The restaurant technology provider Lunchbox is launching an online community for restaurant operators, executives, and marketers — and it’s leaning on Slack to make it happen.
Lunchbox’s new Restaurant Community is designed as an outlet for restaurant executives to build connections with peers throughout the industry and troubleshoot problems facing their businesses in real-time. The forum-style platform centers around a hub where users can access industry news, best practices, and operational guides published by Lunchbox.
Marketers and restaurant executives can make connections within the space and participate in group discussions about industry operations, incoming laws, and potential grant opportunities. Lunchbox has said it also plans to post resources for SMBs and enterprise restaurants, including operational guides.
A number of impressive multi-location restaurant brands have already signed on to take part, including Starbucks and CKE Restaurants, the Tennessee-based parent organization for Carl’s Jr., Hardee’s, Green Burrito, and Red Burrito.
“It’s a beautiful thing when you get operators into the same room. Everyone has their own experiences and from that, an excess of knowledge,” said Lunchbox CEO and Cofounder Nabeel Alamgir in a press release. “It only makes sense to open up the space and be a resource while doing so.”
No vendors will be allowed in Restaurant Community, which should give users the space to speak freely about the various challenges happening within their industry.
It’s not entirely surprising that Lunchbox would be interested in a project like this. The company’s mission is to help restaurants grow their revenue through online ordering. Providing multi-location restaurant brands with insights into how they can make that happen will only strengthen Lunchbox’s position and help to differentiate the company in what has become a crowded space.
Enterprise online ordering systems became a hot commodity during the pandemic when the number of people placing digital food orders skyrocketed almost overnight. Online food ordering has become a global market, tripling in value since 2017 to now worth more than $150 billion.
Much of Lunchbox’s early success was a direct result of restaurants getting tired of paying hefty fees to delivery platforms like DoorDash and Uber Eats. The company raised $20 million in Series A funding in 2020 as a startup that helped restaurants build ordering experiences on their own websites and mobile apps.
Now, with the online food ordering market beginning to feel saturated and a potential slowdown on the horizon, Lunchbox is expanding its outreach efforts. The company has added to its services and features for restaurants, including all aspects of guest loyalty, marketing, and order aggregation. An impressive roster of multi-location restaurant brands now relies on Lunchbox’s technology for online ordering, including Firehouse Subs, Clean Juice, Wings Over, and Papa Ginos.
Building an Industry Hub
A number of other firms and media companies have launched similar initiatives to Lunchbox’s Restaurant Community in recent years. In 2019, Hospitality Technology magazine launched its version, Restaurant Technology Network, a membership community that runs similarly to Lunchbox’s new hub.
For any of these ventures to be successful, they need influential users. Courting executives from Starbucks and CKE Restaurants certainly gets Lunchbox off to a good start. Now, the company must continue to build its user base, so restaurant operators and executives from smaller brands can connect and form the types of relationships that Lunchbox envisions.
