Ongati started because I got tired of texting my barber.
If you've ever tried to book a haircut by text, you already know how this goes. Here's what it looked like for me in 2025.
Every cut started with a text. "You got someone? I can come at 3pm?" "I have someone but u welcome to come." One evening I asked for 5:45, and the next morning I was texting again to move it to 1:30 because I'd be coming from Chesapeake. Another day: "I have a head but u can come." So I'd show up and wait my turn, never quite sure when I'd actually be in the chair.
This isn't a knock on Coutlon. He's busy doing the work, not watching his phone. That's exactly the problem. Texting was never a booking system, and both of us were paying for it in time.
The only thing anyone offered him was a listing on a platform that would put three other barbers beside his name and take a cut of the appointment I was always going to make.
So I built what I wanted as a customer, rather than what software companies sell to businesses. One page. His services. His prices. His hours. A button that books him.
I also run Zeptonic, an agency in Virginia Beach that builds customer-facing systems for service businesses. Once I noticed it with my own barber, I saw the same problem with client after client.
The product carries my family name. My people are from Kenya, where a small business runs on M-Pesa the same way one here runs on cash, bank transfer and a card reader. That's why Ongati can record the payment details a business enters and takes a percentage of none of them. Where you happen to be shouldn't decide whether the software works for you.
Your customers are already trying to reach you. I'd like your page to be the easiest way for them to do it.
BryBrian Ongati, Founder
