- 48 minutes ago
Kerry Leo, Vice President of Technology at Shipley Do-Nuts, is helping modernize one of America’s most established donut brands. By blending frontline listening with smart technology, he’s helping turn a nearly 90-year-old company into a scalable business built for growth.
Watch now to learn how a 90-year-old brand is scaling fast, why listening in the shops drives better tech decisions, and how Shipley is building for its next era of growth.
Sponsored by:
• TOAST - All-In-1 Restaurant POS: https://bit.ly/3vpeVsc
Watch now to learn how a 90-year-old brand is scaling fast, why listening in the shops drives better tech decisions, and how Shipley is building for its next era of growth.
Sponsored by:
• TOAST - All-In-1 Restaurant POS: https://bit.ly/3vpeVsc
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NewsTranscript
00:00Lawrence Shipley, I think in 1938.
00:03Yeah.
00:04It's just a family in Houston that started up,
00:07and I think back then they were selling
00:09a dozen donuts for like a nickel or something like that.
00:14I'll make that deal.
00:15How about you, Utavich?
00:17You make that deal?
00:17I'd make that deal.
00:19I don't blame you.
00:20Damn good deal.
00:28Welcome to Restaurant Influencers, presented by Entrepreneur.
00:31I'm your host, Sean Walchef.
00:32This is a Cali BBQ Media production.
00:35We are coming to you from the Restaurant Franchise
00:37and Innovation Summit in San Diego.
00:40And the coolest thing about this show
00:42is that the level of talent, restaurant leadership
00:46that have come to this show all over the country.
00:48And we have Kerry Leo.
00:49He is the CTO.
00:52Well, not yet.
00:53Not yet.
00:54I'm the VP of technology.
00:55VP of technology at Shipley Donuts.
00:58In life, in the restaurant business,
01:00and in the new creator economy,
01:02we learn through lessons and story.
01:04Kerry, I heard you speak at Mertech,
01:07another technology conference that we went to.
01:09We care so deeply about the restaurant business,
01:12the technology industry, how it intersects with restaurants,
01:16and obviously we care about storytelling.
01:17So we're grateful to have you on the show.
01:19Can you high-level what's Shipley?
01:22How big is the brand?
01:23How long have you guys been around?
01:24Shipley Donuts, based out of Houston, Texas, is a 90-year-old brand.
01:29The best donuts you'll ever eat in the whole world.
01:33If you haven't had one, you've got to stop and get one.
01:36The warm-glazed donut is the best thing.
01:40They also, Shipley has kolaches.
01:43And a lot of people don't know how to even pronounce it.
01:46But they're great.
01:47They're kind of from a Czechlovakian background.
01:53And so really delicious food.
01:56I came out from Atlanta to Shipley back in 2021.
02:03And there was very little tech there.
02:06So really just cash registers and maybe QuickBooks, that was about it.
02:14And so we had a lot to do over the, we've done a lot over the last five years of
02:19rolling out systems,
02:21POS, back office systems, online ordering, mobile app, all that stuff to kind of bring Shipley
02:30to the current state of what's going on in the restaurant business.
02:34How long have you been working in technology?
02:37Gosh, going on 23 years, I think.
02:4023 years.
02:41What brought you in?
02:42What were you, what was the moment where you were convinced?
02:46Yeah, the moment.
02:47So it started in Atlanta and I kind of, I wanted to get into technology.
02:52That's how I got into it.
02:53I was doing various other things.
02:55I have a music background.
02:57I was trying to be a rock star back then and all this stuff.
02:59You're still a rock star.
03:00You're a donut rock star.
03:01Donut tech rock star.
03:03Yeah, donut rock star.
03:05But yeah, playing music and I was like, okay, that's not going to work out.
03:10So I started at a company that did software and hardware manufacturing for retail and petroleum
03:19convenience stores and food.
03:21And so that's how I got into it and happened to be on the team that was launching a new
03:27point
03:27of sale system to some pretty big brands like Chick-fil-A and whatnot.
03:32So that's how I got into it and just supporting it really and then became a systems engineer.
03:38So setting up, configuring the systems.
03:41Chick-fil-A brought me on to help bring a lot of that kind of stuff in house for the
03:46point of sale
03:47sort of stuff.
03:48And from then, it's just been this ongoing journey.
03:52What about the Shipley story?
03:54What convinced you that you wanted to work for this brand?
03:57For Shipley?
03:58Yeah.
03:59It's very interesting.
04:00When I came out for interviews, I just saw this nostalgic brand with a delicious product.
04:08And it was one of those rare opportunities for a technologist to come in and build something
04:15from the ground up.
04:17I had been at other brands prior where they already had an old tech stack of wanting to
04:23transform it, move more digital.
04:27But with Shipley, it was literally building it from the ground up.
04:30So it was really exciting to come in, clean slate, and be able to just put everything you need.
04:37And so we focused on being cloud first, mobile first, all the things that anybody would ever want to do.
04:45A very secure platform, but very set up to where operators could just operate from their phone
04:53or from tablets or whatever.
04:55You didn't have to have a lot of maintenance on servers and have to be in the shop doing stuff
05:02or in the restaurant.
05:04So that's what really excited me about coming out.
05:07How many locations?
05:08We are at about 385.
05:11Wow.
05:12We're probably going to hit 400 this year, which will be a big milestone.
05:17In the pipeline, there's a couple of hundred more coming.
05:20Really?
05:20We hope to probably double in size, I think, or get close to it.
05:26By 2030, we'd love to be at around 750 or so.
05:31Amazing.
05:32Shops.
05:32That's incredible.
05:33Franchise model?
05:35Franchise.
05:35How many corporate stores?
05:36Right.
05:36Yeah, we have 12 corporate.
05:38Okay.
05:38And we use those to test a lot of our stuff.
05:41And it's fully loaded with all our tech stack franchise.
05:46Mainly.
05:47And we're growing into new markets.
05:51So if anybody's interested, it's really a good investment.
05:55We're really growing more toward the east.
05:58Okay.
05:58So since we're centrally based in Texas, that's home base.
06:02But we're growing.
06:03We're now in Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, Florida.
06:10So we're moving out toward the east.
06:12We are kind of looking at some of the states, not quite in California yet, but Nevada,
06:21and I think New Mexico as well.
06:23What does a typical store look like?
06:25How many square footage is a drive-through?
06:28Yeah, most of the ones, most everybody wants a drive-through.
06:32So, and I'm not sure of the square footage, honestly.
06:38I'm afraid to say because I'll get it wrong.
06:40That's right.
06:42But yeah, most have a drive-through.
06:47Our shops are really laid out where it's old school.
06:50They make the product fresh every day in the back.
06:53Literally, the bakers come in, make everything from scratch every day.
06:58And so the donut rack is full.
07:00It's very colorful.
07:01Everybody shops for their eyes.
07:03So once people get to know the brand, the drive-through really picks up.
07:07Like in Houston, drive-through is a big deal.
07:11Some of the newer markets, they like to go in and kind of see what we have, right?
07:15And so it's one of those things where drive-through is super important.
07:20We're working to really speed that up as well.
07:24And we're continuously innovating, even with AI and things like that,
07:30to make the guest experience better and make the operational experience better for the franchisee.
07:36Did you know that Toast powers over 140,000 restaurants across the United States, Canada, and UK?
07:44It's an incredible company.
07:45I am on the Toast Customer Advisory Board.
07:47They are proud sponsors of this show, Restaurant Influencers.
07:50We couldn't do it without their support.
07:52They power our barbecue restaurants in San Diego.
07:55If you have questions about Toast, if you're thinking about bringing Toast on
07:59to be your primary technology partner at your restaurants, please reach out to me.
08:03I'm happy to get a local Toast representative to take care of you.
08:07You can reach me at Sean P. Welch on Instagram.
08:11Once again, thank you to Toast for believing in the power of technology, the power of storytelling,
08:16the power of hospitality.
08:17Back to the show.
08:19When you're evaluating technology brands that you're going to work with,
08:22what kind of filter do you go through?
08:25Yeah, the first thing I do is I love to go to the shop and I like to talk to
08:31the franchisees.
08:32I like to talk to the cashiers and find out what their pain points are.
08:36That's the starting point.
08:37And then internally, we talk about it with our ops team and marketing team.
08:42What problems are we trying to solve?
08:45I've never been one just to go get tech for the heck of it and say,
08:48oh, they're getting new tech.
08:50We need to get it.
08:51We want to solve problems.
08:52So what we've been able to do is we evaluate that first.
08:58And then we, shows like this that we're doing,
09:02Murtech, FSTech, other shows like that.
09:05We, I talk to a lot of different companies, a lot of partners,
09:11and what's on their roadmap.
09:13We do evaluate.
09:14We want to know that they're investing in the automation and things.
09:18Restaurants hard.
09:19You've got restaurants.
09:20I have three restaurants.
09:21Yeah, you've got restaurants.
09:22So how do we make it easier?
09:24How do we make it easier for our guests to, one of our latest things,
09:29we partnered with a company called Savory.
09:31Yeah.
09:32And online ordering was really clunky for donuts because they, they have to,
09:40historically, okay, I'm going to get a box of donuts.
09:42And you pick a box and you had to,
09:44fill the box up one donut at a time.
09:47With Savory, we, we were able to solve this problem that just dropping donuts
09:50into the basket.
09:51And it knows when you're at a dozen and it gives you a discounted price.
09:55It also knows when you're almost at a dozen.
09:58So if you get the 10 to 10 donuts, it will suggest,
10:03Hey, for another dollar 50, you can get a dozen and get the discount.
10:07It will also suggest upsell like a great cashier would do.
10:11And so it knows.
10:14And we also have, wait, we had it originally named.
10:18I can't even say the name, but it was something bot, right?
10:22With dough in it.
10:24So we, with AI, it's learned like what are the most popular donuts everybody's selecting.
10:34And so for large orders, you can just put in there, I have a party for 50 people and it
10:41will build the
10:41order kolaches and donuts within about 10 seconds.
10:45And that's really been great for businesses.
10:48Uh, we have a lot of businesses that order from us, uh, bigger check, uh, we're seeing with that.
10:55Um, and then also on our, with our franchisees, we've implemented AI to help the FBCs.
11:02I don't know if y'all have franchise business coaches or that model, but they've got a lot
11:08with all getting around all these shops.
11:10So once a month we send out, um, what we call the donut dashboard to every franchisee for every shop.
11:18And it actually is looking at all the data points we built in our data lake.
11:22And it lets them know, uh, some opportunities they have to increase sales or to reduce costs
11:30or manage labor better.
11:31So it's actually evaluating and kind of being a coach for the FBC so they can sit down and have
11:37a
11:37great conversation with them.
11:38It's amazing.
11:39What's the, uh, origin story of founders?
11:42Oh, great, great story.
11:44Uh, Lawrence Shipley, I think in 1938.
11:48Yeah.
11:50Um, they were, it's just a family.
11:52In Houston that, that started up.
11:55And I think back then they were selling dozen donuts for like a nickel or something like that.
11:59But, uh, the family is still part of the business.
12:02Oh, how cool is that?
12:03And they have shops and, uh, it's great to talk to them and, and hear the stories.
12:09Um, so, uh, a lot of them are very involved.
12:14Uh, they come in and, and talk to us, but they run shops too still.
12:18So it's really a great family, a great product.
12:22And, and if you're ever in the Houston area, because it was kind of born there, it's, it's a
12:28staple, um, event or a place to go to for everybody that's ever grown up in Houston.
12:35And I grew up in Georgia, so I didn't know a lot about it.
12:38But I, I can't tell you how many times I'm walking down the street and they go, Shipley,
12:43you work at Shipley.
12:44And then they, I hear all the stories of them growing up in the, in the shops and their fam,
12:50their mom and dad taking them there and they're taking their kids there now.
12:53So it's very generational.
12:55It's, uh, I think it's one of the most rewarding parts about the business.
12:58I mean, just having our restaurant for as long as we have, having other generations come in
13:02and bring their kids in.
13:03And when you have a brand that's operated as long as you guys have,
13:06I'm sure the stories are just so amazing.
13:09Yeah.
13:09When you think about 1938 and what all's happened.
13:14I mean, there's a small list of brands that have survived that long,
13:17especially in the restaurant space.
13:19Right.
13:20Yeah, that is, uh, that is really cool.
13:22One of my favorite things that we do on this show is we talk about your personal tech stack.
13:26So I would love to know, are you Android or iPhone user?
13:29I'm an iPhone user.
13:30iPhone, which, uh, which version?
13:32Uh, I'm, I'm kind of a late, I think I'm still on 11.
13:35You're still on 11.
13:36Yeah.
13:37So when do you decide to upgrade?
13:38I held on to a 4, I held on to a 4 and then I think moved to a 4S
13:43like,
13:44over six years or something like that.
13:46I'm like, I do look ahead, uh, being in technology, I'll look ahead,
13:51but if it's working, I don't replace it.
13:53It's weird.
13:54Microsoft or Google?
13:56Microsoft.
13:56Microsoft.
13:57Uh, how many emails do you get today?
13:59Oh gosh, probably 150.
14:01150.
14:02How many of those do you enjoy reading?
14:04Probably three.
14:06Which three?
14:07What are the three emails that you enjoy reading?
14:10Probably.
14:10Sales reports, tech reports.
14:12Yeah, positive, positive reports.
14:14Positive reports.
14:15Positive feedback.
14:17No, you have to communicate, right?
14:19Yeah.
14:19So, like using, we use, we're a Microsoft shop, so we've got Teams.
14:23Yep.
14:24And we have email, but you have to communicate.
14:27So, I enjoy like communicating, but reading emails is not my favorite thing.
14:31What's the Microsoft platform that, is there a Slack platform in Microsoft?
14:35Well, it's Microsoft Teams.
14:36Oh, so, but Teams allows you to use it?
14:38Teams has a chat.
14:39Yeah, so we chat and we have, uh, we don't even have really phones,
14:42that's what we use for our primary means to talk and have meetings and remote meetings.
14:49Uh, but yeah, it's, it's all, uh, it's all good stuff.
14:54And, uh, we're, we're definitely, uh, always looking.
14:59Mm-hmm.
14:59Um, but right now we're, we're just kind of, we're taking a little bit of the, of a breather.
15:05We're kind of playing into more of the AI stuff and, um, that's really helping us out.
15:11But it is an amazing, uh, thing to think about five years ago where we were and where we are
15:18now.
15:18And, uh, and again, I think it's been a great journey because we had nothing, right?
15:26And we're able to build it up from the ground.
15:28Chad GPT, Claude, Gemini, or perplexity?
15:33Uh, I'm going to say Claude right now.
15:36Claude.
15:37Claude?
15:37Claude's winning.
15:38Now we're, you know, we're setting up our own internal, um, system as well.
15:44We'll probably use Copilot for that for, for the, because it's a Microsoft product.
15:49But with our data lake, which is built on Snowflake, we've got all the,
15:53I call them tributaries of all this data coming into it.
15:56And we're getting ready within the next few months to be able to open that up to our internal team.
16:02So they can actually, Hey, how did this shop do last Tuesday at nine o'clock compared to the
16:08rest of the system in a year ago?
16:10Right.
16:10Uh, so people can just go get their own data.
16:13Yeah.
16:14Uh, do you prefer phone calls or text messages?
16:17I like to talk to people.
16:18So phone calls, texts are okay, but you lose a lot, especially with my wife.
16:23I'd rather talk to her than a text because you lose a lot in the text.
16:27I'm a European.
16:28So yeah, I need to hear her voice to know how, how, how loud is she, how long, how long
16:32is she?
16:33Um, do you leave voicemails?
16:35Uh, not ness, no, no, no, I usually just hang up.
16:41Usually just hang up.
16:42Uh, do you take photos or videos?
16:45Do you, which do you prefer?
16:46Both.
16:47Both.
16:47Yeah.
16:47Okay.
16:48Um, Google maps or Apple maps?
16:50Google maps.
16:51And any app that we should know about that you use frequently that you enjoy that you
16:56don't think people, people should know about.
16:58Um, well, again, I told you about my music stuff.
17:01So what music platform, um, the museo, uh, is an app I use is AI generated songs and things
17:08like that.
17:09So I'll have a song idea and I'll drop it in there.
17:12And then it just kind of create, it's amazing to me that it can, um, create an entire production
17:19of a song.
17:20Um, and I think there's another one, Suno out there that, but, uh, yeah, in my personal
17:28time with the music stuff, I still play around with all that.
17:30And Shipley, you guys have an app?
17:32Shipley has a mobile app.
17:34Yeah.
17:34Um, we're actually, um, giving it a facelift with, uh, like our website adding the AI
17:41components and it'll also have voice AI on it.
17:45So, um, you'll be able to drive down the road and just go, Hey, Hey Siri, I'd like to order
17:50Shipley.
17:50If you have the app, it'll pop open.
17:52If you've got the payment already in there, you can tell it what you want.
17:55It'll confirm it and send it.
17:57That's awesome.
17:58If you guys, uh, if you want to reach out to me, I'm weirdly available at Sean P.
18:02Walchef.
18:02Instagram is always the fastest, but LinkedIn, TikTok.
18:05You can email me, Sean at CaliBVQ.media.
18:07We're always looking for the greatest restauranteurs, storytellers, and technologists on earth.
18:12So wherever they are, please let us know.
18:14Please go visit Shipley.
18:16I can't wait to go try some donuts.
18:17I don't know when I'm going to make it.
18:19Um, but when I find a location and you guys are there, I will be there.
18:22Well, yeah, we'll come to Texas.
18:23I'll take you over there.
18:24We're going.
18:25Okay.
18:25We'll be in Texas for, uh, the food on demand conference.
18:28Awesome.
18:28So Dallas, Texas.
18:29Oh yeah.
18:30There's plenty around there.
18:31Amazing.
18:32You got a deal.
18:33And, uh, please check out the restaurant franchise and innovation summit.
18:37I can't tell you the quality of restauranteurs and restaurant operators that are here at
18:41this show.
18:42Um, I can't wait to come back.
18:44We really appreciate them allowing us to film here and thank you to toast our sponsors
18:47for the show for believing in storytelling, believing in technology, giving us the opportunity
18:52to talk to people like Gary.
18:53Thank you guys for watching.
18:55As always stay curious, get involved, but don't be afraid to ask for help.
19:02Thank you for listening.
19:03If you've made it this long, you are part of the community.
19:06You're part of the tribe.
19:07We can't do this alone.
19:09We started, no one was listening.
19:10Now we have a community of digital hospitality leaders all over the globe.
19:14Please check out our new series called restaurant technology, sub stack.
19:19It's a sub stack newsletter.
19:20It's free.
19:21It's some of our deep work on the best technology for restaurants.
19:24Also go to YouTube and subscribe to Cali barbecue media, Cali BBQ media on YouTube.
19:30We've been putting out a lot of new original content.
19:32Hopefully you guys like that content.
19:34If you want to work with us, go to eat the show.media.
19:37We show up all over the United States, some international countries.
19:40We would love to work with you and your growing brand on digital storytelling.
19:45You can reach out to me anytime at Sean P.
19:47Welchef on Instagram.
19:48I'm weirdly available.
19:49Stay curious, get involved.
19:51Don't be afraid to ask for help.
19:53We'll catch you next episode.
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