HDS

Building a robotics-powered personalized grocery brand

It’s not unusual for me to be brought in for something concrete—like naming, brand strategy, or messaging—but as I get deep into the weeds, I often end up influencing the product as well. These are the kinds of engagements where I do my best work: when I’m given license to dream big about what’s possible, rather than just work within existing constraints.

Working with Home Delivery Service (HDS) was like that. I was hired by Louis Borders—of Borders Books fame—to help give shape to his next ambitious project. The vision at HDS was to deliver an unparalleled eCommerce experience for all daily essentials, starting in the fresh grocery category. The company

was building AI-powered robotics to assemble orders in a fully-automated fulfillment center, then planned to hand them off to friendly human couriers who would provide retail-level service, right at the customer’s doorstep. Think: Amazon Fresh meets Nordstrom.

While plans were underway to offer made-to-order food alongside fresh groceries, I felt we needed a more meaningful differentiator. Customizable sandwiches and pizzas were nice, but that wouldn’t set us apart in a transformative way.

During my research and discovery phase, I dove deep into the history of the grocery store. Today’s supermarkets, with their self-service aisles and prepackaged goods, are a product of mid-century industrialization. Before that, grocers operated on a more personal level: customers were known by name, waited on individually behind a counter, and could purchase provisions in the exact amounts they wanted, rather than standardized packaging. This history inspired me to imagine how we could recreate that level of old-school customization and service—but in a modern, digital context. I envisioned a digital experience that went beyond customization, to create actual personalization.

This idea reshaped HDS’s user experience strategy. By cataloging ingredients for every SKU and tailoring inventory to individual preferences, HDS could create a transformative shopping experience. Digital aisles could be curated differently for every single user; a fully-personal supermarket populated according to your individual dietary profile. 

For example, a vegetarian would never see beef jerky or smoked ham among the snacks offered to them when ‘browsing the aisles’, parents of children with peanut allergies could filter out all products containing even traces of peanuts in every category, and people observing kosher, halal , Fodmap, Keto, or any other kind of specialized diet could ensure complete compliance with one click.


This user-centric strategy for the grocery experience changed the shape HDS, but Louis had ambitions far beyond fresh groceries. He envisioned a robotics-powered digital superstore akin to Amazon, meeting all of a household’s daily needs. The name “Home Delivery Service” was just a placeholder, but we needed an actual brand name to fit this grand ambition.

So, I set out to find it, guided by three key criteria:

  • Succinct: Ideally one word, no more than two syllables, and easy to integrate into everyday conversation.

  • Extensible: A name that could grow with the brand, covering a broad range of household essentials beyond groceries.

  • Meaningful: A name with a subtle yet significant connection to the company’s mission—not just an empty vessel.

After a number of rounds of exploration, I landed on oona.

The name felt distinctive, clean and, modern, with its unusual double “O.”
It also carried a meaningful nod to “una,” the feminine form of “one” in Spanish, positioning oona as the one-stop-shop that customers could rely on for just about anything they needed.

Our engagement was so successful that, after a year of consulting, the company offered me the role of VP of Brand, which I accepted. As we were finalizing the details for me to come on-board, full-time, the pandemic hit and the company quickly shifted into austerity mode, laying off the bulk of the team. While my journey with HDS / oona unexpectedly ended there, I’m deeply proud of the work I did with Louis and his team to envision a grocery store personalized to every individual’s needs, and it’s an idea that I hope to one day see actualized in the market!