quick to say, “I often don't give advice. The one thing I would say to people is, ‘You've really got to find the courage to find your own way.’”

Nevertheless, his story is packed with valuable lessons. Here are some highlights from our conversation with Aaron:

• “Always do it, but do it your way.” You can listen to all their self help books and do your own research on similar businesses, but I would always give the advice to go for it. Go for it and see what happens [and] find the courage to do it every single day. Block out that negativity and move forward.”
  

• Control your narrative: “I'm a big believer that if you do not tell your story, somebody else will. So we really wanted to be in control of the narrative. [For us, a] big challenge is that there are people out there who don't think that pugs should be bred—that they have a lot of health problems...So it's really important to us that our content reflects education. It reflects a true representative of a pug.”
  

• Your brand is what your customers say about it: “You know, you can spend all the time and money in the world to create what your brand and what your message is, but at the end of the day, it is what other people say about it that [makes up] the brand. That's ultimately the brand.”
  

• Challenge yourself. “I think when I start getting bored, I look for that next challenge. And I think that's something that people should always do: always look for that next challenge. I don't like being comfortable…[my experience] climbing Everest was a great example of that because you're cold and wet the whole time, but you still have to push through. I love to have those experiences because I think they really help me translate them into business and just general life as well.”
  

• Push past the negativity. “I had so many people telling me it's not going to work as a long-term business. Even close friends and family would say, ‘I love you, but I don't think this is going to work as a long-term business’...It was a scary time [but] I kept that business face on when I was with customers and with prospective investors.”

• Take it one day at a time: “[Matthew and I] always say to each other, we just do what we need to do in the moment and don't overthink it.”