Founded in 2019, Koala is an industry-leading platform that creates premium, customizable apps for restaurants to offer digital ordering. Koala provides a premium experience for more than 4,000 restaurant locations nationwide. Digital orders with Koala lead to higher conversion rates than a white-label solution and an increase of up to 20% in average order value.

Creating a seamless, streamlined online ordering experience that’s free of confusion and obstacles is critical for the customer journey.

Many restaurants are competing against organizations that are continuously improving, optimizing and streamlining the user experience.

When it comes to online ordering systems, the ability to customize the experience and the look and feel of the experience is important.

Machine learning and the role of AI is going to play a key role in the future of online ordering.

“One of the gripes that I’ve had with the online ordering process for the smaller (restaurants) is that there’s really no way to make the customer experience tailored to the brand.” – Joseph

“Custom (ordering) software leaves so many brands behind because of the cost to do so. There’s a massive barrier to entry for most brands, which is the cost.” – Brett  

“Our mission was to make premium accessible. Building a tool in such a way that it could be affordable for everybody.”  – Brett

“It’s amazing what’s happening right now. I think what needs to happen is convergence. We’re at the point in this industry where convergence is waving its hands furiously and people are begging for it.” – Joseph

“(Koala is) that holistic, digital interface into the ordering ecosystem. In many cases for many brands it is the expression of their brand to their customers digitally. Another way to say it is, “we are the experience layer that sits on top of everything else.” – Brett

“We think of interfaces as screens but interfaces are really just connections.” – Brett

00:00.00vigorbrandingEveryone today I’m joined by my friend Brett Spiegel he’s the co-founder and Ceo of Koala which we’ll dig into in a little bit I met Brett through 1 of his partners or maybe he’s not a partner but he’s definitely on your team and it was great because. And a couple seconds I realized one of the case studies he was talking about was a mutual client in that’s scratch kitchen so it was a bit of Kimet. It was pretty awesome and then since our since then our relationship has grown quite well. But Brett why don’t you say hello give a little bit of backstory.

00:29.84Brett SpiegelGreat and and and thanks so much for for having me on you when you reached out I was honored and I’ve been excited to have this conversation. So thanks again. So as Joseph mentioned my name is Brett Spiegel I am the co-founder and Ceo O at Koala Koala is a customer experience platform. And I think we’ll have ah a chance to kind of dive into to what that means but a little bit on my background so I actually grew up in South Florida outside of Fort Lauderdale and went to college at the University Of Central Florida in Orlando as most people know Orlando is the epicenter for casual dining concepts in this universe and so. Um, being one of those people that had to work through college I did my tour of duty through many casual dining concepts and got my start in the back of house I was a dishwasher I was a prep cook a line cook I did some front of house as well. I was a food runner server and ah. Eventually a bartender at the famous Tgi Fridays

As senior director of marketing, Richard led a very successful evolution of the Austin-based Tacodeli brand. He followed that success story with a stint as VP of marketing for Freebirds World Burrito and now works as a fractional CMO and consultant. 

Richard has spent time in agencies and client-side. He said people at agencies tend to have a more specialized expertise (in his case, brand strategy) and are spread across multiple clients in multiple industries. On the client side, he’s focused on one client, but his expertise is broader. 

The biggest challenge in Richard’s evolution of the Tacodeli brand was making the evolution seem natural. He saw his role in that process as an enabler and listener to carefully evolve the brand.  

The marketing industry – not just restaurant marketing but all marketing – is so fluid and ever-changing. Technology is the biggest word right now, especially in the restaurant industry. Technology used in restaurants needs to be intuitive and easy to use for customers and staff. 

“On the agency side, you’re often challenged to really push the limits and see how far you can stretch something and I think good clients really want that.” – Richard

“Strategy is useless if it can’t be executed effectively. The best brand strategies for me are those that don’t stick in the lane of marketing. They are things that influence and affect the entire business.” – Richard 

“Brand strategy is business strategy. Period.” – Joseph

“There are two types of brands. There are brands that are struggling to find the truth and then there are brands that have so many truths the struggle is which truth are you going to lean into and how are you going to cascade everything from that singular focus?” – Richard

“(As a CMO), your first 90 days has very little to do with getting things done. It has very much to do with building rapport and relationships, understanding systems and finding champions.” – Joseph

“I don’t think you should have to have a master’s degree to operate some of the marketing tech that exists. I think it should be intuitive and straightforward. Yes, make it easy for the guests, but also make it easy for the marketers.” – Richard

“Food is so much about experience. Yes, it’s about wonderful food, it’s about people, the context, the environment. Yes, for the best meals the food has to be great, but it’s often about so much more than that.” – Richard 

00:00.00vigorbrandingEveryone today I’m joined by my friend Richard penic he is a brand strategist and fractional cmo fractionable is what I said that’s a very important new word that you guys need to learn and we’ll talk about that and more but before we get in say hello give a little bit backstory.

00:15.40Richard PennockHi Joe good see you yup so my name is Richard Pennet I’m born raised in the uk undergrad I was a historian at the University Of Leeds which is in the north of england um I spent 3 years at b jk and e which the W P P Media agency and then in 2006 I moved over to the us I did my Mba at Georgetown and between first and second year I married my then-girlfriend now wife Amber who is from the United States thinking I would spend a few years in the us think it’s seventeen years later I’m still here.

00:50.53vigorbrandingYes.

00:52.89Richard PennockI via Minneapolis I spent a few years at Target I worked in corporate strategy and marketing and then moved over to an agency up there Olson spent a few years there they then acquired a company down in Aust

Flatbread Grill is a fresh casual Turkish Mediterranean concept conceived and developed by the Esendemir sisters in 2007. The menu features a diverse mix of soups, gourmet salads, sandwiches, platters, and kids items all paired with specialty flatbreads baked daily on-premises.

The Esendemir sisters also developed a spinoff brand, Thumb Bread – a versatile, Turkish bread available in stores.  

Gonca and her sisters knew that introducing Turkish food into the community would not be easy. Turkish culture tends to be very traditional, while the Sendemir sisters made small changes to Turkish culinary traditions and thought outside the box when it comes to using ingredients and preparing traditional Turkish dishes. 

Gonca and her sisters approach social media with an open mind and a willingness to post photos and content on the fly and in the spur of the moment. 

In the restaurant industry, you can do things rather quickly. With CPG products (like Thumb Bread), the processes take longer. 

“We were very apprehensive at first (about using social media). It took a little bit of dipping our feet in until we got warmed up. […] It’s been really helpful in reaching a worldwide audience.” – Gonca

“I learned (about social media) as I went along. It comes naturally because I love story-telling.” – Gonca 

“A lot of people almost get paralyzed by the thought of putting content out there or they get analysis paralysis where they have to fine tune everything. I think the key to successful marketing in general – especially in the social universe – is ‘let’s commit to the fact that we’re going to learn and we’re going to iterate and adjust and that it’s okay if it’s a miss.” – Joseph

“The essence of bread-making and the art of baking is lost in the factory process.” – Gonca

“One of the things about being a female in business, especially if you’re perky and you smile a lot, people have a misconception that everything comes easily and your ideas just fall out of the sky and land at your feet and it’s not like that.” – Gonca

00:00.00vigorbrandingHey everyone this week I am joined by my friend and social media Maverick gunja Ascendimir she is the founder of flatbread grill and thumbbred and we’re gonna talk all about that journey and all about what she’s all about. But for now say hello give a little backstory.

00:15.36GoncaHi I’m gunja I started a fast casual Mediterranean Rushur concept in 2007 with my 2 sisters our Zoom and feesoon while I was still in college. I’m the chief marketing officer I take care of marketing social media communications for for that brand and also for our new brand which is a consumer package goods product thumbbred. It’s a spinoff from our restaurant brand and I also take care of the marketing and communications social media for that as well. With my sisters arzu is the Ceo and my big sister is the chief financial officer of both companies.

00:57.55vigorbrandingAwesome! So we’re working with 2 sisters I imagine has its benefits but also I’m sure there’s some people out there like who I could not imagine working with my family. How has that dynamic been over the years

01:12.21GoncaIt’s gotten it’s gotten better obviously when when I was in in college I had a I was in ah, a different different space I was you know interning in the music industry I had a little bit of a wild and crazy social life. I was kind of bouncing around from job to job and my sisters were definitely had had a more linear path arzou knew

Tom is a restauranteur at heart who co-founded Opsanalitica, an operations data platform that helps restaurants manage and measure human activity and avoid missing the “little things” that can impact profitability. Armed with that data, restaurant owners and managers can identify and remediate issues, in real-time, before they affect the business negatively.

The data and KPI’s that are important to track differs for each restaurant.

Data available to restaurant owners has included sales data, labor data, food costs, inventory, and customer satisfaction data. Operations data has only become accessible recently with the use of the tablet.

Operations data is a critical part of the restaurant decision-making process and makes it easier to make decisions that truly impact sales and profits.

Restaurant leaders need to do more testing on new products or recipe changes and then gather data to determine if that change is one that should be applied to all locations or applied long term.

Emulating menu items from competitor restaurants is dangerous without proper testing and research to ensure that the menu item is a good fit for your restaurant.

“You can get data drunk pretty quickly and you can start drawing parallels that can lead you down a path that – I don’t want to say dangerous – but you start to solve a problem that maybe doesn’t exist.” – Joseph

“Operations data is the missing key that we didn’t have before. […] It’s the contextual data that a lot (restaurant) leaders need to make better decisions.” – Tommy

“Sales, food costs and labor costs are lagging indicators of how well you’re operating. Sales don’t predict operations, operations predict sales.” – Tommy

“We need to make sure that hospitality excellence is not hindered by the knowledge afforded by good data.” – Joseph

“Opsanalitica has a feature called Data Accuracy Scoring, and we can tell you whether the data is good or bad and you can filter out all the bad data.” – Tommy

00:00.00vigorbrandingHey everyone and today I’m joined by my friend tommy andulis he is co-founder of Ops Analytica a system we’re going to get into in a little bit. Ah but Tommy why don’t you say hello and give a little bit of backstory.

00:10.50TommySure hi thank you so much for having me Joseph so I’m Tommy you knowless I am one of the co-founders of bobs and lico like ah just said but really I’m a restaurant tour by heart like my grandparents. Both. Immigrants to this country I’m Greek and Puerto rican so I used to have a joke that I was born in a dish pit you know, but the reality is what’s ironic is that um. You know I started in restaurants at 14 in Columbia Maryland my mom would drop me off at the jerry subs and pizza I had a work permit and I learned how to cook steak and cheeses and I kind of never really looked back from that. But um, what’s interesting is that both my grandparents had restaurants but my parents were tech people. So I was kind of bred to get into restaurant technology because I had the restaurant background and the love of restaurants. But then my parents. My dad was a rocket scientist and my mom worked at Lockheed and so I had the tech background yeah in the middle there and so I ended up doing restaurants at the beginning.

01:07.90vigorbrandingFlex with me.

01:13.13TommyAnd then I morphed into tech so that’s kind of my story since 14 I’ve been doing either restaurants or tech I suppose.

01:18.48vigorbra

Christopher is the founder and executive director of Bottleshare, a fundraising and fund distribution nonprofit organization for the craft beverage industry that provides emergency funds to members of the craft beverage industry when they experience extreme hardships that prevent them from working or producing an income.

Christopher was inspired to create Bottleshare when he received support from friends and family members after he was badly injured in a car accident. From that moment, he’s devoted himself to helping others in the craft brewing industry who need help. 

The “brewstillery” movement – the creation of liquor and beer under the same roof – will inspire more barrel-aged beers, wine-inspired beers and liquors inspired by beer. 

Many upstart breweries are focused on local partnerships and relationships in order to build a strong local community base.

“I remember the day I went from being a victim to being a survivor, and it’s all about mentality. You can be (a victim), you can be (a survivor), you can be both at the same time. It’s up to you.” – Christopher 

“Bottleshare gave me something to live for. Something to strive towards. Something to be a survivor for. I needed it. Not only am I helping other people, but Bottleshare is helping me on a daily basis as well.” – Christopher

“You didn’t just say, I want to survive and thrive for my own well-being, you found the motivation in helping others.” – Joseph 

“I get to live a life where my daily goal is ‘who can I help today?’” – Christopher 

“A gap will be bridged between liquor and beer. As we continue to see more ‘brewstilleries’ opening up, we’re going to see a lot more creative collaborations between the two liquids.” – Christopher 

“One of the issues I see with local breweries is that they are underfunded and they don’t value marketing and advertising. For the most part, you don’t really see them advertising and you don’t really see them trying to build that following because they don’t have the funding or, if they do, they want to spend it elsewhere.” – Joseph

Myles is the Vice President of Operations at Wing Zone, a restaurant with nearly 80 locations in 25 states that offers “bigger, better, flavor-fuzed wings, plus burgers, tenders & more.” 

The COVID pandemic has increased the pressure on restaurant owners and managers to implement programs that reward employees and boost employee morale. 

It’s important for restaurant leadership to sometimes roll up their sleeves and work alongside employees and engage with employees at the ground level. 

Wing Zone is constantly evolving its offerings and the experience it provides to customers and hopes to implement the “2.0” experience currently in use in test markets across all Wing Zone locations.   

There are a lot of negative perceptions about the use of robotics and technology in the restaurant industry. Robotics should be repositioned as a way to accentuate and strengthen the customer experience.  

“The restaurant industry is a tough industry to be in because you have to be on all the time. To find people who are up for that challenge and excel at it is really difficult.”  – Joseph

“If you don’t do a great job of continually engaging (your employees) and continually developing them, they sometimes take their eye off of it and they don’t know what’s next for them and that’s when they start to look (for employment) at other places.”  – Myles

“It’s almost like flipping that historic JFK quote on its head and saying, “Ask not what you can do for my company, ask what my company can do for you.’” – Joseph

“There’s a perception across all industries that there are fat cats at the top who are just raking in the dough and laughing their way to the bank and building their financial empires on the backs of the busboy, and it’s just not true.”  – Joseph

“Every guest experience is more valuable than it was five years ago.” – Myles 

“(Robotics and technology) enhances the internal audience experience. Who wants to stand over a fryer for eight hours and at the end of your shift you’re covered in grease? If we can automate that, we can enhance our (employee) experience.” – Myles

Alistair is a partner at KitchenSync, finance, HR, marketing, and the advisory team behind some of the fastest-growing independent restaurant groups. He also owns seven restaurants in the San Francisco bay area. 

Most restaurant owners have a culinary background or are the first or second-generation owners and they might not have a formal business education or business experience. KitchenSync provides services that many restaurant management teams might be missing. 

A lot of people in the restaurant industry are benchmarking 2022 and 2021 against 2019, not 2020. Effective benchmarking depends upon where your restaurant is located (regions with restrictions vs. regions without) and what type of restaurant you own (delivery, drive-thru, or dine-in).  

DoorDash and Uber Eats are generating a huge amount of foot traffic digitally and have become the marketplace where you start your dining search.  

Grocery gained a lot of market share during the pandemic and has moved heavily into prepared foods.

“When we talk to startup restaurants or restaurants similar to yours where the restaurant has been started by the father and then handed down, one thing that seems to be missing or is a weak area are those back office systems.” – Joseph 

“The numbers are the foundation. If you’ve got good, accurate numbers with which to make decisions from, that’s a really great starting point. The numbers don’t lie, they don’t get emotional. You’re either making money or you’re not. ” – Alistair 

“A restaurant is, in many ways, really complex but, in many ways, it’s very simple. It comes down to sales, cost of goods sold and labor.” – Alistair 

“Consumer behavior (in the COVID era) has fundamentally changed. You’ve had behavior existing one way for 18 months to two years – that’s a lot of time to retrain behavior.” – Alistair 

“A lot of people haven’t updated their business models to reflect that we’re moving from a traditional model of on-prem to a full omnichannel model, which is the same thing that happened to retail 10 years ago.” – Alistair 

“When you can get great food delivered to your door, the question becomes, ‘Why should I want to come and sit in your restaurant?’” – Joseph  

“The paths ahead (in the restaurant industry) are plentiful and no one really talks about it enough. This really is a place where you come in unskilled and you can thrive. It truly is one the last places where a meritocracy is alive and kicking.” – Joseph 

Chad is an absolute pioneer when it comes to cryptocurrency and NFTs in the restaurant space. In this episode, he takes the time to break down the basics of the blockchain, crypto and NFTs, how restaurants can capitalize, and what the future looks like in this space. It’s a brave new world and Chad’s company Devour is one you’ll hear about more and more.

Chad has spent his entire career in the restaurant technology sector. He and his fellow co-founders at Devour began paying attention to blockchain, crypto and NFTs in the restaurant space in 2020.

With non-fungible tokens (NFTs), one is different from the other. That means they can have different utility, value, etc.

We’re currently at the early phase of NFTs becoming mainstream and delivering various benefits.

People assigned value to NFTs because they were a new thing, but then they realized that there was a status associated with owning an NFT.

For restaurants, some NFTs are focused on utility. Gary Vaynerchuk’s restaurant, Flyfish Club, is billed as “the world’s first NFT restaurant, and uses NFTs to give token-holders access to the restaurant.

NFTs are the most useful technology for restaurants right now. Crypto is less useful because it doesn’t solve a current problem for restaurants.

Restaurants can give away NFTs, make customers earn the NFT or sell the NFT.

NFTs can be used by restaurants to give token-holders exclusive access to various menu items.

The metaverse is an online space that utilizes the fundamentals of the blockchain. It can incorporate cryptocurrency or NFTs. There’s not much use right now for restaurants in the metaverse.

The keys for widespread NFT adoption and understanding are increased use in gaming and increased use by big brands.

“I like to put (blockchain) in really simple terms. It’s a kind of database. A database that’s very, very difficult or near impossible to hack. All the information is there, it’s secure and it’s visible to everybody.” – Chad

“NFTs really started to come onto the scene in 2019, and 2021 was an insane year for them and 2022 will be even bigger.” – Chad

“There’s a lot of value that can be assigned to NFTs to unlock real world experiences. So NFTs are the very first thing that restaurants can get a ton of value and utility out of.” – Chad

“Because NFTs are registered on the blockchain, the blockchain essentially serves as verification of authenticity. So when someone shows their NFT, there’s gotta be a way for the restaurant to ensure that that NFT is, in fact, registered on the blockchain and is an authentic NFT.” – Joseph 

“You can’t get a burger in the metaverse, but you can create a virtual restaurant.” – Chad 

“If there’s going to be a team that’s going to help restaurants navigate this crazy, always-evolving world well, it’s going to be (Devour).” – Chad 

00:00.00vigorbrandingHey, everyone today I’m joined by my friend Chad Horn he is the co-founder of devour which is a lovely word and a lovely name. Um, we are going to get into the nitty-gritty of devour but also everything that they’re touching on right now. I’m really excited about this episode. Um, but before we hop in chat say hello give a little bit of backstory.

00:17.10Chad Horn _ DevourHello Joseph first. Thank you for having me on your program this morning a quick backstory on me is I’ve done my whole career virtually in the restaurant technology sector so you know that’s where I fell in love with restaurants. Restaurant peop

00:00.00vigorbrandingEveryone today I am joined by Sam Sanovich you might know him as Chicago sam he is the senior vice president of franchise leadership of a newer concept called big chicken and we’re going to talk all about chicken today. We’re gonna have a lot of talks about the industry because Sam is. Um, I would say beyond veteran he’s an icon so ah Sam say hello and why don’t you give a little bit of backstory for those who don’t know.

00:24.20SamWell thanks Joseph for having me today on your show I am super excited to be with you talk big chicken talk about the background. Let’s talk about the industry. There’s so much great stuff going on. Um I wish I could say we were in the post covid era but we’re still dealing with it across the country.

00:38.70vigorbrandingCase.

00:42.46SamBut we’re we’re learning how to adapt to the new norms and continue to push forward. So I’m super excited to be here with you today and thanks for having me a little bit about my background I’ve been in the industry north of twenty plus years. Um, a johnson of wales graduate out of the providence rhode island campus and upon graduation left and worked for Marriott which at that point in time was my dream job and had the opportunity to be within Marriott open hotels do some exciting projects with Marriott. And because of networking and and a lot of the foundation that I learned over the years I was on some boards early in my career and had great mentors and people who really looked out for me and. Ah, created a situation where I got to be an early Ceo of a convention visitor bureau in the state of Illinois where I represented 4 counties and 33 communities to do their destination tours of marketing from there I got recruited into the national restaurant association educational foundation. And the national restaurant association itself. Um, prior to leaving the association I was head of product partnerships and strategic alliances for the association where I had a unique position to help the form the and Nra’s fast casual and pizzeria councils create the tech tour. Do some really unique things that combined my experience in industry my passion for hospitality and then because I was blessed so much in my career at the association to really be able to leverage and give back and create programming to help others. With that I met some again. Great people some great mentors and had and had the opportunity with Don Fox to join the firehouse subs brand um as an area developer in a franchisee here in Chicago and got to grow with the brand for 6 years and one day got a call from a longtime friend who was interviewing for the Ceo O role of beer big chicken and beer park and we were talking and saw the opportunity at hand and said you know we’ve always wanted to work together and. Said if you know there’s a role in an opportunity I’d I’d love to do it. You know, continue that passion because this is a relationship industry. Ah the hospitality industry is and he said let’s do it and he got the role and I was his first hire and for the last seven months we

03:19.98SamWe we all know that this industry is a marathon and not a sprint but we came out of the blocks and we’ve been sprinting for the last seven months and working with our partner shaquiel and and the great team at big chicken to help develop and grow the brand. So it’s ah.

03:23.58vigorbrandingA.

03:36.34SamThe 20 years seems like a flash and it’s been a great ride and I’ve met thousands of great people and and the whole Chicago Sam Thing came about with a kind of a funny story because as the internet was emerging. You know everybody was looking for that cool Twitter handle and when I was at the association I always talk about Chicago. So people just coined me Chicago sand because I was the unofficial brand ambassador for the great

The Johnny’s Pizza House is one of the American Dream playing out from Johnny Huntsman’s first location in 1974 where he introduced the people of North Louisiana to pizza, the whole way to 2022 where the brand is now fully owned by the employees. JPH has been dominating the region for decades with their family-forward, sharing is caring attitude. In this episode, I sit with friend and former client, Melvin Delacerda to unpack the magic that makes JPH a fantastic place to work.

00:00.00vigorbrandingEveryone today I am joined by longtime friend and client. Ah, Melvin Dalierta who is the president and Ceo of Johnny’s pizza house Melvin say hello give a little bit of backstory.

00:11.27Melvingood morning joseph good good see my friend um my name’s Melvin Delaserta I have been started working with Johnny’s pizza house in high school and not just last month turned sixty years old so that gives you an indication of how long I’ve been with this company. Um, started in high school just because that’s where all of my buddies were working had no intention of it turning into a career but I hit it at the right time and the company proved to be ah, a good place to to work and I enjoyed it enjoyed The people enjoyed the restaurant. Industry and so like said it’s all these years later I’m I’m still here with with Johnny Pizza started out at the very bottom of course. Yeah I was only sixteen years old so you know was busing tables and cutting up meat and shredding cheese and just all the things you do in a restaurant and. Worked my way up eventually got into the the area of human resources with the company and eventually moved on up into the position I’m in now.

01:17.47vigorbrandingNice yeah, and I think your your journey is not dissimilar from a lot of other folks in the organization if I recall so for for those who are not familiar with Johnny’s pizza house. It is a multi-unit brand out of. Ah, based in West Monroe Louisiana which is the northwest of the state technically correct or kind of north central ish yep and then but it’s all across the the north mostly the northern part of Louisiana you’ve gotten down to to baton rouge but haven’t quite cracked into.

01:37.31MelvinYeah, North East yeah

01:51.44vigorbrandingNew Orleans which is obviously what most people will be familiar with Louisiana um, ah, can you describe the service model and and basically how it’s worked compared to like some of the other major piece of chains.

01:52.90MelvinRight? and.

02:02.68MelvinWell, you know we Johnny started this company back in 1967 so we’re coming up on our fifty fifth anniversary and when he first started. Company and in Monroe Louisiana which has crossed a river from where our headquarters is it was probably I think the second pizza place in the whole area. So needless to say when he started he had to introduce people to pizza they they literally did not know what pizza was. He had learned the craft going to school in Iowa where he went to college and brought it down here and and was originally but was making it for his friends and at the poker game and that sort of thing and they encouraged him to you know you need to do this for the public. So starting out like said. Johnny had to sell other things you know to hamburgers and you know he had a grill so and then at the same time he offered the pizza and introduced it to the to the people needless to say as a result of that I think. His brand and and his company became very emotionally a part of the people here in North Louisiana you know they were probably third or fourth a generation of customers now and so he need us to say we we have a a st