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This episode was originally published as part of the Restaurant Growth Podcast. It has been rebranded as part of The Pre-Shift Podcast as of January 2023. The information presented may no longer be up-to-date and may differ from the viewpoints and insights currently shared on The Pre-Shift Podcast.

Alex Canter is a fourth generation restaurateur at Canter’s, the famous Los Angeles deli. And he was very early on the delivery and virtual restaurant game. Now, he’s a leader in the space at Nextbite, creating virtual brands with celebrities and helping small restaurants maximize revenue in the process. We chat about:

• The early days of food delivery in LA
• The growing pains of adding delivery to a decades-old brand
• Alex’s first virtual brand, Grilled Cheese Heaven
• The creation of Ordermark, and later Nextbite
• How to build a brand from nothing
• Fax machines
• And more!

The Restaurant Growth Podcast is presented by 7shifts and hosted by DJ Costantino.

Meet Alex Canter

Alex is a restaurant industry innovator, in-demand speaker, and passionate advocate for restaurant operators and workers. He was raised in the kitchen of the world-famous Canter’s Deli in Los Angeles, where he and his team started work on what would become Nextbite. A fourth-generation restaurateur, the restaurant business has been in Alex’s blood for over 90 years. In addition to being the visionary and leader of Nextbite, Alex is active with the Techstars network and enjoys mentoring other restaurant technology entrepreneurs and occasional angel investing. He is a 2019 recipient of the Forbes 30 Under 30, Fast Casual Executive’s Top 25 and a recipient of Nation’s Restaurant News’ 2022 Top 50 Power List. Alex previously led several technology ventures and most recently, Nextbite announced the close of its $120M Series C funding round led by Softbank.

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Credits
Host & Producer: D. J. Costantino
Producer: Samantha Fung
Editor: Fina Charleston

About 7shifts
7shifts is a scheduling, payroll, and employee retention app designed to help restaurants thrive. With an easy-to-use app and industry-specific solutions, 7shifts saves time, reduces errors, and helps keep costs in check for more than 50,000 restaurants.