Every store deserves a flagship’s attention. Here’s how we work.

Why we started Ocally

During my time at Google, and with the whole founding team at big companies, we supported large retail players. Every single store we saw was different. Every one of them shared one thing: it could do so much more, but nobody had the time or the people to do the work.

The work is not a mystery. Fix the hours on Google before the holiday. Reply to the review from Saturday. Notice the product that sells out at one store and sits at another. Find the school fair two blocks away. Check what the new shop across the street charges.

Nobody gets to it, because everyone is already busy. Store managers are running the floor. Owners are running the business. The budget goes to the flagship stores, or gets averaged out across a region, and the rest of the stores make do. That leaves a lot of money on the table, store by store.

Shopify made it easy for anyone to run an online store without being an e-commerce expert on day one. I wish that were true for physical stores. It isn’t, yet. For the first time, it’s possible to build software plus a service that changes that.

What we’re building

Ocally puts Kai, an AI growth agent, to work in every store. Kai learns how each store works, from its street and its shoppers to its numbers, and gets through its list every day: listings, review replies, AI answers, slow stock, offers and store routines. He brings you only what needs you.

Kai runs on the Ocally platform: one place that holds what your business knows, with the source of every fact, and a plan for every store.

And every customer gets two people from Ocally. A growth engineer connects your systems and builds what your stores need. A growth specialist checks Kai’s work before it reaches you and helps your team change how it works.

Our mission, in one sentence: anyone should be able to run a physical, local business while focusing on what they’re naturally good at, with systems, agents and people behind the scenes doing the rest.

The principles we work by

1. Every store is its own business

A store near a college and a store in a suburb sell to different people, on different days, for different reasons. A single brand playbook built for the average store fits almost none of them.

So each store gets its own goals, its own daily plan and its own record of what worked there. Kai even checks AI answers store by store, because “is our brand mentioned?” is a different question from “does ChatGPT send people to the store on Main Street?”

2. Nothing goes out without your yes

Kai researches, checks, drafts, plans and measures on his own. Anything that goes public, spends money, changes a price or messages a customer waits for your approval. If you edit something, the edited version needs a fresh yes.

Every action keeps a receipt: what was done, where and why. You should never have to wonder what your AI did last Tuesday.

3. Your data stays yours

Every business gets its own isolated Ocally platform with its own database. Nothing is shared with other customers. We don’t train or fine-tune AI models on your data, and that promise is in our Terms of Service. Kai uses your saved sign-ins without ever seeing them. If you want the details, our security page has them.

4. Software plus people

Software on its own gives you another login and leaves the hard part to your team. Moving to AI is a real change in how a store runs, and people carry a team through change.

That’s why every customer gets a growth engineer and a growth specialist from day one. They learn your goals, connect your tools and fit the work to how each location and its people actually run.

5. One source of truth, with sources

A general AI assistant starts every chat knowing nothing about your stores. We bring what you know, from documents and sales reports to your POS, listings and reviews, into one Knowledge Store where every fact keeps its source and its history.

Your word wins. A fact you gave us is never quietly overwritten, and when two sources disagree, the conflict comes to you instead of being guessed.

6. Measured store by store

Averages hide the stores that need help. Every result is measured per store, against that store’s own starting point, so a quiet location that improved is never lost inside a strong region.

7. Priced for Main Street

Ocally runs on open-source models, which keep the cost of every job low, so a chain of 40 stores gets the same AI as one with 4,000. We test new models as they arrive and switch when one does the job better. You never have to choose, set up or chase a model.

8. Honest about where we are

We’re a young company. We’re working with design partners and testing Ocally across retail stores in Southern California. We won’t show you customer logos we don’t have or results we haven’t earned. When we have real results, with permission to share them, you’ll read them here.

The best way to judge us today is simple: bring one store to a free consultation and see what Kai would do there first.

What this means if you run stores

If we work together, here’s what you can expect from us:

• A start that fits your business. Every rollout is customized. Your growth engineer and growth specialist start by learning your stores and your goals.
• Work off your plate in the first month. By the end of month one, some of the store work you’ve been carrying should be automated and off your list.
• A morning briefing, not another dashboard. Kai tells you how the stores did, where each goal stands and what he needs from you. A yes, a few words or a photo gets him back to work.
• Standard security and data protection terms in our contract.
• A clear price. Pricing is customized to your stores and usage, with a minimum of $500 per location per month. Your growth engineer and growth specialist are on us to start.

Why it matters

Store managers should be able to go home knowing their store is taken care of. Owners should be able to sleep knowing every location, not just the flagship, is getting what it needs.

That’s the whole idea. Every store, taken care of. If that’s what you want for your stores, let’s start with one.

Shreyas Kulkarni, founder