About Focal Systems

• Focal Systems is the industry leader in retail automation. We were founded in 2015 out of Stanford’s Computer Vision Lab. Our mission is to automate and optimize brick and mortar retail with state of the art deep learning. We have pioneered the world’s first Computer Vision-based PI system that revolutionizes how stores are run.

Our Mission:

• Lower the cost of living for all mankind by automating and optimizing Brick and Mortar Retail with the latest advancements in AI.

WHY THIS MISSION?

• We are all remarkably dependent on brick and mortar retail. It’s where we get our broccoli, clothes, steak, toothpaste, and more. Prices in retail are going up. This is because the costs of being a retailer are going up. The prices in retail are a small markup on top of “variable costs” like shrink, the amount of labor needed to stock it, the electricity to keep the food cold, etc. As labor costs, fuel costs, inefficiency in supply chain, shrink, and other variable costs all increase, inflation increases, and your cost of living increases, making it more impossible to make ends meet.
• However, we estimate that over half of all that variable cost is inefficiently spent and AI can and will find and eliminate it. If the variable costs go down. The cost of broccoli goes down, which is good for all mankind.
• Focal’s AI is built to enable retailers to lower costs, so they can lower prices, and lower the cost of living for the world.
• Focal Systems mission is to develop state of the art automation and AI and unleash it to automate and optimize brick and mortar retail in a low cost and scalable way. This will improve working conditions for associates, reduce food waste in the industry, and lower the cost of operations and thereby reduce the cost of living in the world.
• This mission may take us a century to complete, but we think the effort is worth it.