- 4 minutes ago
Sam Bakhshandehpour brings years of restaurant leadership to his role as president of local merchants at Bilt. He connects restaurants with nearby residents and focuses on technology that helps teams welcome guests, build loyalty and keep people coming back.
Watch now to learn how Sam Bakhshandehpour helps restaurants reach nearby customers, build loyalty and use technology to make hospitality easier.
Restaurant Influencers is sponsored by:
• Toast All-In-1 Restaurant POS: https://entm.ag/ToastRI
• PepsiCo Foodservice: https://entm.ag/RIPepsico
Watch now to learn how Sam Bakhshandehpour helps restaurants reach nearby customers, build loyalty and use technology to make hospitality easier.
Restaurant Influencers is sponsored by:
• Toast All-In-1 Restaurant POS: https://entm.ag/ToastRI
• PepsiCo Foodservice: https://entm.ag/RIPepsico
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NewsTranscript
00:00There's the early adopters, the people that believe in it, the people that are using it, the people that have
00:04the iPhone.
00:04And then, you know, you're still at a point where there's still people that still have flip phones.
00:08I'm sure there's people still have a page.
00:10I got a good one for you.
00:11I rented a car the other day and they printed the contract on a dot matrix printer.
00:16Stop it.
00:17Pull on your podcast and see how many people remember dot matrix.
00:20Come on.
00:40Welcome to Restaurant Influencers presented by Entrepreneur.
00:44I'm your host, Sean Walcheff.
00:45This is the Cali BBQ Media production in life, in the restaurant business and in the new creator economy.
00:52We learn through lessons and stories about one year ago on this very show, Restaurant Influencers.
00:57I had Sam Bakshandampur on to talk about his role as CEO of the Jose Andres group.
01:04We are one year removed and he has been doing some incredible work that we wanted to share on the
01:11show.
01:11Sam, welcome back.
01:13Thank you, Sean.
01:14I appreciate you having me back.
01:15So, President of Local Merchants at Built, tell us, for those that don't know, your previous career and why the
01:26new leap?
01:29Yeah, it's a very exciting leap.
01:32You know, my entire career has had the through line of hospitality, as you know.
01:39The first chapter, I was an investment banker at J.P. Morgan, covering the casino industry, hotels, and seeing hospitality
01:50through a strategy and finance lens.
01:52The next chapter was as an operator running two incredible platforms, one SBE Entertainment, where we launched the SLS hotels,
02:04and the other being Jose Andres Group, as you know, the last six years as CEO running that business.
02:14And, you know, having 15 years of a front row seat of an industry that's only gotten tougher, has only
02:22faced more and more challenges, I was fortunate enough to be asked to join the advisory board of Built about
02:29two years ago.
02:30And about a year into being on the advisory board and seeing the amazing work and really vision of this
02:39brilliant mind of the founder and CEO, Encore Jane, I was fortunate enough to be made an offer to come
02:44in-house.
02:45And now I'm about a year in running the merchant business, which is comprised of dining, you know, first and
02:53foremost, travel, retail, and soon-to-be sports.
02:58What was it in his pitch to you that made it compelling enough to leave Jose's?
03:07Yeah, it was twofold.
03:10One, this platform is here and really created to solve problems.
03:17And listening is more important than talking, which is the way Encore, from the very first day, he would ask
03:26questions of,
03:27what are you trying to solve for?
03:29And as a restaurateur, I said, how much time do you have?
03:34We have an unlimited endless list of points that we need to solve.
03:40The business is getting tougher.
03:42The environment is competitive.
03:44The costs are going higher.
03:46And our margins are getting squeezed every single day.
03:50And with the exception of really a small handful of restaurants, the vast majority of the industry is really struggling
04:01and is really trying to get their footing in an environment where the tide keeps going out.
04:08And built coming in, trying to solve that was very appealing.
04:12The other element, once I saw under the hood on the inside, you have a collection of men and women
04:19here that are AI native.
04:22They're using technology with the spirit of enhancing people's lives with respect to the consumers.
04:29And more importantly, the lens that I saw through was enhancing merchants' lives.
04:36Driving demand was where this was rooted through the housing network.
04:40And the next chapter was launching a neighborhood that organically came about saying, okay, well, merchants want access to those
04:49homes.
04:50Yeah.
04:50And the combination of being a leading tech AI company that is at its foundation and its core, coupled with
04:58trying to solve problems to make merchants' lives better,
05:02that combination felt like this moment in time with where we sit, Sean, for all of humanity trying to solve
05:10this and figure out where does this fit into my life, my business.
05:13It was really cool to have the opportunity to have a front row seat to drive that change and be
05:19one of the forward-thinking companies that innovates and makes lives better.
05:25Yeah, as difficult as the economy is, as difficult as it is, especially on restauranteurs, like you mentioned, and local
05:32merchants,
05:33I truly believe that this is the greatest time to build because we have humans that are using AI tools
05:42to help us spread hospitality.
05:48Whether you're a global restaurant powerhouse or local independent like us here at Cali BBQ, we all want the same
05:54thing, sustainable growth.
05:56And let me tell you, PepsiCo is a partner built to do exactly that, help you build a sustainable business.
06:02As operators, we get it.
06:03We know that digital matters.
06:05Online ordering, third-party apps, digital menus, online visibility, it's a lot.
06:10And it's incredibly hard to prioritize when you're just trying to take care of your kitchen and manage a busy
06:15team.
06:16But a few small digital tweaks can have a massive impact, especially when you have the right team backing you
06:22up.
06:22That's where PepsiCo's Digital Lab stands apart.
06:25This is an in-house team built specifically for restaurant operators.
06:29They use proven media services and AI-backed menu optimization to drive what actually matters.
06:36More guests, smarter digital experiences, and more profitable online orders.
06:41Just look at the numbers from last year alone.
06:43And the absolute best part, these digital lab services are available completely free to Pepsi restaurant partners of any size.
06:51If you're a Pepsi customer, stop waiting.
06:53Talk to your Pepsi rep today or click the link in the show notes below to learn how to unlock
06:58your growth advantage.
06:59Let's keep that momentum going.
07:04I mean, one of our deep theses, our original podcast, is called Digital Hospitality.
07:09And digital hospitality takes many of the principles that we all hold dear of how do you turn a stranger
07:15into a friend,
07:16somebody that will come back to your restaurant day in a day again, come back on holidays, come back to
07:22celebrate birthdays,
07:24come back to mourn the loss of a loved one.
07:25And how do you help improve not only those businesses, but how do you connect them?
07:31And especially with all of the tools, there's so many disparate tools that a local business owner needs to be
07:37on Google My Business,
07:38needs to have a Yelp page, needs to have an Instagram account, needs to do Instagram stories, also needs to
07:43post on TikTok.
07:45Oh, and by the way, do you have a YouTube account?
07:46And, you know, what are you doing for your menu?
07:48And how are you up?
07:49Like, what are you doing for third party?
07:50The list is infinitum of like, and how deep you can go on each of those tools in the list.
07:57You literally could have an AI bot that literally their whole job is just doing one of those many tools
08:03in that tech stack.
08:05High level, explain how built helps merchants with digital hospitality.
08:11Yeah, great, great question.
08:14Let's start with those tools.
08:15I think there are a million features, tools, product companies.
08:20Yeah.
08:21There's only one ecosystem network company like built for hospitality.
08:26And what I mean by that is you started off with a marketplace of homes and its residents.
08:35And residents, upon their move in, make certain decisions within their first 30 days of moving in.
08:43Yeah.
08:43This is my dry cleaner.
08:45This is my pharmacy.
08:46This is my restaurant, my bar.
08:49And they're loyal to their local neighborhood.
08:52By integrating the neighborhood into the home, we created a network effect that solves really for three things.
09:03One is identity on the front end.
09:08Two is loyalty.
09:10And three is commerce.
09:12And they all play hand in hand, which directly answers your question of how we're different.
09:18Yeah.
09:19What you described are a lot of features.
09:22And on the loyalty front, there's a ton of different CRMs.
09:27On the reservation front, there's a number of different reservation systems.
09:32On the commerce front, there's a whole host of payment processing systems.
09:37But when I say there's a network effect, there's only one built that has an orchestration layer sits on top
09:44and integrates with these various systems.
09:53And I know where Sean goes throughout the neighborhood from where his pharmacy is to his dry cleaner to where
10:07he travels to.
10:08And ultimately, Sean needs recognition because we don't travel the same way.
10:13You have your preferred airlines.
10:14I have mine.
10:15Yeah.
10:15We don't stay at the same hotels.
10:17You have your preferred.
10:18I have mine.
10:19But imagine when you show up to a restaurant upon checkout, you have the ability to use your points from
10:27your airline.
10:27I have the ability to do it from my airline.
10:30Imagine the recognition that when you come in, it says, OK, I know that this is a local member.
10:36Sean lives in a building nearby.
10:39There's not another platform.
10:41You described a lot of features that can cut across all of the different systems that the tech stack of
10:48a restaurant is an inch wide and a mile high.
10:51And you're right.
10:52A lot of these loyalty programs and, you know, different types of maximization of your operations, operational savings programs.
11:01This is the checkout program.
11:03All this will be displaced.
11:05Yes.
11:06Where we come in, we have marketplaces starting with our housing marketplace.
11:12The sports is a really exciting one to talk about.
11:15And in due course, you'll see announcements that I'll show you the largest national marketplace of sports fans.
11:22All of that is demand.
11:24And restaurants in particular, the vast majority need demand.
11:29That demand is coming to your business with a currency to spend.
11:33And it's not just the built currency.
11:35They're going to have other currency to spend.
11:37And then we can orchestrate the experience, create that loyalty.
11:42And upon checkout, get them back in.
11:44Did you know that Toast powers over 140,000 restaurants across the United States, Canada, and UK?
11:52It's an incredible company.
11:54I'm on the Toast Customer Advisory Board.
11:55They are proud sponsors of this show, Restaurant Influencers.
11:58We couldn't do it without their support.
12:00They power our barbecue restaurants in San Diego.
12:03If you have questions about Toast, if you're thinking about bringing Toast on to be your primary technology partner at
12:10your restaurants,
12:11please reach out to me.
12:12I'm happy to get a local Toast representative to take care of you.
12:16You can reach me at Sean P. Welch on Instagram.
12:19Once again, thank you to Toast for believing in the power of technology, the power of storytelling, the power of
12:25hospitality.
12:26Back to the show.
12:27Built solves the three elements, and I've never seen a business hit all three of these with marketing,
12:33which is acquisition up front.
12:36You have customer acquisition on the demand side.
12:39Our data shows built members have a higher check average.
12:44There's 18%, 20% higher check average of the guests when they come in and they're built members versus non
12:51-built members.
12:51They spend more and then repeat visitation on the back end because of this identity and understanding the customer and
12:59orchestrating these experiences,
13:01not just within the four walls of your restaurant, but within the neighborhood.
13:05They're more likely to come back to your establishment.
13:10That's the network effect that we solve that a lot of other product companies that have nice feed and they're
13:16great features.
13:18And many of them we integrate with.
13:20It's no knock on any of the platforms, but different to have a platform with an ecosystem.
13:25Bring me into a specific story, a super user, one of the 45,000 merchants.
13:31What are they experiencing?
13:33How much money are they spending?
13:35How much does it cost them to onboard built?
13:37How long does it take?
13:38And what are the results that they're seeing?
13:40Yeah, so we have a very simple model.
13:44There is a fee for the platform we call Neighborhood OS.
13:48So by integrating into our operating platform for the neighborhood, you have the ability not just to orchestrate the experience,
13:56have the checkout features we mentioned, have the loyalty, but ultimately it gives you access to the marketplace.
14:04We get paid a percentage of the marketplace of traffic that we drive.
14:08And then there's a flat fee for the platform itself, the neighborhood operating system.
14:12The case study I'll share is, you know, and we'll go on a no-names basis, but specific restaurant, you
14:19know, here in meatpacking.
14:22On board of the restaurant.
14:25And we did a couple of things.
14:26One, on a rainy Monday night, we tested this out and said, you know, no one's traveling on a Monday
14:32night to go grab a meal.
14:35Instead, we targeted the buildings directly around this location.
14:40And there was a related building.
14:42Yep.
14:42The next day, 50 covers came from that.
14:45And the chef founder pointed to me, he goes, look, we did this campaign.
14:50We got 50 covers locally, came on a Monday night where it would have been a disaster of a night.
14:55The average check was higher and now they became part of their loyalty program where they're coming back in.
15:03Similar restaurant in the same neighborhood.
15:06We have connectivity to travelers who come in and given them access.
15:11They stay at a certain hotel.
15:12They can now go dine and use their hotel points at the restaurant.
15:17These are things, again, you can't replicate and the power of that loyalty created by I stayed where I wanted
15:25to stay and I got perks in the local neighborhood, which, by the way, as a traveler, that's your new
15:30neighborhood.
15:31The first example was your direct neighborhood.
15:34This is where I live.
15:35Yeah.
15:35And on a rainy Monday, there was a perk for me to go spend in that neighborhood.
15:40The second was I traveled from out of state and I stayed in meatpacking.
15:45This is my new neighborhood.
15:47Somehow built, found me and drove me to the local restaurant.
15:54Extremely exciting.
15:55For those that don't know the premise of how built was built, can you bring us into the original problem
16:05that eventually became the bigger problem?
16:08Yeah.
16:09The bigger solution, I should say.
16:11Totally.
16:12The bigger problem was when they hired me, but that's a separate.
16:16The opportunity arose where your largest monthly expense really got you nothing.
16:24And, you know, if your dad was anything like my dad, the first thing he taught me was rent is
16:30a waste of money.
16:31You need to buy.
16:33That's the only way.
16:34Well, the vast majority of the people rent.
16:36Yes.
16:37And what our founder did basically got a built a platform that unified systems that were very disjointed.
16:46Yeah.
16:46And brought hospitality to the apartment experience where you're able to earn points on rent.
16:52And today, as we sit here, the platform is on track to be over $100 billion of rent.
17:01One in four apartment buildings in the U.S.
17:06Through a partnership with United Wholesale Mortgage, we're adding hundreds of thousands of mortgages onto the platform.
17:14So, there are 7 million built members working through the platform, but our marketplace is much larger, given many of
17:24these other partners we have that are now merchant to merchant.
17:28But it started as a housing network.
17:30So, you can imagine as a national network of residents saying, okay, I live here, I'm earning loyalty points, and
17:42I'm making key decisions in my neighborhood.
17:45We deliver the neighborhood merchant network to them.
17:48Merchants said, I want to market to that building.
17:52And built knows when the residents turn over, and you know the large amount of turnover happening.
17:57So, as a resident turns over, what used to be when you and I moved into a building, Sean, under
18:03our door were 10 flyers and menus.
18:06Yeah.
18:07And you had that junk drawer that had all the menus.
18:09Correct.
18:10That's been digitized.
18:11Yeah.
18:12And that has been localized and personalized to you.
18:16That's what the big differentiator is with phase chapter one being this housing network that led into chapter two being
18:23this merchant network that now is tied to the home.
18:27What's fascinating for me, and I spend so much of my time deep in restaurants, deep in restaurant tech specifically,
18:35but I'm never, I believe a rising tide lifts all ships.
18:39And I've put on, closed down the street in front of my restaurant, invited other barbecue brands to come and
18:44sell barbecue right in front of our barbecue business.
18:47Because we believe that enjoying the craft of barbecue, more people in San Diego knowing about barbecue is a good
18:52thing.
18:54This takes it a step beyond where it's not just a restaurant being good to another local restaurant on their
18:59block.
19:00This taps into the dry cleaner, to the liquor store, to the tailor, to whatever those other local businesses are,
19:09but in a way that is much more tech forward.
19:14Like, there are obviously chambers of commerce and like older models of like, this is how we all do local
19:22business, but it hasn't been done with AI in mind and with the end user in mind of like, how
19:29can we actually do this in a way where we can, where we can prove ROI?
19:34Yeah, and for the restaurants, the beauty is exactly that.
19:38It is rising tides for the neighborhood, which ultimately benefits all merchants.
19:43And then there's operational savings within their four walls that through AI in a seamless manner, you don't need to
19:50figure out what does it mean to have an agent?
19:53What does it mean to incorporate this product, that feature?
19:57Everyone's got their tool.
19:59You have one source that sits on top and makes this seamless for you.
20:04The onboarding is truly effortless with the integrations, the training, the customer service.
20:13This has been perfected to a point that you're able to focus on what you do best, and that's deliver
20:19hospitality to your guests, not worry about the reservation book.
20:24And Sam got a text and I didn't get back to the person in time.
20:29Did I hand it off properly?
20:30What happens when they show up to the restaurant from a guest experience standpoint?
20:35What about the checkout experience?
20:37I wanted that item comped.
20:39How many times have you gotten something delivered to your table?
20:41You're like, I didn't order this and now you charge me for it.
20:45Yeah.
20:46You know, thanks for that level of hospitality.
20:48These are the elements that, again, faster table turns with our digital receipt card, higher review scores, higher tips, etc.
20:59More importantly, net new demand, higher check average.
21:04Let's start there.
21:06And then you have the operational savings.
21:08But that all happens in a manner that is not disrupting, replacing systems, manual figuring out, you know, how does
21:17this work with that?
21:18The hard work has been done.
21:21And that's why we have such great fortune of sitting here, especially in the restaurant space, ramping so rapidly.
21:29And the data doesn't lie.
21:31That's where I root this at the end.
21:33You're seeing that uplift.
21:35You're seeing the demand drivers prove out, which was, you know, Encore's original vision when he launched it.
21:41How do I benefit the neighborhood?
21:44How many neighborhoods or cities is built active in as far as merchants go?
21:50Yeah, we're national.
21:52I don't have the exact number, but I'll tell you, it's every from large cities to the suburbs.
21:59You know, you have urban, suburban and even select rural markets pretty evenly across the U.S.
22:08So the concentration, despite being headquartered in New York and, you know, being New York centric, what that means.
22:15And it seems on the optics, I can tell you having run numbers in Texas recently for, you know, another
22:21big opportunity, you know, spending my time in L.A. and the Bay Area.
22:27You have very equal distribution between urban and suburban markets across tens of thousands of merchants across various categories.
22:36Can you share specifically, we, Toast is the title sponsor of the show.
22:42I obviously do a lot of content with Toast.
22:44We believe deeply in Toast.
22:46They have 180,000 restaurants and locations on the platform.
22:50If there is a Toast owner, operator listening, watching, how do they activate Build?
22:57Yeah, we love Toast.
22:59We're, you know, we're friends with Toast, have nothing but respect for that platform, and they've been wonderful partners to
23:05us.
23:05Toast, this isn't taking business away from Toast.
23:08It's actually driving more business to Toast.
23:11And when the restaurants are successful, Toast wins.
23:15More importantly, the consumer wins first.
23:18The restaurant wins, Toast wins.
23:20So for a, you know, single operator that has one unit on Toast, the integration is very simple.
23:30We can integrate.
23:31You keep Toast.
23:32You have our platform on where we can ultimately drive local demand to you.
23:39And then through our digital receipt card, which again, in partnership with Toast, we have the checkout process that personalizes
23:47it, allows you to use your points, whatever credit card you want to use, other points from other merchants that
23:53you may have.
23:54And you're like, hey, I have these, you know, a bucket of points from this airline that I don't fly.
23:58I'd love to burn those.
24:00You're going to have that opportunity personalized to you, which is why we're part of that checkout experience.
24:07But again, we've made it very seamless onboarding, especially for the small and medium-sized businesses to come on board
24:15and maintain their relationship with Toast while they onboard with Built as well.
24:21What are your top three priorities for the end of this year, moving into 2027?
24:26What would make your job successful?
24:30Yeah, so three priorities, my head is spinning because if you knew our founder, we have about 30 priorities and
24:38they were all due yesterday, but that's on me to solve.
24:42You know, November 10th, we have a big announcement where we formally announce our merchant business that has been years
24:51in the making around the neighborhood operating system.
24:54And that was really the transformation of the business from a B2C evolving into B2B.
25:01As part of that announcement, we're also going to be sharing a cohort of sports teams, professional sports teams.
25:09And this event is hosted by our CEO, Encore, alongside Ken Chenault, who's the former CEO of American Express and
25:17our executive chairman and one of our board members, the NFL commissioner, Roger Goodell.
25:22Wow.
25:23So you're going to really hear from many of our partners who are merchants talking about the power of the
25:30neighborhood operating system and what it's meant to them.
25:33And imagine this across travel, dining, retail, and sports.
25:40My top priority leading up to that is to educate our partners, continue to spend time, boots on the ground.
25:49Launching sports is one.
25:51You're going to see a lot there.
25:53We have a number of very high-profile enterprise businesses, which is a second part that we're launching.
26:00And then for our consumers, ultimately creating convenience and the ability to maximize their experience, whether it's using loyalty points,
26:11having these very personalized experiences, whatnot, making sure that we deliver the best experience hands down throughout their neighborhood.
26:21How does storytelling play a role?
26:23We talked about it on the last time you were on the show, but specifically in your new role and
26:28how you teach your team, work with your team from a marketing and a sales standpoint for Bilt.
26:34Yeah, one of the things I've loved, Sean, about Bilt is the brand ethos and the storytelling.
26:41It is very rare for a tech company to be so forward-thinking with respect to this is the brand,
26:48this is the story, here's how we present ourselves, and creating really an aspirational community that is proud to be
26:57a Bilt member.
26:58We do this thing once a quarter called Close Friends, and we go city to city, and it's seven, eight,
27:05nine cities, and we have all of our executives every quarter, a couple, two, three folks in each city.
27:13And we invite these close friends of Bilt to give us candid feedback, and we love it because they're the
27:19ones who challenge us, they give us the straight talk.
27:22But what really blows my mind, Sean, is the passion and the loyalty to this brand.
27:29It's a lifestyle, and they know that when they go into Barry's Boot Camp, they get their free shake.
27:37They can pick their bike and SoulCycle.
27:39They know when they move the pharmacy, you're able to transfer your prescriptions right away and have FSA, HSA, knowing
27:47that you have this collection of restaurants that when you walk in,
27:50it's a seamless experience that's elevated, and all the way through the checkout, they know that they have points that
27:58they're using on their Lyft rides to go from place to place, so on and so forth.
28:02And then when they travel, that's all brand building and loyalty that our marketing team takes such pride in the
28:10Bilt brand that it stands for something.
28:12It's real neighborhood.
28:13It stands for you belonging, and, you know, through the content that's produced here and, you know, the consumer products
28:21we just recently launched, like there's this real warmth of embracing the neighborhood.
28:28And where I'll actually tie it to a staff that Encore shared yesterday that blew my mind.
28:34For the last, you know, 30, 25 years, the focus has been on online commerce.
28:42Online commerce today, and it's, you know, social media, Facebook ads, and Google ads, and Amazon.
28:48Online commerce represents slightly over a billion dollars of commerce.
28:52And what was forgotten in the last 25 years was physical neighborhood commerce.
29:00That's over $5 billion of TAM.
29:04I'm sorry, $5 trillion of TAM.
29:06Yeah, trillion, trillion.
29:06One trillion and five trillion.
29:08Like, think about that for a second.
29:10That's crazy.
29:10All the focus went to online, the one trillion market, and you traveling through your neighborhood from dry cleaners to
29:17nail salons to pharmacy to restaurants was forgotten.
29:21And when you think about that, defining a neighborhood, people move in not just for the four walls of their
29:27apartment.
29:28They move in because of the neighborhood.
29:30And that's where the brand building and the storytelling to make you feel truly like a local day one when
29:36you move in, that's the power of the build platform.
29:40What do you think is the biggest challenge that you're going to have?
29:46You know, we say this internally all the time.
29:50It's all about execution at this point.
29:53We're very fortunate.
29:55We got a jumpstart with an incredibly loyal cohort in our housing marketplace.
30:01We've now connected merchants to merchants, and you have these additional marketplaces.
30:07The AI movement actually excites us because having led with how you use AI.
30:14I mean, Encore was talking about agents six months ago, and I kept looking around being like, where are these
30:18guys?
30:19You know, Mr. Smith dressed in black suits.
30:22Yeah.
30:22And now everyone's launching an agent.
30:24Yeah.
30:25You know, months ago, he was like, look, this can't be more work for the teams.
30:29They need to just should be like texting, just native speak.
30:33They'll be like, who's coming to my restaurant tonight?
30:36All these feature companies launched to do that.
30:38Now, that's all evolved.
30:41And I think being on the cutting edge of technology has been really exciting for me, especially in, you know,
30:47my background.
30:48Yeah.
30:48To sit here and watch.
30:50The challenge is, how do you translate this for consumers that have so many?
30:55Now they all have so many agents and so many LLMs.
30:58And how do you take that, simplify it in a manner of, you know, similar to what Apple did with
31:07the iPhone?
31:08Yeah.
31:09Where back in the day, you know, when you got your first cell phones, it was effort.
31:14Yeah.
31:14And then you had this beautiful, you open it, you pull it out, and you start, you know, my 84
31:18-year-old father sets up his iPhone in a matter of minutes.
31:22It's effortless.
31:22You don't have to go to the Apple store and do it.
31:24Yeah.
31:25That's where we are, and we want to keep evolving and staying ahead of the curve when it comes to
31:30connecting to the neighborhood operating system so merchants seamlessly can join forces with us, get the neighborhood demand from our
31:39marketplace, have it orchestrated and executed with our neighborhood operating system.
31:45It's extremely exciting.
31:47I mean, that's the craziest thing about technology is you don't realize how bad it was before.
31:53Like, we forget all of the pain points.
31:55Like, we forget what the tickets were like coming out of the printer until kitchen display screen was there and
32:01no one was losing the ticket.
32:02And you could see the orders and the modifications.
32:05It's like, it's amazing how quickly things will shift, but also how long it takes.
32:10Right.
32:11Like, there's the early adopters, the people that believe in it, the people that are using it, the people that
32:15have the iPhone, and then, you know, you're still at a point where there's still people that still have flip
32:19phones.
32:20I'm sure there's people still have a paper.
32:22I got a good one for you.
32:23I rented a car the other day, and they printed the contract on a dot matrix printer.
32:28Stop it.
32:29I want to pull on your podcast and see how many people remember dot matrix.
32:32Come on.
32:32For your rip.
32:34Hand on heart.
32:35I won't call them out.
32:37That was wild to me.
32:38I'm like, I haven't seen dot matrix, or it's funny here in this office.
32:42I literally had to ask like three people, where's the printer?
32:46No one knew where the printer was.
32:48No.
32:49Six floors of office.
32:50No.
32:51I believe, I mean, I believe it.
32:53And I mean, that is, that is the exciting.
32:55That's why I'm excited about building business.
32:57No matter how tough the economic conditions are, there's humans out there doing phenomenal work.
33:01And the more that we collaborate, have conversations, I love that you guys are going into neighborhoods and getting the
33:07super users to give you raw and honest feedback.
33:10The best technology platforms, in my opinion, don't build for us.
33:14They build with us.
33:16I love that.
33:16Meaning that they listen to who we are, what our pain points are, and figure out how they can help
33:22build a more beautiful experience.
33:23Not only for us as the user, but also for our guests that come into our restaurant.
33:28What's the most important question I didn't ask you today that you want our audience to know about Built for
33:33Merchants?
33:34Well, you're catching me in a very exciting moment being weeks away from the most important announcement in the history
33:41of this company.
33:42You know, when I think about where we are and the evolution that's taken place chapter after chapter, this next
33:52chapter of Built is truly eye-opening.
33:56Having merchants with cohorts of loyal members wanting to communicate and drive their loyal customers to other merchants, this has
34:08never been done before.
34:09And having platforms that would really get millions of dollars for their IP, and it was static in nature, to
34:20turn that into variable in nature, to be able to drive revenues, that's never been done before.
34:26To be able to measure that loyalty, that's where this next chapter of Built with our Neighborhood Operating System on
34:34November 10th will really hit home.
34:36The ability for merchants to take restaurant merchants and they want to open their loyalty database open to other merchants,
34:46to gyms, to retailers, so on and so forth.
34:50Cross-selling across the neighborhood where the plumbing that connects it all makes it possible.
34:56That's the part that I would, you know, keep your eye on that is very, very innovative, exciting, and frankly,
35:02you know, has not been done at a scale like this.
35:07Amazing.
35:07We're going to put links to your LinkedIn into the show notes.
35:10What's the best place for people to learn more about Built for Merchants?
35:15Built.com and our Instagram handle and more to come.
35:18Amazing.
35:19If you guys want to reach out to me, I'm weirdly available at Sean P. Welchef Instagram, LinkedIn.
35:23Those are the fastest.
35:24We appreciate you for watching, for listening.
35:27If you have a Built story, send me a message.
35:29We would love to film at your restaurant.
35:31We want to know what is actually happening.
35:33Boots on the ground.
35:34Sam, thank you for doing the work.
35:37Thank you for the storytelling.
35:38We're grateful for what you do for the industry and the community.
35:41Thank you, Sean.
35:42Appreciate all you're doing and thanks for having me back.
35:50Thank you for listening.
35:51If you've made it this long, you are part of the community.
35:54You're part of the tribe.
35:55We can't do this alone.
35:56We started.
35:57No one was listening.
35:58Now we have a community of digital hospitality leaders all over the globe.
36:02Please check out our new series called Restaurant Technology Substack.
36:06It's a Substack newsletter.
36:08It's free.
36:09It's some of our deep work on the best technology for restaurants.
36:12Also, go to YouTube and subscribe to Cali BBQ Media.
36:16Cali BBQ Media on YouTube.
36:18We've been putting out a lot of new original content.
36:20Hopefully, you guys like that content.
36:22If you want to work with us, go to etheshow.media.
36:25We show up all over the United States, some international countries.
36:28We would love to work with you and your growing brand on digital storytelling.
36:32You can reach out to me anytime at Sean P. Welchef on Instagram.
36:36I'm weirdly available.
36:38Stay curious.
36:38Get involved.
36:39Don't be afraid to ask for help.
36:41We'll catch you next episode.
36:42Bye.
36:42Bye.