00:00.55
vigorbranding
Hey guys today I’m joined by my new friend sterling Douglas he’s the co-founder and Ceo of Chali which we’re gonna dive into a lot so many things happening over there and just so you know we’ve been chatting for about 10 minutes on all things. So I think it’s gonna be great episode. Ah. Sterling say hello and give up a backstory.

00:17.83
Sterling _Chowly_
Hey Joseph thanks for having me on I’m excited to kind of dive into a bunch of these topics that we were getting into yeah cofounder Ceo Chali where digital platform that enables restaurants to expand their off-prem capabilities before. Chaey I used to be an actuary deep into data analytics and just found that data really wasn’t moving cleanly between restaurants and you know that really prompted kind of the founding for chaey so that we could take data from you know uber eats grubhubs of the world and help restaurants kind of adopt this new technology without. You know the operational headaches that a lot of them break.

00:56.73
vigorbranding
Yeah,, that’s Amazing. So Let’s actually just dig right into that founding a little bit. Um, suffice to say online ordering and the tech that you got into there’s a lot of players out there. So what. Really prompted because it seems like a big risk right? It’s like I’m going to launch another online ordering platform you’re going into a C of a lot of varying degrees of competition from the old guard to the New. Um, what made you feel like hey I think we’re going to do this Better. We’re going to do this different.

01:26.51
Sterling _Chowly_
Yeah I mean look over the years um I’ve looked at hundreds of online ordering and white label tools from like you said you know groups that started in you know, 2003 2005 and to you know some of the recent upstarts that have raised a lot of venture capital. They get their business going. It’s something that we’ve been deep but we we partner with a ton of them. We’ve resold them. We’ve referred them. We’ve helped restaurants get stood up and we’ve gotten all this feedback. Um, and we always got to ask that question. Restaurant. All the time like hey, what’s chali going to do an online ordering tool and and I always mostly just said I don’t’t really want to there’s there’s already so many out there. But what we ended up finding is that there was always most of these online ordering Tus fell into 2 buckets 1 they had great. Ah, front end and consumer experience which which was really helpful but then they lacked on the backend and the operational side at the restaurant. It was hard to manage didn’t really work with their point of sales system or fifth or flow or you found the exact opposite scenario. Really great backend operational side. Ah, but the consumer experience was pretty lacking. Um. And so when we were kind of evaluating this the the opportunity to bring Koala under the same umbrella came out and the most interesting part to me is that that’s all they do is the frontend and the consumer experience and they’re so good at it. Even the biggest dog out there in the online ordering space olo refers them in and as a top partner.

02:53.52
vigorbranding
Are.

02:55.47
Sterling _Chowly_
So we found literally the best in class on the frontend and on the chaey side most of our product is the operational flow. We’re helping you know things like Gruhub and uber eats fit into the restaurants flow integrated the point of sale get all the data and everything so we knew we were really good at that. And 1 of the reasons that we didn’t want to build that is because we knew it’s really hard to be good at both. You know we didn’t have the rightup on staff. It would have taken a long time and even if we did build it. It have been expensive and it still might not have been enough and so this opportunity to bring Koala and is like hey we can actually get both of these things we can have literally the best in-class consumer experience. And the best in class operational experience to the restaurant and if we can truly meld those together that’s going to be the best experience for the restaurant industry and especially in the independent operator space where they just you know they don’t have a good option to kind of get multiple things under 1 roof.

03:48.33
vigorbranding
Yeah, and so for for those who have been um, either stuck in the kitchen and not able to ah bring their head up for the last few weeks chali just completed acquisition of Koala if you’re unfamiliar with Koala we did do an episode with Brett ah from koala a few back and we’ll make sure we have a link to that in our show notes. Um, Koala basically started ah for lack I’m going to make this sound really dumb. But basically they skinned the olo dot com services so you had a bit more brand control. You had a bit more um control over upsells and how that looks instead of just the out of the box solution that olo provides. And I think thereby reducing the um average of 5 clicks to get through a completion of an order so you guys scoop them up at its core chali started as more um, would you say an integration mechanism between pos and online ordering.

04:39.29
Sterling _Chowly_
Yeah, yeah, point of sale integration company. You know how we described ourselves for a while almost an api as a service right? because we were basically leveraging and creating apis to help data flow between these systems so bringing in you know Koala that specializes on.

04:49.10
vigorbranding
Um, a.

04:57.66
Sterling _Chowly_
The user experience. Not only is it are they veniacal about conversion rates which I think is is lacking in the restaurant space but they’ve got you know machine learning that helps make recommendations to increase basket sizes and the customization of it is so Amazing. Go look at you know Mod pizza. And go look at Pf chains’s they’re both koala but they’re completely different experiences. They’re unique to the brand and it was one of the things that I thought was so special about what they were building.

05:25.60
vigorbranding
I love that. So yeah, chali essentially is the zapier of the ah of the restaurant technology world. You know what’s interesting is when you go when you go to the website. The Chali website. Um I think a lot of us who aren’t super integrated into the online ordering and in the pos world. You know you say online orderering most people are going to say grubhub postmates door uber eats and maybe another one and and what’s funny to me is like I almost had to take a step back and question how much I know about this industry when I see your ticker of logos and I’m like oh brother I haven’t heard of like half of these. Um, oh my gosh.

05:58.63
Sterling _Chowly_
Um.

05:59.98
vigorbranding
And so it’s interesting to see um to see those those competitors out there now when when looking at Koala as a mechanism to get into a stronger online ordering offering. How do you imagine? That’s going to play out. Um. As being basically viewed as a competitor to some of the folks that may have been a partner in the past.

06:21.42
Sterling _Chowly_
Yeah, yeah, so so 2 things on this one? Ah co-optition is just wild in the restaurant space. The amount of overlap of features from point of sales to online ordering companies to loyalty systems to marketing ones.

06:29.00
vigorbranding
A.

06:38.67
Sterling _Chowly_
Everyone’s got overlap of feature sets. That’s that’s something that’s really just become standard in the industry. So that’s not new, all right? Some of our partners have ah Third -party marketplace integrations and they just use us for the point- ofale side some of them are point- ofale systems that have a couple direct integrations but use us for everything else. And so that’s commonplace in this industry. That’s not new. Um, so for us, it’s it’s really something that isn’t going to shock a lot of people but I think the important part that we need to always maintain and that we will is to create an even playing field. Ah, koala module and how it says today is going to work and use the exact same api that we make available to everybody so it doesn’t matter whether you’re you know billion dollar publicly traded grubhub you’re using the same api that a new startup is using on the online ordering side that built to our system. And that’s the same as we what koal is going to be using so making sure that we have an even playing field for everybody is is important and to be honest, the the co-opetition is not new. It’s something that’s been around for a while.

07:45.87
vigorbranding
Yeah I love that it’s um, it’s It’s part of I think a bigger issue too or not issue. But I think a new wave of challenges that are coming because the restaurant industry was so far behind in technology comparatively to other industries that are way ahead. Um.

08:02.41
vigorbranding
I think we’re going to start to see a lot more of this convergence of tech. Um, how do you see that playing out now. Obviously you know you know the the Chali roadmap. Ah even the stuff that we’re not allowed to know yet. Um, but as you look around the the landscape.

08:19.10
Sterling _Chowly_
Is it.

08:20.87
vigorbranding
Um, is this something that you’re cheering on like this consolidation converging. Um and and where do you think the next step is going to be with this. Um, once we’ve aced the the combination of pos on online ordering What’s the next um world that we’re going to enter into.

08:35.93
Sterling _Chowly_
Yeah, so when when we think about the the convergence or the the consolidation and the tech space. You’ve got you had globs of venture capital poured into tech tech companies into the restaurant space and they all focused on a specific problem to solve because. Restaurants are deceptively difficult business models and people often underestimate how complicated it is and how big a business you can build solving one really meaningful pain point that restaurants have so you created a ton of these companies in all different spots. And as you’ve seen customer or as you’ve seen restaurants you know, go through last year where you just saw this crazy increase in labor costs and food cost all of a sudden it made a lot more sense for them to maybe I can reduce vendors save a few dollars here I might not get best of breed. But I’ll still get enough for me to kind of make the advances and technology to meet my my consumers where they are and so you started to see a lot more of that consolidation and so I I feel that the restaurant industry is going through a bundling cycle right now. And it’s not uncommon for industries to go through bundling and unbundling cycles. We weren’t through a big unbundling cycle where best to breed was really taking place because the acceleration that covid you know, provided for restaurants and now you’re starting to see a bit of a bundling cycle. Ah, and so.

09:47.89
vigorbranding
Um, and.

10:05.28
Sterling _Chowly_
Yeah, you’re going to see some of it but at the same time There’s so much innovation coming in the restaurant industry so you’re seeing consolidation on certain features. But you’re still seeing tons of innovation in new ones you’re seeing you know what’s next I mean dynamic pricing is going to really take off this year that’s a new and kind of separate. Ah, you know piece of technology that’s going to go and it’s going to grow a ton companies like sauce pricing and and juicer you know I’m they’re the talk of the show and so you’re gonna be seeing a lot of that you’re seeing a lot on the data side. So you’re seeing a lot of data consolidation. Not just from the point of sale. But how do I get my what.

10:25.37
vigorbranding
Yep.

10:43.43
Sterling _Chowly_
You know my food costs my labor costs my sales and my customer and my payments all in 1 place. So I can look at these things together and so I think you’re going to see just as much innovation in new companies and new product lines as you’re going to see on the consolidation side. But I think the consolidation has to make sense. It has to pair well together consolidation for consolidation’s sake I don’t think is helpful to anybody.

11:07.24
vigorbranding
Yeah I think it’s a natural progression that you kind of talk about I mean what we saw is We had these Og old Guard Pus systems that sort of just tacked online ordering on as a oh yeah and we and we do that? Um, and I think what’s great about um the innovation world or whatever you want to call it is.

11:17.59
Sterling _Chowly_
This is.

11:24.49
vigorbranding
People see that and they say hey this actually is not good and that’s like that is the seed of innovation we can do it better and if we can find a way to tap into that system. Well now we have a nice path forward. So you’re right? It is this like natural ebb and flow. Where innovation really is the driver as people zero in on the pain points of those like micro. Not even maybe micro but like little bits of the of the picture that are already there from the Pos system. So they’re focused on their machines. They’re focused on their hardware. Maybe their software online orderings tacked on and actually it’s funny because I see that happen a lot with email marketing.

11:59.31
Sterling _Chowly_
Is it.

12:01.30
vigorbranding
Feel like it’s like hey we have online ordering and email marketing is a thing too Anyway, the online ordering and you’re like right? but that is such a huge thing that could be so much better with segmentation and automation and all these things but you just sort of crammed it on there. Ah I’m looking at you toast I’m sorry. But.

12:10.72
Sterling _Chowly_
Um, yes.

12:20.53
Sterling _Chowly_
Um.

12:21.57
vigorbranding
Email marketing system is terrible and you could tell it’s an afterthought. Um, so if you just open up a little bit guys then then other email marketing Anyway, all right off topic but the other thing that you mentioned too. Yeah.

12:25.32
Sterling _Chowly_
It. No, it’s but but it’s a good point because it’s box checking tech right? like I need to check a box on this Rfp or I need to say that I have it I mean the amount of the amount of restaurants who say well I have to have loyalty right because in in the head they’re like I need it and then I dig in and I’m like well what. Loyalty mean like what? what are the features that do it I get answers from being able to reorder something to email to things that are more of a crm and there’s this huge sloth of things and a lot of a lot of companies especially tech companies get a deal done. They do box checking.

13:05.61
vigorbranding
Right.

13:07.47
Sterling _Chowly_
And that was exactly what I wanted to do avoidid when we looked at Koal I wanted this to really make sense really be complimentary I wanted the missions do a line you know I wanted core values to align like it had to make sense for it really to truly work in my head.

13:21.94
vigorbranding
Yeah, it’s interesting. Um, you know, bringing up the loyalty side of things. Ah there sales people are always to blame I’m sorry guys I love you. But it’s always that you know because it’s like you’re so good at your job. But. The first question hasn’t been asked which is like do I need another app on my phone and and if it’s just to check the box that I came here isn’t there a better way now you know friends at big check and I’m sure you’ve run into them before Sam Standovich and and ah Jason Jason um great guys.

13:41.30
Sterling _Chowly_
Um, this.

13:49.53
Sterling _Chowly_
Course.

13:54.00
vigorbranding
I mean they took that and ran I got to hear them talk um last year a little bit about it and they just they’ve connected it to the thing that matters most which is your payment mechanism and it’s like yes we want to benefit you if you come here often. We don’t need you to download an app I’m at the point now like where the only time an app really matters is if it’s. Completely built with the customer in mind like Starbucks like Papa John’s like some of these well-designed apps that are out there these out-of-the-box solutions are just that it’s it’s it’s a loyalty. Yeah and not loyalty. It’s ah it’s a repeat traffic tracker and a fast track to getting into a mobile order. Um, have you seen have you I mean do you agree and do you see a world where those experiences are going to become better and more worth it because I’ve I’ve heard leaders basically say like we did the app and we paid for it and um, it just doesn’t work for us.

14:48.31
Sterling _Chowly_
Yeah, it is a It’s a hot topic because there are situations where it it really depends on the intrinsic value that you’re providing So when I when I talk to to restaurants and they say I want an app you really dig in and and understand why and I have found that. Typically when they want the app to want the app while they go with a vendor who checks the box and they get in what they they get out what they put in but I’ve also seen situations where ah, they’ve wanted to get the mobile app because it’s an it’s they’re meeting where their consumers want the.

15:18.39
vigorbranding
Um, here.

15:27.35
Sterling _Chowly_
Have customers who actually want to interact this way when you’re on mobile you have you can actually create easier flows. You can make it easier to order. You can build all of really good hospitable experience in it and then all of a sudden you’ve seen it like literally make them more money because all of a sudden they know that 10% of their traffic’s going through.

15:41.43
vigorbranding
Are.

15:47.24
Sterling _Chowly_
App because that’s what their consumers are using the app has a 2.9 rating on the app store has a crappy conversion rate then they get 1 and they say hey we already know we have customers here. We want to give them a better experience and you build it with that intention. All the sudden you have a 4.9 rating on the app store. You’re converting 70% other users that start in order and all of a sudden you went from 10% of your sales to 20% of the sales and it’s almost all incremental. That’s when it makes a difference That’s when you’re providing that intrinsic value. So we we have this discussion a ton internally on like what are we doing with the mobile app. And on my side I’m like ah we need to provide intrinsic value like we’re not going to make the box checking product. That’s not what I but I want us to do um and so when we provide that intrinsic value I think it is there. So I think that having that has tons of advantages to both restaurants big and small. Ah, but it has to be done with this intent and it has to be done deliberately and if you do it that way. That’s how I think you can provide a great experience and at the end of the day make the restaurant more money and make their customers happier.

16:53.70
vigorbranding
Yeah, love that and in online ordering I think is probably the better approach to really thinking about loyalty loyalties beginning start with repeat traffic repeat purchases and having a fantastic um experience time in timeout whether it’s digital. Physical in Personson or even non-transactional and so if you have control over that online ordering report and you have the look there then it makes a lot of sense that you could easily start to push that into what does loyalty really look like and how do we reward it. How do we recognize it? um. And and it sounds like that’s what koalas the acquisition of Koala is giving you almost a basis to start to approach. Um, maybe I’m digging into something you shouldn’t talk about but it seems like that’s the path forward right? yeah.

17:34.81
Sterling _Chowly_
But yeah, we we have so much work to do on. You know, getting getting the the first party experience the mobile app experience our third party experience making all the data we have enough on our plate right now I’m not not trying to add big things like that. Right now we have we have some great partners today on that side that are are experts in this and that’s that’s what we want to let them do.

18:02.86
vigorbranding
I love it if it’s being considered blink twice I’m just kidding all right? So no, that’s great so you did bring up a topic that so I do think we’re going to have Carl from juicer on the show here soon? Um I’m excited about it I am a.

18:16.64
Sterling _Chowly_
Um, excellent.

18:20.34
vigorbranding
Unk Bullwark against dynamic pricing. Ah yeah, like like don’t buy into it I get it from the operator side. It is so sexy to be able to make the money you want to make I think it’s going to be a loyalty killer or at least in the way it’s being thought about now. So tell me your I would love to hear your hot takes on dynamic pricing and how do you think.

18:21.43
Sterling _Chowly_
Yeah I bet.

18:40.25
vigorbranding
We can launch dynamic pricing without harming our our loyalists the people who they know that with tax. My pizza is going to be 1172 and now all of a sudden because it’s Friday at six p m my pizza is 1892 um, how do we. Tackle that right.

19:00.58
Sterling _Chowly_
Ah, yeah I I think there’s a I can take this in a lot of different directions. Ah but let me start out by dynamic pricing is not applied to every purchase. Ah the same.

19:20.41
Sterling _Chowly_
There’s there’s a handful of ways that dynamic pricing can be kind of dispatched to make sure that you’re not harming that that experience to your loyal loyalless and I can think of ah a ton that are literally live today and ones that will probably be live as the end of years. The technology gets better and better. But I think to start most of the uses I’m seeing on dynamic pricing are with third -party marketplaces and on these third -party marketplaces customers are paying for convenience. It’s not a very It’s not the most profitable channel for the restaurants and the operators. And so what dynamic pricing is really saying like hey if you want the added convenience. It’s pushing that cost to the consumer when they’re really busy and they have the opportunity and they say you know I have 100 orders to fill in this hour I can only fill eighty. how do I how do I handle that how do I maximize and optimize my my operations well basically making that eighty first order slightly more expensive and then the eighty second order a little bit more in the eighty third order a little bit more now. All of a sudden. The customers are paying for the convenience and ones that they really want it.

20:13.62
vigorbranding
Or.

20:30.23
Sterling _Chowly_
And the restaurant is being able to benefit from like the convenience and like this is going to stress my system. It’s going to be harder and harder for me to ah execute this order these orders so by the time I get to the one hundred and first order the risk in the executing it well to provide a good experience is already. There. So if I can help taper that down. So I don’t get that high and I can optimize those orders so they’re profitable. It’s helping really share the risk. It’s helping diversify that and it’s why it’s actually better for the customer because the customer look this restaurant’s just too busy to take this order right now if you really really want it. Like you can have it but you can also self self select out so that you don’t have a bad experience because it’s hard to execute orders the busier that it gets so I think that’s one case where it’s really smart. You can always buy it to your third parties but not your first party so your loyal customers are going to be owing from your first party icing groups starting to do subscription services. You could easily set it so anyone who’s part of like your subscription. Service always gets like standard pricing there. There’s a number of ways that you can handle this and look restaurants are really good at being hospitable. They’re getting better at doing it in the new digital world and I think that yeah when it first starts out. It’s going to be shaky. You’re going to have some grumpy customers.

21:26.71
vigorbranding
Um, a.

21:45.49
Sterling _Chowly_
But we’re going to figure this out and as long as technology companies continue to be mer first think about their operators and think about the experience I think that this is going to work and it’s going to be normal. It’s going to be standard. You know you know 12 to twenty four months from now.

21:58.30
vigorbranding
Yeah I mean how how do how do you think that we prevent from getting into more of ah ah the same situation that happened with travel right? with Ota’s online travel advisors because that’s that’s the other thought side is like everyone’s like look at it worked for the travel industry I’m like did it because like now. The margins are even more razor thin. The competition is even fiercer. Um, that doesn’t seem like a really good output for the industry like I get everything you’re saying I don’t disagree with what you said either I think it makes sense. It’s almost like expenditure-d driven throttling as opposed to literal throttling.

22:34.95
Sterling _Chowly_
Yeah, exactly.

22:37.70
vigorbranding
Um, but you know this this all of a sudden like I Love my hamburger from you know, sterling’s burger shack but man that thing’s double now. So I guess I’ll try this other one that I wasn’t going to try now I become a little more a little less loyal right.

22:54.46
Sterling _Chowly_
Um, yeah, but you’re also trying out another restaurant and the other restaurant has a better burger. Ultimately, that’s better for you as the consumer right? So like if you know at the end of the day. There’s a bounce you know when Chali first started the third party marketplace.

23:00.38
vigorbranding
Sure yeah.

23:12.42
Sterling _Chowly_
Ecosystem was really different I mean uber eats wasn’t a marketplace. It was literally a guy drive around his car with hot subbs around a busy block for a couple hours during lunch. Um, you know e 24 was actually one of the biggest ones at the time so it was very different ah very different industry when we joined and.

23:19.48
vigorbranding
A.

23:24.94
vigorbranding
Oh wow, Yeah, go back.

23:32.37
Sterling _Chowly_
I remember going through investor conversations and everyone told me the same thing. It’s like us’s just like the travel industry. It’s just like the travel. Everything’s gonna end up just like the expedia of the world and my ah my counter to that was that absolutely not. This industry is completely different. Um, the amount of. Diversity you have in the supply side is great half of the restaurant industry is small operators independent Only half are big chains so you’re you’re going to run into issues. There’s only a dozen airlines and there’s 3 that do like 80% of travel so you don’t have the same big player mentality.

24:07.52
vigorbranding
Um, a.

24:10.13
Sterling _Chowly_
You also have a crazy amount of reinvigoration and into the supply 3% of all restaurants go to business every single month and 3.1% open up new every single month you have a constant rotation of supply and so your players are always changing. This is not at all how the travel industry works. Um, not to mention the business models are completely Different. You can’t commoditize a really great burger like it’s just not how it works.. The airlines are very much commoditized. The experiences are very similar.

24:34.68
vigorbranding
Um, a.

24:40.41
Sterling _Chowly_
Ah, in a restaurant. They’re completely different and all it takes is a new general manager new ownership and even at the same brand The experience will change a ton that type of like diverse Variability. That’s just constant in your face makes it a completely different Industry. So I’ve never thought that it was going to turn like the travel agencies. I get on the surface. There’s similarities but the fundamental business model that restaurants are is very very unique and very complex very different from most other businesses.

25:09.60
vigorbranding
Yeah,, that’s ah, it’s a great response to it. Um, you know taking into account like travel in general. Um, and again mother of all inventions. So if it does create the ah you know the pain for people there will be someone that comes along to try to solve that pain. It’s the beauty of ah. Free market enterprises and you know ability to innovate.

25:29.85
Sterling _Chowly_
If if if point- ofsale systems and third party marketplaces built their products with open apis in minds and were really like embracing of moving data chali would have never existed.

25:42.99
vigorbranding
Um, yeah.

25:45.26
Sterling _Chowly_
We existed to solve that pain point and that pain point didn’t exist before 2012 right it it didn’t barely existed when we started really the problem really exacerbated 2019 2020 so it’s ah it’s the same thing.

25:53.45
vigorbranding
Um, right.

26:02.93
vigorbranding
Yeah, absolutely love it. So one of the things obviously that that sparked I think a rapid embracing of technology. We were kind of embracing it as an industry but um, you know, being forced into our houses and having to find a different way to get our food really just kicked it into the highest gear possible. Um, do you think that the behaviors have permanently changed like from consumers like obviously some things have come back but not to the way that we saw it. Um, do you think there’s a world where dining in person becomes. More adopted than it has been in the last year or so or do you think we’re we’re in the hey the way I get my food is from the palm of my hand.

26:47.34
Sterling _Chowly_
Yeah I think ah, yeah, like covid accelerated things a ton it. It took consumer adoption and drastically increased it. But you know what also has happened over the past three or four years that had nothing to do with covid. Is that a larger percentage of the gen z generation has disposable income and is entering the workforce. This is a generation that grew up with tablets grew up with screens. They’ve been order on doordashson’s before high school so you’re going to see the natural progression that we have but then you also saw each of these generations. Take a big jump during the pandemic because they had to so baby boomers went from being 2 out of 10 wanting to order app from 4 out of 10 that’s double and you saw you know gen z’s always been I think like 8 out of 10 but now genzrep you know is double represents instead of you know.

27:30.66
vigorbranding
Um.

27:38.19
Sterling _Chowly_
3% of the workforce at 6% I’m making up those numbers. Someone will fact, check me and correct me on it. But you’re seeing kind of both of those factors come into play and you know restaurants again. They need to meet consumers where they are and so that’ll be part of it. So Yeah I think it’s definitely changed but I Also don’t think On-premise is going away. No matter how much I love the convenience of getting my food. You know, delivered to me or I go pick it up I Also love sitting down Love breaking bread with people interacting with people ordering food getting recommendations like that experience I don’t think goes away at All. It’s just kind of the the percentage share. That that people kind of want to enjoy their food.

28:19.60
vigorbranding
Yeah I Love that I think it it makes the interior design and the architectural and and the customer experience I think even more important. Um so many branches open up and it’s like throw throw tables in there. Get some paint on the walls or vinyl If you’re the person I’m thinking Of. Um, and you know just give them give them a roof and give them a seat and then get them out. Um, you know so we can turn the table but I do think now is the time as as I don’t want to use the word threat but I will but as digital threatens the viability of our dining rooms. The question becomes like what makes my dining room. Worth. Sitting in you know and and I think Tech desperately has a role to play there to make the ordering experience even better I’ve said it before I’ve I’ve made some people mad about it. But I’m like I’m not quite sure that my waiter is always the better Choice. Um.

28:57.99
Sterling _Chowly_
Um, yeah.

29:11.39
Sterling _Chowly_
It yeah a hundred percent I mean look at there’s there’s restaurants who like look at jets pizza. For example, the average jets pizza has to have like 3 or 2 tables in it. It is it is meant for like it is meant for pickoff.

29:14.70
vigorbranding
The way we use them. Yeah.

29:19.00
vigorbranding
E.

29:27.10
vigorbranding
Um, bright.

29:28.70
Sterling _Chowly_
Is meant for delivery that is how they’ve designed their business model. That’s what their consumers have wanted. They’ve leaned into it. They added things like text ordering super early and like that’s when they’re focused and they’ve done really? Well then I can point to a number of other different change that. Never did delivery or or pick up even during a pandemic when they didn’t do it and that was another route to go and they’re very successful and I enjoy going to these places I mean during the pandemic you saw I saw in Chicago especially there’s. 1 2 and even 3 michelin star restaurants that were doing pickup and to go and they actually did really well and when the pandemic ended they ended those services but what they did do is they got involved in separate companies that focused on that and now you have literally you have ah.

30:00.98
vigorbranding
A a.

30:18.17
Sterling _Chowly_
Are restaurant groups. So the guy like guys from Millenia For example, ah you know you have basically similar quality that they had on their takeout for finish at home and now it’s available for delivering you can order it through an appp right? And so sometimes you want that super high quality food. You’re going to finish it at home like that’s its own experience in itself.

30:34.72
vigorbranding
Right.

30:36.80
Sterling _Chowly_
There’s a company called called entree doing this out of Chicago and and so that the experiences are shifting but the fundamentals are all there and again it’s just meeting your customers where they are.

30:49.87
vigorbranding
I Love that. So obviously so far it’s already a pretty darn big year for chali. Um, what’s next man like what are you? What are you able to kind of tease out there. What does the future hold for the company.

31:02.54
Sterling _Chowly_
Yeah, now we’ve ah we’ve got a big year in the store. This is just the beginning in January we we launched our new restaurant control center with some really cool, unique features that a lot of restaurants haven’t seen and kind of putting them back in the driver seat giving them more control. Um, we’ve got a few features in there now we’re going to pump a lot more into that throughout the year you’ve got the the bringing Koala in-house. So we’re going to be able to have a combined offering for the s and b space. Um, you know right around midyear timeframe and there’s there’s more to come.

31:38.15
Sterling _Chowly_
We’re we’re not done yet. We’ve got a lot. We want to accomplish we think we’re really well positioned to do it and you know to be honest, it’s it’s all for the sake of helping restaurants and I’ve never had a clearer picture of what we can do to help them. So yeah, more to come. And know it’s only march third but I’m excited you know for? What’s next.

31:57.14
vigorbranding
Yeah, it’s a big year. Um, final question then I’ll let you get back to your day ah might be the hardest 1 of all if you had 1 final meal. What would you eat where would you eat it and why.

32:09.46
Sterling _Chowly_
Ah, man um I know it’s probably a corny answer but it would probably be my mom’s homemade Mac and cheese that she’s been making for me since I was a kid.

32:22.71
vigorbranding
Oh.

32:27.10
Sterling _Chowly_
Ah, it’s ah I’ve never had anything quite like it. It’s It’s unique. Reminds me a home and I love it growing up and still love it every time I go visitor so that would probably be it.

32:40.60
vigorbranding
I did not corny at all I’ve said it before my my final meal is Thanksgiving dinner. Um, you know I just I love it whenever I’m blue or feeling stressed out I find a way to make thingsgiving dinner and it’s just the best.

32:44.41
Sterling _Chowly_
Um, nice. Oh yeah.

32:51.51
Sterling _Chowly_
Whatever whenever I’m balloons stressed out. It’s usually pootine least healthy, but absolutely delicious thing. So you know that’s that’s probably the more common occurrence I can’t get my mom to ship me Mac and cheese. You know too much.

32:56.78
vigorbranding
Yeah, well.

33:04.15
vigorbranding
I Can’t blame you come on Mom step up a vet man. That’s awesome. Well hey man thanks for being so candid. Thanks for everything you’re doing for the industry I’m really excited about what’s happening next with chali.

33:11.86
Sterling _Chowly_
Ah, not she’s she’s amazing. She’s amazing.

33:24.90
vigorbranding
Um I will have all the links to Chali and the ah and your social channels and all that stuff as well. But is there a way for people to connect with you directly sterling.

33:33.33
Sterling _Chowly_
Ah, yeah I mean look I’m I’m not hard to find very active on on Linkedin go through all that it’s usually the best place to reach out, get people connected I go to a lot of conferences and shows love visiting. You know, different cities restaurants and things like that I so always happy to to chat. But. Mean our website’s the best place for for chali information to get in contact with us if you fill out that form. We reach out. You know, literally in minutes. So we’re not, we’re not hard to get a hold of.

34:00.60
vigorbranding
I Love it man. Thanks again for all your time I appreciate it and we’ll we’ll catch up real soon. Hopefully in person.

34:05.91
Sterling _Chowly_
Thanks for having me Joseph.