Linked Eats
We launched over 6 new products, rapidly scaled our development process, got acquired, merged with an AI dev team, and built the fastest-growing AI platform in enterprise restaurant delivery.
The Acquisition of Crave and the inception of Linked Eats.
After 4 years of building restaurant management solutions for ghost kitchens, Crave was acquired by Virtual Dining Concepts to pursue a larger vision. As with acquisition, the team was pared down to its leadership and a few key members.
This included our small development team and me, as the now founding designer for Linked Eats.Virtual Dining Concepts was, and continues to be, the largest virtual restaurant group in the world.
Focused on celebrity brand partnership such as MrBeast, Major League Baseball, Barstool Sports, and NASCAR, VDC saw a massive opportunity to streamline restaurant delivery operations through the emerging power of generative AI.
Market Opportunity.
Restaurants are increasingly pressured to offer third party delivery services through providers such as DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub. While it is true that they each add a non-small number of revenue, those orders come with an entirely new set of complications. These challenges opened up a prime opportunity for developers to connect restaurants’ POS systems, accounting, and other tools directly with delivery service providers through their APIs.
The team outlined a series of challenges and opportunities we could solve through software;
Order Error Charges | Marketing Efforts | Payout Accessibility | Locations/Listings Accuracy | Accounting Discrepancies | Data Visualization and Access
Targeting Enterprise Restaurant Groups
VDC’s extensive connections and experience with leading restaurant enterprises positioned us strategically to have stronger customer insights, and a direct relationship with hard-to-reach individuals, allowing us to get on the ground floor and provide solutions more quickly than our competitors.We had directly reached to and were collaborating alongside key executives at a variety of organizations.
Pitching The Original Idea
After what seemed like endless turns and ideas, we finally landed on a series of a few concrete modules. So to wrap this entire idea together, we were pitching a brand, a product, an experience, and a development timeline to our new acquirers. Below are a few of the early concepts, some competing mockups, and the original pitch visuals.
Refining the MVP
After numerous rounds of cost-benefit analysis, the team decided to launch with 2 modules, and to expand from there. Kicking things off, we began building the hi-fi visions of Dispute Recapture and Revenue Reconciliation.
Building a Scalable Framework.
After initial scoping and ideation, we decided that the most effective path to a repeatable and modular was to build a widget framework. With this in mind, it would allow us to replicate multiple functions on various screens incredibly easy.
One of the largest points of feedback we often get with enterprise software is that there is just too much information. To combat this, we allow users to pin the most important widgets to a custom dashboard for themselves. Through this, every user within an organization could have a unique dashboard catered to what they care about most.
The merging of two teams.
Building AI tools is really tough. To help, we sought out the acquisition of AI tool “Sauce Pricing.” This would then be the foundation of our next modules on Marketing AI and Pricing.
Building Marketing AI.
With the expansion of these new modules, we eventually landed on the final version of our 1.0 product. Featuring over 5 unique modules, all uniquely solving a specific element of enterprise restaurant delivery.
Final Vision for the Linked Eats MVP.
With all of the modules in V1 now present, and a handful of enterprise partners officially using the product, we began a regular cadence to meet with our most valued partners. Through this input we were able to design, prototype, and test new features at a rapid pace. We maintained our cadence of multiple daily releases, and a full design prod push every Friday. This kept the team on track, and allowed us to keep partners involved with more iterative releases.
As the product matures and grows, we will be introducing many new automation features, and continue collaborating with our partners to build new modules.
The rest is secret. Sorry. No sneak peeks! 🙈