

Groupon Co-founders invest $4M in fast-growing E la Carte (YC S10) - dyroffk
http://techcrunch.com/2011/08/30/e-la-carte-raises-4m-from-groupon-co-founders-to-bring-tablets-to-the-restaurant-tableside-experience/

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patio11
I used a spiritually similar system at a sushi shop (try saying that five
times fast) last week. It's fifteen flavors of wonderful.

About a year ago, I think I said something to the effect of "A/B tested
restaurant menus would print cash." (Edit: here we go:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2046426> ) If they're getting +12% sales
just on superior interaction design (versus actually talking to a human -- and
I have no difficulty believing that the average interaction with a device
measurably beats the average interaction with a human for at least some
restaurants on axes both customer and owner care about) I predict very, very,
very nice things in their future when they decide to take an engineer or three
aside and become a data company in addition to being a devices company.

Sprinkle a little code on a techphobic multi-billion dollar industry, watch
wonderful stuff happen.

~~~
tomslater
I love tech, but if I went to a restaurant and they had that, I honestly
wouldn't go back.

They gained 10% from those who stuck around and points to them for working the
up-sell on side orders, but how many left never to return? To quantify the
value of tabletop ordering systems is not as simple as saying "oh look, a 10%
gain in average order value" it's much more complex than that. And without the
customer numbers and order value variance it's hard to truly analyze the
success of the proposition.

~~~
patio11
I respect that you may not like this technology. I think you are perhaps
overestimating how hard it is to quantitatively or qualitatively judge what
customers think of it.

Qualitatively: ask your waitstaff if they keep getting called over by
customers saying "I pressed the devil box and it didn't work! I hate this!"

Quantitatively: you get credit card numbers and email addresses. See who comes
back. (Bonus points: if they don't come back, _ask them why not_.)

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tomslater
If they don't come back you can't ask them why not. That's the point. It's a
function of the level of competition. If it's a competitive location and you
lose that customer, they're practically gone forever.

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patio11
_If they don't come back you can't ask them why not_

If you're collecting their email addresses to give them their receipts, this
is probably not as problematic as you think.

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SwellJoe
A random restaurant is _not_ getting my email address, for any reason, ever.

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boredguy8
Why not? I barely receive spam at this point, and it's pretty easy to block
people that abuse the address.

On the other hand, I'd love it if the places to which I've never returned
asked me why, and then changed as a result and invited me to try again.

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ansy
I think this is pretty gimmicky, although that might be good enough for a
certain subset of casual bar food kinds of restaurants.

If you want a more efficient restaurant, this is certainly not the best way to
get it. Put the menu up on a big board like McDonalds, Chipotle, Panera, or
other already high volume eateries like street vendors. Want to be even
faster? Cut down the menu complexity. Fewer menu items means less customer
analysis paralysis and a more streamlined kitchen. Anyone in the restaurant
business already does at least some data analysis on every sale and have
regional and store by store A/B testing. I mean, they have to know what's
selling when they do inventory and order more food.

What doesn't make you more efficient (i.e. turn orders and tables faster)?
Giving just one menu to a table full of people then include a bunch of games
and surveys on it. But if you want to have a table gimmick to keep people
around ordering more appetizers and rounds of beer, this might be the ticket.

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anon1385
_Groupon's largest shareholder and chairman, Eric Lefkofsky, has a back story
investors might want to know._

[http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/06/10/groupon-eric-
lefkofsk...](http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/06/10/groupon-eric-lefkofsky/)

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dpritchett
I was surprised to see the latest E la Carte job ad
(<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2935090>) claim an investment from an
unnamed Greplin founder. The company's only 1.5 years old and the founders
already have 4.7MM in funding (per CrunchBase) and are doing angel
investments. Neat.

~~~
PStamatiou
One of the Greplin cofounders previously created Zenter:
[http://techcrunch.com/2007/06/19/google-acquires-zenter-
to-f...](http://techcrunch.com/2007/06/19/google-acquires-zenter-to-fill-out-
coming-powerpoint-application/)

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sidman
Wow, this is a great idea. I have seen this tech before (well similar) in
japanese restaurants around my area but the problem is the functionality was
very limited and the user interface blowed. This however looks very nice to
use. I think the main thing the restaurant owners who adopt this technology
need to get a grasp of his how to properly integrate this with their customer
service staff.

I would presume there would be some retraining also such as how to handle
technical failures during an order (what to say and how to still keep it
streamlined through old _manual_ methods) but if all that stuff is sorted this
looks great !

I mean playing games when your waiting and nutritional information is great. I
do that tim ferris diet and knowing if something has sugar or the _forbidden_
ingredients in them would be good to know. Also it would provide important
info to people with allergies to nuts and other similar kinds of foods.

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sunchild
I saw similar interactive menus in Japan, esp. for Yakiniku. Their systems are
relatively crude, but more than adequate. Press a button to summon your
server, choose items off the menu, etc. I actually think you'd want more
durable, and less fussy (and expensive) than a tablet for this application.

Either way, I hope this takes off.

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georgeott
This is not for everyone, but there are times when this is perfect: Happy
Hour, Lunch, Dining with "Cheap" friends (splitting the bill).

This would never replace "regular waiter service" but for those who want
faster service, with no questions, it's a win-win.

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hennypenny
I'm not touching that thing. I hope there is a supplemental app that you can
download to your phone instead. Yes, I realize menus would have germs on them
too, but this seems like the kind of thing 3-year-olds would be given to
salivate on to keep them occupied.

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kapilkale
I'm pulling these numbers out of my ass, but I suspect if ONE major restaurant
chain were to sign them after a pilot, they'd be making at least 3-4 mil in
revenue a year and would have exceeded whatever 15-20M valuation they just
received.

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geogra4
This could be seen as an improved Automat[1]

[1]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automat>

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dsl
Seems like a risky move for a startup to associate itself with Groupon
founders. It would be like pushing a 401k fund managed by Bernie Madoff's son.

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gopi
I like this but thinking where retail automation is going makes me a little
sad.. Store cashier and waitress jobs are the only ones remaining for women
with no degree or marketable skills... In 10-20 years i think we will see less
of them!

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foobarqux
Women?

