Applying to Y Combinator S26
Nemi

The Operating System for Latin America's Hardware Stores

Offline-first inventory and point-of-sale software for 100,000+ stores still running on paper notebooks.

3
stores in production
20K+
SKUs managed
10
years domain experience
65%

of stores run on paper notebooks

$1.78T

market with zero digital infrastructure

70%

of POS failures caused by no internet

Latin America's construction supply chain is a $1.78 trillion market running on paper notebooks, mental math, and gut feeling. Every morning, store owners across Mexico open their cuadernos and start writing: product names, quantities, prices, customer debts — all by hand. 100,000 hardware stores managing 20,000+ SKUs each. The few digital solutions available fail 70% of the time because they weren't built for the reality of intermittent connectivity.

The Opportunity

100K+

Hardware stores in Mexico alone

1.5M+

Retail establishments in target verticals

$2.7B

POS market by 2030 (9.7% CAGR)

62%

Have no specialized POS software

Sources: INEGI, Euromonitor, Research and Markets, Grand View Research

What the data says

94%

"of Mexican micro-businesses use technology only at a basic level"

— INEGI, 2023

10K

"Odoo targets 10,000 Mexican PyMEs in 2026 — validating the market we're already in"

— Odoo Strategy Report

28%

"of micro-businesses in Mexico have reliable internet connectivity"

— IFT Telecom Report

The smarter notebook

If it's slower than writing in a paper notebook, the design has failed. That's our benchmark.

Nemi product screenshot

Never Lose a Sale to Bad Internet

Works fully offline. Syncs automatically when connected. Your store keeps selling no matter what.

Every SKU, Every Unit

Sell cement by the kg, cable by the meter, screws by the box — 20,000+ products with the units your customers actually use.

See All Your Stores in One Place

Real-time inventory and sales across every location. Know what's selling where without calling each store.

Quotes and Orders via WhatsApp

Your customers already use WhatsApp. Now they can request quotes and place orders without leaving it.

Why Not the Alternatives?

The leading POS in Mexico has a 2.1/5 rating on Trustpilot. There's a reason.

Offline-First
Complex Units
Multi-Location
WhatsApp
Nemi
Sicar 2.1/5
ALEGRA
Odoo
Excel

Why Now

📱

Smartphone Penetration

Mexico reached 78% smartphone adoption. For the first time, every store owner has the hardware to run modern software.

💳

Digital Payments Boom

CoDi, SPEI, and fintech regulation are creating infrastructure that didn't exist 3 years ago. The rails are ready.

🏗️

Construction Boom

LATAM construction spending projected to grow 4.2% annually through 2030. More stores, more SKUs, more complexity.

The Roadmap

We're not building a POS. We're building the infrastructure layer that connects and powers the entire construction supply chain in Latin America.

1

POS & Inventory Software

Multi-location management, offline-first, built for 20K+ SKUs with complex units of measurement.

● Live
2

Electronic Invoicing (CFDI)

SAT-compliant electronic invoicing built in. Because no serious store in Mexico can operate without it.

◐ Building
3

Payments & Customer Credit

Digital credit lines, payment tracking, and financing tools built for how hardware stores actually sell.

◐ Building
4

B2B Marketplace & Logistics

Connect stores with distributors. Better prices, less friction, last-mile delivery.

○ Planned

Built by someone who lived it

I grew up in my family's hardware store in Mexico. 10 years working every area — sales, inventory, purchasing, logistics. I know what it's like to count 20,000 products by hand. Then I became a software engineer at Microsoft. I built Nemi because I know these problems firsthand — and I know technology can solve them.

3

Stores in production

20K+

SKUs managed

10 yrs

Domain experience

Daily

Real transactions

Dogfooding with our family's 3-store operation. Real transactions, real inventory, real employees using it every day.

"I leave Microsoft when we hit 10 paying customers. Not when we raise money — when we prove value."

Unfair Advantage

🏪

10 Years Inside the Store

Not market research — lived experience. Sales, inventory, purchasing, logistics, customer credit. Every SKU counted by hand, every supplier negotiated face-to-face.

⚙️

Microsoft Engineering

Enterprise-grade software discipline applied to an underserved market. The technical bar that competitors can't match with outsourced development.

🔄

Already in Production

Not a prototype, not a demo — a production system processing real transactions daily, stress-tested by the people it was built for.

🌐

The Network Play

Offline-first opens the door. But every store we onboard feeds a supply chain intelligence layer — pricing, demand, inventory across the network. The moat deepens with every customer.

Simple Pricing

Monthly subscription. No hidden fees. No per-transaction charges.

Starting at

$1,000 MXN
  • Unlimited products and transactions
  • Offline-first — works without internet
  • Multi-location management
  • WhatsApp integration
  • Automatic sync across devices
  • Priority support
Get in touch

~$55 USD/month. Custom plans for multi-location chains.

Hard Questions, Honest Answers

Only 3 stores — and they're your family's?

Yes. We're dogfooding with our own 3-store, 20,000+ SKU operation. Real transactions, real employees, real pain points discovered daily. We're building a waitlist for external stores — we ship when the product is ready, not when we need metrics.

Solo founder, still at Microsoft — are you serious?

I leave Microsoft when we hit 10 paying customers. That's my trigger — not funding, not a TechCrunch article. YC accelerates the timeline, but the commitment is unconditional.

Why can't Sicar, Odoo, or ALEGRA solve this?

A single hardware store manages 20,000+ SKUs sold in 6 different units — kg, meters, liters, pieces, boxes, pairs. Sicar has a 2.1/5 on Trustpilot. Odoo requires consultants. 70% of POS failures in Mexico are connectivity-related. You need domain expertise to build for this market. I have 10 years of it.

Is offline-first your moat?

Offline-first gets us in the door. The network — connecting stores, suppliers, logistics, and financing across Latin America — is the moat. Every store we onboard makes the network more valuable for everyone.

Why not just build for the US or a bigger market?

100,000 hardware stores in Mexico, 65% with no software. $1.78T construction supply chain in LATAM. This isn't a small market — it's an ignored one. The biggest opportunities are where nobody's looking.

What if these store owners just don't want software?

They don't want software — they want to stop losing money. Miscounted inventory, forgotten debts, pricing mistakes. We don't sell 'technology'. We sell fewer losses, faster sales, and visibility across stores. The paper notebook can't do that.

What about electronic invoicing (CFDI)?

It's in active development. Every serious business in Mexico needs SAT-compliant invoicing. We're building it natively into the POS — not as an afterthought, but as a core feature.