She Built the Software She Could Not Find: A Founder's Honest Take on TrackItWeekly

Nik Gripton has spent years running a 10-unit, multi-brand franchise. When she could not find inventory software that actually fit the way operators work, she built it herself. What started as an internal tool became TrackItWeekly.

The Origin Story

What was the moment you realized the tools that existed just were not going to work?

We had extensive overstock on some items and shortages on others at the same time. My managers were guessing their needs based on a high-level overview from a spreadsheet. Cost of goods were out of control. I needed something simple that did the calculations for them. Nothing I found did that in a way that worked for us.

What were you using before?

Each week, managers would put their inventory on a spreadsheet, walk to their computer, and guess what they would need for the following week. It was not consistent, not accurate, and the math was always off. We order on different days at different stores based on supplier delivery schedules, so there was no rhythm to it. Just educated guesses that cost us money.

Most founders build for a market. You built for yourself first. How did that change the product?

The product evolved into something commercial because of how it was tested. My managers were required to use it from the beginning, and I made them a promise: if anything did not work the way they needed it to, I would immediately fix it. We spent several weeks fine-tuning the app. Then my boss said, \"You need to commercialize this.\" And I did. It works that well.

The Weekly Count Philosophy

Why weekly, not daily or monthly?

Weekly is the sweet spot. Daily is too much for managers. I would rather have them on the floor with staff, making money. Monthly is too little. You do not catch shrinkage as it is happening. Tracking weekly lets you adjust without losing track or running out of things.

What does the damage look like when a business does not count weekly?

You have product sitting in a stockroom going bad and wasting money. You have mid-rush outages that could have been prevented. You have staff who take their cue from management: if inventory does not matter to you, it will not matter to them. And then there is shrinkage.

Par Levels, Explained

How do you explain a par level to someone who has never used one?

A par level is the minimum amount of a product that needs to be in your stockroom at all times so you do not run out. In TrackItWeekly, we set par at 1.5 times your average weekly use over three weeks. When your count drops below par, the app flags it automatically.

Pricing

You priced this at $19 a month. Why so low?

Because I know who I built it for. I am not selling to a $50 million company with a finance team. I am selling to a cafe owner who is watching every dollar, a gym owner who built their whole business themselves, a QSR operator who needs tools that work without a training manual. If the pricing is a barrier, the product does not get used.