August 21, 2024
Discover JUICER's restaurant revolution—innovative strategies for competitiveness and profitability in the digital dining landscape.
August 21, 2024
Discover JUICER's restaurant revolution—innovative strategies for competitiveness and profitability in the digital dining landscape.
Ashwin Kamlani, CEO and Co-founder of Juicer, shares his journey into the restaurant tech space and the evolution of their dynamic pricing concept. They initially focused on third-party delivery and used data to optimize menu prices. The concept of dynamic pricing was met with mixed reactions from restaurant groups, but they found success by automating the process and providing a hands-off solution for the restaurants.
They analyze historical data, patterns, and channel-specific sales to make specific recommendations for menu pricing. They also incorporate competitive set analysis and guest sentiment analysis to further optimize pricing strategies. Juicer is focused on using data to optimize digital sales and profitability in the restaurant industry. They provide dynamic pricing solutions that help restaurants increase revenue and improve customer satisfaction.
The onboarding process involves extracting historical data from the restaurant's point of sale system and running an analysis to identify opportunities. Juicer works closely with the restaurant to implement strategies and continuously measure and optimize results. The main challenges they face are the lack of peer evaluation in the industry and the perception that dynamic pricing is synonymous with price increases. Juicer is expanding globally and adapting to different technology players and cultural differences in each market. The future of the restaurant industry lies in the consolidation and collaboration of restaurant technology players to provide holistic solutions. Transparency and authenticity are key in building trust with customers. Juicer's focus is on becoming the leader in digital sales optimization through data-driven solutions.
00:00 Introduction and Background
07:16 Early Success with Expedia and Orbitz
13:44 Meeting Drew Patterson and Starting Juicer
26:57 Optimizing Digital Sales and Profitability with Data
36:21 Global Expansion and Adaptation to Different Markets
43:52 The Future of the Restaurant Industry: Consolidation and Collaboration
Follow Ashwin Kamlani on Instagram!
Connect with Ashwin Kamlani via Linkedin!
Learn more about Juicer!
Ashwin Kamlani [00:00:00]:
As the head of e-commerce for America, and then I ended up becoming head of e-commerce globally. My job was, how do I figure out how to work with these third parties being Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity, because we need to get. We need to work with them. They're great lead generators, but I don't want to depend too much on these companies. You know, I want to get as much business out of them as I can, but how do I get as much direct business as I can? Because that's where the money is, right? I want all ownership of the customer, and I want all the data around how they're booking and all that stuff.
Angelo Esposito [00:00:33]:
Welcome to Wisking It All with your host, Angelo Esposito, co-founder of WISK.ai, a food and beverage intelligence platform. We're going to be interviewing hospitality professionals around the world to really understand how they do what they do. Welcome to another episode of Wisking It All. We're here today with Ashwin Kamlani from JUICER, CEO and co-founder of JUICER. Ashwin, thank you for being here with me today.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:01:03]:
Great to be here with you, Angelo.
Angelo Esposito [00:01:05]:
Yeah, I'm super excited to kind of jump into your journey, learn more about JUICER and, like, how you guys are, you know, innovating in the restaurant space, but maybe just to get people at least on the same page, can you quickly describe what is JUICER?
Ashwin Kamlani [00:01:22]:
Sure. So JUICER is a two year old company, and we are helping restaurants optimize digital sales and profitability with data science.
Angelo Esposito [00:01:35]:
Okay. That's a good way of putting it. We'll definitely jump into it. So one thing I like to always kind of do on the Wisking It All podcast is understand how people got to where they're at today, because I think people have interesting journeys and what made them want to solve certain problems. I love to maybe just quickly kind of get a sense of, like, your journey into, you know, hospitality. I know travel industries before founding JUICER and kind of like, what led to that inspiration to then take the leap into this restaurant tech space?
Ashwin Kamlani [00:02:04]:
Well, look, the truth is I didn't really know, you know, where I wanted to go or what I wanted to do. And, you know, when I was in college, I went to the University of Rochester. I just studied whatever I thought was interesting. And so at the time, that was psychology and spanish language, and I went and studied abroad. That changed my life. I really fell in love with international culture and languages, you know, but when I was graduating, I started to ask myself, what am I going to do with Spanish and Psychology. And as it were, one of my friends was going to interview with a company called Anderson Consulting, which is now accenture. And this was in the late nineties when they couldn't really get their hands on enough people.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:02:43]:
And he said, hey, you know, they're interviewing hundreds of people. You should just come. I'm sure they'll talk to you. So I said, yeah, okay, fine. I'll come home. And I went. And sure enough, they were interviewing hundreds of people, and they agreed to speak with me. It was like one of these rapid fire 20 minute interviews, okay? And I was sitting outside and talking to some of the people that work for Anderson consulting and saying, hey, you know, can you tell me about this person that's going to interview me? And they said, yeah, he's an associate partner, and he is in the New York office, and he works out of Chicago right now, and he's on the utilities client.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:03:18]:
And so I got all this intel on this person when I went in for the interview. I remember he said, hey, Ashwin, so before we get started, do you have any questions for me? So I said, well, sure. You know, my understanding is, if I get this job, I would be in the New York office. Can you tell me a little bit about that culture? And he says, oh, yeah, he told me about it. And then I said, well, it sounds like you really like New York. I mean, how do you feel being in Chicago all the time on this client? And he looked at me kind of like, what's going on here? And so he answered that question, and I was like, so what got you interested in the utilities industry? And he went on and on, and suddenly he looks at his watch, and he's like, hey, man, 20 minutes is up, and I haven't even asked any questions. But don't worry. You're good.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:03:53]:
And then I went through all the interviews. Bottom line, I ended up getting the job, which gave me the opportunity to learn all about technology. But I was in pharmaceutical companies, electronics companies and banks. And, you know, although I like the technology, none of those verticals really interest me. I didn't feel passionate about any of it. So I started to ask myself, you know, where do I really want to be? What is it? What exists in the world that I would wake up every day like, wow, I love this job. I didn't quite figure that out. I went to work for Price waterhouse Coopers because in the year 2000, they were starting up an e-commerce consulting practice.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:04:28]:
So I jumped on that. Got to learn all about e-commerce. You know, in the early days. And then after a year, I realized, you know what? I think I need to be in hospitality. I think that's really in my blood, just because I remember growing up and my family would go on a vacation, and it didn't matter where we were. We could be on a road trip, staying in little motels, or we could be at Disney World. But I was most excited about the hotel we were staying at, which is kind of weird. If my parents were going out and they were going to leave me alone in the hotel, I was like, yes, I order room service.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:05:01]:
A little strange. But anyway, even when I was consulting, I remember walking into hotels and looking around and thinking, you know, this was my hotel. I would do this and I would do that, and I was like, I need to be in this industry. And so I went to the Cornell Hotel school, applied to the master's program, and said, look, I've never worked a day in my life in the hotel industry, but I really feel this is where my heart is. And with my technology background and with my spanish language, you know, I think I could do something interesting here. So they said, right. Come on in. So the first week of my two years master's program, September 11, 2001, happens, and everybody's looking at each other like, this is not good.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:05:38]:
And, of course, everybody was saying, you know, the hotel industry will never be the same. And, I mean, the whole industry went into chaos. And this is where I think you'll start to hear a lot of analogies with restaurants, because 911 to the hotel industry is what COVID was to the restaurant industry. And they canceled all the internship programs. But I was relentlessly pursuing this one company called Melia Hotels and Resorts, which is the largest Spanish hotel company. And I finally got in touch with someone who works there, and I said, look, you don't have to pay me a penny. I will pay for my own flight. Just give me an internship.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:06:16]:
And the guy says, super nice guy. I'm still friends with him today. And he says, okay, fine. We've just opened this beautiful resort down in Mexico, and nobody's there. We've canceled the pre opening budget. You know, nobody's flying. So why don't you go down there, work with the general manager, see how it goes? So, while all my friends at Cornell were up in Ithaca during the winter freezing their butts off in some kind of a classroom, I had an ocean front suite overlooking the ocean with unlimited, all inclusive five star luxury food and pretty much had the whole place to myself. And it was an amazing experience, because I went to the general manager and I was like, hey, have you ever heard of Expedia and Orbitz and Travelocity? Nope, never heard of that.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:06:57]:
I don't know what you're talking about. Well, you got to see this. So I started signing contracts. You know, tons of reservations started pouring in. And so the general manager calls this VP in Miami and says, look, I don't know who this indian kid is that you brought down. You need to hire this guy, like, now something's working.
Angelo Esposito [00:07:14]:
I don't know what he's doing, but it's working.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:07:16]:
This VP literally flew down to Cancun and sat with me, and he's like, show me everything you're doing. So I showed him all these different websites, and he said to me, all right, I want you to drop out of Cornell, and I want you to come work with me right now in Miami because this is the future. And I said, man, this is the dream come true. I mean, this is the company I want to work for. Like, this is the job I want, but I can't drop out of Cornell, man. It was so hard to get in, you know? So he says, all right, you know, I can't promise you this job will be sitting around for you, but, you know, when's your next break? I said, well, I got three months off in the summertime. He says, okay, great. We're going to send you to Mallorca.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:07:50]:
We'll pay for your expenses, and you're going to work with our chief marketing officer to develop the company wide e-commerce strategy. And I was like, where do I sign? I mean, Mallorca? I don't know if you're familiar with Mallorca, but this place is a gorgeous paradise, right? And I was, I don't know, 25 at the time. Like, I had all expenses paid for the summer in Mallorca. This is incredible. I went there, a phenomenal opportunity. I learned a ton. And so I was going into my third semester, and the CMO sits down with me and says, oh, so now what are you going to do after this? He said, well, I'm going to study abroad in Paris with a sister school program that Cornell has. And he says, you know, we've got eight hotels in Paris.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:08:30]:
So I said, well, that's interesting. Happy to work for those hotels again. You don't have to pay me, but how about you give me a room in one of those beautiful hotels so I can live in the center of Paris while I'm studying there? And that way I don't have to rent an apartment and live out in the boonies where the university is. It was like, done. So I got to live for a semester in this gorgeous hotel right in the center of Paris and worked for them. So by the time I graduated, I already worked for them for almost a full year. But here's the cool thing about this role, you know, as the head of e-commerce for America, and then I ended up becoming head of e-commerce globally. My job was, how do I figure out how to work with these third parties being Expedia Orbitz travelocity, because we need to get, we need to work with them.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:09:16]:
They're great lead generators, but I don't want to depend too much on these companies. You know, I want to get as much business out of them as I can, but how do I get as much direct business as I can? Because that's where the money is, right? I want ownership of the customer and I want all the data around how they're booking and all that stuff. And I don't get that with these third parties, not to mention, you know, these third parties back then, and I can't speak to whether they're still doing these things, but they were taking all that 20 or 30% commission that they were earning from us and then turning around and investing that into Google and Kayak and Tripadvisor to steal our direct business. How do you search? Customer would go into Google and search for Grandmilia Cancun and we were nowhere to be found because they, all the ads and all the organic listings were like, you know, Expedia Orbitz, travelocity, hotels.com, cheap tickets, which now is all the same company, right. Or priceline booking, calm, you know, you name it last, that was all the same company. And so they were these two consolidated companies just dominating all the real estate.
Angelo Esposito [00:10:20]:
Wow.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:10:21]:
And yeah, I could go on and on for that, so I'll just stand there. But so my responsibility was loyalty, website conversions, digital marketing, pricing, promotions, and I had to work with all these individual hotels to kind of educate them on what we were trying to do because there was a lot of fear, you know, what are our traditional partners going to say about this? We've been working with them for decades and if they see us on Expedia and we have a better price, they're going to cut us off. And, you know, we can't do this. And so it was a lot of internal politics and getting people comfortable with this new way of doing business.
Angelo Esposito [00:10:57]:
Right.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:10:58]:
Bottom line, we did very well. You know, by the time I left. We were doing €250 million in e-commerce business, and I decided, you know what? I think there are a lot of other hotel companies out there that would love to do this. And so I started a company called Regatta Travel Solutions, built a reservations platform and went out there and started licensing it. And, you know, that's a long story, but bootstrapped. The company ended up selling the business in 2016, and it was all the same thing, helping these hotels figure out how to balance all these channels, run the right promotions, how to get people to convert directly, all that stuff. So the company gets acquired in 2016, and I've been working with the company that acquired us for about five years, and I decided, okay, I need to get back into entrepreneurship.
Angelo Esposito [00:11:46]:
Yeah.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:11:48]:
Now, I decided that I was gonna start putting some videos out on LinkedIn. And the way that started was that I saw Dan Shapiro, who's the COO of LinkedIn. I was following him at the time, and I saw the very first time he did this. He walked out of his house, started walking around the street in his neighborhood, and just talked into his camera for about a minute or two. And it was so engaging. And I was just like, you know, I love this format. This is so cool. And, you know, I think I could do that now. I was living in Rome at the time, and I was like, you know, it could be so cool if every time I visit a cool place, I make a video like this and I talk about something.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:12:22]:
So I just started talking about entrepreneurship and things I learned along the way. And, you know, the hotel industry, commerce. You know, my wife was like, you're crazy, man. This is a bad idea. You know, what if you're out there trying to build a business or look for a job or whatever, you know, what if somebody doesn't like what you have to say? And I was like, you know, so be it. I mean, I want somebody to hire me because of who I am, not because I'm saying the right thing.
Angelo Esposito [00:12:43]:
Right?
Ashwin Kamlani [00:12:44]:
Anyway, so I continue to do this, and there's this guy named Drew Patterson, who I had known throughout the years. When I was at Melia, he was at Starwood when I created my little tiny bootstrap company. He was one of the founding team members of Kayak, which sold for a billion dollars. And, you know, he was there till they exited. So he did quite well, and then he founded Jetsetter that was sold to, I think, was Tripadvisor. Then he was the CEO of Room 77, sold it to Expedia. So this guy's got an amazing background and experience. And he is out to dinner one day, and they hand him this digital menu, and he says, hey, wait a minute.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:13:19]:
This is e-commerce. I'm looking at a digital menu. Like, why are these prices static? And so he had this idea, you know, I don't understand why the restaurant industry isn't embracing dynamic pricing. Now. Drew's got a lot going on. He's got other companies, and he's got other investments and things. So what he does is he comes up with a great idea, and then he looks for somebody that he can trust to come in and run the project. Now, he and I hadn't spoken in a long time, and he called a friend of his over at LinkedIn and said, hey, I have an idea for a new company.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:13:49]:
Do you know anybody that might be able to come run this now, I had never met this person in my life. And she says, hey, I see you're connected to Ashwin Kalmani. He's been putting out these really cool videos, and a lot of people here at LinkedIn have been talking about it. Why don't you reach out to him? And so Drew reaches out to me. You know, we kind of tell our stories, you know, where we've been since we last were connected, and tell me this idea. And I was like, man, this sounds like a great idea. So it took me about 48 hours to think about it, and I called him like, Drew, count me in. Like, this is it.
Angelo Esposito [00:14:22]:
Wow.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:14:22]:
So that's when we started. It was, like, probably August, September of 2021. And, I don't know. We took two or three months to go out and start networking, talking to some restaurant groups. You know, there are a lot of hotel people that have jumped over to the restaurants, and it became crystal clear. And we started talking to restaurants about the third parties and how they're dealing with it. And, hey, like, when you put a price out on Uber and DoorDash and Grubhub, how do you determine what that price is going to be? And everybody's like, I don't know. I mean, we take our menu prices, we mark it up a flat 20% so we can offset the commission, and that's the price.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:14:58]:
And we just thought, wow, what an amazing opportunity. Because we know from the hotel industry that if you use data to optimize the perfect price on every menu item for every single channel, for every single location, you guys would make a lot more money. And there seemed to be enough interest in trying this, so we thought, all right, we got to build this. And I said to Drew, like, do you know how to build this? I don't know how to build this. So we went out and talked to a guy named Marco van Minuti, who is very well known for building dynamic pricing systems. He built duetto, which is one of the most successful dynamic pricing companies in the hotel industry. And he goes, you guys, I've always wanted to do this in restaurants. I've never been able to do it.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:15:37]:
I'm in. So I was, like, kind of virtually high fiving Drew because Drew's over in San Francisco, and I was in Rome at the time, and Marco came in. We started talking to more restaurant groups. Then I read this book called delivering the digital restaurant because I was trying to learn more about the industry. And I see it's written by Meredith Sandlin and this guy Carl Horsmore. And I'm like, as I usually do, I reach out to them on LinkedIn, like, hey, man, thanks for writing this book. I've learned so much from it. You know, I'd love to have a chance to speak with you both.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:16:07]:
They were both extremely nice. I don't know if you've met them both, but they're some of the nicest people. And then Carl says to me, so tell me about this company you guys are thinking about starting. So I told him about it, and he said, you know, man, I cannot think of a better timing to bring something like this to market. You know, what if I come in and help? This is amazing. You know, I mean, yeah, I called Drew. I'm like, you're not gonna believe this. This guy wrote this book and has this massive following, is a bestseller.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:16:33]:
He wants to come help us. So that's how that started. And then the bottom line is, we spent the next year, 2022, you know, building relationships in the industry, getting the word about what we wanted to do. We went live with our first customer, I would say toward the end of 2022, and they said, okay, you know, we're a little worried. You know, what if the consumer doesn't like this? And, you know, what if something happens? I don't know. Let's just start with a couple of restaurants. So we did that, and we had one or two other independents at the time that wanted to try this as well. Now, after a couple months, they started.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:17:10]:
You know, they see the results. And what we do is we meet with our customers once a month, and we go through the results. We explain to them how we got to these results and what we're planning to do next. And after a while, they said, this is crazy. We should be doing this in more locations. You know, let's expand to 13. And they have 28 in total. And then it was only, I think it was one month later that they said, all right, let's do this in all locations.
Angelo Esposito [00:17:33]:
Wow.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:17:34]:
So for us, this was a massive win. You know, okay, this customer, and they're tough. Like, these are numbers people, and they're, you know, they were asking a lot of hard questions. And so for us, it was like, okay, check. They liked it. Not a single customer complaint. They're willing to pay for this. You know, scaled it out across the group.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:17:52]:
Like, let's go. Right. So we started to ramp up our conversations and sales conversations, and I would say over the last two quarters, that has started to really ramp up, you know, and it's been, it's been fantastic. The results are really good. They're consistent. Again, zero customer complaints. And for now, we're really focused on the third party delivery channels. And I would say what has changed maybe since we first got started was, you know, the macroeconomic environment was different when we started, and a lot of restaurants were telling us, well, we're going to increase prices, and, you know, we just don't know exactly how much to increase.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:18:32]:
Could you help us with that? Well, of course, you know, let's use data to figure out exactly how much you should be increasing. Now, over the last two or three quarters, that economic environment has changed, and now the question is about, okay, well, you know, the consumer is getting more price sensitive. We want to put more value in the market. We want to run a promotion. We want to maybe put a discount out there, but we want to know exactly how to do that. Right. We need to be competitive. How do we make sure that that's happening? And I think it's, look, it's great because when restaurants were first increasing prices, they were kind of guessing, and we literally heard anecdotes from restaurants.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:19:09]:
Yeah, we set the new higher prices, and every time we hit that button to go live, we were kind of wincing. Like, is the consumer going to be okay with this? So there wasn't a lot of data behind it. And I think the same holds true with the way a lot of restaurant groups have run promotions in the past. It's like, well, let's try this and let's try that and throw spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks. So to use data to figure out, okay, well, here's what's going on exactly in my market, and let's really measure the impact of each of these promotions and let's test it in different channels and really give you data to tell you what's working and not working. I think that's a very welcome evolution, you know, for our customers. So why don't I, why don't I stop there and let you jump in and ask some questions?
Angelo Esposito [00:19:50]:
Yeah, no, that's great. I mean, first of all, it's really cool to just see the evolution of, like, you know, the formal education plus the, you know, on premise education. You're getting so many thoughts going through my head. One of them that I want to share, and it's funny because I see the theme not only myself, but almost every entrepreneur and founder I've interviewed. So I just want to highlight it for our listeners, is the idea of taking a risk and being in the right place, even if it means, like, you know, delayed gratification. Meaning like, okay, I'll take no pay. So, like, I saw that theme a lot with almost every founder. Like, I was willing to do this because I want to be closer.
Angelo Esposito [00:20:24]:
I was willing to do this because I needed to be in that city or out, you know. So I think there's something there that all founders have in common is like, they could think further ahead where I think a lot of people think short term. So I just want to highlight that because that's super smart of you. And a theme I see often, but I'd love to hear, like, what was the original pitch? Right, so when you met your co-founder, was the original. I'd love to hear, like, what was the original pitch and how has it evolved now that you're kind of in the market? People are using it, so, you know, yeah, just the concept of that dynamic pricing in restaurants. Right.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:20:58]:
Well, you know, we eventually focused on third party delivery, but that's not exactly how we started. We weren't quite sure how this was going to play out. And we did also use the term dynamic pricing quite heavily at the beginning. One thing I learned very quickly was that when I spoke to restaurant groups about dynamic pricing, there was like this wall, and they were either on one side of the wall or the other. Either they thought like, oh, yeah, of course, this is brilliant. Lots of other industries have done this. Why aren't we doing it? Or they would say, that's crazy. This isn't an airline.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:21:34]:
And they would say, you know, what's my customer going to say when they walk into the restaurant and see prices changing? And my reaction to that was, well, you know, if I walk into a restaurant at 07:05 and they tell me that happy hour just ended at seven. I don't get upset and stomp off. I say, well, that's unfortunate that I just missed the deadline. You know, I guess I'm going to sit down and I understand that it's going to be a little more expensive for me.
Angelo Esposito [00:21:59]:
True.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:22:00]:
Or they'd say things like, you know, what happens if a customer sits down and figures out that the table next to them paid less? And I say, well, when's the last time you sat down in an airline seat and turned to the person next to me, like, how much did you pay for your ticket? Like, that just doesn't happen, you know?
Angelo Esposito [00:22:15]:
True.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:22:15]:
The other thing is what I said about focusing on third party, because, you know, I can't repeat, I don't remember exactly how we came to this conclusion, but it became clear that the consumer who opened up those apps like Uber and Doordash had a different expectation. They knew that the pizza that cost $15 in the store was going to be more, and they didn't know exactly how much more. And depending on the day of the week, it could be, you know, 15 in the store and 17 in the app or 18 or 25.
Angelo Esposito [00:22:45]:
Right.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:22:46]:
And so, and that does two things. And that's, of course, because the delivery fees can vary depending on how busy they are. Now, number one, that trains the customer that the price of an item can change depending on circumstances. And I believe it also showed the restaurant industry, like, wow, this fear that I had that consumers wouldn't pay different prices for the same food is actually wrong. Right. Because it's clearly happening. So that was very beneficial. And when we started to focus on third party, it's funny because we'd reach out to a restaurant group or we'd meet them and, you know, they'd come into the call with, like, ready to fight, you know, like, yeah, yeah, yeah, tell me how this works.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:23:23]:
And the minute we'd be like, well, first we're focusing on third party, they'd say, oh, wait a minute. Yeah, that makes sense, you know, and then we'd walk them through the whole process about how it works. And, you know, the other thing that they had their guard up about is, we're super busy. We don't have any people, we don't have any time. You know, don't come to me. And I.
Angelo Esposito [00:23:42]:
You.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:23:42]:
You send me reports and recommendations, and then we got to do all this work, and we just can't do that. Don't worry. We're going to do everything. We're going to do the analysis we're going to come up with the pricing. We're going to implement it into your system. We're going to monitor sales and adjust it. All you need to do is sit back and meet with us once a month and we'll show you how this is working. That's it.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:24:02]:
And that helped us overcome a big hurdle. I think over time we've learned to read what the real concerns are on behalf of the industry and overcome those, frankly, by enhancing our product and our service. And, you know, obviously when we first started this was quite manual, but now we have full integration with Oracle and, you know, others and, you know, a lot of this is quite automated. That's awesome. There's more to do, but yeah, that's, that's, I'd say that's really the big change between when we started.
Angelo Esposito [00:24:33]:
Yeah, that's huge. And it's funny because I actually think about it and it's, you know, I'll give the airline analogy, but, you know, people always think about, like you said, the price increase, but what about when it's the price decrease? Right? Like what about taking that red eye flight because it's cheaper? So same thing with the restaurants. Like if I'm coming in on a dead Tuesday afternoon, maybe prices are cheaper, but your sales, you know, net net the restaurants better off because they're making, you know, so I think there's, people think about the fear of like increasing price, but there's both sides of how do you optimize to just increased revenue and ultimately profitability, which is super interesting and I'd love to maybe tie that into what are some of the cause? At a very basic level, WISK just to give a quick parallel. We just do it data but based on purely cost. So we're inventory cost control. So like more just like mathematical of like, okay, ingredients went up, meats went up, broccoli went up. Okay. Then if you want the same margin, you got to adjust the price or alternate the ingredients or alternate the portion.
Angelo Esposito [00:25:33]:
But it's very much that I'd love to hear what kind of data are you guys looking at or ingesting to? Then kind of come up with these recommendations.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:25:42]:
When we first got started, we had to work with the data we had access to, which was the restaurant's data. So we would look at 18 months of historical data. And again, this was initially manual, but now this is all automated where the system can look through all that data and identify patterns. Right. And so we can come back to the customer with really specific observations. Listen, this particular item on your menu seems to consistently sell really well on Thursday evenings in Doordash between five and 10:00 p.m., and, you know, I think a lot of restaurants were a little bit shocked that, first of all, there was consistency in the data. But second of all, that it varied based on channel that there were some products that sold differently in different channels depending on what day and time it was. And so, you know, that's really how we got started.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:26:37]:
And then, of course, we built a system that would put into place different adjustments and tests based on the data that was extracted. That's how we got started. And then we started to build in things like competitive set analysis. We also looked at guest sentiment analysis and things like that because, you know, and frankly, we did that because more because the restaurants were nervous. Like, a lot of restaurants were like, I want to make sure the consumer is not going to hate this. And, okay, look, don't worry. We're going to monitor, you know, guest ratings and reviews, and we'll constantly tell you, you know, what we're seeing and things like that. So that has really helped as well, you know, and we're already layering in weather patterns and things like that.
Angelo Esposito [00:27:20]:
Interesting.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:27:21]:
Look, the goal should be, and this is, you know, a predictive model. So we should get so good that we can tell a restaurant, listen, there's a big game on this Friday, and based on what your competition is doing and based on the weather forecast and based on all these different factors, our prediction is that our model predicts that if we were to increase the price of your chicken wings by 15% between the hours of five and 10% and five and 10:00 p.m. On Doordash, the resultant sales will be x. Right. And so, yeah, I mean, that's really what we're building here. And there's a long list of data factors that we plan to build, build into this model to get it to be smarter and to be able to learn from itself and get more accurate over time. But as we build that out, we'll disclose that in due time.
Angelo Esposito [00:28:09]:
Yeah, yeah, no, it's super interesting because. Yeah, I can imagine we did some very early stuff on that, but. Very early. But, yeah, weather, obviously, is one that plays a role. And it's funny, even just drinking patterns. I remember at the time, this was with a group we were working with, but it was super interesting. It was kind of random, but when it rained, they sold more Stella beer. And I was like, can't explain why, but, like, cool.
Angelo Esposito [00:28:29]:
Like, and it's it's, it's things like that. But to your point, weather events, special events, is it boxing versus hockey? Is it an NBA game? What's going on? F one. Like, and even just traffic, like, is another one that comes to mind. Like traffic, hours of traffic, you know, how does that affect, you know, especially full service restaurants or bars? But we definitely have to chat because I could see a world where you guys are obviously doing what you're doing now, which is the predictive stuff. And then part of that predictive stuff is we have all their recipes and their sales data helping them reorder and replenish. Like, hey, based on tomorrow's weather and the game and this, you should probably order x amount of this, this and this to make sure you can make these dishes. So there's something there which I think could be pretty cool. But yeah, there's a lot there.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:29:13]:
And we've had very similar conversations with other companies. So happy to have Got it.
Angelo Esposito [00:29:18]:
That's huge. And for, you know, we have a big restaurant audience and so, like, for the people listening maybe to, can you highlight what the, you know, process or like all morning looks like? Right. So I can imagine a restaurant listening, they're like, this sounds cool, but what happens? What do I got to do? And I know there's a lot that you said that you just take off the plate, which is awesome, but I'd love for you to just kind of, you know, walk through it. Walk through. What does it look like? Restaurant X is interested. What happens?
Ashwin Kamlani [00:29:43]:
So there are two answers to that. Okay. The first answer is when it's a restaurant group that's working with a system that we're Familiar with or Connected with. So that includes toast and Cuboh and it's a Checkmate. And Oracle and many others like NCR, which covers actually a majority of the market at this point. So when we have that scenario, we can automatically go in, extract all Their historical data. So all we need is access to the system and then we run the analysis. That takes us a couple weeks, and then we have a meeting with them to say, okay, here's the situation.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:30:23]:
Here's an analysis of your revenue, here's where we think there's an opportunity, and here's what we recommend we do about that. Do you agree? Great. As soon as we're all aligned, we then implement that strategy. And we need to let that run for a couple of weeks because you can't get any statistically significant data from one week or two weeks. But we start very conservatively. I mean, you know, just a few percentage points because we don't want to, like, shock anybody.
Angelo Esposito [00:30:51]:
Shock, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:30:52]:
And then once we start to see the data, we go back to the customer, we tell them, okay, here's what we did and here's what we're seeing and here's what we're going to do next. And the system is now at a point where it can come back and say, ok, here's what the system sees in the data. This is the next step. But we don't actually automatically implement that until we go over it with the customers. A lot of, you know, we want the restaurants to be very comfortable with what we're doing, why we're doing it, how we're doing it. So then we implement the new strategy and continue to measure and optimize on a weekly basis. Okay. That's pretty much it.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:31:26]:
And that analysis that we go back to with the restaurants is everything I said earlier about what we're seeing in their data, what their competition is doing, you know, and how all these different factors are impacting sales, you know, according to our solution.
Angelo Esposito [00:31:41]:
Yeah. So, let me ask you this. So, like, you know, I'm listening to this. Maybe I'm too optimistic. And obviously, you know, being a counter WISK, I'm into tech, I'm into restaurant tech. So maybe I'm too, you know, too optimistic. But what's, what's the risk for the restaurant? Because it seems like a pretty, maybe a bit of time, but even that, it's like they're not doing a lot of the work. So, like, where do you guys get the most, let's say pushback? And I understand there's a little fear, but it seems almost like, let me show you the data.
Angelo Esposito [00:32:11]:
If you don't like it, you don't have to proceed. Like, you know what I mean? Like, what's the, I'm trying to think what, from your point of view as the entrepreneur, what's the main pushback you get considering you could do most of the lyft if, you know, you access their pos or whatever other data you need?
Ashwin Kamlani [00:32:24]:
I think the number one risk is what I said earlier, which is that the industry as a whole has not received enough peer valuation. You know, there are companies out there saying that they should do this, but not enough restaurant groups have come out to say, yes, this is a good idea and it works and you should do it, too. And now here's the interesting thing. There are enough restaurant groups out there that have done it. And, like it, but they're like, we love you guys, this is great, we love it. But don't tell anyone. It's a competitive edge. And it's, I don't know if it's a competitive edge or it's a little bit of sensitivity around price right now.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:33:06]:
You know, the general sense in the industry is like, people have taken too much price. The consumers are pushing back, you know, and unfortunately, unfortunately, people are equating data optimization or, I'm sorry, price optimization or dynamic pricing with increasing price. And so, you know, people are worried like, well, if it comes out or we announce that we're doing this, it's not going to look great. And if the consumer hears about it, you know, look what happened to this pub in the UK. You know what happened?
Angelo Esposito [00:33:33]:
What happened? What happened? I'm not.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:33:36]:
The largest company of pubs in the UK came out and said, we are going to implement dynamic pricing. And when it's. When it's really busy on weekdays, weekends and when there's an event, okay, we're going to charge 20 pence more for beer. And there was this uproar, you know, they were like, this is outrageous. And, you know, like, this should be illegal. And like, they get huge, you know, oh, shit.
Angelo Esposito [00:33:58]:
Okay.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:33:59]:
Huge backlash. Now, I don't personally believe that they communicated in it in the best way, and I'm not really sure why they communicated at all because I don't think anyone would have noticed 20 pence. You know, maybe people would have. But again, I think the correct response to that would have been, yeah, there was a debate. Like, we could have increased the price across the board at all times by 20 pence. But we decided that's not fair, you know, let's do it. Just busy. I think the consumer reaction would have been very, very different.
Angelo Esposito [00:34:28]:
Very different. I agree. And just, just to pause you there, because I think that in itself is probably another nugget slash lesson a restaurant would be just entrepreneurs in general can take away is like the same message delivered in different ways could be received very differently. Yeah, right. And I agree, you could spin that as a positive. And just a quick, quick anecdote, I got a buddy, he was actually on the podcast. His name's Frazer, and he's such a great guy, and he's kind of doing dynamic pricing. But on the reservations that he doesn't want to rebuild reservations, he made it clear I'm not trying to compete against open table.
Angelo Esposito [00:35:03]:
I plug it on top of things like opentable. Give people a 3d map, right? So imagine Google map experience and choose the table. And same thing. It's. It's. It's phrasing it as the phrasing. Phrasing is the positive side of things, you know? So it's like, okay, I'm gonna be in, I don't know, New York for a weekend.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:35:20]:
Yeah.
Angelo Esposito [00:35:20]:
I pay extra to make sure I got that view of the wall or, like, that specific table I want, or I'm gonna watch a sports game. Why not? Because a lot of people, going back to your point about, like, people being, you know, more tight on cash and sensitive with pricing, it gave me that same idea with the tables, which is, like, you could spin it on the positive side, instead of, I'm paying extra for a table, it's like, hey, I'm traveling for a weekend. I'm going here for a week. A big part of that experience is going to be, like, the restaurant experience, and a big weighted average of that restaurant experience is, like, where I'm sitting. Yes. I'll pay a small premium to make sure that experience is set, you know?
Ashwin Kamlani [00:35:57]:
Yeah. So the second area of pushback that we get is, I don't want to do any work. You know, it's like, I'm super busy. You know, we got a lot on our table.
Angelo Esposito [00:36:06]:
Shortages.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:36:07]:
Yeah. Like, you know, we already have two or three other projects going on. Like, I can't take on another thing. And when we say, like, listen, we're gonna do all the work, you know, you really don't have to do anything. We get, like, I've heard that before, and, you know, so that that's a little. We have to overcome that somehow. I mean, look, I mean, in full, full transparency, when we start to do promotions and things like that, we do need some involvement from the group. I mean, you know, we need to understand the promotions they've done before, and we need to agree with them on what promotions we're going to run.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:36:38]:
So we can't do that in, you know, autonomously at this stage. Another thing that, you know, again, just to give you a real sense of what it takes, we signed a contract with one particular group. They're on revel and ology, and they're using one menu. They have one single menu for everything, and that's the single source of truth. And then they automatically mark that one menu up a flat percentage that goes out through olo, you know, for the third parties. And we were like, look, that's not going to work for us because we need to price every individual item differently and ideally by channel. So step one, would be, we would create an additional menu for you and then map that through holo just for the third party delivery channels. And then let's just start there.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:37:26]:
And then we can do one for uber eats, one for doordash, one for. And they were like, that sounds like. Yeah, that sounds like a heavy lift. And so they said, we need to table this till q one. So, you know, I just want everybody to have all the information. I mean. Yes. Again, going back to what I was saying earlier, if there's connectivity, and this is what, we always cover this in our first call with the customer.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:37:47]:
Depending on how they're set up, how their menus are set up, this could be super quick and easy and they don't have to lift bigger. Then there could be a situation where there is connectivity, but it's a case like this where there's only one menu and we are happy to do the lift and come in and help set up these additional menus. Or the third scenario is there's no connectivity. And we then have to understand, okay, what's the point of sale system you're using? How are you getting those prices out to the third parties? And we have a whole team of people that can go into those systems and make these changes manually. And then we have another team of people that are auditing those changes to make sure we make, you know, zero mistakes. And it's funny because some restaurants, first of all, they're like, I appreciate your transparency, because a lot of companies would just promise that, you know, it's all automated. And then the background, they're doing what you're doing. So thank you for telling us that out front.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:38:37]:
And some restaurants are like, come back to us when you've got the connectivity. And in a way, that's a chicken and the egg problem, right? Because I go to a certain POS and I'm like, hey, I really want to build connectivity with you all. Well, come back to us when you got some customers. Yeah, but the customers don't want to sign with me until I got connectivity with you. Yeah, luckily, there are enough restaurant groups that are like, look, man, I get it. Your startup. Like, as long as you promise me you're not gonna make mistakes, go for it. And, yeah, that has worked really well for us.
Angelo Esposito [00:39:05]:
That's interesting. And it's funny because on the connectivity side, like, we integrated with poss for different reasons, but we had that exact chicken and egg problem. And one thing that worked for us in the early days, because once you have enough, then it's like, good you know, you told square this lights, but once you have enough that it's like, okay, people don't want to, you know, there's kind of like that FOMO, so it's easier. But in the early days, what we found is we had to get the clients to put pressure. So even if we didn't close the client, we would say, you mind emailing your rep? And so just, I don't know if you're already doing that. But that worked well, because what I learned, at least for us, is hearing from us. Even if I was like, hey, another customer, another, it's like, meh, just noise. But when the customers would reach out to a rep and then another customer to another rep, different reps of that business would be like, hey, like, there's this WISK thing and like, they want an API integration.
Angelo Esposito [00:39:49]:
So it kind of helped. So that's just a quick side note. I don't know if that'll, that might help accelerate things. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like JUICER has clients in the US, in Europe, I think even in the Middle east. So I'd love to hear, like, are there any unique challenges or even just strategies that are, like, different in these different geographies?
Ashwin Kamlani [00:40:13]:
Definitely. And we do have customers in Latin America. We have a customer in Brazil, for example, that in fact, this particular gentleman came to, I think it was the RFDC conference last year, you know, heard me speaking on stage and thought, you know, hey, this makes all the sense in the world. And so went back, tried it on his own, and then ended up calling us and saying, yeah, this is pretty complicated stuff, we need to. And that was great because they're super happy with the results. To answer your question, it definitely poses certain challenges. You have different players. The delivery companies are different, their systems are different.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:40:49]:
The point of sale systems are different. Interestingly, this particular group in Brazil has come up with a really great way to do dynamic pricing because they are constantly doing offers and discounts off of a higher price point. And so we've seen that work really well for them, and so we're learning from them, too. Interesting. But yeah, there are definitely challenges because in each market, you have specific technology players that we need to get familiar with.
Angelo Esposito [00:41:16]:
That makes sense. We've seen that, too. Like different, you know, poss, let's say, in the states versus pos in certain other industries and other technology partners, like you mentioned. What's the one? My wife is Colombian. Colombian? Oh, Rapi. Rapi, I think.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:41:29]:
Oh, yeah, sure. Exactly. They're in Brazil as well.
Angelo Esposito [00:41:32]:
There you go. Yeah, they're big in Latin America.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:41:34]:
Here's the other thing, is that there's certain point of sale systems that are all over the world, right? So Oracle, NCR as well. But the interesting thing is when you, what you find is even though those point of sale systems are overseas outside the United States, they're typically not as up to date on the latest versions of those systems. And so that poses a challenge with API connectivity and things like that, that makes sense.
Angelo Esposito [00:41:59]:
And that's interesting. And let me ask you this. Outside of the technological, you know, maybe certain barriers or not even barriers, but just, you know, kind of more work you got to do as you're getting into different geographies, are there any kind of cultural differences in the sense of, like, you know, let's say us? What? Like what? Obviously there's cultural differences, but I mean, is when it comes to pricing, you know, we gave examples of, like, how someone, let's say, in the US might use it and take advantage of these different ordering apps. Is it pretty much the same across the world or are there things you're seeing where, like, in these places, they care more about this and less about the ordering and more about promotion? You know what I mean? Like, is there differences across geographies? I guess, is my question.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:42:39]:
Different? Definitely. For one thing, I think there are differences in culture, and we haven't really seen pushback at all from the consumer again, because we're primarily doing this in third party apps.
Angelo Esposito [00:42:54]:
Right.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:42:55]:
So I'm sure we will eventually figure out, though, that when this does, but eventually the consumer is going to become aware that this is happening once it transitions out of just third party. One thing I will tell you is that the volumes are different in different countries. You know, sometimes the ordering volume that restaurants are used to through third party apps can be, can be different. Sometimes it's higher than the United States and sometimes it's slower.
Angelo Esposito [00:43:21]:
That's interesting. And I guess, like with, you know, the evolution of just technology, I mean, in general, but you, you know, the hospitality space has been, I feel like, finally catching up. I would say, like, I don't know how you feel, but for me, I always felt like it was like the last one of the party, you know, like the coolest thing to happen. I mean, it's been 20 years now, but the coolest thing that happened was, like opentable, and then since then it was, you know, so it was like reservation, and then since then it was like iPad, PoS systems, you know, cloud based PoS system. And it was like, it's kind of like these long, like, oh, that's pretty cool. But, like, everyone else already did that ten, you know, so they're catching up. I feel like lately, especially post COVID, like, restaurant tech seems to finally be getting some traction, I think, and more. More acceptance.
Angelo Esposito [00:44:00]:
Where do you kind of see the future of the restaurant industry heading in relation to, I guess, the tech scene and just, you know, thinking about that.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:44:08]:
I think there are two things there. Number one is it's almost unfortunate. Well, on one hand, COVID did push the restaurant industry to become more tech savvy and adopt more technology that they were, I think, resisting or didn't see the need for, I think is a better way to say until COVID happened. Now, the bad thing about that is that there was a rush to implement things like digital ordering or digital menus. And so it was done in a very sloppy way. Right. So, as you know, I mean, a lot of restaurants rolled out these QR codes that would lead you to these ugly PDF menus that were super uncomfortable to look at on your phone. And then when COVID subsided, the consumer was like, I want my paper menu back.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:44:49]:
This thing sucks. And so the natural conclusion from that is like, oh, digital menus are bad. Like, you know, consumers don't like it. That's not really true. They just didn't like the clunky thing you gave them, you know, because of COVID I'm not blaming them. And they moved quickly, and that was what was available at the time. But I think that technology has evolved quite a bit, and now it's getting much better, and there's still a lot of room for improvement. There are a lot of companies out there doing a great job with that.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:45:16]:
So to your point, I mean, that's one of the things that I think will come back as restaurants start to realize that, oh, there is actually a user friendly interface, and this could actually help me increase my revenue. And the consumer ad does actually like it. And maybe there are things we could do there to help improve the customer experience versus a static PDF menu. So that's one thing. The other thing is, you know, Vita Ventures every year puts out this. I think Brazil does the same thing. They put out like this diagram of all the different tech companies in the restaurant space every year, and it's just ridiculous. You know, the number of companies that are out there doing all these different things, and everybody has a great idea and they're filling a void.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:45:56]:
You know, that's. That's needed. And. But if I were a restaurant, I would be just completely overwhelmed with all these different options. And what problem do I tackle first? And why do I need 2020 different vendors to solve one thing? And I think it's incumbent on us, the restaurant technology players, to come together and say, hey, you know, we need to bring the restaurant a more holistic solution, rather than having to, you know, them having to spend their whole year vetting all these different players and figuring out how they put all these puzzle pieces together. So I do think that that's going to happen eventually. I think we're going to see some consolidation, and I think we're going to see a lot more collaboration.
Angelo Esposito [00:46:33]:
Yeah, I think that makes a ton of sense. Like I've already started seeing. And I think. I think, to your point, restaurants want kind of, you know, I don't say it all in one, but let they want less friction of, okay, I need staff scheduling, I need inventory, I need pricing, I need, all of a sudden they have seven, eight at reservation management. Right. Like loyalty. And I think we started seeing it, you know, a couple of years back or even, even earlier in the pos side. Like, Pos is buying a loyalty company, buying a reservation company.
Angelo Esposito [00:46:59]:
And that was, like, very natural. But now you're starting to see it, to your point, even more across the whole kind of tech stack, which, which is interesting. And I think one thing that just came to mind as you're talking about QR codes, it made me think, like, did that help JUICER? Because. Because I feel like obviously having digital menus means you could have, you know, dynamic pricing a little easier because, you know, I'm imagining a full service restaurant with a nice menu, maybe a bit more of a pain point if they're printing it versus, you know, qsrs or fast casual. So is that part of your maybe target? Like, are you, do you find you guys do better with places like that, like QSRs or fast castles or.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:47:40]:
Look, a QR code that leads to a PDF doesn't help us at all. Right.
Angelo Esposito [00:47:45]:
Yeah.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:47:45]:
Might as well just be printed, right? And just, you know, remember we're doing this on third party delivery. So if there's a QR code in the restaurant, I mean, look, eventually that is going to be a prerequisite. The proliferation of digital menus, real digital menus with prices that are made of pixels and that can be changed will definitely be a requirement for us to do this beyond just third party delivery. We can already do this with kiosks and drive thru and things where the prices and menus are already digital. So the answer is yes, that's cool. It would be very difficult to do this with a place that has printed messages.
Angelo Esposito [00:48:24]:
That's, yeah, that's super cool. That's super cool. And then, you know, one way I always like to let and off these podcasts is I love speaking with founders. I love understanding their journey, their story. Like, I think you see the difference between, like, founders who have, like, lived and been in the trenches and the ones that haven't. And I've been there, too. When you don't have the experience, you kind of, like, guard is up. You're very, and once you're, like, in the trenches, you're just like, you almost like, recognize, you know, the fellow social, like, I know what you're going through.
Angelo Esposito [00:48:49]:
Like, nice to see. And so what are some maybe lessons that or advice you can give to aspiring entrepreneurs, whether it's restaurant owners or even just entrepreneurs getting into restaurant tech or tech in general, you know, advice that you'd like to maybe share?
Ashwin Kamlani [00:49:06]:
I think my advice would be to just be open and nice, you know, I mean, I don't know, that sounds kind of corny, I guess. But, you know, I got a call yesterday from a company that is thinking about doing something, you know, related to what we're doing. And they were asking me all kinds of questions. I told them everything, you know, I told them everything they wanted to know. And it was like, you know, I just believe that this is something that's really needed. I think the restaurant industry is going to hugely benefit from it. I think if there are two or three or four companies out there doing this, good for us. It shows the restaurant industry, like, oh, wow, this is becoming real.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:49:47]:
And more and more companies are coming out doing this. Like, I better start paying attention. I also just, you know, life is too short. I mean, I just, we're all here to help an industry and we should all be friendly and working together and. Yeah, I mean, that's, I think that's one of the things I've learned over the years. The other thing I would say is just transparency is so critical and I guess it's related to what I'm saying now. But, I mean, more transparency around what you're really selling, what you're really doing, and how you're going about doing it because I can't tell you how many times restaurants have said to us on the call, wow, you know, thank you guys for your transparency and thank you for telling us the truth. And thanks you for so it's very clear that they've had experiences where people have told them things are automated or that they have these integrations or they.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:50:39]:
That things are, you know, there's all this science behind it and reality, you know, maybe that's the goal, but might not quite be there yet.
Angelo Esposito [00:50:48]:
Right.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:50:49]:
So I just think. I was gonna say restaurants. But the truth is, any company or anybody appreciates when they can see that you're not hiding anything and that you're being open and honest, because that way, the good things you're telling them, they'll believe that, too, because, true, you know, you've built that credibility. So I think me, that is. And you can see that from my LinkedIn videos. Like, I'm out there telling people mistakes we're making, and I'm telling them what our profitability is at the company, and I'm telling them things like that because, you know, everyone knows what entrepreneurship was like. Nobody starts a company and has a 1 million in ARR, like, on YouTube, and has no problems and makes no mistakes. And so I just think, you know, be real.
Angelo Esposito [00:51:31]:
I like that. And there's something that. And I can agree more, like something about just being authentic, telling your story. Like, we had Sean Walsh up on the show, and, you know, he's great at telling his story, so that was really cool. But that theme kind of comes back. Be authentic. Tell your story. I love what you said there, but, like, you know, the concept of a lot of people oversell, under deliver, and, like, almost try to do the opposite.
Angelo Esposito [00:51:52]:
At the very least, just deliver what you promised. But if you can undersell and over deliver, even better, you know, but I totally recognize. And then just to end off, like, what's. What you can share, because maybe you can maybe top zero, but it sounds like you're pretty transparent. So, what's next for JUICER? It sounds like you're doing some fun stuff, talking to some interesting groups, kind of testing, you know, you're in a few different geographies. What are you excited about? That's kind of on the horizon.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:52:17]:
You know, Angelo, we just want to be really good at what we're doing. That's. That's it. I mean, we're hearing more and more from our customers, why they're struggling, how they're struggling, you know, where they need the help. And so we're happy to jump in and help them do those things, but everything has to be under the umbrella of using data to help optimize digital sales and profitability. You know, it's. It's very easy to chase after shiny objects or, you know, the squirrel syndrome. And, you know, people come to us with all kinds of ideas like, hey, could you help me with this or that? And, you know, we usually have to say no because it's like, yeah, we really got to focus on what we're doing.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:52:56]:
Again, we're a startup, so we have to stay focused. So, I mean, I think that's the answer is we're going to be the leaders in helping digital sales and optimization around pricing in particular and other things. So stay tuned. There's a lot more to come.
Angelo Esposito [00:53:14]:
I love it. I love it. And I think on that note, I don't want to put pressure, but I think we can do something interesting together. We work on a ton of restaurants. So let's. Let's talk offline, and if you're listening, we're going to figure something out. So we'll do something more official, but let's talk offline. Let's figure out what your perfect scenarios are of, like pos, whatever.
Angelo Esposito [00:53:33]:
And there's a good chance we have that same integration that we could probably do some interesting pilots and fun storytelling together. So I think that that'll be fun. So stay tuned for that potentially. But really, I think. Ashwin, I just want to thank you for taking the time to share your story, share your journey. Tell us the inspiration behind JUICER and how you guys are helping the restaurant industry. So thank you for being here on Wisking It All episode, and I look forward.
Ashwin Kamlani [00:53:56]:
Thanks for having me chatting more. It was a lot of fun.
Angelo Esposito [00:53:59]:
Feel free to check out WISK.ai for more resources and schedule a demo with one of our product specialists to see if it's a fit for.
Ashwin Kamlani is the Co-Founder & CEO of JUICER, a visionary endeavor aimed at transforming the restaurant industry's approach to e-commerce and third-party distribution. With a background spanning technology and hospitality, Ashwin's journey led him to master the intricacies of growing online revenue while fostering partnerships with third-party intermediaries during his tenure at Melia Hotels & Resorts. Leveraging this expertise, Ashwin founded a successful business in 2010, ultimately paving the way for JUICER's inception in 2021 to address the imminent evolution of the restaurant industry. As a leader, Ashwin prioritizes transparency and trust, guiding JUICER through challenges and triumphs alike. Follow his journey on LinkedIn as he shares insights into JUICER's endeavors, offering valuable lessons learned and shaping the future of restaurant commerce.
Meet Angelo Esposito, the Co-Founder and CEO of WISK.ai, Angelo's vision is to revolutionize the hospitality industry by creating an inventory software that allows bar and restaurant owners to streamline their operations, improve their margins and sales, and minimize waste. With over a decade of experience in the hospitality industry, Angelo deeply understands the challenges faced by bar and restaurant owners. From managing inventory to tracking sales to forecasting demand, Angelo has seen it all firsthand. This gave him the insight he needed to create WISK.ai.
Ashwin Kamlani, CEO and Co-founder of Juicer, shares his journey into the restaurant tech space and the evolution of their dynamic pricing concept. They initially focused on third-party delivery and used data to optimize menu prices. The concept of dynamic pricing was met with mixed reactions from restaurant groups, but they found success by automating the process and providing a hands-off solution for the restaurants.
They analyze historical data, patterns, and channel-specific sales to make specific recommendations for menu pricing. They also incorporate competitive set analysis and guest sentiment analysis to further optimize pricing strategies. Juicer is focused on using data to optimize digital sales and profitability in the restaurant industry. They provide dynamic pricing solutions that help restaurants increase revenue and improve customer satisfaction.
The onboarding process involves extracting historical data from the restaurant's point of sale system and running an analysis to identify opportunities. Juicer works closely with the restaurant to implement strategies and continuously measure and optimize results. The main challenges they face are the lack of peer evaluation in the industry and the perception that dynamic pricing is synonymous with price increases. Juicer is expanding globally and adapting to different technology players and cultural differences in each market. The future of the restaurant industry lies in the consolidation and collaboration of restaurant technology players to provide holistic solutions. Transparency and authenticity are key in building trust with customers. Juicer's focus is on becoming the leader in digital sales optimization through data-driven solutions.
00:00 Introduction and Background
07:16 Early Success with Expedia and Orbitz
13:44 Meeting Drew Patterson and Starting Juicer
26:57 Optimizing Digital Sales and Profitability with Data
36:21 Global Expansion and Adaptation to Different Markets
43:52 The Future of the Restaurant Industry: Consolidation and Collaboration
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