At 7:00 a.m. the delivery arrives. By 9:00 a.m. customers are hunting for a favourite product that never made it to the shelf. Peak hours blow up rosters, turnover drains margin, and five disconnected software tools fight for a manager's attention. Astorre was built for this exact gap: it links delivery signals, inventory and people in one loop so shelves fill on time with staff rewarded in a fair, transparent way for the work that gets done.
"The problem was never people - it was the system," says Marina Shulga, Founder. "Demand peaks, stock lands late, shifts stay static. Give teams clear tasks, the right timing, and fair recognition for work actually done, and the store changes in a week."
The Wage Problem Nobody Talks About
Marina turned to the core challenge she'd faced throughout her retail career: identical wages set against wildly different performance. Everyone on the same level earns the same hourly rate, but each person works at their own pace. Some go above and beyond for customers. Others lack motivation, struggle with tasks, and drain their colleagues' energy - requiring bigger HR teams and higher management costs that can undo a business.
That pattern led to a simple idea: link delivery signals, inventory and people in one loop so shelves fill on time - and make recognition fair and transparent.
Marina started on the shop floor at 18 and later managed teams, so she's seen both sides. "It all comes down to organisation. People work differently - and that isn't a negative. When goals and timing are clear, you enable each person to do their best."
"Companies want their best people to shine - they just couldn't see it clearly," she explains. "Issues went unnoticed because data lived in silos. We needed a transparent, respectful way to surface what's working and where support is needed."
Her solution? "Track absolutely everything. The real value comes when those signals are systematised and analysed at scale - something only AI can handle effectively. That way you can show individual performance. But I knew I needed to create a platform that could bring this to businesses in a seamless way. Money is a huge factor in getting people to work better. By offering more for more effort, you can manage individuals to deliver more results."
From Siberia to London
Born in a small Siberian town, Marina built her career through corporate and entrepreneurial roles across Eastern Europe and Asia, spanning EdTech, digital commerce, marketing strategy, and operations. She led a $2M global EdTech programme across 30+ countries, ran e-commerce stores and children's clubs, and held leadership positions in British private education.
But the real "aha!" moment came running her own retail stores. Marina watched some employees rush around while others stood idle checking phones. Popular items vanished from shelves whilst storerooms filled with unwanted stock. "This is madness," she thought. Yet her teams still outperformed larger competitors - not with bigger budgets or longer hours, but by putting the right people in the right place at the right time.
When Marina dug into the numbers, the pattern scaled far beyond her stores. Across the UK, retailers were haemorrhaging money through workforce misalignment and inventory chaos. The market wasn't just ready for change - it was desperate for it.
How Astorre Works
Picture a platform that thinks like Marina's best store manager: predicting when the afternoon rush will hit, knowing exactly which products need restocking, and ensuring the perfect team is scheduled for maximum impact. Astorre's AI turns live signals - what's arriving and what matters now - into hour-by-hour priorities and task lists matched to skills and availability.
Astorre doesn't replace managers or HR; it gives them a live picture. Teams get clear tasks and faster feedback; leaders see where to coach, re-prioritise, and recognise outcomes fairly.
Early pilots focus on 10-15-store groups with daily deliveries, measuring three simple KPIs: faster time-to-shelf on priority SKUs, fewer unfilled peak-hour tasks, and lower labour per delivery. The wedge is store-level ROI, not heavy change management.
Building the Future
In July 2025, Marina landed in London with an Innovator Founder visa. "Our ambition is to help reshape how workforce and inventory are managed - not just in the UK, but across Europe and the US. We aim to become critical infrastructure for mid-size retail chains: offering visibility, flexibility, and performance accountability powered by AI."
Marina is refreshingly honest about the challenges. "Corporations can be scary. Approaching management with my concept is something I have to prepare myself to do. Because I'm passionate, super organised and sometimes too strict, it doesn't always work for people. But those who get it and realise I'm here to save them money are the kind of people I want to work with."
Her ideal clients? "Any retailer aiming to make everyday operations flow with AI. If you want your stores to run on signals - what's arriving and what matters now - Astorre's AI turns those signals into priorities, task lists and transparent recognition."
On UK culture, Marina notes: "One of my favourite things is how polite it is. But that politeness can make communication indirect. Even rejections come wrapped in soft language that's hard to decode. As an newcomer with years of experience across countries, I can tell you - indirect communication rarely improves performance. That's why we're building a system that takes pressure off HR and managers. If you have AI collecting millions of data points and turning them into clear performance records with improvement insights, you don't need difficult conversations. You need visibility."
"Let's be honest - would you still be scrolling TikTok on shift if you knew your activity would be tracked and flagged for review? I doubt it."
Marina's story proves that the best innovations come from people who've actually lived the problems they're solving. Astorre is her answer to every retail worker who's ever felt like they're fighting against their tools instead of working with them.
From a small Siberian town to London's innovation scene, Marina's journey shows that sometimes the most transformative ideas come from the most unlikely places - and the most determined people. As she puts it: "I have a feeling that in about 25 years (or less) we'll have moved from hourly rates to performance-based rates. You earn what you deserve - that's how it should be."
If you want to know more about Astorre, connect with Marina on LinkedIn
