Many members of Hermes Ventura’s family make their living in the convenience store business. Ventura followed in their footsteps in 2021, opening his own retail store in Greensboro, NC—and quickly learned a downside of the job.
“You become a slave of the business. You make some good cash, you make some good income, whatever. But if you’re not there, the business feels it in the financials,” Ventura said.
Ventura started hearing about shops run by artificial intelligence around the time he was working at his Greensboro store; as he learned about the retail industry, he began to train his own AI model.
“I was thinking, okay, what if I find a way to run a convenience operation without being there,” Ventura said.
So in 2023, Ventura founded and became CEO of EVOPod, a startup that aims to create AI-powered, unmanned retail pods with charging stations for electric vehicles.
In addition to allowing the owner free time away from the store itself, Ventura said that EVOPod hopes to eliminate friction from retail transactions for their customers. He said that while many members of older generations—such as his own father—seek out social interaction at convenience stores, the younger generations often do not.
“For me, I don’t care, I just need my essentials and bounce,” he said.
EVOPod is crafting an entirely self-sufficient retail experience—using Ventura’s AI—that enables the customer to procure items without even visiting a checkout counter.
“The store systems will take care of everything,” he said.
The process is, according to Ventura, frictionless. The customer scans a barcode on their EVOPod app which allows them to enter the store. They can take whatever items they want from the shelves, walk out of the store, and be charged to their phone accordingly. A receipt is sent to the user shortly after they leave.
It works by way of AI-equipped cameras in the store that can identify customers and the items they intend to purchase.
“It’s cameras in the shelves, in the coolers, and in the store floor that identify when you take something or put it back, [and] what type of item,” Ventura said.
Customers won’t necessarily have to get out of their vehicles to purchase items from the store, either. Ventura has plans for a drive-thru window where customers can collect their items; robotics technology will take the items from the shelves and bring them to the window.
EVOPods are also designed to be equipped with EV charging stations, which Ventura said he hopes will attract customers to the store—particularly given that EV stations typically lack amenities.
“Everything is pointing to electric vehicles,” he said. “And the main nature of electric charging stations, for example, is unattended.”
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Startup: EVO Stores (dba EVOPod.ai)
Founder: Hermes Ventura (CEO)
Founded: 2024
Team size: 6
Location: Raleigh
Website: www.evopod.ai
Funding: Bootstrapped
He said that most businesses which provide EV charging stations are not reliant on those stations to attract business, so if the charger goes down, they don’t really care. By contrast, he noted that in EVOPod’s case, they’ll have to take care of the stations in order to create a good environment for electric vehicle owners to come and charge their cars (and hopefully become customers).
And although the business model is intended to attract EV owners, anyone with the EVOPod app will be able to use the retail pods, in addition to the self-cleaning restrooms, which will be outside the pods.
The startup is currently entirely bootstrapped and plans to unveil a retail pod prototype in the coming months. Right now, EVOPod’s main goal is opening a location for public demonstrations by Q4 of this year.
“We are taking our time because we want to do it completely differently, as smooth as possible,” Ventura said.
