Don't start a restaurant - lots of startup parallels(rimag.com)
rimag.com
Don't start a restaurant - lots of startup parallels
http://www.rimag.com/article/CA6699502.html?rssid=272
6 comments
If you think about it, there's a class of restaurants that does something like this. What I'm thinking of is a local burrito place that is a little grungy, the employees quick and efficient (but not very polite), and with damn good food.
They've stripped everything that wasn't the core product, and they have a line out the door every day, all day. Even their branding has been word of mouth, I don't know if I've ever seen a real advertisement for them.
I'm sure this kind of restaurant exists in practically every city.
They've stripped everything that wasn't the core product, and they have a line out the door every day, all day. Even their branding has been word of mouth, I don't know if I've ever seen a real advertisement for them.
I'm sure this kind of restaurant exists in practically every city.
but sometimes even the really good authentic places do poorly because of location. I'm not sure how it would apply to internet startups. I have a friend who owns an authentic chinese restaurant in south beach florida. He says he makes most of his money selling fried rice by the 5-gallon bucket and lipton hot tea. There weren't enough residents in the area to appreciate high quality authentic chinese food (they don't normally serve kung pao chicken)
The mexican place I was talking about is certainly not "authentic", but it's near a university, and serve delicious food (but not really mexican). I don't think slavish attention to old-world detail is the path to a successful restaurant, so much as just making something good and accessible. Think of it as usability. Sure their potato burrito isn't really very mexican at all (really, not at all), but it's good, adjustable spice level, and an easy word-of-mouth sales instrument.
For internet startups: Bad location = bad url?
If "fast-casual" is actually an industry trend, that makes me very sad. I like the full dining experience; it's pretty much the only reason I'd willingly go out to eat.
If there's no "experience" to the act of doing so, what's left is in most cases a commodity that can be made, or reasonably emulated, at home or wherever without all the trouble.
I think there's some startup parallels in that too.
Doing business with a vendor is often valuable when the vendor offers truly substantive core competencies and a breadth of experience spanning a problem domain, not just because the vendor has a competitively priced deliverable to sell you.
If there's no "experience" to the act of doing so, what's left is in most cases a commodity that can be made, or reasonably emulated, at home or wherever without all the trouble.
I think there's some startup parallels in that too.
Doing business with a vendor is often valuable when the vendor offers truly substantive core competencies and a breadth of experience spanning a problem domain, not just because the vendor has a competitively priced deliverable to sell you.
>>Bill Kim’s [fast-casual] restaurant...“We’re going to serve really good, vibrant flavors. It’s going to be $15. [Customers are] going to be in and out. I’m not going to serve dessert or drinks..."
In other words, make what people want, make it really damn good, and strip away everything else. We know this works for startups, but I wonder if it will work as well for (higher-end) restaurants, which generally try to sell an atmosphere and experience.