Create this million dollar business that helps restaurants

GM. This is Work "After" Work, the newsletter that gives you wings. We're talking jet wings that is 😏

Here’s how we’re starting the week:

• 💻 Million dollar SaaS business

• 😂 Meme of the day

QR CODES ARE HERE TO STAY

We all know QR codes... or at least had to use them for the first time to order something off a menu during the pandemic.

While some are switching back to physical paper menus, according to the National Restaurant Association, 50% of restaurants in the US are still using QR code menus since the pandemic, and plan to in the future.

QR Codes brought a whole slew of challenges to restaurants as they quickly had to become tech savvy just to survive. But now that they’ve become accustomed to setting them up, restaurant owners want to take advantage of all the insights they can offer.

Prime Instance

Wouldn’t it be helpful if a restaurant knew when the customer stopped scrolling and exited the menu? Maybe they stopped only 25% of the way down, right before the restaurant specials for the day.

The owners do some magic, redesign the layout, and wallah… the scroll-through rate increases to 50%. This in turn leads to more sales and profits for the business - something they never would have gotten if they didn’t have access to this insight.

See QR Codes aren’t only for convenience, they solve a ton of issues:

• Reduces costs - restaurants are having to price products across the board faster than ever with inflation and printing new menu versions gets costly

• Allows for faster iterations to the menu - just update the website, no professionally printed or laminating involved

• Easier on staff - no menus to handout can ease the workload on an already limited staff for many restaurants

• Environmentally friendly - which restaurants can boast about to their customers who care about the Earth

Now, it doesn’t go without saying that some people hate QR codes. I literally saw a Vice headline reading: “F**k QR Codes”.

But, this seems to be the minority. A survey done by YouGov found that 75% of users would be willing to use more QR codes in the future.

Who are the other 25%? Most likely less techy people, generally older, which is actually a good thing. The world is only becoming more tech savvy and new generations spend more time than ever on their phones - this will make it feel more normal to order from mobile devices.

So what’s this big billion dollar business from the rise and stickiness of QR codes?

A/B Testing Software for Menus

What if there was a way restaurant owners could test every little thing on their menu to maximize every dollar out of each customer that walks through their door?

It’d be pretty valuable to say the least.

I’m talking the layout of the menu, each picture on the menu, its brightness, its saturation, the font color, the font size, pricing, copywriting… you get where I’m going with this.

The Product

Software that sits on top of the restaurant’s website, tracks everything and spits out what combinations bring the most dollars from customers.

Oh, “Fresh Grass Fed Filet Mignon 8oz” did 5% better than “Filet Mignon 8oz”? Oh, the pop-up integration at checkout “Do you want brownies with that?” drove 20% more sales? Good to know.

Allowing restaurant owners to easily change their menus to test what works best and bring in the most dollars without having to be tech gurus is extremely valuable.

Think about all the mom-and-pop or family-owned restaurants (53% of total restaurants in the US) out there that could profit from analytics like this and would pay a premium to have them.

It equates to hundreds of thousands more dollars for the restaurant - they'd be willing to pay something like $500-$1,000 a month to have these analytics if it’s providing them enough value.

This is also a business I could easily see being acquired by one of the big POS system providers like Toast or Block. These are both multi-billion dollar companies and collectively command over 50% of the POS market share today.

That's all I got for ya today.

Remember, fortune favors the build. Go out there and build the future you want. No one is stopping you 👊

MEME OF THE DAY

😂 😂 

That's a wrap ladies & gents!

DISCLAIMER: None of this is financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research.