# Our Story — Why We Built an AI That Runs Your Store

> Why we built Runner: so your store can watch itself, fix itself, and grow on its own — while you do the parts only you can.

Canonical: https://www.runnerai.com/about-us

Not software you have to operate — an AI that works for you. Runner watches your store, acts on what it sees, and keeps improving it, so growth compounds while you sleep.

## Backed by

- Sky9 Capital
- Cathay Innovation

## When AI can see the whole picture, growth stops being guesswork.

Today's e-commerce runs on 20+ tools that don't talk to each other. Your email tool doesn't know what your checkout learned. Your analytics can't inform your pricing. Because nothing connects, nothing compounds.

Runner puts all of it under one roof where the AI can see everything. When your checkout improves, your recommendations get smarter. When your pricing learns, your promotions adapt — without you wiring anything together.

## A note from our founder

> I spent five years at Google and DeepMind, building data infrastructure and Gemini. It left me with one conviction:

When data is unified and AI can see the full picture, it stops being an assistant. It proposes changes, learns from real behavior, and gets smarter with every iteration.

Commerce doesn't work that way today — so we built Runner: a commerce stack designed from the ground up for AI to observe, act, and improve. Not a platform for humans to operate with AI bolted on, but one system where every experiment makes the whole smarter. The best way to grow is to experiment, learn, and iterate — continuously.

Our vision is simple: every store with a mind of its own. Where growth is the default, not the grind. Where the machine runs the machine, and people do what only people can.

— [Weizhi Li](https://www.linkedin.com/in/weizhi-li/), Founder & CEO, Runner AI

## Built by people who've shipped at scale

We come from the teams behind Gemini, global marketplaces, and some of the most-visited storefronts in the world.

Companies where our team has built at scale: Alibaba, Amazon, ByteDance, Google DeepMind, Microsoft

### The market

We've built and operated stores ourselves — the economics, the margins, and what actually moves revenue.

### The pain points

Running a successful store demands expertise most owners don't have — and costs that add up fast: the 20-tool stack, the agencies, the app tax, the silos.

### The technology

Years building data infrastructure and Gemini taught us what unified data and AI can do when they see everything.

## The future

Where this is going: a business that runs itself. An AI that will pick your products, plan your stock, and handle pricing, marketing, and logistics. You'll stop operating your business and start directing it — you make the big calls, Runner does the rest.

You decide. It builds, learns, and grows.

## Related

- [Home](https://www.runnerai.com/)
- [Live](https://www.runnerai.com/live)
- [Changelog](https://www.runnerai.com/changelog)