--- title: "About — Buyer's Toolbox" url: https://antusa.com/about description: "Buyer's Toolbox — merchandise planning, OTB, and forecasting software for retail teams. 30+ years of retail planning expertise from ANT USA." source: antusa.com --- About ANT USA # Planning is a discipline. We build software that treats it like one. Most planning tools are built around features. The problem is that a planning team doesn’t fail because the software lacked a feature. They fail because the tool didn’t match how they actually work — two or three people covering hundreds of categories across dozens of stores, and the system was built for a 50-person department they don’t have. ANT USA has spent 30 years building Buyer’s Toolbox around how retail planners actually plan — then staying close enough to make sure it works. 1992 Founded 200+ Implementations worldwide 20+ Countries served $0 Outside funding taken Our Story Dmitry Goykhman founded ANT USA in 1992 with an MIT engineering degree and a belief that the planning software market had the problem backwards. Enterprise vendors were building platforms that required consultants to configure, months to implement, and dedicated administrators to maintain. **Today, the industry is making the exact same mistake with AI.** Vendors are pushing **‘black box’** automation that tries to replace human intuition, leaving planners with unexplainable recommendations they simply do not trust. We built Buyer’s Toolbox to help actual humans get the job done. Start with the retailer’s actual data. Configure around how their team actually plans—**fitting the merchant, not vice versa**. Instead of a black box, we deliver **‘Glass Box’ planning** where the logic is visible, empowering planners to make the final call. We go live in weeks instead of quarters. Then we stay involved — coaching the process to prevent **institutional knowledge loss**, not just supporting the software. Thirty-four years later, that’s still how every engagement works. The company has never taken outside capital and never carried debt. While competitors rely on massive funding rounds to sell **‘AI theater’** and hype, more than half of our revenue goes back into practical product development every year. We do this not because a board requires it, but because that’s what it takes to keep the product ahead of how the discipline actually evolves. > “We work hard to deliver tremendous value to our customers — in R&D, in support, in upgrades, and even in pricing. I make sure that we can go to sleep at night with a clear conscience, and we earn the trust of our customers the old-fashioned way.” ![Dmitry Goykhman, Founder & CEO](https://antusa.com/images/ceo-dmitry-goykhman.png) ## Planning software should have to _earn_ the deal. The vendor landscape in retail planning is built on promises and **‘AI theater’**. Staged demos with sample data. Slide decks full of roadmap features. Enterprise sales cycles that stretch for 9 to 15 months and cost six figures before you’ve seen your own numbers in the system. It is no wonder that **95% of custom enterprise AI tools fail** to reach full production. We think that’s backwards. If a system can’t prove its value with your data, your categories, and your store structure before you commit, the vendor is asking you to fund their **‘pilot purgatory’**. You are taking a risk they should be taking themselves. That’s why every Buyer’s Toolbox engagement starts with a risk-free proof of concept built on your actual data—eliminating the **IT integration bottleneck** and proving immediate ROI before you spend a single dollar. ![Prove it with your data](https://antusa.com/images/illustrations/about-earn-the-deal.svg) How It Works ## How every engagement works. 1 ### We load your data. We connect to your ERP, pull your sales history, categories, and store structure, and build a working planning environment with your actual numbers. Not a sample dataset. 2 ### We configure to your process. Business process review before configuration. Your naming conventions, your planning hierarchy, your workflows. Best-practice templates embedded from day one. Go-live in weeks. 3 ### We stay involved. Ongoing coaching beyond go-live. Train-the-trainer for internal champions. Regular check-ins as the business evolves. The same people who built your system are the ones who support it. Our Orchestra ## Retail Experts. Software Developers. Customer Support Engineers. QA Engineers. ### Dmitry Goykhman Founder & CEO 150+ merchandise planning implementations across 30 years. Still does them personally. Still writes every blog post. Still shows up at NRF with gourmet chocolates and honest answers. ![Dmitry Goykhman](https://antusa.com/images/ceo-dmitry-goykhman-alt.png) ### Daniel Goykhman CTO Math and computer science degrees. Combat Infantry veteran. Built his way up through ANT USA from mobile developer to the person responsible for everything under the hood. Leads the engineering and QA teams. ![Daniel Goykhman](https://antusa.com/images/cto-daniel-goykhman.jpg) ### Our Leadership Jeff Dillon — Director of Operations 20+ years as a buyer and planner. Murat Dzgoev — Director of Customer Success 20+ years of implementations. Nika Nefedova — Director of BI & Special Projects Chemistry PhD turned planning systems expert. Focused. Experienced. Driven. ![The ANT USA team](https://antusa.com/images/antusa-teamphoto.png) 1992 ### Profitable and independent since day one. Zero outside funding. Zero debt. The company exists to serve retail merchants, not to generate returns for investors. 50%+ ### Revenue reinvested in R&D. Every year. The product gets better because the team chooses to make it better, not because a roadmap was promised to a board. 10+ ### Years with many clients. Long-term relationships are the norm, not the exception. Clients stay because the support shows up and the product keeps pace. ## What if the tool worked the way your planners already think? Talk with our seasoned retail experts and get: - ✓ A walkthrough of how 200+ retailers plan with Buyer’s Toolbox - ✓ An honest assessment of where your planning process stands today - ✓ A working proof of concept with your actual data — risk-free, no fuss [Talk with a Retail Expert →](https://antusa.com/pricing#book-a-call) ![Dmitry Goykhman](https://antusa.com/images/ceo-dmitry-goykhman.png)![Daniel Goykhman](https://antusa.com/images/cto-daniel-goykhman.jpg)![Jeff Dillon](https://antusa.com/images/director-operations-jeff-dillon.png)![Murat Dzgoev](https://antusa.com/images/diretor-customer-success-murat-dzgoev.jpg) Our retail experts are ready.