Essential Technology

The Restaurant Request for Startups

Most of the restaurant tech we’re pitched still solves small problems: scheduling, labor tracking, and inventory management. These tools are useful, but they manage what’s already coming in. They don’t bring in more guests.

The biggest opportunities for growth — reaching new customers, increasing revenue, and building repeat business — are still being overlooked.

Uber, DoorDash, and ezCater are thriving, but they’re not the enemy (as we’re often told). They focus on the guest experience, and that focus helps restaurants grow.
Operators who learn to manage every channel, from in-store to delivery to catering, will win.

We’re not trying to take back market share.
We’re trying to expand the pie.

At Recess, we run a high-volume restaurant, and we use it to test what actually drives sales and keeps guests coming back.

We believe the next generation of restaurant products will look different.

  • They will be modular.

  • They will go outbound, not just react.

  • They will focus on creating demand, not just organizing it.

In the last two years, Square has focused on launching products that improve the guest experience and drive revenue, like Kiosks and Handhelds. We need more products like that.

If you're building something in this space or thinking about it, we want to talk. And if you're a restaurant operator, catering manager, or office manager — and this resonates with you — we’d love to hear from you too.

Let’s build what restaurants actually need next:

✅ Drive new revenue
✅ Reach new guests
✅ Make the experience worth repeating

📍 1. Reach: Expanding the Service Radius
Help restaurants serve customers 10, 15, even 20 miles away.

  • Catering Drops
    Send curated, recurring meal offers to nearby offices automatically.

  • Connected Perks
    Plug restaurant menus into employer lunch stipends and wellness wallets.

  • Cross-Promotion Networks
    Let independent restaurants collaborate to reach new guests by promoting each other across neighborhoods and cities.

💰 2. Incremental Revenue: Create New Demand
Don’t repackage what’s already working. Bring in new dollars.

  • Reorder Nudging Connections
    Calendar-, Slack-, Notion-based rebooking modules ("Same thing next Friday?") with one-click checkout.

  • Recurring Drop Builders
    Help office buildings opt into regular lunch drops like Recess Wednesdays or Pizza Fridays.

  • Hospitality Lite CRM’s
    Smart follow-ups and guest tagging for group orders and catering, without bloated software.

🔁 3. Guest Retention: Make the Experience Worth Repeating
Feedback loops are broken. Let’s fix retention where it counts.

  • Surprise-and-Delight Engines
    Trigger thank-yous, upgrades, or reorder nudges for high-spend first-time guests.

  • Post-Order Assurance Toolkits
    Follow-up flows for large orders that lock in repeat business.

  • Invisible Loyalty Layers
    Behavior-based perks that don’t require apps, logins, or punch cards. Help use the data we already own.

Let’s connect if you’re building, investing, or operating in this space.

📬 hello@eatrecess.com