Every Fall, Summer, and Winter “Billion Dollar Startup Ideas” hires interns to build ideas from the blog as MVPs, conduct industry research, and write their own blog posts. This blog post is an excerpt from that series.
Problem: At restaurants all around the world, customers rely on waiters to order their food, answer any questions, make necessary accommodations, give them their bill, etc. However, waiters often must do these tasks for multiple tables at a time, leading to them not always being there when a customer needs them. To many customers, having to spend the extra time and energy flagging down their waiter to get the bill or even just a simple side dish, limits the satisfaction of the overall dining experience.
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Solution: At every table in the restaurant, a QR code would be scannable by the customer, leading them to a Check Please! This is a website where the customer will click on the waiter they have, and automatically be connected to that waiter’s list of tables, accessible on the waiter’s mobile device. On the customer’s screen would be a simple set of buttons, the writing on each would be determined by the restaurant, but would say something along the lines of “Check Please!” or “Ready to order.” If a customer hits a button, their waiter will be notified of their request, and can make their way over to the table. This makes it easy for waiters to clearly see their customer’s requests, and saves customers the hassle of flagging down their waiter.
This website is not necessarily new to the market, as there is an existing Call the Service app that has the same concept of a table notifying a waiter when it requires attention. However, Check Please offers added features to make it superior to Call the Service. Check Please allows for customers to say specifically what attention they require, that way waiters can organize the order in which they go to each table accordingly. For instance, a waiter may opt to go over to a table that simply needs salt first before going to a table that wants to order their meals. This is because the salt request is quick and takes up less time than an order. Being able to see what each table needs is important for making decisions as a waiter, because going to a table not knowing what they are requesting may mean the waiter spends a long amount of time on one table while leaving their other tables without service.
Call the Service is not the only other app in this market however, as there are multiple versions of apps similar to this concept. According to the recent report by the National Restaurant Association, the restaurant industry, “The foodservice industry is forecast to reach $1 trillion in sales in 2024” (“2024 State of the Restaurant Industry”). This growth shows how much potential the restaurant industry has, and disrupting the market with a better version of an existing website, holds great possibilities for growth and monetization.
Monetization: The website would be sold to restaurants directly, and after purchasing, the customers of that restaurant will have free access.