Whitespace: AI Operating System for Wholesale Distributors

Hey everyone 👋 We’re Alex and Leon - cofounders of Whitespace.

Whitespace is the AI operating system for wholesale distributors. It connects to their systems to build a living model of their business, then deploys self-improving AI agents to do work like inventory planning, customer service, and order processing.

Problem

Wholesale distribution is a $60 trillion global industry that touches one in every five dollars of global output. Yet it still runs largely manually. At a typical wholesale distributor, 30-50% of staff are dedicated to back-office tasks.

They spend their days on email, spreadsheets, and legacy systems, relying on tribal knowledge in their heads. Businesses cannot scale without hiring, and training a new hire takes >6 months.

A quote from one of our customers really brings this to life: “I have 6 reps typing 600 lines of orders from email into the ERP every day. Everyone is inside our ERP and spreadsheets, copying data from one place to another.”

Solution

Whitespace is the AI operating system for wholesale distributors. It connects to their systems to build a living model of their business, then deploys self-improving AI agents. 

We’re already working with wholesale distributors in sectors including industrial supplies and building materials to set up agents for processes like:

• Inventory Planning. Forecasts product demand, recommends reorder quantities against stock levels, and learns over time from actual demand.
• Customer Service. Monitors inboxes for support queries, digs through systems to find answers, and responds with human oversight.
• Order Processing. Monitors inboxes, enters orders into the ERP, flags exceptions to humans, and learns from their corrections.

https://youtu.be/4UxlKKXrgfI?si=EwGhX1LCTGyauuw6

Team

Both our families ran wholesale distribution businesses, so we grew up seeing the inefficiencies and the opportunities firsthand.

Alex advised F500 manufacturers and distributors on tech/AI at BCG, took a startup from launch to 7-figure ARR in a year as its first non-engineering hire, and graduated top of his college at Cambridge.

Leon built AI products for F500 logistics distribution companies at InstaDeep, published first-author RL papers at tier-1 conferences, and previously founded an EdTech startup that served thousands of users worldwide.

We’ve been best friends for 12 years since high school. We’ve lived and worked together, and are now tackling a challenge close to our hearts.

Ask

We would appreciate intros to wholesalers or distributors at alex@whitespacehq.ai