- 8 months ago
Debby Soo, CEO of OpenTable, uses social media to stay close to the restaurants and diners who rely on the platform every day. As a leader who believes in openness, she treats online feedback as essential fuel for shaping the company’s future.
Watch now to learn about the value of showing up online, the feedback that reshaped OpenTable, and why Debby Soo believes restaurants will always survive and evolve.
Sponsored by:
• TOAST - All-In-1 Restaurant POS: https://bit.ly/3vpeVsc
Watch now to learn about the value of showing up online, the feedback that reshaped OpenTable, and why Debby Soo believes restaurants will always survive and evolve.
Sponsored by:
• TOAST - All-In-1 Restaurant POS: https://bit.ly/3vpeVsc
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NewsTranscript
00:00in terms of like the content you all are doing you know it's it's smart it's impactful it's great and
00:06it it's it's powerful welcome to restaurant influencers presented by entrepreneur i'm your
00:18host sean walchef this is a cali bbq media production in life in the restaurant business
00:24and the new creator economy we learn through lessons and stories and boy do we have a story
00:30today we have debbie sue she's the ceo of open table open table was founded in 1998 they power
00:36over 60 000 restaurants 1.9 billion seats annually eight reservations are booked every single second
00:46globally last year uh debbie i've been watching you online i am so appreciative that you build in
00:52public that you use social media to share not only the team story but your story it's something
00:59that i wish more leaders in your position would do that um but more importantly welcome to the show
01:05thank you for being here thank you so much i'm really thrilled to be here um what a treat for
01:10me to to get to come and and chat with you we're big fans of uh your work over here thank you so much
01:16um so i want to start with a story that i heard um you share i'm on the toast customer advisory board
01:23i've been on their inaugural customer advisory boards for the last three years um the smb since
01:29then they've added enterprise and they've added a global um customer advisory board but you shared a
01:35story when you became ceo of the open table about your advisory board experience um will gadara was in
01:42the room and uh you were talking about information that came from one of your senior leaders about
01:49open tables decline in new york city um can you share that story with us and what what not not to throw
01:57someone under the bus but to get to radical candor immediately at the top of the show of course yes so
02:02um we uh have an advisory board um with you know luminaries like will gadara and uh this was
02:12very early on in my tenure so sometimes we're in the first year um things were still kind of covidy
02:17so we were doing our meetings uh on zoom and you know the advisory board is meant to be a sounding
02:25board for open table right we go to them on um ideas we have for product we solicit feedback
02:32um they are our eyes and ears and the respective markets they're in and so i i view the advisory board
02:40is a really critical role in helping not just me but the company do better be better and if you want
02:48to be getting that type of feedback then you have to be very honest uh about what's going on in the
02:53company and we were preparing the deck to present to the board and i wanted to show the decline
03:01um that open table had been facing in new york city in particular um this is this is not a secret
03:09like you talk to anyone who lives in new york city you know or restaurateurs in new york city like this
03:17is not like some like top secret thing um and so i showed uh you know a chart that showed uh i think
03:25was from similar web which basically shows like people diners um how frequently they are searching
03:32for the t the term open table uh versus some of our competitors and you could see the decline over the
03:40years for the open table search word in new york city in particular and i had an executive who had
03:47been at open table uh for 10 plus years at the time right and he was like well we can't show that to
03:52the board uh why he's like that just makes us look so bad like we that's that's just like we can't do
04:00that plus like it's not even real i'm like it's literally real it's definitely real and like by the
04:07way let's look at our new york city numbers it is real um and so those were the type of battles that
04:14we were having at the exec level um you know when i first joined and i'm a big believer
04:22if you do not call out the problem and say it out loud it's never going to get fixed
04:29you know um and you know there's certainly other stats we could have pulled in new york city like
04:34revenue was looking stable right there's like things that we could have done to make it look
04:37better but the reality is we had lost you know the hearts and minds of restaurants and diners in new
04:43york city that is you know a really big market and we need to fix it and we can't fix it until we talk
04:49about the fact that it's broken um so that was you know that i'm that's funny that you mentioned
04:55that story um we had a lot of those types of i would say instances especially in my first year
05:02at open table i bring up the story because the truth vibrates the fastest and the reason that
05:09companies tech companies the best ones have advisory boards is that they're willing to listen
05:14to the hard truth if we obsess over the customers and the customers being restaurant tours
05:20we are the boots on the ground we've been selected to give a diverse opinion of what's happening in our
05:27vertical what's happening in our segment what's happening in our market and the best tech companies
05:33understand that that's the truth that we have to deal with yeah and also like again it's not a secret
05:41no ask any restaurateur in new york city during those years like we had lost relevance so what's
05:48the problem like everyone already knows why wouldn't we also acknowledge do you remember when truth
05:56radical candor cutting the bullshit became part of not just your mantra but your identity
06:03uh that's a great question you know i i have kids i have two i have two young boys and i often wonder
06:12like the nature versus nurture question like and there's definitely a big part where like they come
06:18out and that's how they are you know you can like think you have some control there in terms of like
06:24shaping and molding but like they're they when they come out they're the way they are yeah so i feel like
06:30um the directness and the transparency as is just very core to who i am uh it always has been who i am
06:39now right like that can be a very powerful tool or sometimes it could be quite destructive right um so i
06:46think the ability to read a room and the ability to message appropriately what i'm feeling or what i'm
06:54thinking that has been learned um but that impetus of like you know is anyone else thinking this is
07:02weird or this is off or you know like that's been in my life ever since i can remember um and as a
07:08leader the the the magic has been when i've been able to like harness that in a productive way um right
07:16because sometimes it's not the best way to go in and bull in the china shop some real sharp elbows right
07:22like people i'm also a big believer that like when people like you they're more willing to
07:26work with you and all of that right so it's like a it's a balance but i think i'm that's who i am
07:33i can't help it like my face is quite emotive um it's why i'm scared to go get botox it's like what if i
07:40can't like know the things with my face that i can do now uh wrinkles be damned um so that's who i am
07:48but then it's just like how do you harness it uh so you know you don't scare people right and how do
07:54you do it in a way where like people are hearing you and acting upon the feedback like all of that
07:59is learned did you know that toast powers over 140 000 restaurants across the united states canada
08:06and uk it's an incredible company i'm on the toast customer advisory board they are proud sponsors of
08:12this show restaurant influencers we couldn't do it without their support they power our barbecue
08:17restaurants in san diego if you have questions about toast if you're thinking about bringing
08:22toast on to be your primary technology partner at your restaurants please reach out to me i'm happy
08:28to get a local toast representative to take care of you you can reach me at sean p welchef on instagram
08:34once again thank you to toast for believing in the power of technology the power of storytelling
08:39back to the show so we started this show to talk about storytelling in the hospitality space we
08:49believe that you know the technology that are at fingertips of of restaurant tours and people in
08:54the hospitality space i mean the fact that we can be on youtube and spotify and all of these
08:58different platforms and share our story all these restaurant tours have amazing stories open table has
09:04an amazing story you guys have built a significant brand presence on social you have 260 000 facebook
09:10followers 13 000 on tiktok 52 000 on x 8 000 on youtube 150 000 on instagram what are you how do you look at
09:20growing the social storytelling side of open table from a b2c standpoint and from a b2b lens yeah i think that
09:28b2b b2c is is um great to call out it has been i would say our presence on social has been um
09:37something that we've really focused on i would say probably in the last three years and listen i i was not
09:44a believer you know when i came in and you're and if you had told me hey in five years time um your
09:52open tables presence on social my own you know instagram account um right like that's actually
10:00going to be a mover and driver for our business i would have been like get the fuck out of here
10:04there's no way stop bullshitting me yeah come on like there's you know we have and this is like the
10:10beauty of you know like younger generations and you know our teams uh especially on the marketing side
10:17and the event side uh they are of a different generation than me yeah you know for sure there
10:22there are people in their 20s early 30s um right i remember i had a product manager show me belly
10:28uh right she was she was like in her early 20s so uh they had actually originally pitched like hey
10:35debbie we would like your instagram handle to be you know like really showcasing like what it is you
10:42do and the events you go to and open table uh and you know we've we've done a lot even with the open
10:48table handle as well and it's astounding um the feedback and the impact it's unbelievable that type
10:56of storytelling has we we got restaurateurs like dming me directly um you know we've gone now super
11:03hyper local we have a open table la instagram account that's just talking about you know what's going
11:11on in la and one of the key things early on in this this one i believe in um it didn't have to be
11:17convinced the story isn't about us correct okay we're the platform it is not our job to be cool
11:25our restaurants are cool the story is about our restaurants we are here to serve them this is not
11:32some like you know virtue signaling for how great open table is this is like getting out like highlighting
11:38and telling the stories of all of these amazing restaurants that are on our platform and so
11:43through all of our marketing channels um including social it's really about telling the stories of
11:50restaurants and lately you know it's been astounding to me like we get we have like celebrities reaching
11:55out because everyone loves restaurants right like isa ray curtis stone um we just did an event with
12:03uh john chu uh at windsun in new york city right because wicked is the second uh wicked movie is
12:09coming out and um you have these people who are like so passionate and so happy to be doing this
12:14content and it's great for the restaurants right because we have channels we have followership we
12:20we put paid behind it to be screaming as much as we can like look at like look at this restaurant
12:26look at that restaurant look who's going there like this one made it on so-and-so's list um it's been
12:32so powerful in an unexpected way for me as a real channel um not just to get like the restaurant's
12:39name out there but it's also like been a great relate like way to build relationships yes you know
12:46like we dm each other and then we meet at some event um and so it's it's been very powerful and very
12:54effective and the b2b and the b2c the thing is like
12:58chefs and restauranteurs are diners too so we've found that a lot of the activity that's generated
13:08on our b2c channels are seen by prospects and existing customers right so we want to make sure
13:16that the tone across both channels is consistent um right and that the content is compelling across
13:25both uh and so yeah it's been uh very eye-opening to me um how much of a driver that's been because
13:34like in the early days sean uh like we had done all the work on the product it was much better
13:39uh you know we had you know we were really trying hard to like compete we had changed pricing
13:45and sometimes with a certain type of restaurant it was crickets you know like people like just
13:51wouldn't take our calls you know like when we first started doing events we were worried that
13:56like no one would come um you know like because we were so like in certain markets we were irrelevant
14:01uh and when we went out and social and started you know doing what we were doing that's when we
14:07started to see like the the tide really turn so like in terms of like the content you all are
14:13doing you know it's it's smart it's impactful it's great and it it's it's powerful i mean i think one
14:20of the the biggest aha for me is you know i own cali barbecue we've been in business for 18 years me and
14:25my wife and you know for 14 years i could never go to the national restaurant show in chicago like i
14:30just couldn't leave my restaurant like i knew the event was happening but i'm like i can't physically
14:36like i just don't have the bandwidth to be able to leave i don't have the team in place and then now
14:40that i go there's 2200 vendors that all they want to do is pour into restaurants all they have goods
14:46they have services they have amazing things to make restaurants more profitable more sustainable yet
14:5295 percent have no social presence 95 of these vendors and they're spending tens of thousands hundreds
14:59of thousand dollars to show up at these shows and something as small as to your point you having your
15:05own public instagram account where business owners the same people like the the b2b the chef owner
15:12the restaurateur they're on instagram whether they're posting or not doesn't mean that they're
15:17not on that channel whether they're posting on linkedin or not they're on linkedin like those are
15:22the things that can you talk about like that kind of aha moment to the point of like the dms that
15:27you're getting where you're like wait this is almost like a text channel with a with a restaurant that
15:31maybe wasn't on open table maybe they left to a different platform and now they're dming me on
15:36my instagram account yeah that's exactly um that's exactly what happened what happened and what
15:42continues to happen and there was a part of myself where i was like come on no one gives a shit about
15:46like my like why would anyone care like what event i went to or like what i'm doing with my kids yes
15:53no um like what right like uh and the team was quite aggressive and pushing you know like listen
16:00open table has a very corporate reputation right like five years ago we were known as the big bad you
16:07know uh big company you know like we were not personable we were you know we were a corporation
16:15yeah and so the reason why they pushed so hard my the team pushed so hard for like not just for
16:21open tables you know channels but also just for my own personal you know and making it verified and
16:27making it public is that like they're like listen we need you we need you to help humanize the brand
16:33yes you know and they're like because it's you and we know you can't help yourself you will humanize
16:40the brand uh right and we think that that will actually really resonate with some you know with
16:46with our customers with our prospects and it's totally true i mean i've gotten
16:51we've signed a lot of restaurants i know you're my own i'm 100 percent my own instagram yeah like dm
17:00hey saw this post that you guys did with kato uh called john up he said great things like can we have
17:09a conversation like those i i get you know what i mean like it's like 100 we call them digital receipts
17:15it's the truth you know when you're looking at like performance-based marketing like how do you
17:20prove attribution like any investing time effort money resources you're like how do you prove it
17:25well i have a digital receipt of somebody sending me a dm that saw a youtube video we made or listened
17:31to a podcast and it's the exact demographic of the person that we want it's the restaurant tour on the
17:37other end right yeah that's exactly right and it's been yeah talk about like digital receipt i mean
17:42some of these restaurants like we've been trying to get in there for like six or seven years
17:46you know what i mean so i do i know yeah it works the dms is way better yeah um i would love for you
17:55to share i know as a ceo your time is so valuable but i know that ceos spend time with current customers
18:03what i heard you talk about was going to prospect like are you actually spending time going to speak
18:11with prospects of like lost customers who have churned or potential customers that don't know
18:16about open yeah oh my god walk me through how you do that because that that is so cool people are
18:23always surprised i'm like why would i love it i love it do that i think okay so you can get information
18:29for your sales team that like no one else would be willing to tell you yeah and like there's something
18:34about listen we are in a very visceral industry right you gotta like go and see it like in you
18:42gotta smell it you gotta feel it you gotta sit down in the chairs you gotta shake the hand of you know
18:48the restaurant tour yes um right like you gotta see the neighborhood like you can't get all that
18:54from like a salesperson who gives you an update you know or a deck like so i spend about 20 to 30 percent
19:02of my time and i actually wish it more uh out in the field um i would say 50 of that time is meeting
19:12with existing customers right um you know stuff stuff i do with the advisory board also right like
19:17these are existing customers and the other half of that 30 percent is with prospects so people who are
19:23not on open table and on one of our competitors or using pen and paper there's still some that that do
19:28that um and the reason i do it is because i mean each time i go out uh i learn something so until i
19:37stop learning shit i'm gonna keep doing it because you know like you don't really get a flavor of philly
19:43until you're in philly you know or you don't like right it's like a it's um so like i i i go i i you know
19:52sometimes we don't even pitch and by the way i get ghosted all the time like there was one in new
19:58york um there was one i was i was in new york uh i think a summer two summers ago and eric williams
20:06of virtue in chicago who's a member of our advisory board he was just calling me to check in i was at
20:13like penn station trying to take a train back to boston and i was he's like how you doing i was like
20:19man like like i just got to like they just like like two restauranteurs just ghosted me like they
20:25just didn't show up you know i came to new york to like meet them and like basically right like the
20:32day of um you know they said like you know sorry i don't have time it's busy which which i get right
20:37yep um but it's like a very humbling experience and sometimes it's like super demoralizing or like in
20:45my first few years when i would do these with prospects i mean i called it like you know
20:50basically like the the like i would just go and people would just scream at me because they were
20:57mad about what like how open table was back in the day when they used us before my time right and you
21:04have to let them get that out and they know that i wasn't the ceo then but they still have to get it
21:10it's like cathartic right they spent 30 minutes talking about you guys fucked me on price like
21:15like and we you know we requested these features for nine years and you didn't build it and you know
21:22like and that was like the first three years of like that's what it was and these days it's a lot
21:26less that um but i just think it's it's so valuable to go and meet uh not just our our restaurants
21:36but restaurants that are on other platforms and by the way i got i get a lot of intel yo i'm hearing
21:41this and they're on that why don't we have that feature i heard it four times like what's our
21:47research team doing like you know what i mean 100 so yeah that's why i do it and plus it's like i think
21:54for the restaurateur for some of them at least it's like wow like the ceo you know is coming to i was in
22:01portland oregon last last year they're like you made it to portland i'm like yeah it's like great
22:06food scene here um sometimes it makes them feel good you know that i would take the time but it's
22:12not altruistic it's because i'm learning yeah one it's the best feedback restaurant tours aren't shy
22:20about feedback exactly not shy about feedback but when you filter the feedback in a leadership position
22:26which i'm sure happens um that's why it's so powerful to go straight to the source not scalable
22:32but definitely powerful yeah i it like you know and we insist that all teams all members of my exec team
22:40do this so we all go we don't and we don't go together right because then it's like not efficient
22:47right and then like my my cto they always know when i'm out because like i start slacking like
22:55after each meeting hey i heard this again like where's this at like put her back in the office
23:00so yeah they're just like can you get her not on the road like seriously like put her back in like
23:04we're working on it um but yeah i think that's that's part of the job i feel very strongly that
23:09that's a very good use of my time so we we believe a rising tide lifts all ships um i have to give a
23:15shout out to sebastian san juan who is partnerships at open table i met him uh in boston at the toast
23:23customer advisory board i've met a lot of people in partnerships but there's something about
23:28sebastian where he just gets it um he understands the ecosystem is so much bigger than restaurants
23:34and when you're a platform as big as open table you can open up a lot of doors and opportunities
23:39for your restaurant partners can you share uh some of the stories about what the work yeah oh i love
23:46this uh so sebastian's been with us i think roughly a year and he was previously at amazon
23:52and american express before that um he's a vp of partnerships uh based in new york and you are
24:00correct like the the way he thinks um and how like the world of possibilities of scaling not just within
24:09the restaurant industry and addressable market but beyond um is a skill that like i don't even think
24:16i have right and he's worked at companies where it's like the sky is the limit right like amazon
24:21unlimited resources you just need to execute and and show results um so his his framework and what
24:30he thinks has been really refreshing uh not just for me but i think for the company at large um and he's
24:36like really pushing us to like think about things like upside down or like well why is this a constraint
24:42this is not a constraint we did this at amazon and it you know um but one of the stories i love about
24:48him is um i think maybe a few months ago uh there was you know we had we've partnered with the chase
24:56with chase for the chase sapphire reserve card um and i think there was like an article you know
25:04an american express owns resi and talk and so it's like the credit card wars i think it was one of one of
25:09the pieces where like or the restaurant reservation wars and they're both funded by you know credit
25:14card companies trying to provide a perk for elite card holders and it wasn't like super complimentary
25:22i would say to open table just like you know they're paying restaurants to to to join the network
25:28and so our our pr team was like well how do we message this like what do we come out and say
25:33and then sebastian happened to be in the room he's like i don't think we should counter it i think we
25:39should embrace it like yeah we are funneling money to restaurants yeah why would we shy away from that
25:46and we're not doing it just with credit card companies we're doing it with uber you know we're
25:51doing it with amazon like he's like why wouldn't we like be the conduit right restaurateurs need more
25:57resources so we as open table as connected as we are with restaurants and large tech or financial
26:04institutions right like we have boots on the ground and those relationships why wouldn't we
26:09like talk about the fact that yeah we're funneling money into them right like we're trying to work we're
26:16trying to get like and we're not just working on this elite tier we're talking to other partners who
26:21are more focused on neighborhood gems uh or more casual reservation taking restaurants right he's like we
26:28should we should embrace that thinking and like now you know like in my prep sheet for like talking to
26:34you like that line is in there like our job is to funnel more resources to restaurants so like that's
26:40what i mean about like i think one of the best parts or the part of my favorite parts is just like
26:46how big of a difference like one person yeah can make you know we're 1300 people so you think like you
26:54know i mean we're not huge but it's like it is you know quite a number of people but yeah one person
26:58coming in can still like have that type of impact and he gets it all the things that you said he's
27:04lovely he's very tall i don't know you know like people
27:07he's he's been a a great hire and just like a very very smart um and really like challenged how we think
27:18about the business how do you look at the national business versus the international business
27:25so we the net the u.s business continues to be the biggest business for us the biggest piece of our
27:33pnl but the international business is growing much much faster interesting um so we have sizable
27:41presences in um canada mexico along with the u.s so north america and then the uk germany australia
27:50uh ireland also very strong businesses for us we are we have started going into france and italy
27:59interesting um uh surprisingly we have a lot of leads coming in from the philippines
28:05interesting so like um we're gonna throw some resources there to see you know if there's a
28:11there there but the international piece is um really critical uh to the longevity and sustainability
28:18i would say of the company and for a diner you know the more restaurants we have the better it is
28:24right like even in the u.s when you land in a city that you've never been to right if you're looking
28:30for a restaurant most likely you're gonna pull up open table it's like okay what's around what's the
28:35rating reviews etc um so if we travel internationally we want to be able to provide that with for our
28:41diners as well um but they're like there's two ways we can essentially grow this business one is
28:49through more tam right more restaurants yep and international is a piece of that right and the
28:56second is that we we grow vertically meaning not just reservations are there other adjacent restaurant
29:03tech verticals for us to go into something like private dining right which could make a lot of
29:08sense um right so those are the two ways and those are the two things that we're going to pursue
29:15because no one wants to be managing a declining business um you know i'm bullish and i'm aggressive
29:21and i want to win and i want to do right by our restaurants um and scale matters and so yeah we want
29:28to make sure that we're pushing it every year to get bigger more restaurants more diners so we can
29:33fill those restaurants i just think that's um it would be irresponsible not to and i think it would
29:39be irresponsible not to try to expand globally yeah um but yeah it's hard to kick up a new market
29:47is really tough can you share more about private dining the opportunity yeah yeah so private dining is
29:54you know you could call it large parties you could you know you could call it private dining room
29:58um there are some players out there um who who do this already but there's no consumer layer online
30:07meaning sean if you're you know celebrating a birthday or an anniversary and you have 20 people
30:14like good luck trying to book that online you're going to be on the phone you're going to be
30:19researching on the phone getting contracts getting photos sent to you of the space getting you the
30:26prefix menus right then you're going to be calling for deposits and um we think there's a role that
30:33open table can play there uh in terms of streamlining all of that why why aren't the photos on the restaurant
30:41profile if we have a section for private dining why not they exist yeah right and they have a restaurant
30:48profile on open table there's hotels that don't even have their convention space that's right that's
30:55right so we think that like there's a role for us to play and private dining for many restaurants is a
31:01huge piece of their business yeah and it's run right now quite inefficiently um so for us it's okay like
31:09showcasing the space making you know trying to streamline and then for us it's like how do we
31:15give restaurants more leads yeah right uh so we are cranking our marketing engine to be pushing
31:24oh we see that you're there's interest in large party right like then like let me show you these
31:29things and these options um for you with the spaces and the photos and the menus and the deposit amounts
31:36so we're i would say we're still in the early days but we did launch instant book which means you can
31:45just actually book it directly on open table yeah for a few hundred restaurants now um we are
31:52launching the request to book which restaurants like more i think because restaurants want to be
31:57able to upsell yeah right so like oh you're gonna you're gonna hold the space you want you know menu option
32:03a but like have you thought about the wine pairings right you want you want to get the the diner on
32:10the phone so your your events manager can be doing the thing that they do yeah um so we're working with
32:17lots of restaurants our advisory board to make sure like we're building the right things um and i think
32:22the key differentiator that we have versus some of the other b2b players in private dining is that we
32:28have the diner marketplace yeah we can really drive leads for sure um to our restaurants for private
32:35dining so i think it's really exciting i wish we were moving faster in it uh but it is moving you'd
32:41mentioned when you were meeting with prospects and customers that people would say that someone from
32:47open table promised a product or a feature into the future i know you're rolling out a lot of new
32:53products and features um can you talk number one about the ai concierge but then just also
32:59the investment and how do you choose because a lot of people want a lot of things how do you
33:03how do you allocate resources responsibly yes so yes a lot of people want a lot of things and
33:10i know restaurant people each restaurant wants their own right they want the exact way that they need it
33:16i get it right uh so as a leader i have a running doc that has been running with me for five years
33:25of all the future requests that i just i hear about yeah right and so there's a very long doc
33:32um and as time goes on we're knocking them out so i cross them out but like i keep myself accountable
33:39right just like from the feedback that i hear now there's all sorts of other systems where sales
33:43people are hearing it account managers are hearing it it's going through you know ticketing system
33:48um in terms of the prioritization um we all have to agree as an exec team
33:56like that's how involved we are uh so right amy who runs restaurant sales she's my coo
34:04right so she's managing all the restaurants all the account managers so she's hearing the most
34:09feedback right because sales people are also very vocal for sure he goes to sale yeah and then
34:16right his team is this one that's like building it so he's like no no no i can't do that that's
34:22heavy lift you know and then we got our chief growth officer robin who's a marketer and he's like yo if
34:28we want to be growing our channel and instagram or meta you got to fix the tracking like we can't you
34:32know so there's like there's always like more things than we have capacity to do um and so what
34:39we do as a company is every year we have three big rocks and big rocks are things that like take
34:46um a lot of cross-functional collaboration they're going to only be three because if you can imagine a
34:52jar right if you fill it with little rocks then you can't fit the big rocks but if you fit the big rocks
34:57first and you put the little ones in it kind of all works out um so every year we have those and
35:02we have repeat ones right like private dining is one um it's been one for right because if we don't
35:08prioritize it it's not going to get done because it's new yeah right because the table management
35:13and the reservations they have like a running queue of 300 things yeah um and then or like ai as you
35:19mentioned right we make space uh for ai and i i'm really of course we have to but i'm really happy we
35:26did so we did recently launch what we are calling concierge right now a diner can see it on their on
35:32a restaurant profile um and the diner can ask concierge anything they want about that restaurant
35:41is it pet friendly um are there gluten-free options what's parking like uh is it family friendly
35:48is is it really loud in the restaurant right all of the questions that usually would actually take a
35:53guest a very long time yes to go suss out right uh or call the restaurant and ask they can ask
35:59concierge now directly and they get a pretty good answer and the way we built it was um i got a hats
36:04off to to saga our our cto um the concierge is getting powered by perplexities ai and um you know
36:16and we're feeding it all the content menus all the things right all the content and data that we have
36:21on restaurants it's also going out and searching right outside of open table but then we we had
36:28another a llm ai vet uh the the one that our concierge right so he's like making sure hey i
36:37don't want to make i want to make sure we're not giving users bad information that the llm is not
36:41hallucinating right so he's like built it in a way where there's like all these checks and balances to
36:45make sure that um we get the information as accurate as we can and then real time if diners are like yo
36:51dude you said parking was across the street it is not go in and like give feedback with a with a
36:58thumbs down right and we're taking all that in consideration and by the end of the year we will
37:03offer concierge on the home page so imagine now now right now you can like ask anything you want
37:10about a particular restaurant and what's coming out soon is i'm looking for party of four friday night
37:18downtown boston seafood my mother has celiacs my kids only eat french fries and i want it to be
37:26you know four and a half stars and above what do you have for me that's amazing that is really cool
37:32and any anyone that's on the open table app any consumer can use that essentially like if chat gpt was
37:38inside of that's right that's right and we want to make sure you know like the chat gpt's or gemini's
37:45of the world right like you know those are really amazing tools but we all we just want to make sure
37:51that when people are thinking about dining whether that be discovery and figuring out the restaurant
37:56or booking that they come to open table so we want to make sure we have that functionality
38:01um to to give the diners what they want and by the way it's great for restaurants because
38:05right it's a new way that diners are discovering restaurants absolutely uh you guys are releasing
38:12the dining trends report data storytelling is so powerful when you have a platform a company a brand
38:20that has access to some restaurants all over the world um can you share some of the the learnings
38:28that you've you've you've maybe unexpected yeah the the dining trends is always like because we sit
38:34you're right we sit on such a treasure trove yeah of data um so some of the trends have been
38:41uh similar i would say in the last few years so like the the trend of eating earlier
38:49i have young kids so the earlier it's like a post-covid thing and it's like with parents right
38:56like 5 30 is now real hot oh it's fantastic you know that's like because i want to be in bed by 8 30.
39:02100 yes me too um so but then we also see now in a post-covid era the re-emergence of late night
39:11dining like we're seeing we're seeing that like cities in london new york right we're like people
39:16are going out and they that that 9 p.m slot uh is now a thing again um the days of the week has also
39:24been vacillating uh quite a bit uh but we're seeing thursdays pick back up and i think it's because
39:30um people are in the office uh you know many people are in the office now on thursdays fridays
39:37is still really popular but less so from like a after work crowd because i think a lot of people
39:42still work from home on fridays right so they're not out already um
39:50we're seeing that people will continue to you know in surveys continue to prioritize going out and we've
39:58seen that in the last few years right at first it was all revenge dining because restaurants were
40:04closed during covid but the dining activity has continued to sustain and i think it's because
40:11people do crave community they they want to go out and be taken care of they want to go out and share a
40:16meal with a friend um and so even with some of the macroeconomic uncertainty right that many of us are
40:24hearing about and many of us are feeling um going out to a meal is still getting prioritized i think
40:33by the household pnl and so i i hope that that's a trend that we continue to see um right because
40:43restaurants are like such a backbone of our communities but also of our not just local economy
40:47but like the national economy um it's an important segment so i i you know i really hope that diners
40:54continue to go out and support their local restaurants um so that that's like vibrant and
41:01it's working and restaurants are able to make a good margin and you know it's it's a whole ecosystem that
41:07um i think is so important obviously to open table but just like as a person i think it's really important
41:12one of the statistics that was not shocking to me but it's great to know what my intuition what i feel
41:21and what i know and why i speak to restauranteurs about storytelling and social media was 18 to 60
41:28year olds between 67 to 77 percent are using instagram and tiktok as a discovery tool for restaurants
41:37can you speak to the restauranteurs that are listening to this about the value of sharing their
41:42story on these platforms and you know just understanding that like listen like people
41:48people are there and they not only are they there but they also like they want they want the story
41:53they don't just want the advertisement they don't just want the photo of the food yes please they
41:59want the story of the chef or the restaurateur and i think um younger generations of chef who grew up with
42:08social media really get this right they come out of the gates they know that this is a piece before
42:13they open like they're not waiting for the grand open like it's not from the river
42:19this is the struggle yeah no no they're doing all of it like we recently met with melissa king
42:24um who uh you know she was top chef like she's amazing she came out with a cookbook
42:31right and she yeah she's already coming out with content
42:34um right like of things that she loves to prepare um like she has a grazing table for chinese new
42:40years like she's doing like it's like yeah like i would say people like that they're already like
42:46preparing for when you know they do the stars align and they get the restaurant that they want
42:51and the city that they want um but but you're right that like it's food pictures are not going to cut
42:59anymore right people want to know the person or the team behind the restaurant what's
43:08why did you want why why this particular cuisine why this neighborhood you know um
43:16like did you have kids you know like you know like like people really really want to know and i
43:22to your point to your instagram point like you would think like well why would why do people want
43:26to know that i'm a mom and why would they care where where i'm going to an event people care they
43:30care about humans humans care about humans yeah yeah and so um we you know and we work with a lot
43:37of different kinds of restaurants so like not everyone is like uh melissa king or or um eric williams
43:43who's very prolific uh online um and there are so much there's some that are just like this is new to
43:50them right and so when we have a conversation with them on like hey just like you need to update your
43:55photos on open table because it's been the same for 10 years like set it and forget it i'm not
44:02saying it's not working but like you know it looks like it was refresh yeah just like you want to do
44:07that you like you also you want to be reaching a different generation and according to you right
44:12it's not a different generation 18 to 60 18 to 60 yeah it's like but like 18 to 60 yeah so like you
44:20want to be telling your stories and you want to um that's a way that's like compelling to convince a
44:26diner to to come in and explain like why the decor is this way uh so we have those conversations with
44:33restaurants who've been with us for a long time like it's not just about like updating the menu
44:37and refreshing some photos like it's about storytelling and like even at open table like let
44:41us help you do that right like we'll come in like we'll come in with the film crew right because
44:46it's not just about the hot for us it's like yes the hot openings all of that is really important
44:52but it's like also like institutions like car mines for example in new york city right like that
44:57thing is a machine um and jeff is great right and like he's you know like like those are also really
45:04important to us so we want to make sure like okay if you don't want to tell the story at least let us
45:10tell it too because people want to know like what is it like to be in the middle of times square
45:15running that restaurant during like you know pre-theater people are curious and it's um i think
45:21it also gives people an appreciation of like what it is restaurant tours do yeah how hot is macho right
45:28now god yeah what number one search term yeah i know it's like you can't get enough of it yeah
45:41yeah no i i but it's like not just young people yeah it's like i yeah it's i'm hearing about yeah
45:50yeah macho's all the moment it's amazing that's great i mean sure cool let's let's talk about 2026
45:56what are the three rocks for open table in 2026 all right our big rocks ones you can disclose
46:02no i think i think uh pr team don't freak out i know you're listening it's okay it's gonna be okay
46:09um okay so the first big rock is loyalty all right and so we've revamped our loyalty program
46:18because i'm sure many of you listening may be open table vips and most of you will not know what
46:24that means because up until now it has not meant anything it just meant you used open table a lot
46:29so now if you're an open table vip right you get six months free of uber one membership wow right
46:35which is worth quite a bit you get uh priority notify me so if a hot restaurant you're looking
46:42to get in is not available you set a notify me right and um you'll be notified first before everyone
46:48else if that slot opens up right yeah and we're working on this year a whole slew of other perks
46:55for our loyalty program right because just like with ai i want people to come to us when they're
47:02thinking about dining and food right i want people to come to us to book that's important to us um and
47:09so we want to make sure we're really rewarding our top tier of diners we want to make sure that we're
47:13really rewarding our restaurants with the best diners yeah right the ones that don't no show that are
47:20pleasant you know that like all the all the things that you would want and an ideal guest um so loyalty is
47:28one uh internationalization to to your earlier question is another going hard in some of these
47:33newer markets and the third one is group functionality uh so open table was built for independent
47:41restaurants the software was built for independent restaurants onesies twosies threesies right
47:46it was not built for like restaurant groups with 50 60 100 uh restaurants within the group
47:54and those are important restaurants to us right both from volume to some of these are like hotel
48:00restaurant like all of this is great um and so we want to make sure that the product works very well
48:06for them as well and groups has been on the list so your question about how do we prioritize probably
48:11for the last three years and this year like some of us put our foot down it was like nope we got
48:17this is like you know this is like inhumane how we're making some of these like group restaurants
48:23it means things like oh pr is really not gonna like this good campaign for one restaurant you've got to
48:30go in and do it separately for each restaurant within your group now if you have two restaurants in your
48:36group that's fine but you have 50 it's really not good so that's another piece of it as well that's
48:42amazing uh before i let you go i need to learn a little bit about your personal tech stack
48:48so are you an iphone or an android user iphone iphone which version uh i'm on like it's three years
48:55old is it is it like 13 is it's not great okay it's it's like the one where it's like starting to decline
49:02because they're trying to encourage you to buy another one and it's cheap to do it yet but it's coming
49:07do you prefer taking photos or videos photos photos um how many photos do you have on your phone
49:17oh my god i mean i'm always running out of storage so it must be a lot right now it's saying 5 000
49:245 000 that's a lot that's a lot i got kids you know they're doing cute things all the time 100
49:30first first child there's more photos than the second child and i love my daughter
49:34but like it just it just happens no i know like i totally know what you mean hold on like i have
49:41this on iphone they have this thing where like they can um they'll go through your photos and they'll
49:48switch it out right okay so like i'm looking and i they've i've identified my two kids so they
49:53like yeah there's way more photos of my older one i know yeah i know it's just having two it it's not
50:00that we don't love the second one any less it's just but since i've noticed it i've been taking
50:05more photos of my second one just trying to rejigger the algorithm us too um what's your
50:11notification management system oh i use i use oh god now i feel like i should i be using something
50:19different than like no like what like what are your own personal rules on app notifications emails like
50:25that that type of thing uh i don't have rules or guardrails around that so you have notifications
50:32like if you if you looked at your phone you've got 50 hundreds like and that's totally fine with you
50:38you're not an inbox you're not an inbox yeah but it's because of this um i'm really good at punting
50:45and compartmentalizing so i if i see a slack or a text from someone that i'm not ready to deal with
50:53yeah i have the self-control not to open it up oh really oh for days oh for days i'll know like
51:01you know what i'm not in a place where i can read this right now wow that's really i'm not going to
51:05deal with it like i'm not going to fix it so i'm not even going to read it until i'm like i got more
51:11sleep or until sunday or whatever it is like i i do that that's so it's all in my head so it looks
51:17really like a really bad because there's so much um but there's a lot of stuff that is unread until i
51:23always get to it but i can keep a lot of things unread until i'm ready in a space where i can deal
51:28amazing how many emails do you get a day uh i don't know probably like 100 to 200 how many of
51:35those do you enjoy reading i would say every day there's at least one that i really enjoy at least
51:42one and i will tell the person who sent it hey this was the best email i got all day do you prefer
51:49phone calls or text messages phone calls phone calls do you leave voicemails never never never
51:57do you ever listen to a voicemail never
52:02uh apple maps or google maps google ways google ways ways i include ways in google because their
52:09own you know their own ways but ways for sure ways first okay um where do you listen to music
52:14spotify uh where do you listen podcasts uh spotify actually i mean i think i do some with
52:21that but no spotify and what is an app that we wouldn't expect obviously open table but what
52:27app would we not expect that you use that's very useful in your daily life oh
52:33you know i
52:45i i we bank with citizens bank okay okay and uh i am on their app maybe six or seven times a day
52:55really because i'm always scared of running out of money
52:58that's the answer it's like a nervous it's not like because i mean the app is fine
53:05you know i grew up like in an immigrant household like you know we talked about money all the time
53:10you know like i'm chinese so i'm always worried and plus like sometimes like my husband will like
53:15charge things in that like you know was not like hey like i gotta move some stuff so i'm always on that
53:21app like multiple times a day being like yo dude do we like to know are we okay yeah
53:29uh that's some real talk i can't believe i just told you i no i appreciate it i i'm i actually i'm
53:35i'm grateful obviously uh for the candor um for the openness for the transparency um that's why we
53:41do this show we love doing this show we're we're so grateful that we have the opportunity to do this
53:46show um we hope for big things for open table we hope to continue the journey i can't wait to
53:51interview you again hopefully in person um is there anything that you'd like to share with the
53:56restaurant community to the restaurateur getting ready for 2026 um maybe some words of hope yeah
54:05you know i with you know like we're a tech company right like all the innovation and all the ai and um
54:13which is could be scary could be great um you know the macroeconomic uncertainty like certainly when
54:20you read the news like there's just there's so much stuff but at the end of the day um and the
54:26reason why i love my job is because i believe so wholeheartedly in the importance of um restaurants
54:36role in society and communities and so i think even with all the change and uncertainty the one thing
54:44that's going to remain constant now five years from now 20 years from now is that people want to go out
54:51and connect and be taken care of and that's never going to change uh and restaurants have such a huge
55:01role in that and so yeah 26 might be bumpy although um we're seeing signs that um you know at least for
55:10reservation taking restaurants the demand has really held and we're we think it's going to hold
55:16in 26 too um but it's always hard right like any restaurateur will tell you like it's you don't really
55:22go into it for the money you don't go into it because it's easy yeah you don't go into it but like
55:29there's a real nobility in what restaurants do and so when it does get hard which it invariably will
55:37just to hold on to that because like you know i i i equate it to like things that like you know
55:45saving the world like building those human relationships giving a place for people to
55:51connect like what's more powerful and more important than that yeah well debbie sue uh grateful for your
56:00time uh we will put links to the dining trends report please check that out from open table um
56:06obviously follow them on social they're doing phenomenal work across all platforms i would
56:10love to see more youtube content from the open table team we believe number the number one tv show on earth
56:16is is youtube that's right that's the place everyone is um i think more b2b companies are starting to
56:22realize that restaurateurs and our icp they they watch youtube also um but also follow debbie on instagram
56:30because she crushes it um i i appreciate the the transparency and the candor and as always stay
56:36curious get involved and don't be afraid to ask for help we'll catch you guys next episode
56:43thank you for watching thank you for listening if you've made it this long you are part of the
56:48community you're part of the tribe we can't do this alone we started no one was listening now we have
56:52a community of digital hospitality leaders all over the globe please check out our new series called
56:58restaurant technology sub stack it's a sub stack newsletter it's free it's some of our deep work
57:04on the best technology for restaurants also go to youtube and subscribe to cali barbecue media
57:10cali bbq media on youtube we've been putting out a lot of new original content hopefully you guys
57:15like that content if you want to work with us go to etheshow.media we show up all over the united
57:21states some international countries we would love to work with you and your growing brand on digital
57:26storytelling you can reach out to me anytime at sean p welchef on instagram i'm weirdly available
57:31stay curious get involved don't be afraid to ask for help we'll catch you next episode
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