Man's best friend is now the Chief Cuddling Officer

BENGALURU: A serious meeting is on. Targets are being tossed around, and spreadsheets revised. The young faces around the table are pensive. Then in walks Lady Maggie.
The Irish Setter is a much-loved member of the team that runs Buttercups, an online lingerie store. Lady Maggie plonks herself in a corner and looks around intently, letting out an occasional growl of affirmation.
"It's been two years since we started our company, and Maggie has attended most meetings. None of the members have a problem with her, they find her refreshing," said Arpita Ganesh, CEO, Buttercups.
On the other side of town, at CurleyStreet Media, an award-winning production house, Bono Bobby J is the CCO (Chief Cuddling Officer). The Labrador attends all meetings at the studio, and every person walking in earns the right of passage with a game of fetch and a warm cuddle.
He's still a little lacking in conference etiquette, not that anyone minds. "He has a tendency to curl up and snore during conference calls. At times, he wakes up and ventures out to bark but returns fast enough," says Pavitra Chelam, CEO and director of the studio.
Both Bono and Maggie have reached the hall of fame on the firms' websites and are listed among the founder members.
Bengaluru's startups are steadily becoming pet-friendly. Many believe they convert offices from pressure cookers into cool workspaces.
"One warm cuddle from Bono can soothe frayed nerves and keep escalating pressure at bay. On late nights at the edit table, and days spent ideating, his calming snore keeps us all in zen mode," says Pavitra, who describes the trend to make workplaces pet-friendly as a "healthy and encouraging development".
Prakash Varma and Sneha Iype Varma's Nirvana, the production house behind the Hutch pug and Zoo-Zoo ads, was one of the first to get a permanent spot for a dog in the company. When they started out in 2001 from a little apartment, there wasn't much work. They heard about a dog for adoption, and brought in Coffee, a labrador. "She became our first recruit and is now as old as our company," says Sneha. Now, two other dogs and cats keep everyone at Nirvana in high spirits.
Magazine Store on Church Street, though no start-up in the modern sense, is also well-known for its resident clowder of kittens.
These pets are not just ornamental, but pursue full careers at the firm: Lady Maggie doubles as the company mascot for Buttercups online, while Bono has already made his debut in studio productions like the campaign Bleed Hope to promote blood donation.