00:01.48

vigorbranding

Hello everyone today I am joined by someone who knows a lot about how to run an a fishing kitchen his name is chef James Pasa Faro James how you doing say hello and give us a little bit of your backstory.

00:17.65

James

Hi thanks for having me. Um, yeah, my background I started in the cooking culinary world when I was really young something I really wanted to do from a young age bounced around a bunch ended up in Minnesota. I work for some really great chefs like Gavin Casean and Michael Mina and um here I am now working in technology which I never thought I probably have to say out loud.

00:42.10

vigorbranding

That’s awesome. We’re gonna talk about opsy here in a little bit but where did the whole love of cooking come from like where did it start I mean how did you? How did you happen upon it.

00:51.22

James

Yeah, um, you know a lot of the times I think generally this story kind of goes for people. It’s like you know they’re cooking in a kitchen if they’re grandmother or mother some some family member or it’s a family-owned operator. My parents. Ah, my mom was in sales for telecoms so she worked for att my father was in floing so he worked worked in union in New York and then he owned a business in New Jersey where we grew up and he just had friends that were in hospitality so they would always throw a a game dinner every year at a restaurant called perona farms and it was run by 3 brothers and.

01:09.94

vigorbranding

And.

01:25.26

James

They’re they’ve been in business for over 100 years now and they’re like in their sixth generation of family running it. But at the time um Kirk was the chef and he was kind of running this program where he could. Ah, bring in local hunters and fishers and cook a dinner each year and kind of run it for friends and family and kind of started blossoming from the late 80 s to early 90 s where he actually um, he launched a really successful smoke salmon business and he started sign. Ah the likes like Danielle on Louis Palydan um wolfgang puck

01:54.87

vigorbranding

Um, wow.

01:55.80

James

Kind of all over the country and then he started bringing these really large name chefs to this game dinner every year. So when I was like ten or eleven it was every Tuesday of every year for first Tuesday every year they would close the restaurant prep for the weekend weeding up to that Tuesday and then these chefs would come off from all over the country and at the time I had. You know and no idea it was like mingai and Robert Irvine and Danielle Balloud and all these people um, but what really drew me to it was just it was seemed like friends having fun together and it was the energy of the space and the camaraderie and the food was obviously a plus on top of it. But it wasn’t ever that. Ah. That magic moment of like something hitting the pan or me tasting something. It was more about being in an environment being around people. Um, and I think really just like the culture and the energy that was built around it at the time was what really drew me in.

02:42.85

vigorbranding

It’s fantastic and the game dinner sounds awesome. Yeah, you have to at the end here if you have ah a recipe for Elk I Need I mean I I always have a freezer full of Elk I’m a diehard hunter and you know there’s nothing better than having a great meal with friends around something you know that you’ve actually worked really hard for so.

03:00.94

vigorbranding

Ah’s it’s because it’s not easy to cook game I mean it’s not I mean people ruin it a lot so that’s fantastic. Um, so you work in Minneapolis San Francisco Boston um, did you ever have a desire to do your own restaurant.

03:01.38

James

No, it’s not.

03:15.61

James

Um I did I mean it’s obviously still there right? Ah, you know you travel different paths and it’s something I definitely want to do at some point I hope to pick it up in the future. Um, but it’s ah as you know and people you talked to.. It’s a wildly challenging business. Ah, from any angle of it. But as an operator. It’s you know ever more challenging because you’re looking at 50 plus people that are banking on you.

03:39.33

vigorbranding

Yeah, and no question Plus well and be an entrepreneur though. But you’re now so you jumped into the tech. So that’s so much easier than running a restaurant right? Ah yeah.

03:46.48

James

Um, bit different ah different skill set different different patients level.

03:52.50

vigorbranding

So how talk a little bit about ah opsy I Mean you’ve said in the past the idea of opsy started with a simple concept right? You know how to get rid of the paper clutter. You want to talk a little bit about that and you know the brain child behind it I Love entrepreneurial I mean I I consider myself one and I love the stories behind them because they’re usually very.

03:59.87

James

Yeah.

04:07.95

vigorbranding

Simple. They’re usually very true. They’re very authentic and that’s what makes them kind of wonderful.

04:13.31

James

yeah with opsy um yeah I was about 26 in San Francisco I was working for Michael at the time. Um I just took over as chef de cuisine for a restaurant called r and 74 that was in the fiai. Um, and it was this really beautiful french. Burgundy restaurant built on a great wine program and I was drowning I um, you know took my first step into the really deep end. They trusted me with a lot of so lot of things inside the restaurant and what I really wanted was just something that I didn’t have to chase around paper. Um I didn’t have to. Print all this stuff off overcommunic communicate fill the binders up and I kind of went on this search for something that I thought should have been out there at the time we all had iphones and we all still have iphones and Android devices and there was these like little computers in our hands every day that I just assumed there had to even been something right? and when I went out and looked it. Didn’t really satisfy the need. So I kind of went down this path with my friend and we started building. Yeah a dodpercent.

05:15.12

vigorbranding

That’s awesome. Necessity is the mother of invention right? So so oil stained prepless and recipes you want talk a little bit about that.

05:28.31

James

Yeah, it was um yeah we were. We were going through this large change at the restaurant I I came in as an executive soou chef and then when ah the chef Mike Graffiti left I took over as a Cdc for him. Um, it was you know it was very disjointed in communication. It was kind of hurting the team because it was more of a a survived less thrive situation on a day-to-day basis. Um, and we really were very leaning forward into systems and system orientation for communication and kind of removing a lot of this gray area which a lot of restaurants are gray generally. Ah, removing a lot of the gray in this human element of just like collecting the physicals and having to put them on stations and keep them in places because you know they get oil spilled on them and you have to rewrite them or print them out again. Um, but always having a backup somewhere and technology for me was that solution to kind of develop a space where we could keep all the information in there. Keep the team all on the same page marching in and singing off the same sheet of music and moving in the same direction so that every single day when they came in they knew the goal. They knew what their goals were and what they were driving towards and then once you kind of for us when you got rid of a lot of minutiae of like where is it who wrote this who did that who did this where as a recipe. Um, it made it easier for us to focus on the larger goal which was servicing the guest and like putting out really high quality product opposed to just making it through the day because the system was broken.

06:52.28

vigorbranding

Yeah I mean in any kind of a creative business which obviously being a chef is super creative in a kitchen I mean there’s that organized Chaos. There’s that artistry. But I think I do agree I think that people need and love process I just spent unfortunately way too much time talking about that as far as our business you know. Keeping the time and keeping things organized so that they they are. They’re able to thrive right? A little organization certainly isn’t ah isn’t a bad thing. Um, but talk about your partner and and how your partner got into it in the business and how it got started and all that.

07:10.50

James

Yeah.

07:21.67

James

Yeah Matt is wildly talented. Definitely completely different skillset than I have he spent a lot of his early career in videography design. He’s done all the architecture from the backend working with our cto justin writing all the code. Um, and he’s done all the uiux experience for opsy which I think is really powerful because the the whole idea is that when I was conceptualizing the idea we were running into these walls of just really large enterprise systems that just weren’t resonating with what I needed every single day and we needed to make sure that the tool we designed and built had to be very streamlined trim light feeling. Not so dense and cumbersome. So Matt is amazingly talented. really really smart he’s taken an incredible approach from just a design perspective and user interface perspective I think he’s he’s setting us up for a ton of success because it’s it should be something that you could easily pick up understand get into get out of and get back to work.

08:19.89

vigorbranding

Fantastic and opsy recently partnered with ah Gavin Caseson is that correct notable chef ah James Blair word winner.

08:26.88

James

Yeah, yeah, Gavin has um, yeah, been a ah longtime mentor friend boss lots of different capacities advisor investor. Um, but ah when I first met Gavin I came out to Minneapolis to dodge at belcour and spoon. Um, and it’s kind of in between what I was going to do next and we’re winding down in San Francisco and he offered me a job and I you know, kind of just expressed the idea that you know if we continue down this path talking about opportunities that I wanted to make sure you understood there was things that I was working on and that I would need this duality of support as I make me this next. Step forward. Even though I didn’t take the job at the time because it wasn’t the the chef role that was open. He immediately gravitated towards us and he became our first adviser very early on probably going to back six years now and then when the opportunity came up to move to a swoon and stable. We started piloting the actual project inside the restaurant. So it was um.

09:22.95

James

Blessing in a curse right? You’re kind of drinking from a fire hose at that point when it comes to feedback when you’re given it to your team.

09:27.13

vigorbranding

Absolutely so I mean you know obviously organization in any business is super important and this is an opportunity for you I guess to sell your dream or your vision here. What types of restaurants need your tool the most like who do you see as your primary customer who’s who’s the most suited to. To to to be involved in the Opsy platform.

09:49.49

James

Yeah, we get this question a lot. Um, generally my belief system is that anyone whether it’s a food truck to a threet star Missioncheland restaurant could utilize opsy multiunits single concept multi unit multiconcept the. At the end of the day. There’s a there’s a very large event diagram of functionality that all is true within restaurants right? You are producing food. You’re managing people. You’re pretty prepless like all these things are just common truths throughout the whole industry. So. We started in a place of like a spoon and stable upscale casual. This is just based on my background and Kavin’s background and we built it for the 4 walls of that restaurant and it works extremely well and as we continue developing. We’re focused more on both going downstream to more fine dining restaurants but also on the opposite side of that stream. Going into more casual qsr virtual brands to make sure that you know the tool still fits. We don’t we don’t develop in any specific way that it’s like okay this really only works for Thomas Keller or Danielle or Gavin this doesn’t just work for you know the Mcdonald’s or the larger change or the the quick growing franchises. It’s um.

10:50.64

vigorbranding

Um.

10:57.25

James

We take a really honest approach and when we when we work with a company whether it’s your business or a multiple tuda businesses that that are our partners Now we yeah we have lots of conversation with how we can be become better.

11:07.82

vigorbranding

It’s awesome. It’s awesome. Well I know in this industry I mean I I started my illustrious career in a restaurant like most well I shouldn’t say most everybody did but I was a dishwasher and but I was very fortunate actually because I worked with ah a gentleman who was. Pretty ah, well known it was in Hershey Pennsylvania and he was a chef and he had his own place and it was sort of his last sort of ah chapter he wanted to just do his thing his way and talk about the oiltained recipes I mean this guy was crazy. Um, gourmet magazine was begging him for his. Ah.

11:22.73

James

Okay, you know.

11:39.23

vigorbranding

Coconut Cream Emmaellatta recipe. It literally died with Him. He would not let win the building when he made it and I mean there’s a lot of that old school sort of philosophy and like artistry I mean how how how is this help with that I mean are you finding resistance from those old school guys or is everyone really realizing hey look. We’ve got to. We’ve got to have this product ah to help streamline things.

11:59.48

James

You know when we first started it was a matter of like trying to delutter and reorganize and kind of update because there’s been very little focus on the back of the restaurant when it comes to technology tons on the front. But you know as time goes on I think especially with covid covid has kind of changed the way people think about.

12:13.29

vigorbranding

Um.

12:17.82

James

But staffing and all the hardship that everyone is going through from finding staff now that people want tools that help them do more with a little bit of less systems ultimately scaffold that structure and allow people to do those things because there’s you know a rubric to work within um and now we are starting to see it’s less of we’re not here to convince people. Of what they should be doing I’m not going to be a ah person trying to give in someone how to change the way they run their business. It’s up to them to make that decision. But when we find the people that are coming to us for this Problem. It’s it’s something that is it clicks like they see it immediately. They understand they need to solve the problem and you see it on both ends like older chefs will have to eventually come to this idea because.

12:56.62

vigorbranding

Who.

12:56.73

James

They’re hiring younger and younger cooks and servers and people every single day that the tool has to meet them at their staffing where they are today and yeah when I’m not very old but I’m not young anymore. Um.

13:09.68

vigorbranding

Jesus.

13:10.85

James

When I started. It was like take the muskin out and listen to me talk and write it down and if you don’t write it down. You don’t know what’s going on and now it’s like if I had to give a binder of paper to an 18 year old kid coming off the street to be a prep cook like he’s going to look at me cross-eyed. So we’re we’re hoping to help meet these people this workforce this new generation of cooks and chefs. Where they are and they’re far more technically inclined than any generation before they they grew up with it in their hands. Their whole lives.

13:36.72

vigorbranding

It’s it’s wonderful I mean it’s ah as I was saying earlier necessities of other invention. It makes total sense. It’s a simple concept but it’s a great concept and something it’s it’s absolutely needed I mean where do you see yourselves going in the next day two three years I mean what’s what’s your vision for the business.

13:48.56

James

We Want to you know obviously bridge a lot of these gaps we want to again meet the people where they are. We want to help bring a little more insight to the day-to-day operators and start to segment out a piece of business that is not so financially high minded. Financial high-mounded tools are great for the controllers cfos accountants of the world but it doesn’t really help the operators that are running the restaurant a day-to-day basis scheduling cooking things like that. So we’re hoping to be a distillation of information at some point it sit in between those tools. Um, and then you know we’re. <unk> people that believe we need to stay focused on what we’re great at um and we’ve built a really great tool that I believe works well and we’re going to continue embellishing on it and progressing and changing and ideaating on the tool and making it better and a lot of my focus now going forward is finding strong partners that are also likeminded that are. Best in class technologies that we can work with and we actually you know in the next couple weeks and months we’re going to have a few announcements coming out about some of our partners that we’re working with and people that I I put high value on and what they’re doing and believe they are best in class.

14:53.59

vigorbranding

It’s awesome. Yeah I mean it’s It’s ah it’s remarkable and it’s ah it’s great I mean and I think you have the the absolute right perspective on growing a business you got to stay focused and and take it to the people that need it and and I love it I Love it I’m looking forward to seeing what what the future holds.

15:04.19

James

And.

15:08.61

vigorbranding

Um, so I have to ask these are we do every year we do food and beverage Trends and restaurant trends and technology obviously is just always there. Always there. In fact, it’s hard to find things that aren’t tied to technology for a trend.

15:14.50

James

Food.

15:21.33

vigorbranding

Um, we we read a lot and heard a lot about robots and Kitchens and all that I mean what do you? What’s your honest opinion about Robot servers and that kind of a thing.

15:30.32

James

Um, you know they have their place I’ve been I’ve been to the sushi train places where the the robot brings you your drink and like drives cocktails around for sure. It’ll always exist the the robot cooks like the sweet greens of the world I Think there’s definitely a place for it. There’s you know.

15:33.98

vigorbranding

You.

15:47.82

James

Very fast casual grab and go type situations that definitely serve that purpose. It will fill a gap for sure. Um, for like everything in the middle market I even think like all the way down to fast casual. Yeah I think technology is going to continue growing in a way that helps bolster the human element because. For me again going all the way back to being eleven ten twelve the reason I came into restaurants is people when you go to a restaurant and you sit down and you pay money you you get a server that is talking to you get a cook that is cooking the food. Yeah um. You ideally have a consistent experience but it’s always never going to be the same It’s always going to hopeful build and build and build for you and if you start removing that? yeah humanity out of the experience. Um, and I think all the way down to you know, fast food service elements. There’s. Still pieces of it that the humans are going to be so I believe like technology itself. Everyone’s going to want to talk about Ai replacement of people robots I mean it’s just not realistic. It makes sense. So I think we’ll always go down that path in certain segments. But I think where where technology really needs to go and should go is.

16:48.32

vigorbranding

Um, the hunt.

16:59.62

James

How do you better? The human experience while they’re working and how does that bolster of the human experience while their employees of that space bolster The human experience as a guest and how do you engage with them differently and continue driving that experience and bringing them back. Whether you’re picking up a burger. You’re sitting down and spending thousands or hundreds of dollars on a meal.

17:17.30

vigorbranding

Yeah, and I mean I love that answer and and I mean the robots are kind of kitchen kind of cool. Whatever’s neat sort of trendy maybe but I love the idea your technology is one that that allows humans to do a more efficient job. Hopefully it’ll drive more.

17:31.76

James

Do.

17:34.74

vigorbranding

Happiness culture better experience for the guest and I think at the end of the day you’re right? That’s what we all go out for right? We want that human experience. We want to. We want to be with friends or ah, you know business associates and just have a great time and it’s That’s the overall interaction. It’s The. Ah, the servers. It’s everybody that’s involved that that makes it fantastic and makes it it. It makes an experience right? So I think ah I agree with you I Love the human side of things versus ah maybe what were the robotic side. Um, yeah, That’s right, That’s right.

18:00.81

James

I Mean if we go all the way to robots you’re gonna It’s not go be hospital tow anymore. It’s gonna be something completely different.

18:09.51

vigorbranding

That’s right, is there anything else, you’d like to tell us about opsy I mean anything else about your business the future What you see for technology. Ah any ancillary products anything like that that you want to talk about.

18:21.50

James

No, we’re you know we’re hoping to push out a bunch of updates here. It’s um, you know the the technology piece is a process that ah, that’s new to me because it’s it’s not so physical. It’s not tangible. It’s more of a conversation then there’s there’s other people that are smarter and better than me ah doing the work and. I kind of I kind of wait for the results to test and play with um, not at the moment we’re we’re really just excited about some of the partnerships we’re going to announce and also um, yeah, we we love being substantially footed inside the hospitality you know with myself my background Gavin we have a couple other.

18:45.57

vigorbranding

Um.

18:55.68

James

Chef advisor investors that we’re going to kind of bring to the forefront and it’s it’s going to be our prime focus of having these types of conversations and create dialogues with our chef partners to make sure that we are developing the tool in a way that is applicable to their day-to-day life not from a perspective of James has been removed from the kitchen for a year and a half and

19:14.21

vigorbranding

Um, yeah, you’re always in Beta right? I mean you’re always in Beta and it’s It’s a tough thing I’ll see for me personally I had to learn like with the the dev work that we do and things like that it is that.

19:14.30

James

He still believes. He knows what he’s doing because he hasn’t work in the kitchen anymore. Um, it’s it really needs to be rubber meets the road type development. Yeah.

19:30.26

vigorbranding

You know I’m used to in life start and stop like here. We make this and it’s finished but this when it comes to software and anything development. You’re always in beta so um, all right? Why? Yeah, absolutely so I got one last question all right if you had 1 final meal. What would you eat and where and why.

19:31.73

James

Who.

19:38.71

James

That’s constant churn.

19:49.95

James

Um, you know I hate to bring it all the way back to the beginning of the conversation. But um I I spent a lot of time in the kitchen while early days in the kitchen with my father as he like spent time around his friends. Um, and one of the first things I can vividly remember not making but help put together was a venison carpacco dish um with with ming sigh and it was like toasted sesames hot sesame oil slice Ven Venison Tenderor wine and like a bitter green salad and.

20:13.00

vigorbranding

Um, this.

20:23.98

James

Being an 11 year old kid I’ve never had anything like that or you’re close to raw food and I the the idea is so visceral my mind I think from just the weekend leading up to it and being around my father and being around all these types of people if I had to have 1 final bite. In my life. It would be going back to that moment in time and um I think that is like the the white switch that flipped in my mind to say like you know food is what I want to do because I don’t have to do social studies anymore if I do it? Yeah, we hunted fish still all the way up growing up.

20:55.45

vigorbranding

Ah, that’s that’s fantastic. So was your father also a hunter then.

21:02.50

James

Ah, mostly like upline foul stuff. Yeah.

21:02.72

vigorbranding

That’s awesome. Yeah, very cool, very cool. Yeah I share those passions big time. Um, what’s your favorite game meat. Would it be that or is there ah venison Ah birds I mean.

21:15.12

James

Um I love duck obviously um, we have amazing duck producers out here and then pheasant because that again going back to the experience like the first time I learned how to break down a full bird was um.

21:18.76

vigorbranding

Who.

21:32.65

James

Jalo we poed on and it was right a year or two before he passed away but it was like just learning experience and it’s not going from like cleaned animal from a bag to the table breaking it down. It was like feathers and heads and wings and like.

21:48.41

vigorbranding

Um.

21:49.14

James

Endto-end learning how to do it. It was a really cool experience. It’s something that really super value because it’s applied everywhere right? Ducks Pheasants Chickens Geese All kind of the same.

22:00.67

vigorbranding

That’s awesome I mean like I can totally relate I mean I’ve done all that but never not nearly as sophisticated as you have I can guarantee you that but I mean the whole thing from the you know field to to to table.

22:10.26

James

And.

22:12.30

vigorbranding

And ah and I’ll say this the fun and the camaraderie that comes around with it stories. It’s just ah I mean it’s just something I crave. In fact, if you’re anywhere near my cabin on any given weekend. There’s bourbon being poured and Elk burgers or ah backstraps being being provided I.

22:16.66

James

Yeah.

22:30.10

James

Ah, so.

22:30.80

vigorbranding

I Cook all the time up there for everybody and people just stop by. They see my lights on the not even invited people will stop in because they know I’ll probably be making Elk or you know pouring a good wine or bourbon and it’s It’s always a nice time. So I totally respect that. Absolutely absolutely.

22:41.15

James

And well we’ll have to talk offline about that one then.

22:47.75

vigorbranding

I listen it James it was fantastic I really enjoyed talking to you I appreciate your time anything else, you’d like to leave us with.

22:53.39

James

Now. Thank you I Appreciate this love to stay in touch and just appreciate giving us a platform to talk about what we’re doing and we’re excited to keep on going forward with everybody.

23:02.12

vigorbranding

Absolutely hey and best of luck to you I Love what you’re doing and I love the attitude behind it. It’s excellent, well done. Thanks.

23:07.31

James

Thank you appreciate it.