We’re on a mission at Ethosphere to support, empower, and inspire frontline retail teams, and we are excited to share a major milestone on our journey to realizing that vision.

Last year, Ahad and I teamed up with a simple idea: leverage AI in retail to deliver in-person selling experiences in a whole new way. Large Language Models (LLMs) can process and analyze vast amounts of data, and we saw the opportunity to gather data and provide actionable insights to frontline retail teams that were never before possible. This approach can dramatically change a store’s performance and can deepen associates’ confidence in their roles through uniquely personalized coaching and feedback.

Retailers are inspired by our vision, and the early excitement around our product is already clear. Building on our early momentum, we took an initial $2.5 million pre-Seed investment to accelerate our mission. This funding, led by Point 72 Ventures with additional support from AI2 Incubator, Carya Ventures, Pack VC, Hike Ventures, and J4 Ventures, enables us to scale our work and bring value to more brands even more quickly. 

We do not take this opportunity lightly.

In an effort to find growth and connect more personally with customers, retailers are refocusing on their brick–and-mortar stores. With these renewed efforts, the role of the frontline employee is more critical than ever, and brands know that the best customer experiences are built by store associates. After decades of investment in e-commerce, frontline teams are simply not equipped with the same level of support as other parts of the business. Associates often have little experience with face-to-face sales, while managers, who have the greatest influence on store performance, are stretched thin and rarely have the tools to coach effectively in the moment. This is the gap we are working to close.

Before Ahad and I launched Ethosphere, I was at Starbucks, where our mission was to create a “Third Place” - a welcoming space between home and work where our customers felt a sense of belonging and community. We did this through focusing obsessively on connecting personally and authentically with our customers. The greatest predictor of a store delivering on this promise was that it had a high-performing manager leading it.

I saw firsthand these critical store leaders who simply did not have the time to provide the kind of timely, specific, and actionable feedback their teams needed to thrive. Managers were often pulled toward whatever the crisis of the day might have been - security issues, supply chain, etc.  Ethosphere is our attempt to give managers superpowers, so that their teams can deliver at the highest levels. We’re committed to using AI to champion human-centric interactions, ensuring our technology supports the genuine, person-to-person connections that are the cornerstone of retail success. 

The current retail landscape holds so much potential for how our technology can make a difference, and I look forward to sharing those stories with you as we journey ahead. 

We’re genuinely excited about the possibilities.

To learn more:

• Read the full announcement

• Request a demo

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