Meowzie's Cafe

The first cafe in Binalbagan, Negros Occidental, Philippines to offer online ordering.

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Even though my coffee shop, its website and even its promotional materials were entirely made by ChatGPT's AI, my project story will be entirely human and involve no AI whatsoever.

Inspiration: I yearn for the days of when I was a college student in UCLA and I always enjoyed sitting down at a nice cafe with outlets, stable Wi-Fi, and getting some work done. I'm 34 now and those days are long gone. However, I was very inspired by the coffee culture in Bacolod, Negros Occidental Philippines. I was impressed that students here kinda what I did back in America - and this is no "advanced" city by any stretch of the imagination. Bacolod is the provincial capital and being the biggest city in Negros Occidental, naturally, it had a lot of things to offer. However, other parts of Negros Occidental are remote and even just having a McDonald's can be seen as a sign of major progress for the city. In my time in The Philippines earlier this year, I visited because my girlfriend was having our baby daughter, Amy. She was born in February. I wanted to invest in something that I could leave behind that could be a source of income for Amy's diapers, her vaccinations and other baby needs while I was in America. On top of that, when you're in Negros you constantly get Apple warning notifications and it's almost always that the Kanlaon volcano has erupted and to prepare for ashfall. Somehow, all of this was my inspiration. I saw the volcano erupting as like a marketing tool - I wanted to be a coffee shop that can not only provide what I had back in America (to Filipino students who live in remote areas where a cafe of this caliber does not exist) but can also give back to the farmers (of Negros) in the sense of sourcing ONLY Kanlaon coffee beans. So, because I know a lot of teens in Philippines are very similar to the teens in Mexico (I am Mexican-American), I instantly knew a cute design would catch their attention. So, I dedicated the Cafe to my deceased cat Meowzie. I loved him so much. In fact, I hope you're looking down on me from the heavens Meowzie! You will never be forgotten because you weren't just a pet for me, you were my family in a time in which I had absolutely nobody to ask for help. Anyway, we opened the cafe after being copy-cats (pun intended) and basically copying and pasting a design ChatGPT 5.5 made. I snapped a photo, asked it to design the space (which was tough, it is a very narrow business space) and with about $1,200 I was able to make something very close to what was on the picture. I reached out to local wood workers and local glass installers to put together vision that I made - that ChatGPT visualized and I then brought to life. Rent + Wifi is under $65 a month. From that same $1,200 I bought the coffee machinery on Tiktok Shop/Shopee. Keep in mind, I have ZERO experience with coffee other than drinking Starbucks twice a week. ChatGPT taught me everything I needed to know. But this project that I am submitting is the website of the store itself which enables us to proudly declare that we are one of the only cafes/restaurants in the city of Binalbagan, Negros Occidental that offers delivery to people's houses. We also are located near a Criminology University, so the vast majority of our customers are college students. Our website went live recently and it is already gaining high-praise for the locals. They're super excited that a coffee shop even offers delivery in their city. In The Philippines, they have a food delivery app called Grab. There's also another called Food Panda. In this small city of Binalbagan, those two apps don't exist. There's NO delivery service available. Which is why Meowzie's Cafe stands out so much. It is now a trailblazer in modernizing Binalbagan.

What it does: The Meowzie Cafe website allows you to order drinks or food and it explains our mission statement. It also allows you to pay with Gcash, the most common way to pay in The Philippines that isn't cash.

How we built it: ChatGPT 5.5 + 5.6 Sol. I messed around with AI prompting to get our website created just right. We used Github and Google Business services to secure a domain: www.meowziecafe.com

Challenges we ran into: The add to cart buttons for items with single sizes was difficult to fix. Finding all the correct hardware in person in such a remote city was very difficult. Finding the right price for our items was a bit tough too - didn't know what the sweet spot was between "premium" and more than just "bare bones".

Accomplishments that we're proud of: Yesterday, we made $45 profit. That may not seem like a lot, but that is the equivalent 4 days of salary in The Philippines. If this keeps up, in a month we might break $1,200 or even if we are pessimistic - $900 a month. Again, it doesn't seem like that much but think about the ROI considering I only spent $1,200 to open the business and I am spending maybe $125-$150 on labor a month. Our drinks have healthy margins. The first cafe opened in May, we plan to open a second in front of a community college in the neighboring city: Himamaylan City. I'm not a millionaire or anything, so if I did win even a small slice of the money for this competition - I would put all of it into Meowzie Cafe #2 and possibly #3. I want to make sure I give my daughter Amy a good upbringing and I want our cafe to be the first in the city that donates to local animal shelters, in honor of Meowzie. Even opening the business is an accomplishment of itself. I don't know how to make coffee or milk tea, or matcha, or how to design custom tables, or how to set up a business, or how to even set up a website. I knew NOTHING! I came equipment with nothing. Which is why I think my story should be highlighted because I am an example of someone who isn't exactly a bright 18 year old. I'm a 34 year old man with no background in tech, and even I was able to put all of this together very quickly. Did I mention we opened the Meowzie Cafe - from the start of its design to the finish - in 7 days?

What we learned: So much. We learned what machines to buy, we learned what tools to use, we learned how to make a website, we learned how to start a business, where to find supplies - I have learned so much. Most of all, though, I learned that if you're motivated enough - even if something seems impossible, AI can make dreams come true. It all depends on how much you put into it.

What's next for Meowzie's Cafe: We continue to operate in Binalbagan. If it continues having the profits that it does, we will open a second and a third. I want to partner with animal shelters to make a different in the community. Let's take care of our furry friends and change the world for the better. I want to shout out the people who work on developing AI and making it better and better. Everyone always talks about how AI is taking away jobs and destroying the economy and here we are, accomplishing the exact opposite! We are creating jobs, helping local farmers and giving students a cool place with fast Wi-Fi to sit down and charge their computers in a low-income country. We are making people's lives better for just a couple of tokens that I used doing all of it. I'm not even a programmer or anything! So let's make the world a better place with AI, it's possible and I am proof that you don't have to be a technical wizard to do it.

Built With

  • begginer
  • business
  • coffee
  • international
  • noob
  • shop
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