AI-powered virtual assistant for families, Ohai.ai, recently revealed its plans to provide innovative solutions for staying organized and creating more quality time, including an initiative to employ more Filipinos and upskill its support teams based in the Philippines.
Founded in late 2023 and launched this January 2024 by Filipino-American entrepreneur and former Care.com Founder and CEO Sheila Lirio Marcelo, Ohai.ai offers a virtual assistant known as “O,” designed to alleviate the mental burden of managing family schedules and delegating tasks. O, powered by a combination of artificial intelligence and human support, offers schedule summaries and alerts in its free tier. It offers additional features, such as automated event creation and appointment scheduling and task delegation for connected family members, for $25 a month.
Marcelo’s past leadership at Care.com greatly influences Ohai.ai. While Care.com helps families by connecting them with childcare providers and other caregivers, Ohai.ai targets the ‘Chief Household Officer’ by lessening the cognitive load of managing a household and juggling busy schedules. While the platform is still in beta, users can already utilize O to scan emails and generate calendar events, handle scheduling conflicts, assign tasks, and even schedule appointments needing a phone call.
While there are arguments that the virtual assistant market is now saturated, Marcelo takes a different view. Unlike virtual assistants that offer their services to just anyone, Ohai.ai aims to serve families with special dynamics and the communications and logistics issues they face. This includes divorced parents who need to navigate co-parenting or siblings who take turns looking after their parents.
Before launching Ohai.ai, Marcelo surveyed over 200 families for market research, gathering numerous ideas for beneficial features. This led Marcelo to believe that Ohai.ai’s potential market could be substantial, potentially even larger than that of Care.com, as it caters not only to those who outsource care but also to every family managing everyday care for their loved ones.
Ohai.ai has so far displayed impressive growth. Ohai.ai operates through a virtual team based across multiple geographies, including around 20 full-time staff members, among whom are former senior leaders from Care.com and five human assistants. The company also raised $6 million in seed financing co-led by Eniac Ventures and LifeX Ventures.
The Independent Investor had a chance to go in-depth with Sheila Lirio Marcelo during her latest visit to Manila, where she met with Ohai.ai’s support team of human assistants (HAs) in the country.
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TII: Tell us about the Ohai name.
SM: It’s a greeting. One of the key things you want in an assistant is a feeling of service, positive energy, being uplifted, especially every day when you wake up. Sort of like ‘Oh, hi there!’—easy and memorable.
We also wanted to name the assistant ‘O’. The reason for that is because ‘O’ as a letter and as a shape is embracing. It’s comforting and there for you.
TII: What was the immediate pain point you wanted to solve with Ohai, particularly when it comes to your Chief Household Officers?
SM: It’s really what we call this mental load or cognitive overload. You have this to-do list in your head playing constantly that impacts your productivity, mental health, and your ability to focus on doing quality work.
I refer to it as the ‘Chief Household Officer’ (CHO) because whoever assumes responsibility at home is constantly juggling tasks. It becomes a significant pain point. In the US, statistics show that women shoulder the majority of the responsibility for preparing and caring for their family averaging about four and a half hours daily. If that time were freed up consistently, it would make a significant difference. Globally, this represents about $10.9 trillion in unpaid labor according to Oxfam as reported by the NYTimes.
So, a solution to this cognitive load is a virtual assistant. I have an assistant named Anne and we text each other about my daily schedule and activities, and she follows up and makes it happen. What i love is that she gives me what I call a ‘sunrise ping’, or a text in the morning summarizing what I have to do that day and we sort out any conflicts together. So, having this makes me much more productive — I’m able to accomplish a lot but also take care of myself and my family.
Mental health has such a huge impact. They say 80% of success is due to mental health exercise and 20% physical exercise. I have time to regularly meditate and take care of myself with daily mental exercise and the help of Anne. So much of what we’re trying to do in Ohai is trying to free you up mentally to get more time back for you and your family.
TII: Can you walk us through what Ohai does and how it works?
SM: So, there are basic things in our MVP (Minimum Viable Product). We launched our scheduling feature, which summarizes everything you’re doing, adds new events to your calendar, and sends invitations and reminders. The second is document scanning, which can scan emails or images and mark things on your calendar, like scanning a school calendar or school newsletter for early school closures or Teacher Appreciation Day (which can be really time consuming for CHOs to do on their own). The last one is booking which takes care of doctor’s appointments, haircuts, dental cleanings, etc.
TII: How long does it take to adapt to a virtual assistant, knowing people still prefer that human touch?
SM: I actually had to go through this when I was onboarding a new assistant myself. You have to learn what to delegate and what you’re more comfortable doing yourself. There has to be a baseline experience so the assistant can serve you and you can really see the value proposition.
We prioritized user experience when deciding to focus on back-to-school timing for our launch. These align with the peak season for Care.com and is a pivotal time for families. For parents, this process involves managing various tasks such as purchasing school supplies, arranging schedules, and coordinating activities like ballet classes. The back-to-school season drives significant activity and are crucial for providing pertinent information.
TII: In your survey of 200+ parents, what specific pain points did you see that you realized Ohai would be perfect for?
SM: What’s exciting about our business model is its subscription-based nature. A high demand for various features bodes well for the business model, as it allows for continual value addition over time, meeting customers’ evolving needs. Unlike e-commerce, which charges per transaction, our model focuses on providing an ongoing service that evolves alongside the customer’s requirements.
TII: So, the tech of Ohai must have played a big part in reducing the effort users have to exert?
SM: We make it super easy. You just have to take a picture of the school calendar or send us a PDF. We’ve always had this philosophy that the virtual assistant shouldn’t take up too much of your time—otherwise what’s the point?
We also want to build trust right away. We prioritize gathering generic public information such as school data and calendars, as these are publicly accessible. Your personal information, on the other hand, remains private and entirely up to your discretion. We give users the option of scheduling bookings or doctor’s appointments as they get familiar with the product. So even in our product roadmap, there’ll be more and more features we’re going to add.
TII: Are you primarily in the US market for now?
SM: Yes, primarily the US for now. We want to make sure we deliver an excellent service first. Currently, access is restricted by phone number, as our offering is text-based. However, we plan to introduce an app soon.
In terms of traction, we’re actually ahead of our annual operating plan but granted, we just only launched our beta in January.
TII: You are in town to review operations in the Philippines – can you describe the team here and their functions?
SM: There are two parts to the product. 80% of tasks are completed by AI, and then 20% by human assistants we call HAs. It helps us in testing new features and ideas by allowing us to evaluate them with our human assistants before automation. Additionally, our human assistants serve as data labelers, not only providing service to end users but also training the algorithm.
Why the Philippines? There are a few reasons. Firstly, both my co-founder Kevin and I are Filipino, so there’s a personal connection. Operationally, it’s crucial for us to support the Philippines. Secondly, considering the future of the BPO industry, I have a mission to ensure people aren’t left jobless as jobs evolve. If we don’t train the BPO industry to transition to AI, it will face challenges. Lastly, observing the success of Scale AI and Appen, two leading companies in data labeling for OpenAI, both with huge teams in the Philippines, it’s clear that the talent here is recognized. With the Philippines excelling in service-oriented English language skills, particularly for the US market, it aligns perfectly with our focus.
TII: How big is the team?
SM: Our team is 20 people and growing. We work remotely all over the world, so we have engineers in different parts of the world and in the Philippines, we have the HAs.
TII: How do you convince potential investors that Ohai isn’t your typical virtual assistant solution?
SM: I’ve held roles as an Entrepreneur in Residence at Matrix Partners and as a Venture Partner at New Enterprise Associates. When raising a seed or pre-Series A round, typically, you need to address several key factors. First, there must be a clear problem you’re solving. Second, there’s the total addressable market. Third, you need a team with either relevant experience or strong educational backgrounds, who are driven and passionate about the project. Lastly, competitive differentiation is essential. Our pitch deck was concise and impactful. Eniac Ventures and LifeX led the round, with David Sze, who backed LinkedIn and Facebook, also joined as an investor.
TII: What’s next for Ohai? What’s on your mind?
SM: When raising funds, which I’ve done frequently, it’s crucial to understand the stages: seed, followed by Series A. In the A round, pre-product-market fit is the focus. Specific metrics are vital here, of course revenue growth, as well as unit economics, ensuring soundness. I evaluate unit economics in two ways: comparing the lifetime value (LTV) to the customer acquisition cost (CAC), while also factoring in operational costs—an aspect not always considered, yet crucial for early indicators of manageable gross margins. For growth, it’s essential to ensure the total addressable market (TAM) is sizable and that conversion rates support penetration. Additionally, retention is key, as it drives LTV, all encapsulated within these three metrics. Operations costs are also significant, encompassing software and processing expenses as we deliver the virtual assistant.
a pre-product-market fit.
TII: What’s the biggest challenge so far you’ve had to tackle?
SM: Creating a sense of operational excellence in the early days and training a team that’s doing it for the first time on a management team. But it’s not too dissimilar to what I did at Care.com as a first-time CEO. Most of my management team members were also first-timers. And same thing with my management team members now. Right? It’s the thing that I love. It’s not only building products, but it’s building teams, and seeing people grow. I’m proud that three of our co-founders at Care.com are now all CEOs and now building their own great teams and creating impact in the world.
TII: Did you ever have to bootstrap? Are you feeling the challenges of the funding winter?
SM: With launching Ohai, we knew it was a great opportunity despite the tough environment. We feel good that we were able to raise $6 million, which should last us a few years.
TII: What was the transition like between you leading Care and now Ohai?
SM: At the height of the pandemic, I took a year off. We had plans to travel, but that ended up not happening. So instead, during that time, I ended up dedicating myself to learning about new technologies like Web3, blockchain, and AI.
So, it led me to ask: how do we develop new skills for the next generation? I wanted to help people; the thread is always helping people. Even when I joined Matrix Partners, I wanted to concentrate on ed-tech, healthcare, or the family space. I always go back to the same things.
The common thread for me revolves around new technology and its application in assisting people. The idea for Ohai stemmed from exploring generative AI for task completion. It struck me that this was a problem we had attempted to solve at Care.com, but the technology wasn’t yet mature enough. However, when I encountered the potential of this technology, it was like seeing a house with potential through a renovation—a vision of untapped potential.
I could feel it in my gut that the tech was ready. I asked our engineers first, and they said, ‘Yes, we can do it!’
TII: It sounds like it was just a matter of having the tech catch up to your idea.
SM: Yes, but I’m also lucky to have a great team around me. Our Co-Founder, Kevin Yang, holds a master’s degree from Stanford in AI and specializes in human interface on consumer platforms. He previously built a platform that grew to $100 million in revenue and amassed millions of users, demonstrating his ability to think and scale for consumers. We also brought on the Head of Engineering, Sujal Shah, who led ESPN Mobile and managed full-stack responsibilities.
I also teamed up with a highly experienced management team, Lauren Tornow and Ragini Pathak – skilled in both marketing and product development from Care.com.
This combination of robust technology experience and effective product and marketing at scale was recognized by our investors.
TII: Would you say that social impact is at your very core?
SM: Social entrepreneurship. There’s philanthropy but with social entrepreneurship, you come up with a business model to create sustainability and fund the impact you want to create in the world.
TII: You come from a family of entrepreneurs. Do you believe social entrepreneurship was instilled in you from the very beginning?
SM: It was always around. My great-grandfather started a public school in Tanauan, Batangas while my mother’s side had a lot of public servants. There was always a focus on helping people, and my mom and dad showed us that, too.
But part of social entrepreneurship is also being willing to take risks. First, my parents eloped at such a young age, and I think that’s where you can see their fighting spirit. Then, growing up I saw how they weathered the ups and downs of their businesses—there I saw resilience.
TII: Did seeing your parents go through ups and downs in business turn you off to entrepreneurship at all?
SM: Actually, my parents always encouraged me. I think there was a sense of fighting spirit and resilience, of just making it work and having this sense of faith and belief in something that I saw my parents had.
The other thing I would say is being raised Filipina; I felt this privilege that my dad didn’t limit me as a girl. He taught me math and algebra alongside my older brothers. I was instilled with this sense of confidence that I could just do it.
In fact, when I was a kid in elementary school, my parents got called into the principal’s office. The teachers told them I should be at the top of my class, but they weren’t going to give it to me because the teachers described me as disruptive. For example, when a teacher would start a lecture, I would often raise my hand and ask, ‘Ma’am, didn’t you teach us this yesterday? So why are we doing this again?’ But the funny thing was when my family and I moved to the States, and schools there heard about that incident, the principal in Houston, Texas told my parents they loved that I could speak up.
Going to America as a young child really helped that confidence come out, to be bold. It was a privilege. In time, my parents even put me in Candelaria, Quezon, for one year in elementary school, and not only did I learn the language, but I also learned discipline and respect for my elders. A year later, I matriculated to Brent Schoo, Baguio prior to studying in the US for college and later grad school.
TII: Was there an “aha” moment or turning point in your life that really set you on the path you’re on right now?
SM: My older sister describes me as leading my siblings around as a young child. I always enjoyed organizing and understanding people’s motivations. I applied that all the way through school and later in my career.
I also learned a lot about myself in college, where I got pregnant. That’s when insecurity sets in as a young mother, and I really began to practice meditation and gradually became more self-aware. It was the start of a self-awareness journey that really helps me in leadership.
TII: How far do you see your future when you plan? From a business standpoint are you already cooking up your next venture?
SM: I do tend to be a planner, but so much about building a consumer-tech business is also being open to when is the right time for users and when is the tech ready. In other words, luck also has a lot to do with where I am now rather than just planning. You have to have a sense of openness to opportunity for luck to find you too. That means having the humility to say you don’t know it all and that when things shift, you should be ready to embrace the changes.
When you have this open mindset, you realize that your ideas may not necessarily be right for the moment. Someone from Care.com recently reminded me that I shared a deck in 2015 for a product called MyAdam—named after my son—which was the vision of Ohai. The idea was right, but the technology wasn’t there.
So although we may have other ideas of new features or even brainstorming future ideas to solve problems, we are focused on Ohai right now. It’s been already brewing in my mind for the past decade and when I saw our tech team present a potential solution – it was faster to see through the potential. So I didn’t give up on the idea and still understood the problem, the tech just wasn’t ready back then. And luck would have it that this team came together, had the right skills and passion, and there wasn’t a solution yet out in the market – thus, the birth of Ohai that we are now building together!
TII: You evolved from being a startup CEO all the way to being an IPO CEO. How does one achieve that?
SM: At every stage, I think about what skill set is necessary. Do I have it? Where can I flex my muscles? Where are my strengths and weaknesses now? I’m constantly learning and shifting.
You have to be comfortable with evolving. Evolution is never-ending.
When I was younger, I actually used to think a lot about staying relevant. But the word ‘relevance’ is so focused on the ‘I’. It’s easy to forget that relevance is actually how another person feels about you. The only way to make that work is not to focus on the ‘I.’’ When you are authentic to what’s in your heart and you focus on other people, you’ll automatically be relevant in their lives since you are in service to help them.