{"id":3053,"date":"2018-09-13T12:24:51","date_gmt":"2018-09-13T12:24:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reformingretail.com\/?p=3053"},"modified":"2019-01-23T10:23:30","modified_gmt":"2019-01-23T16:23:30","slug":"is-this-how-restaurant-concepts-will-grow-in-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reformingretail.com\/index.php\/2018\/09\/13\/is-this-how-restaurant-concepts-will-grow-in-the-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Is This How Restaurant Concepts Will Grow in The Future?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Y Combinator (YC) is a pedigreed <a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@JJThaeler\/how-yc-is-just-as-duplicitous-as-venture-investors-e3b1a07ab8b0\">&#8220;startup&#8221; accelerator<\/a> in Silicon Valley whose acceptance rate is tighter than that of Harvard. YC primarily takes three kinds of companies:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Companies with super networked founders<\/li>\n<li>Companies with zero risk that YC likes to convince are&nbsp;&#8220;startups&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Companies that meet some PC, feel-good quota<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>But usually these companies have a tech-heavy component. Which is why when we saw <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2018\/08\/13\/y-combinator-invests-in-a-build-your-own-mac-and-cheese-restaurant\/\">YC announce a restaurant company in its latest class<\/a>, we had to dig deeper.<\/p>\n<p>On the surface <a href=\"https:\/\/getmacd.com\/\">Mac&#8217;d<\/a> seems like a delightfully simple and delicious concept. In exchange for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecheesecakefactory.com\/menu\/\">the 12-page Cheesecake Factory menu<\/a>, Mac&#8217;d focuses on variations of macaroni and cheese. This eliminates menu complexity and streamlines operations. It also helps that Mac&#8217;d went with a fast casual concept &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fastcasual.com\/news\/fast-casual-sector-sees-single-digit-growth-in-2017-2\/\">really the only segment of the industry that&#8217;s growing<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>But most intriguing is how Mac&#8217;d started.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3097\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/reformingretail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/a1.png?resize=770%2C266&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"770\" height=\"266\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/reformingretail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/a1.png?w=958&amp;ssl=1 958w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/reformingretail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/a1.png?resize=300%2C104&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/reformingretail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/a1.png?resize=768%2C265&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/reformingretail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/a1.png?resize=370%2C128&amp;ssl=1 370w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/reformingretail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/a1.png?resize=270%2C93&amp;ssl=1 270w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/reformingretail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/a1.png?resize=740%2C256&amp;ssl=1 740w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 770px) 100vw, 770px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Taking advantage of social media platforms (i.e. free marketing), Mac&#8217;d ran pop-up stores in San Francisco. This helped the founders hone their menu, pricing, and even location. Once the pop-up store generated enough data (and revenue) to be convincing, the founders built their first brick and mortar location.<\/p>\n<p>Scaling from there was further honed by data.<\/p>\n<p>Using something called <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fastcompany.com\/3064075\/hold-the-storefront-how-delivery-only-ghost-restaurants-are-changing-take-out\">grey or ghost kitchens<\/a>, Mac&#8217;d would share space in commissary kitchens and avoid costs associated with the front of house. They would focus on food prep &#8211; keeping costs low &#8211; and use third party services to reach customers. With little capital invested they could tell if a location made sense before laying a brick. If so, they&#8217;d build a store. If not, try the same approach in a different market and measure the results.<\/p>\n<p>All of this makes us wonder if this is not the future of restaurants. According to any technologist the answer would be a resounding yes. If you want to read about how we data folks think about capital and product, there&#8217;s a famous book by Eric Ries called <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/s\/?ie=UTF8&amp;keywords=the+lean+startup&amp;tag=googhydr-20&amp;index=aps&amp;hvadid=241655092244&amp;hvpos=1t2&amp;hvnetw=g&amp;hvrand=7449343836729979121&amp;hvpone=&amp;hvptwo=&amp;hvqmt=e&amp;hvdev=c&amp;hvdvcmdl=&amp;hvlocint=&amp;hvlocphy=9026058&amp;hvtargid=kwd-26937775299&amp;ref=pd_sl_7fcfdrzblz_e\">The Lean Startup<\/a>. In a nut shell: do things fast and cheap, and use data to measure everything.<\/p>\n<p>A\/B testing is not something confined to just techies, so it&#8217;s good to see someone applying science to retail. There&#8217;s far too little of it if you ask us. Unless your name is Amazon, and who would want to emulate that story?<\/p>\n<p><script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/widget.websitevoice.com\/UMwLESBjj1uq-UOHwOeBBw\"><\/script><br \/>\n<script>\n  window.wvData=window.wvData||{};function wvtag(a,b){wvData[a]=b;}\n  wvtag('id', 'UMwLESBjj1uq-UOHwOeBBw');\n  wvtag('widget-style', {\n    backgroundColor: '#F5953E',\n    contrast: 'wv-contrast-dark'\n  });\n<\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Y Combinator (YC) is a pedigreed &#8220;startup&#8221; accelerator in Silicon Valley whose acceptance rate is tighter than that of Harvard. YC primarily takes three kinds of companies: Companies with super networked founders Companies with zero risk that YC likes to convince are&nbsp;&#8220;startups&#8221; Companies that meet some PC, feel-good quota But usually these companies have a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3097,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-solutions","category-merchants"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p81nA2-Nf","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/reformingretail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/a1.png?fit=958%2C331&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reformingretail.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reformingretail.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reformingretail.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reformingretail.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reformingretail.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3053"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/reformingretail.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3053\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4281,"href":"https:\/\/reformingretail.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3053\/revisions\/4281"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reformingretail.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reformingretail.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reformingretail.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reformingretail.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}