Steven Simoni | Bbot
STEVEN SIMONI
Co-Founder & CEO of Bbot, a restaurant and hospitality tech startup dedicated to simplifying and improving the ordering and payment process.
What Is Bbot? Tell Us About Your Technology, What You Do, And What Your Mission Is.
At Bbot, we want to streamline and simplify the ordering and payments process for both operators and their guests. Bbot offers a configurable solution that helps businesses create digital menus and provide guest-controlled ordering and payment options.
With Bbot, restaurants, bars, hotels and other hospitality organizations can simplify their ordering and payments process by eliminating the need for physical menus, customers waiting in line, the exchange of credit cards and cash, or close interactions between servers and patrons, without sacrificing customer service.
Guests can instead access digital menus and pay directly on their smartphones. They simply go to a branded website (via QR or entering a location code), which can be found at their table, in their room, or within the venue. There is no need for them to signup or download an app, making the ordering and payments experience safer, convenient and efficient.
Bbot’s technology doesn’t just solve for in-venue dining, but is also a much cheaper and fully branded option so that guests know the brand they’re ordering from even from home.
Bbot integrates directly into a venue’s existing POS system or at the printer level, making the onboarding process simple for our customers. We currently work with over 600 companies including fine dining restaurants, breweries, hotels, food halls, and more.
What Is Your Background? What Led You To Starting Your Own Company, And How Did You Choose This Space?
I started my career in the U.S. Navy where I worked in electrical and systems engineering. I met my Bbot co-founders, Greg Jaworski and Luke Allen, while we were all living in Washington D.C. and serving in the Navy.
After the Navy and prior to Bbot, I worked in sales, product and engineering at companies including Marketo and Everstring. I also started my own consulting firm to help companies integrate and optimize their tech solutions.
In 2017, I started Bbot with Greg and Luke, after we had all moved to the Bay Area. After dealing with crowded restaurants and bars in the Bay Area, we decided to put our heads together to come up with a solution to improve the way people order and pay for food and drinks.
We’ve all had experiences of waiting in long lines at bars or being in packed restaurants with overwhelmed servers. We created Bbot to solve these pain points for businesses, their staff and patrons. Originally, the concept for Bbot was a solution that helped with the entire process from placing an order to guests actually receiving their food and drinks through overhead robots that moved along the ceiling. After conducting industry research and talking to our customers, we adjusted our approach to focus on our ordering and payments technology, which we found was where venues need the most support. This led to the current Bbot solution.
What Have Been Both Your Favorite And Least-liked Parts Of Your Entrepreneurial Journey? What Have Been Your Most Challenging And Most Exciting Moments For You And The Company?
My favorite part has been taking the time to understand an issue in an industry I was previously unfamiliar with and working with my team to solve that issue through technology. We took a lot of time to learn the pain points of ordering and paying for both venues and their guests and worked to create an offering that made the process easier for everyone, which I am very proud of. Throughout the process, I’ve been able to meet a lot of interesting people and work with incredible restaurants, bars and hotels around the world. And now, I am excited to start working with other entrepreneurs to teach them some of the lessons I have learned over the past few years on how to grow a successful startup from the ground up.
My least favorite parts of my journey are probably the same as other entrepreneurs. Receiving rejections and putting yourself in new and uncomfortable situations can be stressful. I have found though over the years that every “No” we’ve received or uncomfortable moment has made us stronger as a team and had an unbelievable impact on how well we succeed.
The most challenging part is always fundraising. When you know you have a strong solution or product and believe in the impact it can have on society, it can be stressful to get others to believe it as much as you do. Thankfully this has been a challenge we are continuing to complete and surpass.
Finally, the most exciting part is reaching major milestones. From closing rounds and reaching growth goals to seeing how our product has impacted the industry and how we have been able to continue to innovate, each milestone is exciting in its own right.
What Was The Fundraising Process Like For You? Tell Us About Your Investors And What You Use The Money You’ve Raised For.
Fundraising this round was intense, but luckily we have found two amazing investors: Rally Ventures and Craft Ventures. They truly believe in what we are offering and see the impact our solution can have on the hospitality industry as much as we do. We plan to use our funds to grow our team, especially our engineering and product organizations.
Quote from Rally Ventures:
“Although we’ve seen many operators turn to hospitality tech solutions recently to meet immediate needs during the pandemic, I believe we are just at the beginning of the rise in adoption of platforms like Bbot,” said Justin Kaufenberg, managing director of Rally Ventures. “The Bbot team has created a solution that can help any hospitality operator better serve guests and increase revenues year-round. We are happy to invest in such a promising company that is building the core ordering and payment rails for the restaurant, bar and hotel industry.”
Quote from Craft Ventures:
“We’re excited to work with Rally Ventures and Bbot to help all hospitality operators run smoother and more profitable businesses in 2021,” said Jeff Fluhr, general partner at Craft Ventures. “Our continued investment in Bbot reflects our confidence in the company’s ability to expand their footprint, develop exciting new technology, and serve as a valuable partner to the hospitality industry as they return to a new normal.”
In addition to working with Rally Ventures and Craft Ventures, we’ve raised money from other firms as well. Acceleprise and Mike Cardamone have been super helpful and enjoyable to work with, and this is actually the second company that I’ve worked with Acceleprise on!
Can You Tell Us About Some Of Your Numbers? How Has Growth Been Over The Last Year?
From Dec 2019 to Dec 2020, we’ve:
Achieved an 8000% growth rate in monthly cc processing (trailing 3 mo avg. of 12M/mo)
Built out key departments in the company (there’s 55 of us now and we started 2019 with 15 employees)
Gained over 600+ customers worldwide
Completed the foundation of our hospitality ecommerce platform
Raised 4M led by Rally Ventures with participation from Craft Ventures
There are a few reasons why our Q4 has me most excited for 2021. It’s our strongest performance ever considering seasonality, limitations on indoor dining and cold weather impacting outdoor dining, and it shows our SaaS + transactions model will de-risk our business.
We are working with over 600 venues including fine dining restaurants, breweries, hotels, food halls, and more. This number has grown rapidly throughout the pandemic.
Anything Exciting Launching Soon?
We do have some exciting announcements coming up soon. Not to go into too much detail, but we will be soon releasing an offering that will improve the bar tab experience significantly. We also recently won the Hotel Tech Report Award for Mobile Ordering & Room Service.
With Many Of Your Clients Being Restaurants, Bars, And Hotels, How Has COVID-19 Impacted Your Business, And How Have You Adapted To Any Changes?
While we launched Bbot prior to the pandemic, the impact of COVID-19 on the hospitality industry has led us to grow rapidly over the last year. Operators are constantly looking for safer ways to open back up and stay open. Bbot helps them keep guests and staff alike safer by eliminating the need for physical menus and exchanging credit cards or cash.
In order to adapt to the urgent need for our solution, we built out our online ordering platform and added multiple delivery couriers throughout the world to give our customers as many options as possible. We’ve helped our customers maintain their brand identity, separating each and every concept from a general marketplace and helping guests feel more comfortable ordering the food and drinks they love to their residence.
We’ve also sped up our onboarding process during the pandemic by growing our team and product rapidly to meet industry demand. We can now onboard a new customer in a matter of days so that they can continue to serve guests safely. Our goal has always been to improve the ordering and payments process for operators and guests, and our commitment has only grown throughout the pandemic.
How Do You Think Your Industry Will Change Post-COVID?
I think the impact of COVID-19 will be long-term on the hospitality industry. Operators have quickly adopted new technologies and processes to help them stay open and keep people safe. A lot of these solutions and new ways of serving guests will benefit venues beyond the pandemic as they help them run their venues more efficiently and cost-effectively, while always keeping the guest experience in mind.
What Are Your Daily Routines? Walk Us Through Your Typical Workday Schedule.
As most entrepreneurs know, every day at a startup is different, which is one of my favorite things about my work. However, I usually start my day with breakfast with my wife, followed by catching up on emails and planning for the day ahead.
I am traditionally on a lot of calls throughout the day, working with our product team to plan for some exciting new developments we have in the works, as well as connecting with our customers to make sure we are supporting them as needed.
What Are The Most Important Skills A Modern Day Entrepreneur Needs In Order To Be Successful? What Advice Do You Have For Entrepreneurs Who Are Just Starting Out?
I would say the most important skills an entrepreneur needs today is to be resilient, flexible, and good communicator. Resilience makes you a team player, being flexible allows you to pivot and adapt at the drop of a hat, and communication leads to problem solving. Everyday is different when starting a company and new challenges and roadblocks come up constantly. In order for someone to succeed today, they have to be able to adapt with industries and new trends and lead a team through problems that occur.
Advice I give often is to make sure your product or solution is truly meeting a need or fixing a problem. If it isn’t, don’t be afraid to make changes or updates. We originally created Bbot to have a robot that served drinks that were ordered by and delivered to the guests, but we found that our ordering and payments solution was what was needed by hospitality operators so we shifted our focus to that.
Tell Us A Story Of Something That Happened To You, Something You Heard, Or Something You Saw, That Either Made You Laugh Or Taught You An Important Lesson.
Being the youngest of 3 and always losing at board games because my family never let me win is a big contributing factor to my success today. I grew up around a lot of [healthy] competition and I believe that helped prepare me for startup life.
If You Can Have A One-Hour Meeting With Someone Famous Who Is Alive, Who Would It Be And Why?
I would meet with Jack Dorsey to learn his plans about Bitcoin.
What Do You Do In Your Free Time?
If I ever have free time, other than hanging with my wife and dog and working, I'm a startup junkie. I'm constantly thinking, strategizing, researching, and focused on how to build startup my current, and other startups. I work a lot, but when I'm off, I have been known to be a competitive card game player. I am the 2013 Game of Thrones national champion. Now I play online tournaments with small micro communities.
What Are Top Three Books You Recommend?
1. A Confederacy of Dunces, by John Kennedy Toole
2. The Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss
3. Zero to One, by Blake Masters and Peter Thiel
What Does Success Mean To You?
For me, success is making a positive impact on the hospitality industry through Bbot and helping as many operators as we can. I care deeply about the enterprise sales because I’m here to make money and grow a business, but I care just as deeply for the mom and pops and don’t want to see all of our cities crowded with chains only. I think a balance is necessary for any city worth visiting for culture purposes alone. Imagine if every Chinatown you visited in different cities only had P. F. Chang's or Panda Restaurant Group as options. What would be the point of traveling to visit that city?
