about us

Virnika’s story

Charles and Cameron, bring years of experience in the restaurant industry, having worked extensively in food delivery and food distribution to restaurants. Our journey took a pivotal turn when Charles hired Cameron to assist with his restaurant delivery startup. We frequently heard the same request from restaurant owners: “Yes, you can send us your delivery orders as long as you don’t call them in.”

Realizing that perhaps this was a better problem worth solving, we decided to shift our focus from competing with giants like DoorDash to addressing this specific need. Through a mutual friend, we met Logan, who was completing his Ph.D. in AI at UNC. Together, we began to formulate a plan.

We envision a future where millions of small businesses can provide exceptional service while avoiding the issues with hiring, training, and affording employees to do the repetition process of accepting orders, managing requests, answering questions, and setting appointments—essentially, everything a person would do with their voice.

If we do our job well, millions of other employees will be able to do their job better.

Our Big Hairy Audacious Goal

Sure, we love experimenting AI—who doesn't these days? But we wanted to set a goal that would inspire us and serve as our beacon in years to come. That is why Virnika has a big, hairy, audacious goal (BHAG) to eliminate 1 billion hours of boring, routine, and mundane voice communication so humans can provide great hospitality, and we can accelerate the adoption of voice tech worldwide.

Core Values

Virnika runs on EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System) and its built on three core values that guide our decision-making process

Simplicity

Einstein said it best, “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.” All processes and systems at Virnika are designed with simplicity at their core. This allows us to reduce waste and react more nimbly than competitors.

Professionalism

While we are not a large corporation, we expect and require professionalism in appearance, communication, and all internal and customer interactions. We believe what we do matters so we take ourselves and our work seriously.

Urgency

We put no trust in “having time tomorrow” and always act in a timely manner. A sense of urgency should not suggest rushing, panicking or anxiety, but persistent, incremental progress forward.

Virnika’s Team

Charles Douthitt

Co-Founder & CEO

4th startup. Previously Co-Founder at Takeout Central. A delivery service that grew to $12M. Studied entrepreneurship at UNC Chapel Hill.

Dr. Logan Whitehouse

Co-Founder & CTO

PhD in Computational Biology and Deep Learning from UNC. Expert in building solutions for data science tasks requiring deep learning and LLMs.

Cameron Long

Co-Founder & CRO

10 years of sales and sales leadership experience. Won the President’s Cup three times for the top 1% of reps in the nation for selling to restaurants.

Jake Ferrante

Sr. Engineer

Decade of experience in software development both in startups and AWS. He is an expert in high volume, low-latency connections and full-stack development.