Order tomorrow's milk, pastries, and beans in one tap.
Kettlewise Inc. · Portland, Oregon
Inventory autopilot for independent cafés Raising $750K pre-seed · 2026
Independent café owners order perishables by memory and a clipboard. Over-ordering means waste goes in the bin at close; under-ordering means the oat milk runs out at 10am and regulars walk. Kettlewise reads the café's own sales data, forecasts each item, and drafts every supplier order for one-tap approval.
The Problem
A typical owner places 4–6 supplier orders a week by gut feel.
Errors cost money in both directions: spoiled stock, or lost sales and lost regulars.
12 of 14 Portland café owners we interviewed named ordering the most stressful part of their week.
The Product
Connects to the point-of-sale (POS) system: Square and Toast today.
Forecasts demand per item from sales history, weather, and local events.
Drafts each supplier order; the owner approves from their phone in one tap.
About 20-minute setup, with no spreadsheets.
Traction: 8-Week Pilot, 6 Portland Cafés
4 of 6
pilot cafés converted to paid
~$316
monthly recurring revenue (4 × $79)
31%
less pastry waste (owner-reported)
120
cafés on the waitlist
The waste figure is self-reported by pilot owners and not independently measured. No milk or bean results have been measured yet. Waitlist source and qualification have not been verified.
Business Model
$79 / month per location subscription.
Later, not today: referral fees from suppliers, who benefit from cleaner, more predictable orders.
Market
38,000+ independent US coffee shops.
At $79/mo, that is ~$36M/year if every shop subscribed. This is a ceiling on the core product, not a forecast.
Expansion: bakeries, juice bars, and small restaurants share the same ordering pain.
Alternatives Owners Use Today
Option
What it does
Where it falls short for a corner café
Spreadsheets & clipboards
Free and familiar
No forecasting; relies entirely on the owner's memory
Built-in POS inventory
Counts stock on hand
Doesn't predict demand or place orders
Restaurant inventory platforms
Forecasting and purchasing
Built, priced, and staffed for chains and multi-site groups
Kettlewise
Small-menu forecasting + drafted orders
Built for the single-location owner, approved in one tap
Team: "We ran cafés. Then we built the tool we wanted."
CEO: 9 years in café operations, most recently running three locations.
CTO: former data engineer at a grocery delivery startup; built demand forecasting for 200+ stores.
Advisor: former regional manager at a national coffee chain.
The Ask: $750K Pre-Seed
18-month milestones:
300 paying cafés (~$284K annual recurring revenue at $79/mo)
Two additional POS integrations
Supplier marketplace pilot
Hires: one engineer, one café-success lead
What This Round Must Prove
A repeatable acquisition channel to grow from 4 to 300 paying cafés (~16 net new per month), with a known cost to acquire each one.
Measured outcomes: waste reduction verified against POS and invoice data, extended to milk and beans.
Order delivery and data sourcing: how approved orders reach suppliers, and where weather and event data come from.