ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT: CONNOR ANDERSON & ALAN RAMSEYER, CLASS OF 2007
Best Friends in Business for Man’s Best Friends by Chris Ashbrook
If I were to go back to Wichita Collegiate School graduation day in 2007, I might have asked graduates Connor Anderson and Alan Ramseyer if their future held a joint business venture, and they most likely would have said, “Yes.” Had I asked them if the business would have had something to do with taking care of dogs, they would have likely said, “It’s a possibility.” Recently I spoke with both Connor and Alan. “We’ve always thought it would be a good idea to start a business together,” Connor told me. Both men have loved dogs since childhood. Alan helped foster service dogs that walked the halls of the Wichita Collegiate Lower School and had several of his own dogs as pets. “I’ve always had a passion for
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dogs and considered being a vet or vet tech growing up.” Connor also loves dogs, but growing up, his exposure to them was mostly through hanging out at Alan’s house. Today, if you asked the two co-owners of Kansas City’s Collar Club, a new doggy day care/grooming/training/boarding facility in Waldo Kansas City, if the path to starting a business together went just as they had always thought it would, the answer would be a resounding, “No.”
While Connor left Collegiate and headed to the University of Tulsa to pursue a degree in business finance, Alan went to play baseball at Mid-American Nazarene. After a couple of years of playing, Connor encouraged Alan to try Tulsa, and Alan, having given baseball his best shot, decided this was a solid plan.
Did the business take off once the two joined each other in Tulsa? Not quite. Connor graduated from Tulsa and went to work as a financial analyst at Gregory W. Group, while Alan, who graduated with a Communications and Advertising degree, went to work as a Video Production Director for the double A ball club the Tulsa Drillers. After a few years Connor left Tulsa to work for Cerner, headquartered in Kansas City, and focused on health information and EHR technologies. Plans for starting a business together were still of interest to both, but “life” kept the dream at bay. Then, while walking on the Trolley Trail in Kansas City with his wife Lindsay, Connor spotted a building that just seemed like the perfect place to start a business. He discussed the building with Alan, and soon the two were putting
