Jeremy Julian
Jeremy Julian
Mon, Jul 3, 2023 . 3:01 PM
49:15
Owner: Jeremy Julian
technology, restaurant, blockchain, jeff, collectibles, people, talk, food, chad, virtual, listening, understand, space, engage, work, guests, launched, restaurant industry, metaverse, web
Geoff (54%), Jeremy (29%), Chad (16%), Intro (1%)
I
Intro
0:02
This is the restaurant technology guys podcast, helping you run your restaurant better.
JJ
Jeremy Julian
0:13
Before we move forward with the show, I wanted to share about a product that I came across recently. We’re in the middle of the summertime. And so you’re going through dads and grads and I know the holidays are just as bad. But it’s a product that’s trying to become the OpenTable. for large parties. The name is restaurant. Nick and his team have created a online booking solution to allow restaurants to book large parties and do them online in such an easy way. It’s a brilliant solution. And having just gone through graduation for my son, I would have loved to have had a solution like this, check out Nick and his solution restaurant, when you get a few minutes after the show.
JJ
Jeremy Julian
0:57
Welcome back to the restaurant technology guys podcast. Thank you guys for jumping on. I know that. As I say every time you guys have lots of choices on how you spend your time. So I appreciate you guys jumping on the show and listening to me chat with some really cool people. Today we are joined by two different guests. One is a second, maybe participant, Chad may have known each other for a little bit. And he brought one of his his clients that’s in the restaurant industry. But Chad once you introduce yourself to those that aren’t familiar with who you are, and then we’ll introduce Jeff and let him talk a little bit about who he is.
CH
Chad Horn
1:29
Awesome. Thank you, Jeremy, thank you for having Jeff and I on your program today. My name is Chad horn. I’m the co founder of devour the I’ve been in the restaurant tech scene for I’d say around 15 years. But in late 2021, my co founder Shelly ruble and I created a company to bridge the restaurant world with this emerging technology that most of your viewers might associate with the name blockchain. There’s all kinds of things you can do with it. But we recognize that it needed to be people from industry to help restaurants get value out of this amazing technology that is changing everything. And so this, that’s what the tower is. Now when we started, we didn’t know exactly what that looks. And we knew that not every restaurant would be figuring out this face anytime soon. So we needed to make it easy. And then somewhere along the way, we met Jeff, who is kind of right there with thinking about the future and innovating and what the future where guests are going to be in the future and how to properly engage with them. And so it was a natural partnership. And Jeff and the wild team are doing things in this space that we don’t see a lot of brands doing it. But we know with the way they’re executing, it’s smart on multiple levels. And I hope he gets into that today. And how the power go can help power that we’re gonna see a lot of other brands wanting to follow what they see going on now.
JJ
Jeremy Julian
2:53
I love that I’m sure we’ll get into the education about kind of what is blockchain and how does it play into it but just so that everybody is not like who’s this Jeff guy and why is he on Jeff, why don’t you introduce yourself a little bit both your your your own personal story and then kind of your story of well bow and where where you guys are at now.
GA
Geoff Alexander
3:09
Sure, I can do that. And you might still hear afterwards. Why is this guy on it?
JJ
Jeremy Julian
3:14
Well, you know, I’m not gonna be judged that’s, that’s up to the audience to judge whether any of us want to want to be on the on the show. Nobody wants to listen.
GA
Geoff Alexander
3:21
Appreciate that. So I thought would let us entertain you restaurants. It’s a restaurant group based out of Chicago. 52 year old privately held Restaurant Group. I just had surpassed 30 years with them. I’ve worked on a number of different projects and concepts within lettuce. For the last 13 years I’ve been running a brand 14 years brand called Wild bow which is a quick serve fast casual Asian restaurant. We started as brick and mortar we’ve involved in do sports stadiums, college campuses, airports, music venues. In 2017, we got involved with private equity valor Equity Partners and took a majority stake to fund our growth. We currently by the end of this summer will be in over 5000 grocery stores with our product both fresh and frozen. We launched a virtual dining segment of our brand back in late 2019, prior to the pandemic, and then when COVID hit we had explosive growth and now we have over 700 locations between the US and Canada. We recently got involved with hot food vending machines where we have about 40 machines deployed across the country where you can get wild bow served hot and 32 seconds out of these machines. And a year ago we became the first brand to have a rewards program a virtual brand to ever a rewards program. And then May of this year after partnering with flaunt and devour and pay tronics we evolved that rewards program into the first virtual loyalty program that incorporates web three Metaverse and NF T’s.
JJ
Jeremy Julian
4:54
That was a lot and I’m sure we’re going to dig into all of that and again, I’ve been a huge fan of not Just a moment and you know, just the whole lettuce group for a really long time. But, but I, I personally got a chance to experience the brand this past May and in Chicago a little bit as well as I’ve run into it a couple of times, but it’s been fun to watch your guys’s growth, but digitally and, and, and the like, gentlemen to let you talk a little bit about you know, so you were on, it was probably a year a little bit more than a year ago, whenever you guys launched, it was pretty soon after you guys launched and you did a lot of education. But why don’t you take us through what it is that you’re trying to solve for in this digital web three space because I think it’s going to really tie in to what the team that led us in the team at well bow we’re doing in conjunction with you guys as well as some others. But I’d love to lay the foundation that says what is it that you’re trying to tie together between this digital and, and physical space? For those that either didn’t listen now or how it’s even evolved over the last year?
CH
Chad Horn
5:53
Yeah, I think the first problem we sought to solve was, you know, something we had seen before time time again, as would both of you is that restaurant, the restaurant industry is usually not the first and often the last to the party when it comes to new technologies. And we knew the first thing we want to do is make sure the restaurant industry was had a seat at the table when it came comes to this new wave of technology going under that banner of blockchain. And then what we realized that would start to look like the help in terms of kind of more micro level problems, helping restaurants engage customers where they are, right, the Gen Z on down, they engage digitally, right? It’s often referred to as a digital native, Denna regeneration, there, they hang out in different places, the way to reach them, is very different. And this technology has a lot to do with how you engage that next generation. So we’re thinking about how do we solve that problem and helping restaurants use the blockchain to to engage their future customers, which is hugely important, because as a brand, you always have to be where your customers are.
JJ
Jeremy Julian
7:04
I love that. I love that. Um, before I tip the scales over to Jeff and talk a little bit about kind of how they they think about this. There’s a lot of times that blockchain and Bitcoin get tied together. And I know as well as you guys know that those aren’t one in the same but oftentimes the consumer general public, watching mainstream media news, don’t we’re not in the technology space, think of those two things, somewhat synonymously. Can I guess you debunk that myth, Chad, just because a lot of people are like, Oh, I’m not doing that Bitcoin thing. I can’t do that. Because it’s not controllable, or whatever. But I’d rather you talk about that, so that people don’t turn us off and go out. Those guys are crazy. They’re way out in space, and they don’t know what the hell they’re talking about.
CH
Chad Horn
7:44
I’m not going to spend a long time on it. Because I think it can be done with a very simple analogy. You can pick it, you can think of any given website that you don’t like, or any company that’s on the web, you can think they’re No, no good. But you don’t dismiss the internet. Yes, right. Love it here is the underlying technology, it’s valuable, it’s changed everything. blockchains the same way. Even if you don’t agree with Bitcoin, a lot of people love Bitcoin. It has nothing to do with the underlying technology, and where
JJ
Jeremy Julian
8:13
it’s going. That’s, that might be the best example that I’ve heard anybody say, to really break it down super simply. So just as you are leading this brand, and you you’ve been around the lettuce group for a long time, and you know, that you guys are are historically one of those brands that I like to go visit because you guys are always on the forefront, whether it’s new technology in the kitchen, or it’s new technology for the guests, or you guys have always been there. I mean, you’ve been there long enough to know that you guys have always been pushing the envelope of what does dining need to look like? How, how are we going to engage with our guests. Talk to me a little bit about how I guess in theory, you guys went to market, as you recognize this technology might be at a place that you guys can adopt it, and differentiate yourself as to where you’re going?
GA
Geoff Alexander
8:56
Yeah, it’s a great question. And just for your listeners, when you talk about us being adopters of technology in 2010, we had self ordering kiosks. At the time, there was only you know, airports, movie theaters, and banks were the only places you had self ordering kiosks. And then 2017, we had a fully automated restaurants where you had zero interaction with a human and all your food was delivered out of LED, LCD animated cubbies, personalized cubbies, so we’ve always done a lot with technology. And when you know, as Chad was saying, I like being an early adopter to technology by doing so there’s a number of benefits. Number one, you get access to technology, performance, other people. Number two is you get to input and help create and write the narrative of that technology because people are looking how to make the technology easier and better. Number three is I get recognition from groups like yourself who want to talk to us and keep us at the forefront of what we’re doing. And what happened was, as I said earlier, that a year ago, we create a rule Words program. And the reason why I say that is there’s, we have 700 locations that are virtual, where you’re available to get food on DoorDash, UberEATS, and Grubhub. And we’re trying to move people off of those platforms onto wildau.com. To place an order. The reason why is we get insight into their demographics, we get information about those consumers, we’ve a way to communicate with the consumers versus on the third party platform, we don’t get any of that information. So to move people to wowt.com, we started a rewards program. And I say it was a rewards program, because for every dollar you spend, you get a point 100 points, gotcha. $7. Basically, you got to $7 off your fifth order, based on our check average, but it was not a loyalty program, it was rewards. And the reason why is loyalty does not exist in the virtual space, you’re opening up the app, you’re picking who to order from whom you order, that’s all there is to it. We wanted to create loyalty, we want to create community, we want to create dialogue, we want to give back to the people who are given to us by embracing the web three technology and and, and creating a membership program, which is what we’ve done for $99. You get your own personal we call it a collectible. We’re not we’re trying to steer away from NFT is there’s negative connotation in the public space with that right now. But it’s an avatar, it’s a, it’s a piece that is owned on the blockchain, you can purchase it with a credit card and an email, you don’t need to use crypto, but you get your own individual. You get your own individual. And then what happens with that is you get discounts at Wild wowt.com on your food, you get discounts on our merchandise, you get double rewards points. And we have a way to communicate with you now and create a community and that creates loyalty. And then partnering with a group such as devour who’s using different groups on in the metaverse and on web three and an NF T is we can cross promote one another. We can give specials to people who who understand this technology and utilize it differently than the average person. So it’s opening up a world, a world literally a world, a new ways to communicate and new ways to partner and new ways to experience and always being a leader in technology and an embrace of new technology. This is the forefront. This is the next place to go to right where like for, for those of you who are old enough listening, we’re like James T Kirk here going where no one’s you know, we’re boldly going where no one else has gotten before. What I do know is it’s sometime in the next 18 to 36 months, everybody’s going to be playing in the space. And what will happen is over the next 18 to 36 months before they get there, we can write the narrative, we can experiment. And when everyone else finally enters the place, we are going to be so much further ahead of them and on to the next thing and constantly improving because of the adaption right now.
JJ
Jeremy Julian
12:50
So I love that concept. Because you know, when Chad and I first talked there was this whole this whole like how do I overcome the idea of what do I get for this I’m having to I’m having to engage with this technology. And and I love the fact that you guys have created a point of differentiation, I say often on the show, and it’s the restaurant technology guys. But technology for technology’s sake does nothing. Technology that truly engages the guests and creates a better guest experience creates more loyalty creates something that they can’t get elsewhere, is really where I try and push people. I guess when you guys consider the chef, because as a consumer of your brand, paying more to get something is great. How did you guys, I guess detail that value proposition because you’ve you’ve seen the adoption curves, you know that very small amounts will be the early adopters. And you probably got a lot of traffic in the beginning, but then it probably flattens out. And so you got to figure out how to sell that next kind of that next level so that you start to create the flywheel. How do you guys consider those guests? And what kind of things did you guys learn on that process?
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Geoff Alexander
13:54
Your question, there had sparked so many different thoughts for me that I’m going to try to answer your question, but I just want to get the thoughts out that came. The first is, you mentioned this technology about you know, people thought about what do I get out of it? That is the wrong mentality with technology. The technology for the restaurant industry or any industry is not necessarily about what do i The owner in my business, get out of it. It’s more about how do I enhance my guests experience they want to come back and then that’s what creates loyalty. So you don’t want to get involved with technology for selfish reasons. You want to get involved with technology to enhance not only your customer but your employee with being an early adapter, adopter adapter adopter of technology, right? We adapt but we are adopting it is you have to understand there’s going to be headaches, you know, and I love I love that you’re the founder of the restaurant technology guys. There are no restaurant technology guys. There are technology guys and their restaurant people. No technology in the restaurant space has ever been created by restaurant person. And we have to we have to change our model to take on this technology, which we’re willing to Do and do that success that successfully, you have to get buy in from your team, your staff and employees need to know why you’re doing it. Be prepared for the headaches that come with it, and be working towards the reward for the guest. So we do all that. So now your question referred to, once we do it, how do we communicate it to people? How do we get them to keep staying engaged with it? How do we make them want to keep doing it six months from down the road as opposed to initial reaction? And the best way to answer that is you have to keep evolving and innovating. You don’t just turn on the switch today, and run the exact same switch six months from now or eight months from now, we launched our membership program, we called it the first course right, we’re in the restaurant industry. So our initial launch the first course, well, that means there will be a second course. And we have already spoken about the second course, which will probably be a higher yearly fee instead of the $99. For the one now, it’s going to be a little bit more I don’t have the dollar figure. And the NFT, or the collectible will have different attributes than what’s available at the lower price. So your your character looks better or has more features. And we’re going to add more enhancements. I’m going to talk about loyalty, you go back in the restaurant industry, and you think about what a loyal customer got in a restaurant, you got sat at the table faster, right? The way the manager knew your name, the hostess knew your name, the server knew what you’d like to drink, and the and you got a free dessert at the end of the meal. And if you are really good, a really good diner at that establishment. Back in the day, the chef came out of the kitchen and the chef whites and brought you food and shook your hand. And nobody looks more like a VIP that I’m going to Chef visit your table. Right? Because everyone else in the restaurant is like why isn’t the guy cooking my food? Right? Who is this person? They’re taking time out of the dining room. So one of our thoughts is on the second course to stay engaged with people. Wouldn’t it be great if you could contact and connect with our chef, our chef Tim Hawkins been with lettuce for 20 some odd years and worked on very high end dining. Imagine you’re at home and cooking meatloaf. And you wanted to trick out the meatloaf to be different than any other meatloaf you’ve ever served your family or your guests. Wouldn’t it be cool if you could get Tim to quote, visit your table. And I hope you make that meatloaf better. We throw around an idea that you can have access to talk to me. I don’t think anybody wants to talk to me, what are they going to ask? What can I offer them, but offering to talk to that chef and have that kind of connection, as well as then opening the door to community. And one thing we learned from COVID, more than anything else we learned and which we had forgotten is how social humans are right and
JJ
Jeremy Julian
17:46
how much they want they crave your real human connection. Even in a virtual world as crazy as that is
GA
Geoff Alexander
17:52
100%. And when you when you have that human interaction, it’s always around food. Right? We are social creatures that require food, we celebrate with food, we commiserate with food, we say goodbye with food, and we welcome people with food. Food is always there. So what an exciting opportunity we’ve created to engage with people around food in a new technological space, and write the story of how that technology can be used. I love that. So when you say how do you keep people coming back, you have to innovate that evolve that and make it better every single day. And that’s what I said, in 18 to 36 months, when this becomes a little bit more mainstream, and more people are there. And they’re doing x, we’re going to be on triple B, C and D because we’re so far down the life plan with it.
JJ
Jeremy Julian
18:45
I love that you think that far ahead. I can imagine. And I’d love to ask the question, Jeff, since you’re such on the forefront of this, and I’m assuming you guys hire to this level and you guys understand. I was just talking to former when I was in Chicago stuck on a former let us die. You probably know his name. I’m not gonna bring it up on the show. But we can talk about it after who was in the tech space and very much. You know, he believed that and that was kind of how you guys need to hire, but I can I can imagine a world where they don’t get it where your staff doesn’t get it where your staff doesn’t understand how do we engage at this level to get there, you’ve got 700 virtual stores, you’ve got all of this talk to me about your leadership and how do you how do you paint that vision of what you need executed in a virtual world where it doesn’t look the way that they’ve done it before in a place that nobody’s ever been or you’re one of two or one of three that’s been there.
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Geoff Alexander
19:34
It’s not that they don’t get it. It’s that they haven’t been brought along for the ride. Okay, right. Success is not done by one person having a vision. I can’t I if I want to be if I’m when when John F Kennedy who I was not alive for said we’re going to be the moon by the end of the decade. He didn’t get us to the moon. Yeah, right. He had an idea he had a vision and he brought everyone along for it and let good people do their jobs. I can’t turn on any technology, and it’s just gonna work. Marketing has to do their piece operations have to do their piece, right? Everybody PR has to understand it, every aspect of our business has to want it to succeed. And every person, our business has to accept it, and comment on it. And if you don’t explain it, to them, the view of the leader silo it in your organization, there’s going to be more people who don’t understand it, then get it. And then when you get an opportunity to be on a show like this, and one of my people on my team gets questioned about it. And they don’t know any of the answers that is failure with a capital F. Yep, no, yeah, there is a group of us who worked diligently to get this turned on, and build it right, whatever it may be. And there was a huge group of us who had nothing to do with it. But prior to launch, we made it very clear to everyone this is what we’re doing. This is why we’re doing it. What questions do you have join the website, visit it, play around with it, here’s resources to learn more. And look, that wasn’t like we’re launching on Friday, we gave that to him on Thursday. From day one, there was this buzz about what we’re doing. People saw it, they had questions, we weren’t sitting in a closed room, the graphic design artists doing stuff with no one’s seeing it, you know, we’re an open bullpen where everyone can see what people are working on. So we created excitement around it. And then it’s at store level, you got to do the same thing. Because you could go out and hire a number of people to talk about things, but you’re the store level employees that I have, that are talking to guests every single day, are going to talk and interact more so than any newspaper article I get. So they understand that and you have signage in the restaurant that are telling people about it, and your staff is educated enough to talk about it. That’s where the buzz gets created, and the excitement and the sharing of the story. And that’s what that’s what gets lost sometimes. Sometimes when you’re doing this, everything’s top secret, and you don’t want anyone else to know. And pre COVID, the restaurant industry is very siloed. Right? I can’t have you have my recipe, you don’t know what food I’m working on, I need to be better than you I need to steal your customer. When COVID happened, the walls came down and everybody was like, help. What are you doing? What’s working? How can I help you? I don’t want to see you go under I need this, can you get me that and everyone just became a place of let’s work together. And it has been the greatest triumph of our industry, the resiliency of the operator and the coming together of a community. And that is now translating to your point about the growing that in that, that that company community and quilt of sharing growth together and success.
JJ
Jeremy Julian
22:59
I love it. I love it. And I wholeheartedly agree with you. And I mean, you’re very active on social and I love watching you interact with other brands that I work with in the space because you know, at the end of the day, everybody’s going to rise to the level and you know, you have said it multiple times, we’re going to be one or two steps ahead because I’m just visionary enough, and I’m willing to take enough of those risks. Chad, I’m gonna pass it to you for just a second there was an article in the nation’s restaurant news actually got interviewed for it about web three. I think Shelley might have been interviewed as well. Joanna fence, Jose, I think was the one that wrote the article about where’s things going and are we going to get to a place where these avatars are sitting in a virtual room having a meal delivered to them, and they’re going to sit around a virtual table, I actually have a former co worker that made a bet with his wife, He has four kids. And he said, by the end of the decade, you know, to use your analogy, but the end of the decade, we’re gonna have a virtual meal where I’m gonna be on a business trip, and we’re gonna sit down and have a date night, I’m gonna be virtual, and I’m gonna be a hologram in front of you, you know, was his theory. And if I lose, I’m taking the whole family to Disney World. And if not, then I get this or whatever, whatever. Whatever. Oh, I get I get the best hologram phone in the world is what was his theory? Talk to me a little bit about how you think about that. Because there was this whole idea. I know, Jack in the Box that a little bit. The guys at Chipotle did some stuff with web three. Oh, and, and kind of kind of that NFT you know, to use the the bad word. Talk to me a little bit about where that’s at from a tech space. And how have you seen it evolve even since you guys launched? And then really, where’s the rubber meets the road today? And where? Where do we see it going?
CH
Chad Horn
24:32
Yeah, it is fun to think about where this is going to go. And, and I but I do like to start where are we today? Right? Because I don’t think people have a firm grasp on where we are today where we were versus where we were a year ago to the Absolutely. What Jeff did with digital collectibles, you know, back then they were called NF T’s and nobody had a problem calling them that. I avoided using the word I even even started talking about because of the connotation but that’s the technology He’s valuable. But what’s what’s changed is that now it’s user friendly. It’s so much easier to engage with us than it did. And so you can actually focus on the user experience, not just for the web three enthusiast that like all the buzzwords are for everybody. Right, as Jeff talked about, it’s a social log on, right? It’s an, it looks like an awesome, cool extension to a loyalty program that you know, anybody can participate in, it’s a membership program there, people have a frame of reference for this. And then they see that they can do cool stuff. So where we are today is kind of user friendly. mass mass adoption is there. It’s just communicated to the customer. What do you get? What do you get? How does it work? And, and the really cool thing from a tech standpoint, right now that I think I want everybody to understand is that what you can do with this, because I’m sure some people don’t understand is like, this is like, the way we were able to work together, right? Wow. In America, there’s no like complicated database integration like there is with other technologies, because it’s web three, those those collectibles in the blockchain, we just said, okay, yeah, we’re gonna recognize that, we’re going to be a way for those users to get secret menu items, extra loyalty points, etc. That was uncomplicated. And so we’re able to extend that experience for Jeff’s customers in a way that wouldn’t have been possible before without extensive investment in integrations and technical work. And he can replicate that. And with all kinds of other experiences, if Jeff wants to partner with an awesome game that also recognizes collectibles and give back to his fans, he can write it’s so the speed of innovation that is enabled by this technology, and hence the way you can add to your guests experience. That is that is now right that is right now. And I it’s not nobody listening to think, Oh, I’ve got to understand how the blockchain works and how transactions are, it doesn’t matter. You don’t have to figure that out. That just happens to be what’s enabling it. The other thing Jeff mentioned, which is super powerful is collaborations. He’s building this out just for your for your community, your fans, if you wanted to next week, do a collaboration with another group also, with their digital collectibles and do something together for them. You can flip that on like that. And so the the marketing power, right to not just engage your community, but partner with others is
JJ
Jeremy Julian
27:29
unlimited. Yeah,
GA
Geoff Alexander
27:30
that was thrown to two thoughts that the first is, you know, when you’re talking about where’s the technology going? And where do you see it? And I think the idea of the hologram when you’re on a business trip is a fantastic one. I’d rather stay at home with my family to send my hologram
JJ
Jeremy Julian
27:44
to the business trip for sure.
GA
Geoff Alexander
27:46
I think it’s pretty cool. We, you know, I mentioned that we launched these virtual these vending machines, we have about 40 of them deployed, where I want to see us go as I want when you’re in your Metaverse when you’re playing fortnight and Roblox or however, you know, Apple’s going to improve this, whatever it may be. When you’re in the metaverse in this digital space, how cool it’d be to come upon a Wildau vending machine. And you could just order the food right from the vending machine. And without ever taking your headset off the doorbell rings and the food’s delivered to you because of our 700 virtual restaurants. Right, you don’t have to pause your game to get on the phone or to go to your device and open up DoorDash and order the food. Right? It’s right there. And it’s all in play and you’re never leaving the environment. That’s where we want to go in the coming months and years. I don’t know what it’s gonna take to get there. But what I think is really important, also the chat, which is speaking about and you asked us really Julian, Jeremy about why getting involved in technology so early, when you hear the stuff that devours talking about doing the in the collaboration, and we could do this and if we want to go there, we can do that. One reason why we can do all that is because we’re early adopters, the opportunities now everyone’s testing out the technology. So we can be a guinea pig and get more opportunity. 18 months from now when other brands want to get on devours platform. I’m under assumption here and I’m not trying to do anything to hurt devour, there’s going to be a cost involved. And I hope they’re costing more than my caucus. Right? Because we’re early to the game. And it’s, that’s That’s why people need to embrace technology, you have to be willing to deal with the headache, you got to and everybody has to be part of that headache. But the the growth of where it will become wherever the developer or founder creator that technology things it’s going to be we all know it’s going to be bigger. We all know it’s going to be bigger. Yeah. And it’s going to get bigger because of the the inputs that we can contribute to it and the way that we are embracing and utilizing it.
JJ
Jeremy Julian
29:47
When I think you guys talked about digital natives and they’re going to expect no different at some point. My kid my seven my seven year old is going to expect to be able to play her game and have food delivered to her by the time she’s 18 Where Whereas I would never consider that because I’m in my 40s. And I’d be like, Why the hell would I have ever ordered inside of a game, but she’s not going to know any different when she gets to 18 or 25. No different than if somebody would have told me 10 years ago. I mean, we got our first DoorDash gift card when my daughter was born, my youngest is seven. And we got our first DoorDash gift card. And I remember going, what is this, and I’m in the restaurant tech space. And literally, my wife was pregnant at home, it was a friend that said, you know, we’re gonna buy you a meal. And like the DoorDash drivers getting a gift card, or credit card in the drive thru. And he calls because KFC didn’t have whatever the hell she wanted. And so she’s like, he’s calling from his cell phone to her cell phone. This is seven years ago, if I would have told you that now what’s gonna happen, you’d be like, That’s crazy. That’s never gonna happen. But seven years ago, that was where it was at, you think about how much that’s accelerated. It’s insane, which is really to your point. The other piece I’m going to, I’m going to ask you, Jeff, real quick to double click, you guys are partnered with Patreon X, we’ve been a Patreon partner for a million years. That’s how we actually met you guys.
GA
Geoff Alexander
31:01
I want to we are a proud partner,
JJ
Jeremy Julian
31:04
which is awesome. And I love those guys. And Andrew has been on the show. And he and I even talked about the loyalty systems and loyalty systems that work and why they work and loyalty systems that don’t this to me seems like a loyalty system, you know, guest engagement system on steroids, because you guys are given so much more value. Talk to me a little bit about about that not only integration, but why that’s so critical to understand where that’s at and how tech plays a part in that because most people, let’s just throw out a you know, get your phone number and I have I’m part of 75 loyalty programs and I’m not loyal. And then there’s others that I’m really loyal to because they they deliver value like you’ve been talking about.
GA
Geoff Alexander
31:45
You know it’s an it’s an interesting question. And what what’s happening you referenced your know your daughter ages seven, I have a 12 year old I have a 24 year old, I have a 12 year old and just seeing the two of them interact. Technologically is completely different. You know, the, you know, the three year old versus your seven year old is even next level about and all I can say is every single generation is expecting more and more seamlessness right as little friction as possible. Absolutely. When you talk about you know, pay tronics and integration model, we can all go old school, we can make you carry around your did your digits and enter in this and then this test will talk to that. And oh, our computer down. Seamless technology is by far the most important piece of technology that you can get. And in the restaurant and space, it’s completely impossible to have seamless technology. Yeah. Right. Because we all have a different POS system. We all the different integrator, we are all on running on different apps. And then we want the newest technology. But the newest technology isn’t hasn’t proven itself to be partnered with this other technology. So there’s no integration written. And while the community of the restaurant industry has become open and wide, understandably, the technology community is much more siloed, right? Because I don’t want you to steal my thing and how it’s gonna work. So you don’t have that seamlessness. So when you talk about what pay tronics, and devour and flaunt who’s our other group that we’re working with on this, we got the three groups to work to one another. We’ll chat again, correct me, I don’t think the three groups were the mine. I’m sure you all knew of each other, but only any of the three of you were actually working together and sharing the eyes and us is declined. Were like we need this to work. And if you want to work with us, well you have to talk to this person. Well, I don’t know that person. So we made introductions and now I think there’s hopefully going to be a huge flight plan and runway for each of these groups to work together on more collaboration to grow which only benefits everybody but the the need for it comes down from the consumer having the greatest experience. Yes. The reason why everybody orders Amazon is everything’s one button. It’s frictionless. You have the button right put in your cart or buy now buy now buy now and because it’s buying now you buy a lot.
JJ
Jeremy Julian
34:07
Oh my wife I promise you I almost made my wife get a DNA test when my seven year old was boring because the Amazon guy was here more than I was it’s I mean it is but But truthfully, it’s you’re right.
GA
Geoff Alexander
34:19
I think everybody’s taking the DNA tests. Everyone’s door but but that’s what that’s what’s making the technology advancements and excitement. So powerful is the integration. Well, you don’t have the integration trust me the restaurant industry does not have integration doesn’t exist. Because either you want to own everything right toast is a great example. We are toast POS users. We love toast everything about toast I’m going to say positive things. We’re not going to get into the 99 cent fee that got announced yesterday. Everything about it we love but now all of a sudden toast wants to be direct integrate right? Direct online into itself. It doesn’t want Should it go through these other places, it wants to own the consumer as much as possible. That’s what every tech wants. And I get it. That’s business, right. That’s how you create value. All of that makes it more and more difficult for our industry. The reason why is restaurant people do not understand technology. Number two is to restaurant people do not have money to invest in technology. And number three, none of us outside of like yum brands and McDonald’s and inspire and Brinker can actually pay money to build it from scratch. And even if we did have the money to build it from scratch, by the time it’s built, it’s going to be so out of date. Yeah, no, absolutely. So we need and I implore all restaurant technology people listen to this is open your API and work with one another to make things work. I love Oh, those are great partner of ours, right? No one team are fantastic. And I will say we are trying very hard to get devour and oh load integrate 75% of our dark kitchens, our virtual partners run out Oh, and I need them to accept the hour. So we can get orders going through the channel and really take advantage of what there has to be offering. So although if you’re listening,
JJ
Jeremy Julian
36:11
let’s go. Yeah, no one, no one’s been on the show. He’s a friend of mine. Haven’t done this forever. Part of where the whole show came from Jeff. And really even what I get to do for a day job was to try and solve some of that Chet can tell you offline, because I don’t necessarily need this to be a plug for what we’ve done. But our philosophy is that, that you know what, at the end of the day, it’s all about the guests experience and all about how can we make the restaurant tours life easier, and the guest experience more seamless? And so that all being said, what was the biggest surprise that you had going through this? What was the thing that when you when you put it on the whiteboard and said, This is what we’re going to do, you pulled everybody together. And now you’re like, holy crap, I had no idea that the guests were going to engage this way that the customers were going to engage this way that the employees that it was going to get told me about the biggest surprise, you’re totally
GA
Geoff Alexander
37:01
off track. Okay, so we we started exploring this over a year ago, okay, we’ve been working on this for a long time. And probably the biggest surprise was boobs, Kryptos are working. tees are a bad thing. And we had to like, you know, we’re going down this path, and we started all the benefits we’re going to give to the consumer. And, you know, truth be told, we’re going to sell a boatload of NF T’s and make a lot of money. Yeah, that’s how we’re gonna pay for this system. And we’re gonna keep this thing moving. I mean, that’s, we’re all in business here, right? That’s the thing. And now we’re getting closer and closer to like, seeing the gold line of launch. And all of a sudden crypto implodes. And all of a sudden, NF T’s are a negative connotation. And now it’s like, whoa, hit the brakes. How are we going to change this narrative? And make this work? Right? And what are we going to do to to do this? And, you know, if you’re in the space, right, and I’ll be honest, the space is like this big. You totally get what we’re working on right now. You’ve heard of all these terminologies, you understand it? You’re excited about it. You want to be in this this space. This is the world. Yeah, in see my arms, like we’re in the virtual space where we operate. People are talking about the virtual restaurants are dead right now. I’m gonna go off topic for a second.
JJ
Jeremy Julian
38:24
I saw that I saw that online. I was like, What are you talking about? Just decided to not do anything? Yeah, sorry. I’ll let you keep going.
GA
Geoff Alexander
38:31
We’re in the infancy stages. We’re here three.
JJ
Jeremy Julian
38:34
Yep. Good.
GA
Geoff Alexander
38:35
We’re having we’re like hitting a growth spurt. We’re just learning how to walk. So what we’re doing here with the collectibles, what we’re doing here, web three, and the conversation we’re having about the metaverse, this is like we’re literally giving birth. That’s how early this is, which I’ll be honest, you is the most exciting time to be in it. Right? Like this is the fun stage. Right? We haven’t hit the terrible tool twos yet where we’re getting arguments and fighting and not being listened to. Our child loves us. And we love our child. And everybody’s telling us how cute we are. Right? That’s the stage we’re in. So when you when you talk about the aha moment and what’s going on, when you’re building something. And we are we are not building it for launch day. We are building something for 36 months from now. And I made that I’m trying to make that real clear, right? When people say how many people signed up, I say more than I would have thought but less than they’re going to write because everything very much. So the because when you look 36 months out right now today, that’s a learning curve. And so when you ask what did you learn the most, or what was the wake up call? Or what was the unexpected? Every day is unexpected. If today I sell five collectibles, it’s like holy cow. Five people got excited about this tomorrow if I sell none it’s like What happened? Yeah, if I sell 100, the next day, it’s like, Whoa, there’s no rhyme or reason to it. And no, we will learn that and continue to learn every day as the space evolves,
JJ
Jeremy Julian
40:12
hey, I really love that perspective. And I’m in the process of reading a book that talks about, you know, you should always evaluate everything that you’re doing, looking backwards. Because if you only look at it forward is really, really a challenge. Because you always want to be farther than you are. And if you evaluated where you were a year ago, versus where you are today, you’re like, holy crap, I got a lot of stuff done. So even as a leader within our own business i just had that I was listening to somebody commiserate this morning about well, like, should have been there. And that’s great. But look where you were, if I told you five years ago, that you’re gonna meet where you are today, you’re making the kind of money you’d be influenced, you’d be sitting in the room with some of these people, you’d be like, hey, there’s no way somebody told me three years ago, when I launched this podcast that I’d be doing this podcast with you guys. I don’t know. Like, no way. You know, when that I would have had almost 300,000 downloads so far, I would have told you you were crazy. But I’m grateful for the opportunity and it’s it’s been fun to fun to learn and fun to educate you know the audience and get people on the on the train. Chad, I’m gonna I’m gonna ask you talk to me a little bit about what devour looks like, I’m at a restaurant brand. I want to learn more. Where do I go? What do I do? Tell me a little bit more about what? What needs to engage? And what would it look like if I got on the phone with you? And I’m I see Jeff’s vision, and I want to be there. Talk to me a little bit about what that looks like.
CH
Chad Horn
41:28
So the funny thing is, we we love what Jeff’s doing. We don’t expect more than this many restaurants for this. So we say, hey, we want to help you get there, right? We want look at what Jeff’s doing. Right? Look at what that’s what that is and take notes. But make it easy on yourself and take that baby step. So foundationally what our platform is at devour go is it comes in technologically now. Like another marketplace to the restaurant. They plug it in just as easy as they have the other third parties, right? So the Olo that you mentioned Jeff, right? The Chaly are integration partner checkmate coming on soon, they can add this channel. Super easy. So now they can start playing, right? They didn’t want their own collectibles yet, right? They’re just like, Okay, I’m here. I’m part of the game. What can I do? And we’ll do we’ll be going to work for them. Right? Think about all of those collaboration partners. And in the web, three space, awesome digital communities formed around things people don’t understand things people do understand like sports, eSports. All kinds of things, big brands, getting into web three, that want might want to partner with a big restaurant or a small restaurant, we’ll go to work for them. But if they want to lean in, they can play without having to understand anything. So but then as they get their feet wet, and they start to see business results. So might inspire further action and experimentation. And then we say now look at Jeff harder look where he’s at, look at how much of a lead he’s got on you because he started this way before but now try to catch up, right? And so that’s where we come in, we would just say, hey, let’s activate another channel start getting you business from this blockchain web three, right? without you even knowing all that means because ultimately, it’s about engaging that next generation, the way they want to be engaged. This is how they can start doing that.
JJ
Jeremy Julian
43:24
Yeah, as Jeff talked about being being with those digital natives where they want to be so. And just for those that are either unfamiliar with what it is that you guys are doing, even outside of the technology, just from the food service perspective, how can they check you guys out? Where would you want them to go check out the product, go check out what you guys are doing from the technological perspective? How can they connect with your team and what it is that you guys are doing?
GA
Geoff Alexander
43:46
Well, the best way is wildau.com. We have a mapping tool on those shows you you type in your zip code, we’ll show you where the closest grocery store is to you and show you where how to order delivery sent to you. And then obviously, everything we’re talking about, you can buy the collectible and join the membership club on that on that site. Learn more about who we are. And I think the best way to learn more about us is hit rewind, and listen this all over again.
JJ
Jeremy Julian
44:14
I love it. I love it. I’m gonna actually ask you just because while you were explaining that I do think the vending machine is one of the coolest things I’ve seen in food service in a really long time. Can you give me a 32nd clip on what it is that you guys did? Because it’s pretty remarkable. Where are you guys got to with that I literally was blown away. So
GA
Geoff Alexander
44:34
if you grabbed me 45 seconds on,
JJ
Jeremy Julian
44:37
you got 32 Because that’s how long it takes to make a buck now, obviously,
GA
Geoff Alexander
44:41
look, I’ve always wanted to be involved in the Hartford bending. I think it is absolutely the future. And seven years ago we found a group to partner with unfortunately early technology ran out of money. And we got paired up with this group they’re called automated retail technologies just baked are based in Sarasota, Fla. Arda, which is great, because they’re made in the USA, they’re, they’re not sending parts across, you know, oceans, whatever, they’re right here ready to go. And they’ve created technology where it’s a refrigerated vending machine. And they put they have two different machines. One is there’s just big with multiple different items, including ours. And then they fully skin a while bow machine, which is just wild bow products, our bow, our dumplings are fried rice, our egg rolls, and they launched these and they’ve got 40 or so deployed college campuses, airports, hospitals, were chasing military bases, were chasing manufacturing plants. I mean, to me, this is the future. And it’s interesting I fly out of O’Hare are based in Chicago, when you first go through security. At terminal three American, there’s a wall of vending machines. And this is really, I believe, the future of of travel, whether it’s on a an interstate, and you go through the Oasis, or the airports now, and then you think about 24 hour places like police stations, hospitals, military bases, and manufacturing plants and colleges and so on. This is a way to get food hot and fast and delicious. And our food works perfectly in that environment.
JJ
Jeremy Julian
46:16
Yes, we’re really excited for it. Well, and I got the opportunity to check it out through the kiosk. And I can tell you that the quality of the food is no different than if I would I quite frankly, I think sometimes it might be even better. Because the consistency is there as as sad as that is, you know, in a brick and mortar versus there. It’s just it’s amazing.
GA
Geoff Alexander
46:35
I know you mean it as a compliment.
JJ
Jeremy Julian
46:36
I did. And for me, it’s like, you know what, you got human beings making food at times, and they’re not always the best. And so if you can get some consistency, not that I’m trying to eliminate those jobs at all. Everybody knows that. So listen to the show for more than five minutes. That’s not my ploy. But
GA
Geoff Alexander
46:51
important when people say that about eliminating jobs. Somebody’s making the machine? Absolutely, yes, somebody’s servicing the machine, someone’s cleaning technology for the machine. Somebody’s driving the food there to fill it. 100 people exactly that when the cell phone kiosk came out, oh, it’s killing jobs. Someone’s got to build the machines, yes. Face the machines and do everything with the machines. They don’t ever. We don’t ever replace labor you find other uses for the person and what’s great about technology, technology for the restaurant space has got to be to enhance the customer experience and make the job easier for the employee. Because the jobs easier for the employee, you know what you get you get them talking to the guest. Yes. What I say was before the pandemic, we were all in the hospitality space. That change once the pandemic and we all got in the food space. We need to get back to hospitality. Yes. And technology can get us there because it allows us to time to interact and that’s what’s missing.
JJ
Jeremy Julian
47:50
I really love that description and I completely agree with you and it’s it’s been part of my vernacular for a really long time is and and again I want everybody that’s listening that has not tried it out when they do get a chance. It’s It’s remarkable that what they’ve done the product is fantastic. Chad and I got to got to share one actually in Chicago because our booth was right next to where y’all were at at the NRA show. It’s kind of funny. Well, guys, I you guys have gone through the gamut. I know we’re at time to our listeners, guys. I said it at the onset. You guys have got lots of choices. So I appreciate you guys doing, you know, listening to Jeff, listen, and Chad listen to myself. I’m the dumbest one in the room. These guys just just blew me away with all the insights. So thank you guys for taking the time. If you haven’t already, subscribe to the podcast. Whether you’re listening on YouTube, listen on LinkedIn, listening on your audio podcast player, please do so. It helps us to understand if you guys have got guests that you guys want to send our way. Please send them our way. Chad and Jeff, thank you guys so much to our listeners. Make it a great day.
CH
Chad Horn
48:51
Thanks very Thanks, Jeff.
I
Intro
48:57
Thanks for listening to the restaurant technology guys podcast. Visit restaurant technology guys.com For tips, Industry Insights and more to help you run your restaurant better
