The Feed

Alice Crowder is the CMO of Krystal, a 300-unit regional QSR operating across the Southeast. The iconic Georgia-based slider chain was acquired out of bankruptcy by Fortress at the beginning of the pandemic and has since transformed itself through the launch of new AI-powered drive-thrus and celebrity-branded locations from former Giants player Victor Cruz. In this episode, we’ll dive into how Krystal A/B tests dynamic drive thru menus, launches new menu items, and is optimizing the drive-thru and off-premise experience.

Clayton Wood is the CEO of Picnic, an automated pizza station that can improve foodservice labor costs by as much as two-thirds, doubling to tripling four-wall EBITDA margins. Picnic is currently being used on-premise at stadiums and will soon be powering delivery for national pizza chains, convenience stores, grocers, and much more. In this episode, we’ll chat about what makes the pizza industry a unique place for automation, lessons learned from the first wave of startups, and how operators are looking to scale brands using this technology.

Kristen Barnett is the Founder & CEO of Hungry House, a next-gen quick serve concept that curates a rotating selection of virtual brands from up-and-coming chefs and food influencers. In this episode, we’ll talk about the early days of Kristen’s experiences at Zuul and Dig (fka Dig Inn), the challenges behind customer acquisition, and her outlook on the ghost kitchen landscape.

Liz Moskow is the former VP of Brand Development at Ordermark/Nextbite. In this episode we’ll talk about what it takes to create a virtual brand, how technology companies are deploying these brands across thousands of independent restaurants, and the pitfalls caused by a lack of transparency that has spread wide throughout the industry.

Jordan Boesch is the Founder & CEO of 7Shifts, a Union Square Hospitality-backed labor management platform for restaurants. In the episode we’ll talk about how restaurateurs are leveraging his technology to improve working culture and their bottom line. More importantly, we’ll dive into how the best operators are managing to attract and retain talent amidst a shortage of 1 million workers.

George Jacobs is the Founder & CEO of Acelerate, an order aggregator and licensor of seven virtual brands. Jacobs has spent 28 years in the restaurant industry from working at his family’s pizzeria to joining the founding team of DoorDash Drive. This past summer, the startup announced a $14.4mm series A from Sequoia. In the episode, we cover the early days of DoorDash, the role of marketplaces, what distinguishes Acelerate from competitors like Nextbite and much more.

Mike LaVitola is the Co-Founder & CEO of Foxtrot- a corner store that lives in our neighborhoods and on our phones. What started out as an online warehouse has evolved into an all day cafe and lounge that stocks 1,500 highly curated SKUs from 150 different suppliers. We chat about the flywheel of omnichannel retail, the future of CPG discovery, the role of ultrafast delivery, and much more.

Andrew Rigie is the Executive Director of the New York City Hospitality Alliance. Andrew was a driving force behind the recent set of NYC legislation that regulates restaurant delivery commissions charged by third-party marketplaces as well as data sharing provisions. We chat about how the regulations shifted from temporary to permanent, the externalities of fee caps, and the latest set of legislation designed to improve the brutal working conditions for bikers in the city.

Christine de Wendel is the Co-Founder and CEO of Sunday, a new QR-based payment platform that is looking to improve the guest and server experience at restaurants, hotels, bars, and cafés across the world. We chat about everything from the complex merchant payment system in Europe and the US, what it takes to be a consumer-facing wallet, and how Sunday will enable restaurants to leverage valuable customer data to grow their business.

Barnaby Montgomery is the Co-Founder & CEO of Yummy.com, one of the first online grocers to deliver in 30 minutes or less since 2002. We chat about everything from unit economics of newer quick commerce players to inventory curation and the tradeoffs between full time drivers and gig workers.