About
One truck in 2012. Sixty-one owners now.
Oso NPK started when Rafa Ocampo quit a commercial grounds job in San Antonio, bought a used spreader, and started treating lawns on his own street. The bear came later, and it was not his idea.
The story
Named for a truck
The first truck was a brown 1998 F-250 that the crew called el oso — the bear — because it was big, brown, and made an alarming noise on cold mornings. Rafa's daughter drew a bear on the door in paint pen the summer she turned nine. Customers started asking for the bear truck by name, so it stayed.
The NPK half is the boring half, and the important one. Nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium — the three numbers on every bag of fertilizer, and the thing most lawn companies never explain to anybody. Rafa's whole pitch in the early years was that he would tell you exactly what was going down on your lawn and why. Fourteen years later that is still the entire brand.
We started franchising in 2016 after two years of turning down people who wanted to buy in. The model has stayed deliberately narrow since: treatment services only, owner on the truck for at least the first year, and territories sized so one operator can actually cover them without cutting the schedule.
How we operate
Four things we will not trade away
The owner is on the truck
Every franchisee runs routes personally for at least their first year, and most never stop. An owner who has never applied a pre-emergent cannot train a technician to do it right.
Right product, right rate, right day
Applications are timed to soil temperature and growth stage. If the weather means an application would be wasted, we move it and tell you — we do not spray to hit a route target.
We say no to work
If your lawn needs drainage work, more sun, or an irrigation fix before any fertilizer will help, that is what you will be told. Selling a program that cannot work is how you lose a customer in year two.
The Oso Promise, no paperwork
Free re-treatment inside three business days, as many times as it takes. No claim form, no proof, no argument about whether it counts.
Support team
The people behind the territories
Your local owner runs your lawn. This is the group in San Antonio that trains them, sources the product, and answers the phone when something goes wrong.
Rafa Ocampo
Founder & CEOAlicia Moreno, PhD
Director of AgronomyKendall Boyd
VP, Franchise DevelopmentTerrence Pike
Director of OperationsWorking here
Technicians and route staff
Hiring happens at the territory level, so applications go to your local owner rather than to us. What is consistent across the system: we pay for your applicator licence and the study time to get it, routes are built to be finished inside the day, and nobody is paid on how much product they move.
If you are licensed and looking, email hello@oso-npk.com with your city and we will forward you to the owner covering it.
Talk to the owner in your area
Every quote comes from the person who will be standing on your lawn. Tell us the address and we will connect you.