Episode 151: Betting Big on the Future of Restaurant Tech: Noah Glass, founder of OLO

Today, Olo is a billion-dollar company with a captivated audience of restaurateurs excited about the future of restaurant tech.

But the story of Olo and its founder, Noah Glass, is far from an overnight success. Noah has spent the last 16 years evangelizing the merits of restaurant tech to an industry unwilling to change. But he never lost hope and he never gave up.

And I can only imagine that a man with that kind of vision and that kind of fortitude must have a clear vision of what’s coming next for all of us. Today we talk about the future of restaurants and restaurant tech.

TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES

[2:25] The ripple effect that planted a seed: Lessons learned from Silicon Valley

[5:11] Finding the courage: seizing the opportunity to realize a vision

[8:38] Evolving an ideology: rallying the troops and doing good while doing well.

[11:50] Evolving a leader: the challenges of scaling and having faith in your partners and values.

[16:38] How one restaurant Dallas, TX changed Olo’s framework.

[22:08] Embracing the Digital Age: Is the industry backsliding as we lean into tech?

[24:20] Imagining the future of the restaurant industry:

[27:25] Turning the tables: The kind of restaurant Noah Glass would open.

[31:15] The North Star metric: Customer lifetime value and what it means for your restaurant.

That's Noah Glass. For more on OLO visit https://www.olo.com



FULL COMP is brought to you by Yelp for Restaurants: In July 2020, a few hundred employees formed Yelp for Restaurants. Our goal is to build tools that help restaurateurs do more with limited time.