{"data":{"type":"company_profile","id":185787,"entity_id":"wefunder:company:185787","attributes":{"canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/ping","generated_at":"2026-06-07T19:38:15Z","updated_at":"2026-06-07T03:40:23Z","entity_ids":{"company":"wefunder:company:185787","slug":"wefunder:company_slug:ping"},"profile_visibility":{"owner_published":true,"public_search_results":true,"site_search_listed":true,"privacy_mode":"promote","invite_only":false},"provenance":{"source":"wefunder_public_company_profile","as_of":"2026-06-07T19:38:15Z","claims":{"total_amount_raised":{"source":"FrontCompanySummary#amount_raised","last_verified_at":"2026-06-07T03:40:23Z","as_of":"2026-06-07T19:38:15Z","confidence":"high"},"total_investors":{"source":"FrontCompanySummary#number_of_investors","last_verified_at":"2026-06-07T03:40:23Z","as_of":"2026-06-07T19:38:15Z","confidence":"high"},"active_raise_states":{"source":"Fundraise.visible(nil, nil)","last_verified_at":"2026-04-23T17:55:08Z","as_of":"2026-06-07T19:38:15Z","confidence":"high"},"latest_fundraise_state":{"source":"Fundraise.visible(nil, nil).order(funding_started_at)","last_verified_at":"2026-04-23T17:55:08Z","as_of":"2026-06-07T19:38:15Z","confidence":"medium"}}},"company":{"id":185787,"entity_id":"wefunder:company:185787","slug":"ping","name":"p!ng","tagline":"Fast Drive-Thru Coffee, Powered by Robots","story":"People love coffee, but don't want to wait for it.We’ve sat in far too many long and painful drive-thru lines with Rob’s three daughters, receiving inaccurate orders with inconsistent customer service and tipping on top of it all. We set out to solve our own problem because it was clear: nothing about the drive-thru experience today actually works for people on the go.The experience is so bad that 30% of customers see the long lines and keep on driving. That's $8B in lost sales due to line balk because drive-thru design hasn't kept up with demand.It's also a struggle for coffee shops to hire and retain baristas, given labor shortages. Understaffing leads to 10%-20% order inaccuracies and limited store hours. Labor issues such as minimum wage requirements and unionization (in Starbucks’ case) are ongoing. Some locations of Dutch Brothers do upwards of $5M in average unit volume a year, yet require 45-50 employees at these locations to fulfill orders. The coffee shop’s already slim margins are disappearing.Our communities lose out, too. Lines of idling cars not only produce carbon emissions and noise pollution and trash, they also block sidewalks, create parking issues for other businesses and customers, and back up on streets. This is what happens when drive-thru design is stuck in the 1950s.Yet, drive-thru usage has never been higher, with up to 90% of sales now going through them, especially at drive-thru-only chains like Dutch Brothers and 7Brew. Scooter's Coffee did the math: a store that can shave off just one second of drive-thru wait time gains $30,000 more in additional annual sales.The math is simple: faster service = more satisfied customers = more profit.p!ng puts the speed and convenience into fast, delicious coffee and specialty beverages when you’re on the go. Our high-throughput robotics and AI make p!ng the easiest way to pick up your pick-me-up. Every step of the experience is intentionally designed from easy ordering to effortless customization, predictive preparation and delivery, and memorable personal touches like custom AI-generated labels.Order your favorite drink on our mobile app with one tap, drive to any pod, any time 24/7, and we'll make your customized drink fresh as you arrive. As you pull up, our window auto-adjusts to the height of your car window. All you have to do is grab your drinks and go!Gone are the days of waiting in line, yelling your order at an intercom, scanning a QR code, or tipping for your morning brew. In fact, you’ll never have to pull your phone out at pick up.Between our bootstrapped pilot and our newly launched, fully automated p!ng pod, the results are in:Although customers traveled from all over New England to experience p!ng firsthand, 67% of our orders during our 3-month pilot were from returning customers. Our super users came 30-35 times. They came back because we’re not just a novelty – we’re genuinely better.See how customers react to their first experience with p!ng:Our patent-pending, high-throughput system was designed for one purpose: to deliver the best experience. It’s low CAPEX (capital expenditure) too, which gives us scaling advantages.Our mobile app was developed to be as frictionless as possible. No longer does it take 13 clicks to complete a simple order. p!ng offers customers customization across a wide range of modifications, and our app saves your favorite drink configurations for quick reordering, making your daily coffee side quest a fast, effortless win.Each pod can make 360 drinks per hour. Each pod has 2 windows serviced by independent robotic workcells. This creates redundancy in case one window/workcell goes down, we can continue to serve customers.Robotics should be reliable, pragmatic, cost-efficient and above all else, enhance the customer experience. Today’s automated coffee kiosks use robotic arms with unnecessary degrees of freedom to move drinks around to specialized and expensive automated machines that use traditional grind \u0026amp; brew, resulting in coffee grinds and other waste. p!ng’s drink-dispensing robots can be applied flexibly across drink categories and easily modified based on the season, beverage trends, and demand. p!ng’s differentiation from other robotic coffee solutions is that our system is high-throughput, faster, more flexible, and lower cost.By focusing on customer experience, we solve customer pain points that, in turn, drive business advantages. For example, our machine learning vision system adjusts our automated service windows to the height of the car window so customers can easily grab their drinks. During our pilot, we served 1500 drinks, and not one was spilled. We’ve successfully served many types of vehicles, from low sports cars to fire trucks.At scale, each p!ng pod generates:$500,000 average unit volume (AUV)75% less occupancy and labor costs vs traditional coffee chains4x the throughput3x the net margin24/7 operation that captures all drink occasions in addition to morning rush and afternoon treat, meaning measurable incremental revenueA centralized hub called a commissary supports 10 pods with maintenance, resupply, and 3D-printed parts on demand. Automated inventory monitoring systems will ensure pods are never short of supplies or serving expired inventory.The p!ng pod’s ultra compact footprint breaks the mold of traditional retail store fronts. Because the pod’s small 120 sq ft footprint is 10x less than that of a traditional suburban coffee shop, our pre-opening, occupancy, and utility costs are much lower. We require only a power hook-up, which is augmented with solar panels on the pod’s roof. We don’t need water, sewer, or a pad site. Pods can be placed in undermonetized sites that cannot accommodate traditional drive-thrus.p!ng utilizes a simplified robotics-as-a-service licensing model where a licensee can get started with a $150K payment that secures their pod. A monthly fee covers pod maintenance and restock, which is provided by p!ng to ensure a high-quality customer experience, as well as continued innovation and upgrades to the pod, marketing, and site/real estate assistance. Licensees will be responsible for finding and securing locations, providing on-site customer service, and community marketing efforts such as organic social and partnerships. Licensees and p!ng share profits. Licensees will be rigorously vetted as part of the selection process, with customer experience KPIs that must be met. Our RaaS model allows us to maintain quality control of all pods.There is opportunity for both large operators to buy packages of 5-10 pods, as well as for smaller entrepreneurs to run their own pods, thereby democratizing franchising for all. Today, the costs of setting up a Dunkin is $500K to $1.8M, making p!ng a far more accessible venture.We have a paid licensee waitlist with licensee interest coming from the US and internationally. Many of our licensees have owned and operated food and beverage companies, as well as restaurants, and understand the challenges within this space.We've partnered with Cometeer, one of the world’s best coffee technology companies, to bring our customers exceptional coffee. Precision-brewed and flash frozen, every cup is consistently delicious. Their extraction and storage process allows us to ensure we have no waste (nixing traditional grind \u0026amp; brew), which importantly gives us storage capacity advantages within the pod, tightening up our already small footprint.Our teas, lemonades, and refreshers, for example, are also non-GMO and organic.We believe our customers' money should go towards delicious, premium ingredients in their cup rather than fancy storefronts or high rents.Beyond phase 1, we have a range of expansion plans for the brand, technology, and IP that will multiply the value of p!ng, including:White label partnerships with independent cafes and fast food chain. Many cafes and coffee shops have cult followings but cannot add a drive-thru to their existing retail location because of cost or physics, and small parking lots make it hard for their pick–up only patrons to stop in. Partnering with these small businesses to offload their demand benefits them by capturing additional sales and making the experience better for their customer. We serve as the platform to give them an extra advantage. Concurrently we see opportunities to work with large chains to modernize their drive-thru experience.Mobile trailers for festivals and concertsWalk-up formats for urban environmentsRural expansion into coffee deserts where traditional shops can't survive economicallyOur complementary experiences make us unstoppable. The technical expertise Rob gained from iRobot and Amazon Robotics and his food service background is balanced by Jane’s customer experience (CX) and product/brand marketing experience. We first met working on the same product team at SharkNinja developing and launching kitchen appliances. We do a lot of customer testing and feedback analysis to ensure that customers find value in p!ng. We build fast too -- we launched our pilot in 8 months and designed and built our fully autonomous pod in 11 months.Our backers: a deep bench of advisors, partners, and investors across robotics, real estate, and coffee franchising. Many former and current founders and operators who have been exactly where we are.We used to pitch to venture capitalists who didn’t understand the problem we were trying to solve. Some of them had assistants who would grab coffee for them and others had elaborate at-home setups to make espresso. But, many of our customers, partners, and supporters ask us how they can invest because they live the problems that we solve for every day, and they believe in what we’re building and our mission. We’d love for our believers to be owners and share in the success of growing a brand that does things differently.We bootstrapped our pilot with $200,000 of our own savings, then raised a $635,000 pre-seed round (combo of equity and equity for services) to develop and launch a fully autonomous pod. We’ve run complex, multi-million dollar programs before and we’ve proven we are scrappy founders who achieve key milestones quickly and cost effectively.Forward-looking projections are not guaranteed.Your investment will help us build three more pods in 2026 that will include all of our lessons learned from past builds. We’ll use these pods as the foundation for our hub-and-spoke operational model so we’re ready to scale up with our licensees in 2027. Like our current location, these pods will be placed in high-traffic commercial zones in the southern NH/northern MA area, allowing us to validate our hub-and-spoke-model.We’ll be focused on KPIs such as line speed, optimizing average unit volume per pod, and of course, customer experience-focused metrics such as net promoter score (NPS), customer satisfaction (CSAT), and other key metrics.p!ng puts the customer at the heart of everything through scalable robotics. From day one, we’ve always wanted p!ng to stand for progress, accessibility, and customer service commitment.Join us as we build the future of convenience - fast, effortless, and human-centered.","location":"N. Billerica, MA","website":"https://pingthru.com/","total_amount_raised":441310,"total_investors":206,"is_funded":false,"is_active":true,"quality_score":4,"related_urls":["https://wefunder.com/ping","https://pingthru.com/"]},"media":{"share_image_url":"https://uploads.wefunder.com/uploads/company/custom_card_photo/185787/xxl_p_ng_1772059758417.jpg","logo_url":"https://uploads.wefunder.com/uploads/company/logo/185787/large_blob.png","header_media_url":"https://uploads.wefunder.com/uploads/company/header_media_photo/185787/standard_blob.jpg","cover_photo_url":"https://uploads.wefunder.com/uploads/company/custom_card_photo/185787/large_p_ng_1772059758417.jpg"},"links":{"company_url":"https://pingthru.com/","linkedin_url":"https://linkedin.com/company/pingthru/","facebook_url":"https://facebook.com/pingthrucoffee/","instagram_url":"https://instagram.com/pingthrucoffee/","tiktok_url":"https://tiktok.com/@pingthru"},"highlights":[{"id":62781,"name":"venture_backed","url":"venturebacked","presentable_name":"VC-Backed","description":"Raised $250K or more from a venture firm","image_url":"https://uploads.wefunder.com/2021/profile-highlights-check.svg"}],"quick_facts":[{"index":1,"claim_id":"claim-fact-1","value":"67% of orders from returning customers, even without a loyalty program yet"},{"index":2,"claim_id":"claim-fact-2","value":"High customer satisfaction, earning 5-star customer reviews across the board"},{"index":3,"claim_id":"claim-fact-3","value":"Robotics as a Service (RaaS) licensing model at \u0026lt;$200K per site enables rapid scaling"},{"index":4,"claim_id":"claim-fact-4","value":"VC-backed. Raised $635K pre-seed round, including $100K grant from MassRobotics Accelerator"},{"index":5,"claim_id":"claim-fact-5","value":"Recognized as one of the top 100 robotics start-ups to watch in the world by The Robot Report (2025)"},{"index":6,"claim_id":"claim-fact-6","value":"Patent-pending technology includes height-adjusting windows and sensor-augmented geofence"},{"index":7,"claim_id":"claim-fact-7","value":"Tiny footprint with low energy use, enhanced by solar power. No other utilities needed."}],"team":[{"id":5788456,"entity_id":"wefunder:company_role:5788456","user_entity_id":"wefunder:user:4842726","role":"founder","name":"Jane Lo","title":"co-founder","bio":"Customer Experience analytics expert. Advisor to Fortune 500 execs, leading a team of data analysts at Forrester Research. Brand \u0026amp; product marketer at SharkNinja with launch of the first-ever Ninja Coffee Bar. UC Berkeley BAs, Booth MBA.","avatar_url":"https://uploads.wefunder.com/uploads/company_role/custom_photo/5788456/square_blob.jpg?1770226408","profile_url":"https://wefunder.com/jane.lo","linkedin_url":"https://linkedin.com/in/jane-lo-ping/","related_urls":["https://wefunder.com/jane.lo"]},{"id":6489806,"entity_id":"wefunder:company_role:6489806","role":"founder","name":"Rob Whitten","title":"co-founder","bio":"West Point grad, Army Infantry captain, systems engineer. Product development leader at iRobot, SharkNinja, and Amazon Robotics. Multiple patents in package sortation \u0026amp; created/led grocery robotics strategy. Owner/operator of Morning Salute food truck.","avatar_url":"https://uploads.wefunder.com/uploads/company_role/custom_photo/6489806/square_avatar.jpg?1772558928","linkedin_url":"https://linkedin.com/in/rob-whitten-pingthru/","related_urls":[]},{"id":6602427,"entity_id":"wefunder:company_role:6602427","user_entity_id":"wefunder:user:5044241","role":"employee","name":"Rory MacKean","title":"CTO","bio":"Over 24 years of systems and mechanical engineering experience at robotic start-ups including Harvest Automation (COO), Tertill (co-founder/CPO), and Superpedestrian. MIT grad with MS from Tufts University.","avatar_url":"https://uploads.wefunder.com/uploads/company_role/custom_photo/6602427/square_avatar.jpg?1772559011","profile_url":"https://wefunder.com/rory.mackean.1","linkedin_url":"https://linkedin.com/in/rorymackean/","related_urls":["https://wefunder.com/rory.mackean.1"]}],"featured_investors":[{"id":12541,"entity_id":"wefunder:company_investor_profile:12541","investor_profile_id":4405712,"investor_profile_entity_id":"wefunder:investor_profile:4405712","subject_entity_id":"wefunder:notable_investor:16403","name":"Helen Greiner","role_title":"","bio":"Helen was co-founder and former President \u0026amp; Chairman of iRobot, the company that created the iconic Roomba and defense robots like PackBot. She founded CyPhy Works to advance drone technology and was CEO at Tertill, developing autonomous gardening robots.","avatar_url":"https://wefunder.com/rails/active_storage/blobs/redirect/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsiZGF0YSI6OTg3NDQ0LCJwdXIiOiJibG9iX2lkIn19--e018c60e479def39daaffb3a1c80f8dc00b59662/filename","profile_url":"https://wefunder.com/helen.greiner.1","endorsement_quote":"What impressed me most is the scalability. Low labor, small footprint, and high throughput means this model can expand rapidly and profitably. I love that this concept adresses the needs of busy people who just want a delicious cup of coffee fast.","endorsement_name":"","investment_total":45000,"investment_info":"Invested $10,000 this round \u0026 $35,000 previously","is_lead_investor":false,"memo_paid_for_by_company":false,"related_urls":["https://wefunder.com/helen.greiner.1"]},{"id":13148,"entity_id":"wefunder:company_investor_profile:13148","investor_profile_id":4533090,"investor_profile_entity_id":"wefunder:investor_profile:4533090","subject_entity_id":"wefunder:notable_investor:17068","name":"Hustle Fund","role_title":"Partner","bio":"Hustle Fund is a venture capital fund investing in hustlers at the pre-seed and seed stages.","avatar_url":"https://wefunder.com/rails/active_storage/blobs/redirect/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsiZGF0YSI6MTM1NzEyNCwicHVyIjoiYmxvYl9pZCJ9fQ==--f95d3b0b02ca2952d9f599beb86594e22237dc52/avatar.jpg","profile_url":"https://wefunder.com/hustle.fund.4","endorsement_name":"Haley Bryant","is_lead_investor":false,"related_urls":["https://wefunder.com/hustle.fund.4"]},{"id":13356,"entity_id":"wefunder:company_investor_profile:13356","investor_profile_id":4573171,"investor_profile_entity_id":"wefunder:investor_profile:4573171","subject_entity_id":"wefunder:notable_investor:17320","name":"sherwood neiss","role_title":"","bio":"D3VC is an AI/ML Venture Fund that is investing in select crowdfunding offerings.","avatar_url":"https://wefunder.com/rails/active_storage/blobs/redirect/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsiZGF0YSI6MjI4MDk5LCJwdXIiOiJibG9iX2lkIn19--df44cd3a21474e5ad44daebb6002448835a49c81/filename","profile_url":"https://wefunder.com/sherwood.neiss.2","endorsement_quote":"The founding team is among the most qualified we have seen at this stage in the Reg CF market. Rob Whitten's robotics background — Amazon Robotics, iRobot, BAE Systems, West Point — is directly, not tangentially, relevant to building an automated serving system. There is a meaningful difference between someone who once used automation and someone who built it at Amazon scale. The pilot pod in Hudson, New Hampshire is real and operational. p!ng has crossed the first threshold that kills most hardware startups: a working system serving actual customers in a real environment. That is not a demo. That is not a simulation. It is a machine that detects a car, makes a drink, and completes a transaction.","endorsement_name":"","investment_total":2500,"investment_info":"Invested $2,500 this round","is_lead_investor":false,"memo_paid_for_by_company":false,"related_urls":["https://wefunder.com/sherwood.neiss.2"]}],"investor_memos":[],"tab_counts":{"posts":7,"ask_questions":32,"featured_investors":3,"faq_entries":5},"active_fundraises":[{"id":146450,"entity_id":"wefunder:fundraise:146450","state":"successful","offering_type":"4(a)(6)","funding_type":"note","structure":"ttw","security_type":"","currency":"USD","testing_the_waters":true,"min_purchase":50000,"max_purchase":9,"funding_target":1235000.0,"minimum_target":"50000.0","maximum_target":"1235000.0"},{"id":146449,"entity_id":"wefunder:fundraise:146449","state":"open","offering_type":"4(a)(6)","funding_type":"note","structure":"safe","security_type":"equity","currency":"USD","testing_the_waters":false,"min_purchase":250,"max_purchase":9,"funding_target":1235000.0,"minimum_target":"50000.0","maximum_target":"1235000.0","funding_started_at":"2026-02-24T00:16:57Z","funding_closed_at":"2026-06-25T03:59:59Z"}],"latest_fundraise":{"id":146450,"entity_id":"wefunder:fundraise:146450","state":"successful","offering_type":"4(a)(6)","structure":"ttw","testing_the_waters":true,"can_invest_now":false,"funding_started_at":null,"funding_closed_at":null,"terms":{"eb":"$16M","nb":"$19M","txt":"valuation cap"}},"recent_posts":[{"id":294509,"entity_id":"wefunder:feed_item:294509","type":"FeedItem::Spotlight","visibility":"public","preview":"One Thing We Got Wrong","published_at":"2026-04-03T22:33:06Z","author_name":"Rob Whitten","url":"/feed/294509","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/feed/294509"},{"id":260175,"entity_id":"wefunder:feed_item:260175","type":"FeedItem::Update","visibility":"public","title":"Customer testing update: strong real-world demand","preview":"Every time we open the p!ng pod for testing, cars start pulling in within minutes. One right after the other.Importantly, people don’t just try it once. Many come back.We have done no advertising or promotion. This is purely organic discovery driven by curiosity and caffeine.We are still operating in controlled testing mode while we tune reliability, throughput, and operational processes before turning on paid transactions. That said, the demand signals are clear and consistent. Real customer...","published_at":"2026-02-17T02:04:34Z","author_name":"Rob Whitten","url":"/feed/260175","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/feed/260175"},{"id":252772,"entity_id":"wefunder:feed_item:252772","type":"FeedItem::Note","visibility":"public","preview":"Had a great chat with fellow p!ng investor and advisor, Helen Greiner (co-founder of iRobot) today. Fortunately, we remembered to record it this time, and we'll share it with the group soon. Cheers! - Rob","published_at":"2026-02-04T04:23:53Z","author_name":"Rob Whitten","url":"/feed/252772","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/feed/252772"},{"id":245618,"entity_id":"wefunder:feed_item:245618","type":"FeedItem::Note","visibility":"public","preview":"One of the best parts of a startup is getting support from your community. Sometimes it's advice or funding, but it can also be services or support that help us move faster. With a business like ours, most of our investors can add value that isn't just monetary. And that's pretty cool!","published_at":"2026-01-19T18:01:15Z","author_name":"Rob Whitten","url":"/feed/245618","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/feed/245618"},{"id":243285,"entity_id":"wefunder:feed_item:243285","type":"FeedItem::Note","visibility":"public","preview":"What's the dollar on the wall about? It's a reminder of why we're doing this: it's for the customers.","published_at":"2026-01-13T22:41:29Z","author_name":"Rob Whitten","url":"/feed/243285","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/feed/243285"},{"id":238220,"entity_id":"wefunder:feed_item:238220","type":"FeedItem::Note","visibility":"public","preview":"Come fly with us!","published_at":"2025-12-31T17:22:13Z","author_name":"Rob Whitten","url":"/feed/238220","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/feed/238220"},{"id":234291,"entity_id":"wefunder:feed_item:234291","type":"FeedItem::Note","visibility":"public","preview":"It's a beautiful day for testing, and it's so cool to see all the familiar names coming through on the reservation list! Cheers!","published_at":"2025-12-20T18:20:44Z","author_name":"Rob Whitten","url":"/feed/234291","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/feed/234291"}],"q_and_a":[{"id":326320,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:326320","question":"great job thus far! thanks for your service rob, I am a vet too(army sniper). few questions 1. what would you say is the biggest difference between you and octane coffee? I am investing in one of you. i can't decide both of you are great. can't decide core difference. 2. looks like all you have is coffee. do you plan on adding any food items. even if you was to partner with a company that can put their machines etc right next your pods. many like to have something to go with their coffee. 3. you mentioned 3 pods. how long will it take to produce them? how big is each pod? 4. the 200k licensing fee is pretty good. how much will somebody be all in for? initial setup cost? how long is somebody up and running once of course everything is paid to you? 5. what is the roi. I know I have seen some get coffee quick companies(vending etc) roi be 6 months max in large part cause they are so cheap, one is just 12k. which is very good. makes people want to take profits and open more locations. which is a win win. 6. I know you have a licensing fee, very smart btw. i am an investor in several franchise model concepts. we are crushing it right now! we have limits on how many locations in one city, region etc. is that the case with you? some companies there are just 2 locations in a city and some seems like there is one on every corner. 7. is your pods cashless? I know some companies went to cashless. 8. do you plan on doing any deals for vets? I know dd does no franchise fee and reduced royalties for vets which saves vet a lot. 9. how does your cost compare to Starbucks. I do agree with you about long lines etc at starbucks. you can provide a cheaper price and quicker along with other stuff than coffee you are true winner! will be huge! 10. what is your moat? 11. what made you have the Italian sodas.? very interesting. you don't see that a starbucks etc. how many people on average actually order those? I never heard of any of those? you think you will add any other types? thanks for your time!","author_name":"John Webster","votes":6,"created_at":"2026-02-26T17:35:46Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/ping#question-326320","answers":[{"id":326361,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:326361","answer":"Thanks and thank you for your service as well! Snipers are the definition of high speed, low drag. I was an 11A, so I only got one chance to ring an iron maiden with a Barrett, but it’s a pretty cool memory. 1. Biggest difference between p!ng and octane coffee? We have mad respect for Octane Coffee but other than being robotic coffee drive thrus, we’re quite different. BLUF/TLDR - We are focused on creating a uniquely frictionless and scalable customer pick-up experience, not just an automated coffee kiosk. We own key IP including our customer detection system, and while we’re starting with coffee, the plan is to expand to many other offerings (snacks, convenience items, even pharmacy). Technology – We have patents pending on important aspects of our technology: our height-adjusting presentation windows and our customer detection and queuing system. This latter system takes us past the use of a broad geofence to locate customers, and allows us to know who’s in front of the window, how many different orders are in the same car (so they can all be presented together), what order customers are in line, and which drinks to send out. This crucially allows us to maintain a scanless and a speed-optimized experience. And the height adjusting windows use a vision system to measure car window heights so we’ve been able to serve drinks to firefighters in their truck as well as low sports cars. And as a result of customers being so good at grabbing their drinks when they’re at an ergonomic height, we’ve never had one spilled drink. To the best of our knowledge, Octane’s units provide a choice of two-fixed height pick-up windows, require customers to scan a QR code on arriv, and they recently mentioned they have not filed any patents yet. Another crucial difference is our drink-dispensing robotics. Unlike other robotic kiosks, we do not use a robotic arm that moves a drink between various specialized and expensive drink-making machines. This is an expensive solution that is not designed for high-throughput volume or scalability. Our drink-making robots essentially 3D print drinks using easy to remove and easy to clean ingredient dispensers that are easily swapped in and out. The vast majority of our parts are off the shelf and replacements can be printed quickly on site. Our entire 14x8 ft pod is refrigerated and our drink-making robotics allow for high storage density because our dispensers are cleaned and refilled at our commissary. This is also why it will be easy to introduce new ingredients and recipes with no extra development time or cost. Customer Experience From day one, our focus has always been on delivering the fastest, most frictionless, and delightful experience possible to customers. The technology is cool but exists only in service to the experience. We are always iterating based on customer feedback as a result, and customers will always be our north star. Because of this, our high-quality experience must never degrade over time, which is what leads us to a robotics-as-a-service licensing model. Scaling Strategy From public sources of information, it appears Octane’s current plan is to sell each unit for $750K. It’s not clear if Octane plans to service these units for franchisees. Because of our commitment to and need for control over a high-quality experience, we’ve opted for a robotics-as-a-service model. We maintain, upgrade, and resupply the pod so our licensees don’t have to have technical skills, and they do what humans do best. They serve as the face of our brand, are embedded in their local communities, own local marketing through social and partnerships, and provide any needed customer service at the pod. We would screen vigorously for the best owner representatives of our brand, which is why we implemented a paid waitlist for licensees as a first filter for serious commitment. But because the barrier to entry is much lower, we can draw from a much larger, qualified pool. And we’d still have the opportunity to partner with large franchise operators. 2. looks like all you have is coffee. do you plan on adding any food items? Yes, today we serve up only tasty beverages including coffee, energy drinks, and refreshers. The addition of packaged snacks is next on the roadmap. The reason we chose to launch with beverages only are: Focus. Food automation is more complicated. We can get to market faster without food which is what traditionally takes the longest for coffee chains to make and serve, thus holding up the drive-thru line further. Demand. Anywhere from 52% of orders (based on our own primary survey research) to 75% of orders at coffee shops (independent coffee shop data) are drinks only. This is dependent on factors such as location - is it in a commuter road or in a shopping mall. Although founded in 1992, Dutch Bros did not serve any food until the late 2010s, only started expanding their hot food menu recently, and is a billion dollar company. 3. you mentioned 3 pods. how long will it take to produce them? how big is each pod? We learned a lot from building our first fully automated pod and intend to operate it for several months to collect performance, reliability, and customer-experience data before initiating the next design iteration. We currently anticipate a 6–8 month redesign phase to incorporate lessons learned and to optimize the system for manufacturability by subcontractors or contract manufacturers. Following design completion, production, integration, and testing of the next units are expected to take approximately 3–4 months, plus additional time for transportation, installation, and onsite commissioning. Based on this preliminary schedule, deployment of the next three pods is currently targeted for early summer 2027, although this timeline is subject to change due to design outcomes, supply chain factors, permitting, site readiness, and other execution risks. Each pod is a chopped down one-trip shipping container (14’ long with a 2’ nose cone), though final dimensions may vary by configuration and site requirements. 4. the 200k licensing fee is pretty good. how much will somebody be all in for? initial setup cost? how long is somebody up and running once of course everything is paid to you? $200K includes all preopening costs. We plan to charge $150K to build and deliver the pod and estimate other preopening costs to be less than $50K. We only need power hookups, so no digging for water or sewer. We also don’t require a pad, so if you have a suitable parking lot that’s overparked for example, preopening costs should be minimal. Flash to bang time between payment and full operational will depend mostly on our production status and permits. Excluding material lead times, the pod build will take 3-4 weeks and deployment should only take a few days of moving, stocking and testing. 5. what is the roi. I know I have seen some get coffee quick companies(vending etc) roi be 6 months max in large part cause they are so cheap, one is just 12k. which is very good. makes people want to take profits and open more locations. which is a win win. It is too early to predict returns with certainty, and actual results will depend on many factors, including site selection, customer demand, pricing, operating costs, competition, regulatory requirements, and overall execution. Based on preliminary assumptions, management believes an initial investment of approximately $200K per location could potentially be recovered in approximately two years at mature performance levels. However, this estimate is forward-looking, has not been validated at scale, and may not be achieved. For context, traditional quick-service restaurant locations can require capital investments of approximately $1M or more, and publicly available franchise disclosure documents for some brands indicate that payback periods may extend to 7+ years, depending on performance and market conditions. Our smaller footprint and automated operations are intended to reduce both upfront capital requirements and ongoing expenses, which support more favorable unit economics if performance targets are met. 6. I know you have a licensing fee, very smart btw. i am an investor in several franchise model concepts. we are crushing it right now! we have limits on how many locations in one city, region etc. is that the case with you? some companies there are just 2 locations in a city and some seems like there is one on every corner. Glad to hear you’re crushing it! We expect to offer territory protections designed to support licensee success, although the specific scope may vary by market and will be defined in licensing agreements. Because our pods require lower customer volume to achieve profitability compared to traditional franchises, we must balance territorial exclusivity with customer convenience and network growth. Proximity to customers’ homes is a significant driver of demand in beverage retail, and our model is intended to place units close to where people live and travel. In many cases, we anticipate deployments in areas that may not support a full-scale franchise location but can sustain a smaller automated unit. 7. is your pods cashless? I know some companies went to cashless. Yes, today it is cashless and all orders go through our mobile app. 8. do you plan on doing any deals for vets? I know dd does no franchise fee and reduced royalties for vets which saves vet a lot. Absolutely. As a vet, I feel strongly about supporting other veterans, and we plan to offer discounted prices and fees. Still working out the details, but this will definitely be a veteran friendly business. 9. how does your cost compare to Starbucks. I do agree with you about long lines etc at starbucks. you can provide a cheaper price and quicker along with other stuff than coffee you are true winner! will be huge! We agree! In our customer research we’ve seen customers are tired of the high prices at Starbucks. But we’re not a value play like Dunkin’. We priced ourselves strategically in the middle, depending on the item and cost, but the part customers appreciate the most is that there is no tipping whatsoever. 10. what is your moat? Our moat comes from the combination of proprietary technology, execution, and scalable system design. Patents and core technology: We have filed patent applications around our sensor-augmented geofence and related systems for automated customer detection and pickup. We believe this capability can materially raise the performance bar for drive-thrus, potentially requiring others to adopt similar approaches to remain competitive. Experience and integration: Our team brings cross-disciplinary experience in food service, robotics, sensing, systems integration, and scaling physical operations, reducing execution risk in a complex domain. Scalable architecture: We have designed a low-cost, manufacturable platform intended for large-scale deployment. The operational knowledge gained from real deployments compounds over time and is difficult to replicate quickly. Integrated operating model: Our licensing strategy and hub-and-spoke support approach are designed to enable capital-efficient expansion while maintaining consistency and reliability. 11. What led you to offer Italian sodas, and will you add other drink types? Our menu focuses on customizable classics that can be prepared quickly and consistently. Italian sodas fit well because they use ingredients already stocked in the pod, are simple to produce, and typically offer favorable margins. Regional preferences also played a role. In New England, drinks like lime rickeys have longstanding popularity (it was my father’s favorite), which influenced our selection. During our pilot, we also tested “dirty sodas,” which required more customer education in this region. Coffee and espresso beverages represented the majority of sales, with soda-based drinks serving as a complementary option. We expect preferences to vary by location and will continue testing and refining the menu over time. Additional beverage types may be introduced as we learn what resonates with customers while maintaining efficient service times.","author_name":"Rob Whitten","votes":3,"created_at":"2026-02-26T23:37:57Z"}]},{"id":326335,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:326335","question":"What sets your company apart from your competitors? There are other coffee robotic companies such as “Yummy Future” and many others out there with unique business models. Will there be a long term plan to place pods inside businesses perhaps?","author_name":"George Baidoo Jr","votes":4,"created_at":"2026-02-26T19:28:34Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/ping#question-326335","answers":[{"id":326395,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:326395","answer":"The vast majority of robotic coffee competitors are walk-up kiosks like Yummy Future or Cafe X. They rely on expensive robotic arms to move drinks between machines, for lower throughput and higher build costs. Many position themselves primarily as labor-saving solutions and customers can see them as novelty experiences. Octane Coffee is a more direct competitor. Like us, they focus on speed and convenience in the drive-thru where volume and sales are high. However, our technology approach, scaling strategy, and customer experience focus differentiate us (more detail provided in response to John Webster’s similar question below). p!ng delivers a uniquely frictionless, high-throughput pick-up experience designed to drive repeat behavior and strong unit economics, prioritizing speed and reliability. The WOW factor is in the experience rather than spectacle and is thus an enduring advantage. We own key IP, including our customer detection system, and while we’re starting with coffee, our platform is designed to expand into additional categories such snacks, convenience items, and even pharmacy for vast market potential. This is where Rob’s background in package sortation and grocery fulfillment automation at Amazon Robotics further propels us. Long term we see opportunities to deploy walk-up pods in urban areas, near campuses and hospitals, and inside businesses. As we expand formats, we will remain anchored to our core pillars of speed, convenience, and operational scalability.","author_name":"Jane Lo","votes":2,"created_at":"2026-02-27T15:15:28Z"}]},{"id":326314,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:326314","question":"Will you be adding protein milk/options to the drinks? Definitely a great addition to consider!","author_name":"G P","votes":4,"created_at":"2026-02-26T17:17:34Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/ping#question-326314","answers":[{"id":326354,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:326354","answer":"Yes! We’re excited about protein milk and other functional add-ons. As we continue to expand our menu, incorporating these better-for-you ingredients will be a natural evolution for p!ng since our drink-making robots are adaptive. We can introduce new ingredients and beverages without reinventing the system.","author_name":"Jane Lo","votes":1,"created_at":"2026-02-26T22:53:58Z"}]},{"id":321444,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:321444","question":"Do you have an IP portfolio that protects you from copycats?","author_name":"David Parthe","votes":4,"created_at":"2025-12-18T18:47:55Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/ping#question-321444","answers":[{"id":321510,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:321510","answer":"Hi David, great question. Yes. We’re building a layered IP strategy that combines patents, trade secrets, and execution know-how. We currently have patent applications filed covering our customer detection system and our height-adjusting presentation windows. The customer detection system—our sensor-augmented geofence—is particularly valuable because it directly delivers customer value by eliminating wait time and enabling instant, personalized handoff. Our dispensing and handling systems are protected as trade secrets. There are many ways to put ingredients into a cup, but our approach is faster and more cost-effective than alternatives. As we learned back in the heyday of iRobot, winning robot products come from combining protected IP with hard-won systems experience and problem-solving. We’re building p!ng, focused on real-world deployment, scalability, and defensibility, not just individual patents.","author_name":"Jane Lo","votes":1,"created_at":"2025-12-19T20:01:58Z"}]},{"id":329263,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:329263","question":"1. When you say the profits are \"3X\" do you mean \"3X\" of the comparison (Dunkin Donuts) of 10%? what is the 3X referencing? 2. How would a potential franchisee understand how to scout for land, get permits, pay rent or pay for the land, pay property taxes, etc...does your team have the ability to quickly transfer that type of information to potential franchisees who don't have experience? 3. The pod is $150,000 startup for the franchisee. How much of that cost is the cost of the shipping container, how much is the cost of the robotics, and how much is profit to Ping? 4. how many pods justify a new hub for ingredient replenishment?","author_name":"Meredith Webb","votes":3,"created_at":"2026-03-27T20:21:10Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/ping#question-329263","answers":[{"id":329277,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:329277","answer":"1. When we reference “3X,” we mean approximately three times the net margin of a traditional coffee shop, like Dunkin'. Traditional coffee shops often operate around ~10% net margins, while our model targets ~30% margins due to higher throughput, smaller footprint and lower labor costs. 2. Yes, site selection and permitting are core parts of our rollout strategy, and we are actively building internal expertise. As we secure our next three locations—working alongside our experienced real estate advisors Jim Sylvia and Louis Cirignano—we’re documenting criteria specific to our micro‑retail model, including traffic patterns, ingress/egress, and zoning considerations. This knowledge is being formalized into a deployment playbook to guide franchisees. Our goal is to make the process structured and repeatable, even for operators without prior real estate experience (such as Rob and I). 3. The $150,000 fee covers the full pod, including the container structure and robotics. We expect it will cost approximately $125K to make a pod in production. We intentionally price this with only a slight to modest margin, as our primary objective is accessibility and rapid network growth rather than upfront profit. Because component and labor costs can vary over time, the bundled pricing simplifies budgeting for franchisees while allowing us to manage costs, labor, and supply chain variability. Our long‑term economics are driven more by network scale than by markup on the initial pod. 4. We expect a single hub to support approximately 4–10 pods, depending on territory density, demand, and logistics efficiency. The hub‑and‑spoke model allows multiple pods to share ingredient preparation and replenishment, significantly reducing operating costs versus standalone locations. The exact number will vary by market, but even at the low end of that range, the shared hub structure improves unit economics and operational efficiency.","author_name":"Jane Lo","votes":1,"created_at":"2026-03-27T22:41:52Z"}]},{"id":329147,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:329147","question":"You mention understaffing as a cause of order error. * What is the kiosk's order error rate? Is this even tracked? * How do customers correct an order? How does this affect throughput (waiting for resolution or having to re-enter queue?) There is lagging and decreasing customer confidence in AI. * How is this tackled? * Is it via not publicizing the use of the technology? Mobile app ordering is growing, but there is still a contingent of potential customers who are not agreeable to it. People still significantly use drive-thru ordering over app ordering, for example, at such places as fast food or Starbucks. * Is this just excluded from the potential market? * Are on-site ordering solutions being considered?","author_name":"Keith D. Tyler","votes":3,"created_at":"2026-03-27T01:35:32Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/ping#question-329147","answers":[{"id":329275,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:329275","answer":"1. Error rate tracking - We actively track order accuracy. At this stage, we monitor orders and intervene if needed. Our goal is zero errors, transitioning from manual oversight to sensor-based validation, and reducing interventions over time. 2. Customer order correction - Once an order is placed, it’s locked in. To date, no customer has requested a change on-site. If an issue does arise, customers can contact us through multiple channels and we immediately remake the order and issue a refund. Our goal is fast resolution with minimal friction. 3. Impact on throughput - Impact is minimal. If needed, drinks are remade in under a minute while the customer waits in a designated service area. We have two robotic workcells, providing built-in redundancy to handle these scenarios without impacting throughput. 4. Customer confidence in AI - We use AI selectively and thoughtfully to enhance — not replace — the customer experience. Most of our AI functions operate behind the scenes, such as our computer vision that automatically adjusts the pickup tray height based on the customer’s vehicle. Customers experience this as convenience rather than “AI.” We openly share with our customers what we're measuring and how, and they think it's a great feature. Where AI is visible, it’s low-risk and customer-friendly, like personalized labels. Our philosophy is simple: by focusing on tangible benefits rather than the technology itself, we’ve seen strong customer acceptance. 5. Mobile-only concern- It’s true that not everyone prefers mobile ordering, and that’s intentional. We’re optimizing for customers who value speed and convenience. Mixing ordering modes is what slows traditional drive-thrus down. Mobile adoption continues to grow rapidly, especially among commuters and younger customers. Dutch Brothers introduced their mobile app system-wide in Q4 '24 and has seen a boost in transaction growth and morning commute convenience. We’ve designed our app to be extremely simple, with favorites and quick reordering in just a couple of taps, which has tested well even with older customer segments. We’re also exploring options like voice ordering to reduce friction even further, making the experience as close to zero-effort as possible.","author_name":"Jane Lo","votes":1,"created_at":"2026-03-27T22:34:47Z"}]},{"id":328312,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:328312","question":"Hi, I would like to know where the pod was located in Film City and State Thanks","author_name":"Sophia Lynn Lewis","votes":3,"created_at":"2026-03-20T07:15:33Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/ping#question-328312","answers":[{"id":328530,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:328530","answer":"We're currently located at 207 Central St Hudson, NH","author_name":"Jane Lo","votes":0,"created_at":"2026-03-22T14:26:33Z"}]},{"id":327278,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:327278","question":"Hi Rob and Jane, thanks for the detailed responses so far. We are an early-stage venture fund (d3vc.ai) that invests in select RegCF offering and yours score high on our algorithm. We reviewed your offering in our last investment committee call and have the following follow up questions we were hoping you could answer: The pivot to a RaaS model is a compelling way to scale, but it does raise a few new questions regarding the long-term operational 'moat': The 'Commissary' Radius: You mentioned that ingredient dispensers are cleaned and refilled at a central commissary. For a licensee in a new market (like the one mentioned in Nova Scotia), is p!ng building that commissary infrastructure first, or is the licensee responsible for the 'back-end' cleaning/refilling space? Maintenance Uptime: Since the value prop is 24/7 'Wicked Fast' service, what is the guaranteed uptime for a pod? If a hardware failure occurs in a remote location, what is the expected 'Mean Time to Repair' to keep that licensee profitable? Menu Expansion vs. Hardware: You mentioned moving into snacks and pharmacy. Is the current '3D printing' robotic architecture truly modular enough to dispense solid objects (like a pill bottle or a bag of chips) without a total hardware redesign of the pod? The Cometeer Moat: Using Cometeer ensures high quality, but since it’s a third-party supplier, what prevents a competitor from using the same high-quality frozen pucks to eliminate your taste advantage? Do you have an exclusive partnership for robotic applications? Thanks again for the transparency!","author_name":"Sherwood Neiss","votes":3,"created_at":"2026-03-09T20:57:41Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/ping#question-327278","answers":[{"id":327297,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:327297","answer":"Thanks for the thoughtful questions. Hub-and-Spoke Commissary Model: All hub operations will be run by p!ng employees, which allows us to maintain consistent training, quality control, and a tight operational feedback loop with our engineering team. In new markets, we’ll aim to find or establish a commissary ahead of planned sites in a region. One of the things I learned while operating a food truck was how to utilize shared commercial kitchen spaces, which are available in most cities. Our commissary requirements are intentionally lightweight: storage, cleaning stations, refrigeration, and counter space. There are many viable options to launch a hub quickly without heavy infrastructure. Within our longer-term roadmap, we will explore containerized commissaries built inside shipping containers that could be deployed into new markets when needed. Maintenance Uptime: Our reliability strategy has four components: 1) Robust, simple system design 2) Redundancy 3) Preventative maintenance 4) Monitoring and support Our philosophy is to engineer out complexity wherever possible. p!ng mechanisms are intentionally designed with only the degrees of freedom required to perform the task, which reduces complexity, increases reliability, and keeps replacement parts inexpensive and easy to source. Each pod includes a 24V battery system that provides clean power to the automation and 2–3 hours of runtime without external power. Every pod also contains two independent robotic workcells, so if one workcell goes offline the other can continue fulfilling orders. Service technicians perform daily preventative maintenance and cleaning when refilling ingredients, following a structured checklist. In addition, each pod includes fault-detection sensors that allow us to monitor systems remotely. Each hub provides 24/7 operational support capable of resolving issues remotely or dispatching technicians when needed. Most subsystems are designed for under 30 minutes MTTR, excluding larger assemblies such as refrigeration. Menu Expansion vs. Hardware: Our initial approach to product expansion uses cup-shaped containers as a standardized form factor. Packaged snacks and other items can be delivered using this container format, allowing us to leverage the majority of the existing robotic architecture. Over time we plan to expand into more advanced dispensing systems that support a wider range of packaging types. What we like about shipping containers is they’re stackable so we’ll expand vertically for products outside of beverages. The Cometeer Moat: Cometeer has been a great partner and enables us to deliver high-quality coffee in a format that works extremely well for automation. As our volume grows, we expect to be in a strong position to negotiate robotic exclusivity for certain applications once we reach specific minimum order quantities. At the same time, we are actively developing second-source supply options to ensure we can continue delivering reliably under all circumstances.","author_name":"Rob Whitten","votes":0,"created_at":"2026-03-10T01:28:02Z"}]},{"id":326317,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:326317","question":"Hi, I am quite interested in your business model. Do you have any plans: 1 to tackle the high foot traffic locations that don't use cars such as food courts in the malls or urban areas that are like indoor ATMs style? 2 How about create more revenue steam on the supply side? 3 Beside your tech stacks or RaaS revenue streams, how does your drinks compare to DD, Starbucks and other coffee beverage that dominate the market out there? Any feedbacks? 4 Projection number of location in 3, 5, 10 years if all go well?","author_name":"Quang Ho","votes":3,"created_at":"2026-02-26T17:26:21Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/ping#question-326317","answers":[{"id":326357,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:326357","answer":"1. Yes, walk-ups and urban/densely populated locations are of definite interest to us. However, we view these as a future expansion opportunity rather than a near-term focus. Right now, we are intentionally focused on drive-thru locations. There are 3 main reasons: * Higher volume and revenue potential. Drive-thru locations consistently generate strong sales. In fact, adding a drive-thru to a store can boost sales by 50%, and over 70% of Starbucks’ revenue comes from drive-thru, mobile app, and delivery orders. Drive‑thru‑only coffee brands like 7Brew and Dutch Bros have grown rapidly and represent one of the fastest‑expanding segments in the industry. * Consumer behavior shift. Drive‑thru demand accelerated during COVID and has remained durable. Customers increasingly prioritize speed, convenience, and staying in their cars. * Real estate strategy and unit economics. High foot‑traffic locations often come with higher lease costs. Our drive‑thru model allows us to optimize throughput and cost structure while building strong economics per location. Our current technology and customer experience are designed specifically around the drive‑thru format. As we scale and continue to refine the platform, expanding into walk‑up and dense urban placements becomes a natural next step — but focus and capital efficiency are critical in this stage. 2. Re: supply-side revenue, are you speaking to supplier partnerships, hardware licensing, or something else? There are definitely many opportunities here from data monetization (i.e., selling anonymized consumer insights to beverage/CPG brands), to sponsored menu items or featured roasters, to B2B white labeling or co-branded opportunities. We have been in conversations, for example, with several fast food and coffee chains, about strategic partnerships. 3. We’ve partnered with Cometeer, a premium coffee brewing supplier that works with top-tier roasters like George Howell, Klatch, Intelligentsia, and others. Their technology brews coffee to perfection, extracting more flavor and aroma, then flash‑freezes it to lock in freshness. The result is exceptionally consistent, high‑quality coffee without degradation over time. If a visit to the pod isn’t possible, we invite you to visit a Whole Foods where you can find Cometeer packs in the freezer aisle. * Customer response has been overwhelmingly positive (check out our reviews!). Many people are genuinely surprised by the quality. Having said that, taste around coffee is highly subjective. DD is not known for gourmet coffee yet still sells a ton of it. However, we knew going in that people believe automated coffee leads to poor quality and taste, so we proactively counteracted that by providing the best coffee possible to break down barriers to adoption. Our model allows us to reinvest savings from reduced labor and optimized occupancy into higher-quality ingredients for all out beverages. There are also operational advantages to our approach: *No need to constantly dial in or maintain traditional espresso equipment *Ability to offer multiple roasts more easily over time *Less waste. No coffee grounds or leftover brewed coffee to dump *No need for a water/sewer hookup This combination — premium inputs + operational efficiency + robotics — allows us to deliver a product that competes on both quality and convenience, not just one or the other. 4. Assuming successful execution, we plan to scale in measured phases as we validate unit economics, reliability, and operational processes: 3 years: Approximately 40–50 operational sites 5 years: hundreds 10 years: thousands Our growth strategy emphasizes disciplined expansion supported by improvements in manufacturability, system cost, and operational efficiency. We intend to leverage a license-based model in which local operators contribute site development capital and local site \u0026amp; market knowledge, while we provide the technology platform, hardware, and centralized support. As geographic density increases, a hub-and-spoke approach to maintenance, refilling, and service is expected to improve efficiency and support sustainable scaling. These projections are forward-looking estimates and depend on factors including market adoption, capital availability, regulatory approvals, supply chain stability, and overall execution.","author_name":"Jane Lo","votes":1,"created_at":"2026-02-26T23:05:21Z"}]},{"id":334068,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:334068","question":"What are your thoughts on servicing Seamless or Uber Eats orders (who may have large office orders or mob your pods at critical times) without delaying solo customers? Do you see the p!ng pod fitting that delivery model in the future?","author_name":"Jason S.","votes":2,"created_at":"2026-05-21T23:22:35Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/ping#question-334068","answers":[{"id":334152,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:334152","answer":"We’ve already seen strong signals that delivery could be a meaningful channel for p!ng. Customers frequently ask for the ability to assign pickup to a friend, family member, or coworker, and younger consumers are already very comfortable ordering coffee delivery through brands like Starbucks and Dunkin'.That said, protecting the experience for all customers is critical to us. Today, we cap the number of drinks per order to keep throughput fast and queues moving smoothly, and we’d likely apply similar guardrails to delivery orders during peak periods.Longer term, as p!ng pods become more distributed geographically, demand can be spread across multiple nearby pods, allowing us to accommodate larger/higher volume of orders without creating bottlenecks at a single location.","author_name":"Jane Lo","votes":0,"created_at":"2026-05-22T21:33:05Z"}]},{"id":333327,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:333327","question":"Can I have contact info to discuss a further invesment?","author_name":"Brandon Miller","votes":2,"created_at":"2026-05-09T19:04:02Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/ping#question-333327","answers":[]},{"id":329708,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:329708","question":"hey Rob, do you have a recording from your march 12th webinar? I didn't get to attend. one of my goals will be to help sell licenses. sell 25, 75 etc to groups instead of 1 or 2 etc here and there. one of my investments we have franchises from 1.5 to almost 5 million a location. we still have people buying 35, 75 etc to develop and our roi is usually around 1 year. Jane had mentioned that people buying pods would be responsible for customer service and marketing. one of the reasons why people like franchises is cause their marketing is taking care of. have you considered maybe partnering with a marketing, customer service company etc that way it's a win win win(since you aren't getting the 3 percent etc percent that comes from marketing) if you ever watched shark tank a big problem companies have is they don't know how to market their product or service. are you getting royalties? I know even though you have licenses you can still collect royalties. I look forward to chatting, thanks!","author_name":"John Webster","votes":2,"created_at":"2026-04-01T18:10:08Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/ping#question-329708","answers":[{"id":329743,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:329743","answer":"For the Q\u0026amp;A session, you can access the recording here (just complete the form and click register).We definitely want to sell in blocks (25, 75, etc.), but we also want to keep it accessible for operators like us, people with some capital and a lot of drive, not just large groups.On marketing, we will support at the national level and provide strong materials, but local ownership will handle things like events and community presence. So far, the pod itself has been our best marketing. It is the brightest, most unique thing around and naturally pulls people in.As we scale, we will likely partner with a marketing firm to amplify that, but we are less inclined to outsource customer service. We want to keep tight control of the experience.And yes, there will be a royalty or profit share component as part of the model.Looking forward to chatting more 👍","author_name":"Rob Whitten","votes":0,"created_at":"2026-04-01T21:49:38Z"}]},{"id":327629,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:327629","question":"Hello, Really impressed with the team and your consistent communication! Just increased my investment after watching the latest webinar. 1. When you had mentioned that you will offer a veteran and first responder discount, would you consider adding teachers to the mix? I think that would really make you stand out (if it is possible to verify). 2. Seems like all the drinks are mixed, is there a possibility to make a Frappuccino style drink (ex with chocolate chips or foam on top (ex matcha drink)? I’d love to see a sample menu if you have one handy. 3. Will the company own locations as well or strictly franchising? Are you gaining meaningful revenue from the pilot? Are what point do you see the company at a break even (how many locations needed/timeframe)?","author_name":"Kirill Likhachev","votes":2,"created_at":"2026-03-12T23:22:33Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/ping#question-327629","answers":[{"id":327633,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:327633","answer":"Hello, really appreciate the support and glad you enjoyed the webinar. Thank you for increasing your investment! 1. Teacher discounts Yes, we plan on including discounts for teachers as well since we both got our start in STEM-related careers. Services like ID.me can verify teachers, as well as first responders and veterans. 2. Frappuccino-style drinks We will have fresh whipped topping on the menu, which opens the door to a variety of drinks like matcha, mochas, and other foam-topped options. You can check out our menu, including modifiers here: pingthru.com/menu.Right now all of our ingredients are in liquid form so they can be reliably dispensed by the robot. Ingredients like chocolate chips would come later as we expand the system. 3. Will the company own locations or franchise them? We will absolutely own the first four sites so we can refine operations and make sure the customer experience is exactly what we want.After that we expect a mix. There are a lot of advantages to local ownership and operators who are deeply invested in their community, so the long-term model will likely include licensed operators alongside company-owned locations. 4. Are you generating meaningful revenue from the pilot? Not yet but soon. Right now the pilot is focused on testing the full system with real customers.We are not charging customers until the customer experience is where we want it to be – reliable and delightful. 5. When do you expect the company to break even? There are many dependencies, so this is a forecast, not a guarantee. Based on our current model, we expect to begin seeing strong operating leverage around 30–40 locations, which could put the company on the kind of growth J-curve we’re targeting around 2028.","author_name":"Rob Whitten","votes":1,"created_at":"2026-03-13T01:10:39Z"}]},{"id":327531,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:327531","question":"Very fascinating idea and I can see how this would take business away from typical B\u0026amp;M coffee shops with a drive-thru! Some questions 1. Is your menu fixed for all of your units that you open up? OR could you have a different menu lineup in Boston vs Houston? 2. Do you have a separate robot system for each different drink or one for hot, and one for cold, or something else? 3. How do you prevent the robots from breaking down in the middle of a busy day? Do you have systems in place to thoroughly and routinely inspect each machine? 4. Do you have any paid human being on site during working hours to ensure nothing breaks, or is each business 100% human-free? 5. Is each business designed to be placed in an empty lot, or perhaps a large parking lot? How do you assess the physical footprint requirement for each one? Thanks!","author_name":"Guillermo  Saade","votes":2,"created_at":"2026-03-11T21:21:04Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/ping#question-327531","answers":[{"id":327556,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:327556","answer":"Great questions, thanks for digging in. 1. Is your menu fixed for all units, or could Boston vs Houston have different menus? We’re starting with the same core ingredient set in every pod to keep operations structured and repeatable as we scale. Once that baseline is mastered, we can begin introducing regional variations.One advantage of our system is that ~40 core ingredients can produce a very large variety of drinks. For example, “dirty sodas” are popular in the South and don’t require special ingredients, so we could easily offer them regionally or even across the network. 2. Do you have separate robot systems for different drinks? It’s actually the same robot system for everything. 3. How do you prevent robots from breaking down during busy periods? Good question. Reliability is critical for us.Our approach has four components: 1. Robust, simple system design 2. Redundancy 3. Preventative maintenance 4. Monitoring and support Our philosophy is to engineer out unnecessary complexity. The mechanisms are intentionally designed with only the degrees of freedom required to perform the task, which improves reliability and keeps parts inexpensive and easy to source. Each pod includes a 24V battery system that provides clean power to the automation and 2–3 hours of runtime without external power. Every pod also contains two independent robotic workcells, so if one workcell goes offline the other can continue fulfilling orders. Service technicians perform daily preventative maintenance and cleaning when refilling ingredients, following a structured checklist. Each pod also includes fault-detection sensors that allow us to monitor systems remotely. Each hub provides 24/7 operational support, capable of resolving issues remotely or dispatching technicians when needed. Most subsystems are designed for under 30 minutes MTTR (Mean Time to Repair), excluding larger assemblies such as refrigeration units. 4. Are the pods fully human-free? At scale, we expect two types of human roles supporting the system: • A maintainer who services the pod daily. • A site host during peak hours to help first-time users and facilitate throughput. In addition, every pod is virtually monitored 24/7. Today, during our pilot phase, we have someone on site during operations. We’ll continue doing that until the system has enough runtime reliability to operate fully unattended. 5. Where can pods be placed? Yes, both empty lots and existing parking lots work well.A typical site requires roughly the space of 15–20 parking spots in a high-visibility, high-traffic location with good ingress and egress, ideally on the morning commute side of the road. We only require site power, so no digging for water \u0026amp; sewer and we don’t need a pad. If you take a drive around town, you’ll probably spot at least five potential p!ng locations pretty quickly. That’s usually when people start thinking about becoming a licensee.","author_name":"Rob Whitten","votes":0,"created_at":"2026-03-12T02:51:41Z"}]},{"id":326788,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:326788","question":"Hi, I came across your upcoming campaign on Indiegogo and took a few minutes to look through what you’re building, it’s a big step preparing for launch, so respect for getting to this stage. I was curious about one thing, are you planning to rely mostly on your current followers/community for day-one momentum, or are you building a separate pre-launch list outside of social? I’ve seen strong products struggle simply because their followers weren’t properly warmed up before launch, so that part of the process always interests me. No pitch at all, just genuinely curious how you’re approaching it. Even a quick reply like “we’re focusing on X” would be great to hear. Looking forward to connecting. Best regards, Henry","author_name":"Henry Segun","votes":2,"created_at":"2026-03-03T22:28:42Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/ping#question-326788","answers":[]},{"id":326763,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:326763","question":"Hi Rob! I run a newsletter that is hyper-focused on the crowdfunding industry and goes out to 5,000 retail investors each week. I'm interested by your raise and would love to chat for a potential story on my blog (no cost, this is purely editorial content). Reach out to hellocrowdscale@gmail.com so that we can connect. Blog for reference: https://thecrowdscale.com/","author_name":"Kevin Fulmer","votes":2,"created_at":"2026-03-03T19:33:16Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/ping#question-326763","answers":[]},{"id":321684,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:321684","question":"Are you aware of any competitors in this space?","author_name":"David Parthe","votes":2,"created_at":"2025-12-23T15:38:27Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/ping#question-321684","answers":[{"id":321762,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:321762","answer":"There is a growing number of robotic coffee kiosks on the market that rely on robotic arms to move drinks between specialized and expensive coffee machines. These systems tend to be high-CAPEX and low-throughput, and are often designed more for entertainment value than for solving real business challenges like labor shortages or scalability. In the robotic drive-thru category, we see one direct competitor: Octane Coffee, based in Wisconsin. Their system also uses a robotic arm, and drink times range from roughly 30 seconds to several minutes for more complex beverages. They plan to sell a fully equipped system for $750k under a traditional franchise model, and the franchisee is responsible for daily operations. By contrast, through our Robotics-as-a-Service (RaaS) licensing model, licensees can launch a pod for under $200K, including pre-opening costs, while we handle all maintenance, monitoring, software updates, and ingredient refills. Operators don’t need to learn robotics or manage complex equipment—they simply host the pod and focus on community building, customer service, and marketing. This lowers risk for partners and allows us to scale faster with consistent performance and customer experience across the network.","author_name":"Jane Lo","votes":1,"created_at":"2025-12-24T02:19:30Z"}]},{"id":333850,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:333850","question":"Very moved by this in innovation and also the understanding of consumers needs. 24/7 is great for service members but curious outside of that - who is the target audience? With the younger (16-25) consumer being a big piece of the market, how do you plan to target to them? Do you think the current branding appeals to them?","author_name":"Amanda Maguire","votes":1,"created_at":"2026-05-18T20:38:58Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/ping#question-333850","answers":[{"id":333853,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:333853","answer":"Our broader target audience is really anyone who values speed, convenience, and the experiential. Morning commuters are the largest audience for the quick morning latte but we're seeing customers of all ages drop by p!ng to pick up a drink or two, whether that's kids who found out from their classmates, or the retirees who stop by before heading to the dog park. We believe younger consumers (16–25) are especially aligned with where the market is already heading: mobile-first ordering, personalization, minimal friction, and experiences that feel fast, seamless, and tech-forward. Gen Z in particular has grown up with self-checkout, delivery apps, and digital convenience as the default, so we think autonomous retail will feel natural to them. We have to carry the drink categories they care about (energy drinks and non-caffeinated options versus coffee), service not just the morning commute but drink occasions such as the afternoon treat, and build around behaviors such as handling multiple orders for the same car since they usually come together. From a branding perspective, we intentionally built p!ng to feel modern, playful, and distinct from traditional coffee chains. Branding is something we expect to continuously evolve alongside our audience. As we grow, we’ll keep testing creative, social content, collaborations, and community-driven marketing to ensure the brand stays culturally relevant and resonates with younger consumers in an authentic way.","author_name":"Jane Lo","votes":1,"created_at":"2026-05-18T21:58:16Z"}]},{"id":332857,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:332857","question":"How many pods do you have up and running currently and where are the locations? Thx!","author_name":"Roy Pascal","votes":1,"created_at":"2026-05-02T14:24:18Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/ping#question-332857","answers":[{"id":332864,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:332864","answer":"We have 1 autonomous pod running in Hudson, NH. The plan is to get another 3 built and running in the surrounding area to optimize our hub-and-spoke operational model.","author_name":"Jane Lo","votes":0,"created_at":"2026-05-02T19:15:08Z"}]},{"id":331275,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:331275","question":"Hey Jane, would love to find a time to chat to ask some questions I have about P!NG. what's your email to set up a time to chat?","author_name":"Tristin Chambers","votes":1,"created_at":"2026-04-17T10:43:25Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/ping#question-331275","answers":[{"id":332865,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:332865","answer":"Not sure if you saw my LI message, I sent my calendar link and my email (jane@pingthru.com). Hope to talk soon!","author_name":"Jane Lo","votes":1,"created_at":"2026-05-02T19:19:27Z"}]},{"id":329291,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:329291","question":"Thanks Jane for answering everyone's questions! It's so helpful. I had some more come to mind: 1. you have mentioned that you are taking lessons learned and fixing problems with your next 3 pods. can you summarize what those lessons are? like what are some examples of what you have learned not to do? 2. Are you willing to share what keeps you and Rob up at night? Obviously the goal of running a wefunder investment campaign is not to scare investors into not investing, but I am genuinely curious what the biggest threats to your success are, when what you have seems like an amazing product and is such a great fit for where we are headed with AI and automation. I also think it's good for investors to be aware so that they can help if they have background or a network that can help.","author_name":"Meredith Webb","votes":1,"created_at":"2026-03-28T01:02:13Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/ping#question-329291","answers":[{"id":329326,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:329326","answer":"We welcome questions! 1. Lessons learned → next 3 pods We have a long list of learnings from our first build and operating in the real world. We’ve made many improvements already, but some require more fundamental pod design updates. A few good examples are: increasing workcell maintenance access, foldable solar panel mounts for ease of transportation, and side-mounted split refrigeration for greater efficiency. We are refining our pod design to be manufactured, transported, and operated at scale. 2. What keeps us up at night Jane: The funny thing is I dream at night about doing the tasks that I didn’t get to that day. I know that it’s impossible to get to everything when we’re a small team but the idea of dropping the ball on anything critical is always on my mind. It’s almost easier to talk about the things that don’t keep us up because of the milestones we’ve achieved: product-market fit validation, launching our first autonomous pod, building an incredible advisor network, managing the real estate component and more. We’ve taken some big bites out of the larger pie we’ll need to tackle but there’s more to do to scale and grow successfully. It’s the most nerve-wracking and the most exciting part of building our start-up. Rob: At night, I think about execution at scale and handling edge cases. For example: a customer ordered from home and forgot their phone, so we couldn’t detect arrival. Easy fix short term with manual intervention, but it reinforced the need for redundancy. Our goal is to deliver a fast, flawless experience every time, even when things don’t go perfectly.","author_name":"Jane Lo","votes":1,"created_at":"2026-03-28T17:39:46Z"}]},{"id":328516,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:328516","question":"in addition to my previous question, have you heard of Azure Printed Homes (I invested in them)? I wonder if there's an opportunity to collaborate with them to make your 120 sq ft pods faster and cheaper. not sure how you plan to build them currently! just a thought!","author_name":"Meredith Webb","votes":1,"created_at":"2026-03-22T01:40:08Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/ping#question-328516","answers":[{"id":328532,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:328532","answer":"This is a really interesting idea! We’re currently modifying shipping containers to create our pods, but we’re open to other building methods if they can meet our requirements at a similar cost.","author_name":"Jane Lo","votes":2,"created_at":"2026-03-22T14:44:15Z"}]},{"id":328299,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:328299","question":"apologies if this has already been asked and/or answered already. how does your supply chain work? how do ingredients get to the pods? who manages that? I work in supply chain so I'm wondering of the logistics from vendors to these pods. Great idea and you seem like an awesome team!","author_name":"Meredith Webb","votes":1,"created_at":"2026-03-20T02:41:16Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/ping#question-328299","answers":[{"id":328531,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:328531","answer":"Thanks for the support! We will operate a hub-and-spoke RaaS (Robotics as a Service) model for our supply chain. Each local hub (commissary) will support ~10 pod locations. Ingredients are received, stored, and prepped at the hub, where all containers are cleaned, sanitized, and refilled under controlled conditions. This is how we currently operate, and it's working well. From there, p!ng employees handle daily service routes: • Refill ingredients • Clean and sanitize key systems • Perform preventative maintenance checks This keeps the pods simple, consistent, and highly reliable in the field. As we scale, each new market gets its own hub, allowing us to expand in a modular, repeatable way while maintaining tight quality control and food safety standards.","author_name":"Jane Lo","votes":0,"created_at":"2026-03-22T14:41:24Z"}]},{"id":328170,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:328170","question":"What is the exit plan (acquisition, IPO, merger, etc.) in which investors will be able to see a ROI?","author_name":"bugg logg","votes":1,"created_at":"2026-03-19T00:50:48Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/ping#question-328170","answers":[{"id":328178,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:328178","answer":"Right now we're focused on building a great company with real value: great product, strong unit economics, and rapid scaling. That's what ultimately drives meaningful exits and optionality. The stronger p!ng becomes, the more paths we create for investor returns: acquisition, IPO, or share buybacks. We plan to build something so valuable that someone wants to buy it or preferably so strong that we don't need to be acquired.","author_name":"Jane Lo","votes":1,"created_at":"2026-03-19T01:20:29Z"}]},{"id":328071,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:328071","question":"Hi Jane, Thanks for the detailed responses again. Just one final question: how do you handle water/electricity hookups at on-site locations? Or, for that matter, any of the other utility needs that would come with a traditional location? Thanks, Woodie Neiss, Managing Partner D3VC","author_name":"Sherwood Neiss","votes":1,"created_at":"2026-03-18T18:10:02Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/ping#question-328071","answers":[{"id":328100,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:328100","answer":"We’re designed to be highly flexible on infrastructure. For power, the simplest setup is tapping into existing electrical (e.g., nearby light poles or service lines), which is what we’re doing at our current site. When that’s not available, we can install a dedicated connection as part of site setup. Importantly, we do not require water or sewer hookups since we bring in our own filtered water, and have practically no gray water or waste. This allows us to deploy in a much wider range of locations than traditional drive-thrus, with faster setup and lower infrastructure costs.","author_name":"Jane Lo","votes":0,"created_at":"2026-03-18T20:29:43Z"}]}],"faq":[{"question":"Do you have an IP portfolio that protects you from copycats?","answer":"Hi David, great question. Yes. We’re building a layered IP strategy that combines patents, trade secrets, and execution know-how. We currently have patent applications filed covering our customer detection system and our height-adjusting presentation windows. The customer detection system—our sensor-augmented geofence—is particularly valuable because it directly delivers customer value by eliminating wait time and enabling instant, personalized handoff. Our dispensing and handling systems are..."},{"question":"Are you aware of any competitors in this space?","answer":"There is a growing number of robotic coffee kiosks on the market that rely on robotic arms to move drinks between specialized and expensive coffee machines. These systems tend to be high-CAPEX and low-throughput, and are often designed more for entertainment value than for solving real business challenges like labor shortages or scalability. In the robotic drive-thru category, we see one direct competitor: Octane Coffee, based in Wisconsin. Their system also uses a robotic arm, and drink time..."},{"question":"Will you be adding protein milk/options to the drinks? Definitely a great addition to consider!","answer":"Yes! We’re excited about protein milk and other functional add-ons. As we continue to expand our menu, incorporating these better-for-you ingredients will be a natural evolution for p!ng since our drink-making robots are adaptive. We can introduce new ingredients and beverages without reinventing the system."},{"question":"Hi, I am quite interested in your business model. Do you have any plans: 1 to tackle the high foot traffic locations that don't use cars such as food courts in the malls or urban areas that are like indoor ATMs style? 2 How about create more revenue steam on the supply side? 3...","answer":"1. Yes, walk-ups and urban/densely populated locations are of definite interest to us. However, we view these as a future expansion opportunity rather than a near-term focus. Right now, we are intentionally focused on drive-thru locations. There are 3 main reasons: * Higher volume and revenue potential. Drive-thru locations consistently generate strong sales. In fact, adding a drive-thru to a store can boost sales by 50%, and over 70% of Starbucks’ revenue comes from drive-thru, mobile app, a..."},{"question":"great job thus far! thanks for your service rob, I am a vet too(army sniper). few questions 1. what would you say is the biggest difference between you and octane coffee? I am investing in one of you. i can't decide both of you are great. can't decide core difference. 2. looks...","answer":"Thanks and thank you for your service as well! Snipers are the definition of high speed, low drag. I was an 11A, so I only got one chance to ring an iron maiden with a Barrett, but it’s a pretty cool memory. 1. Biggest difference between p!ng and octane coffee? We have mad respect for Octane Coffee but other than being robotic coffee drive thrus, we’re quite different. BLUF/TLDR - We are focused on creating a uniquely frictionless and scalable customer pick-up experience, not just an automate..."}]}}}