From Kenya to Virginia Beach: Brian Ongati’s Journey to Build the Ultimate Service Page

When Brian Ongati arrived in Virginia Beach from Kenya in 2024, he brought more than just a suitcase. He brought a front-row seat to the way service businesses struggle with technology.

A former casino host on Carnival Cruise Lines, Brian had spent years watching people interact with systems that were supposed to make life easier — but often didn’t. When COVID shut down the cruise industry, he used the time to learn programming. “That’s when people went jumping into programming,” he says. “So I actually went to programming school and learned coding.”

After the pandemic, Brian took a job at Sentara in administration, then moved to an SME (small and medium enterprise) business in Chesapeake. That’s where the idea started brewing.

“I could interact with a lot of service businesses, and that’s when I came up with this idea because I saw it was something that was much needed.”

The Aha Moment

The breakthrough came from a surprisingly simple source: his barber.

Brian was trying to book a haircut, texting back and forth to find an available time. “This is so lame,” he remembers thinking. He asked his barber if he had a booking system. The barber said yes, but he didn’t like it — “because they keep on asking for more money for me to run.”

And then came the comment that would shape everything: his barber told Brian he didn’t want his regular customers browsing a marketplace full of other barbers. “I already have my customers. I don’t want to compete with other businesses.”

That was the seed for Ongati — a service page platform that is deliberately, intentionally not a marketplace.

What Makes Ongati Different

Ongati is a one-page platform where service businesses can put everything their customers need: booking, contact info, location, social links, and more. Think of it as Linktree meets Calendly, purpose-built for service businesses, without the monthly subscription stack.

But the key differentiator is what it’s not. Unlike marketplace platforms that charge businesses to appear at the top of search results, Ongati is exclusive to each business. When a customer visits an Ongati page, they see one business — the one they already know and trust.

“If you already have your customers, it should be easy for them to go and check availability, book you, and come to your shop,” Brian says.

The platform is built for businesses with 1–6 people — the sweet spot where GoHighLevel is too complex and individual tools are too fragmented. “Once your business has grown, we can transfer to GoHighLevel. But you can still keep your page, because that’s still your service page.”

Built by a Builder

Brian also runs Zeptonic, a GoHighLevel implementation agency. He’s seen firsthand how powerful — and how overwhelming — the platform can be for small businesses. “It’s very underutilized by most businesses, and very overwhelming for businesses that don’t have somebody tech-savvy to set it up correctly.”

That experience shaped Ongati’s philosophy: simple enough for a barber to use day one, powerful enough to grow with them.

A Leap of Faith

Brian launched Ongati just weeks ago. He’s already iterating based on customer feedback, and his roadmap is clear. He describes himself as someone who’s taken a leap of faith — leaving behind the stability of a paycheck to build something that didn’t exist before.

He’s engaged to his fiancée, who’s also from Kenya, and yes — in Kenyan culture, the man foots the wedding bill. “So you better start making some money,” he laughs.

But the drive behind Ongati isn’t just about paying for a wedding. It’s about solving a problem that Brian saw firsthand: service business owners who are great at their craft but terrible at managing the technology that’s supposed to help them.

What’s Next

Brian plans to add features based on user feedback, including a review collection system that captures reviews on both the service page and Google. He’s also open to collaboration — “you can’t walk alone” — and sees partnerships as the fastest path to growth.

For now, he’s focused on getting Ongati into the hands of Virginia Beach service businesses who are tired of the subscription stack and want a simpler way for customers to find them, book them, and come back.

This article was published by Virginia Beach Spotlight — highlighting the people and businesses that make our community great. Interested in being featured? Apply here.