Investing in Operand

The pricing and revenue optimization market is at an inflection point. Traditional pricing tools struggle to adapt to complex market dynamics, whether it’s global tariffs, supply chain crisis, or something else. Meanwhile, consumer brands urgently need pricing support but can’t afford consultants. Whoever closes this divide could capture a significant share of the $2.4B expected to be spent on pricing software by 2030¹. Operand is this company.

Using chain-of-thought traces from expert human consultants, Operand has built an AI system that delivers McKinsey-grade insights at a fraction of the cost, starting with pricing strategy. They can go deeper than any consultant and continually provide expert recommendations once integrated into a retailer’s datasets. Pricing is just the start: we believe many consulting tasks, from market analysis to change management to strategy development, will increasingly be delivered via services as software. 

Operand’s approach is already proving transformative, with their AI service achieving exceptional improvement in monthly revenue for clients. Fresh off a viral YC launch, Operand’s unique strategy of combining high-level consulting expertise with AI-driven insights positions them to deliver big-four level impact with substantially reduced timeline and cost. And once Operand is integrated into a brand, it can deliver structured recommendations regularly based on real data.

Behind Operand's success is an exceptional founding team of Ram Gorthi, Arjun Sahney, and Akhil Iyengar. Ram and Akhil were high school debate partners and became the first and second-ranked debaters in the US. Arjun started the largest student newspaper in Hong Kong during the 2020 protests. They all dropped out of college to work full time on Operand. Their vision to chip away at the $34B spent annually on consultants starts with pricing optimization. The team's technical expertise, combined with their deep understanding of consulting workflows, positions Operand as a transformational force in how businesses access expert knowledge, democratizing insights that were once the exclusive domain of high-priced consultants.

After meeting the team, we knew we wanted to support Operand’s mission to empower consumer brands worldwide. This kind of focus and clear-eyed ambition doesn’t come along often. When you pair it with the momentum they’re seeing from early customers, you know a special company is forming. We're thrilled to lead Operand’s seed round.

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^{1 Source: Virtue Market Research}