February 10, 2025 • 35 mins
In this episode of the Restaurant Technology Guys podcast, Jeremy Julian, CRO of Custom Business Solutions with over 25 years in restaurant tech, hosts Can, a serial entrepreneur and founder of Finch. Finch offers innovative digital media platforms tailored for restaurants, allowing them to advertise in-house specials and sell screen time to third-party advertisers. Can explains how Finch aims to help restaurant owners enhance guest experiences, drive behavior, and boost margins without incurring costs for hardware or installation. Highlights include real-time advertising capabilities, success stories and upcoming features to enhance customer loyalty and venue revenues. Finch currently operates in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Miami. For more information, restaurants can reach out directly via Instagram @FinchVenues or email hi@FinchNow.com.
00:00 Introduction to Today's Episode
00:09 The Rise of Digital Media in Retail
00:27 Introducing Can and His Digital Media Platform
01:21 Meet Jeremy Julian
01:50 Welcome to the Restaurant Technology Guys Podcast
02:37 Can's Journey in the Startup Industry
03:38 The Concept Behind Finch
04:54 How Finch is Revolutionizing In-Venue Advertising
06:15 Real-World Applications and Success Stories
12:11 Ensuring Security and Customization
14:36 Cost and Implementation of Finch
29:43 Future Plans and Expansion
31:38 Conclusion and Contact Information
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
This is the RestaurantTechnology Guys podcast, helping
you run your restaurant better.
Jeremy Julian (00:12):
In today's episode, we are joined by John,
who is.
Building a digital mediaplatform for restaurants.
If our restaurant owners outthere aren't aware the digital
media network continues to hitretail all over.
I spent a decent amount of timetalking to different grocers.
And whether it's Walmart or it'sKroger.
(00:34):
They're all putting digitaladvertising within their stores
to try and drive some customerbehavior.
Can and his organization havecreated the exact same thing for
restaurants.
If you're not familiar with it,he and I go super deep into the
what and the why and the how,and his offer is coming to you
free.
If you guys are interested,they'll allow you to.
(00:58):
Advertise within the store.
Some of the items that you guysare looking to drive behaviors,
as well as sell some of the,screen time to other digital
advertisers to pay for theequipment and the installation
and such.
I would encourage you all toeducate yourself on digital
media.
And digital advertising withinyour venues because there's lots
(01:20):
of opportunities to not onlydrive the behavior you're
looking for within your guests,but also the ability to help
you.
Increase your margins on theitems that you're looking to
push in ways that youtraditionally might not have
thought about it.
If you're not familiar with me,my name is Jeremy Julian.
I am the chief revenue officerfor custom business solutions.
(01:41):
We write the north star point ofsale solution for restaurants
and multiunit restaurants,particularly.
Uh, I have spent over 25 yearsof my career in the restaurant
tech industry.
And love giving back.
And so these conversationscontinue to help inform the, uh,
the industry and help you guysnot make mistakes that others
have already made.
(02:01):
Enjoy the show.
welcome back to the RestaurantTechnology Guys podcast.
I thank everyone out there forjoining us.
As I say each and every time, Iknow you guys got lots of
choices.
So thank you guys for spendingsome time this week with me.
today we are joined by a guestthat, I'm excited for Can to
share a little bit about hisbackground, where the idea came
from, multiple time founders, Ilove entrepreneurial stories.
(02:22):
And so I'm going to, let Can,why don't you introduce yourself
to our group?
Who is Can?
where did you come from?
And then let's talk a little bitabout, what you guys are
building.
'cause I'm excited, and I thinkrestaurants are gonna be taken
back with, all of the stuff thatyou're doing.
'cause I think there's a lot of,runway for it.
And if people haven't alreadystarted, explored, it'll be cool
to talk through that.
But tell everybody a little bitof a story, your background,
(02:42):
where you came from and as wellas some of the stuff that you've
done in the past.
Can Ipekci (02:45):
yeah, sure.
first of all, thank you for thisopportunity, like really excited
to be here.
And this is actually my firstpodcast.
really excited about this.
I've been in the startupindustry in the last almost 20
years now, started with, somelocal startups in Turkey,
including, Groupon.
(03:06):
back there, that's where Ifirst, got to meet, hospitality
businesses, bars andrestaurants, as a business
partner.
and then, around 10 years ago, Imoved to the U S, worked on
startups again, and this time itwas mostly focused on, digital
out of home advertising, firston taxi tops, then in, sports
(03:27):
bars.
I'm familiar with the, with howthe advertising works.
And I was talking to a friend ofmine who's, who used to live in
San Francisco.
We were having, we were having aburger in a New York diner and
told him about the opportunitiesin the space.
And, he was like, why don't weStart a business around this.
(03:50):
And we started talking, westarted talking about how we
can, improve the margins of thebusinesses by, allowing them to
do better marketing at zerocost, build a marketing
operation, operating system forthese, venues, without charging
them through advertising.
we took the idea to, someinvestors.
(04:11):
They liked it, they liked theopportunity, and we launched
Finch almost a year ago, earlyJanuary last year.
Jeremy Julian (04:19):
Wonderful.
and I think by the time thiscomes around it'll probably be,
celebrating your, your one yearanniversary, which is, which is
incredible, especially in thestartup space, because, As
that's not easy tracking forthose, digging a little bit for
me, Can, about what is digitaladvertising even mean?
Because I think those thataren't in, in media and or in
advertising and in marketingdon't get it.
(04:40):
They're used to seeing either TVads or you see the Super Bowl
ads or any of those kinds ofthings.
You talked about your historywith, advertising on the top of
taxicabs.
But I think there's a veryunknown commodity that's out
there, which is the attention ofthe people that are already in
your venue.
So talk to me a little bit aboutwhat Finch is trying to solve
for, because I think at the endof the day, we are going to all
be hit with more and more ofthis type of, digital
(05:02):
engagement, in venues as wecontinue to expand and continue
to grow.
Can Ipekci (05:06):
yep.
Yes, we definitely will be if wecan help it basically digital
autofoam is Advertising that'syou have been used to on on the
buses on the billboards, on theside of the road on everything
you see outside now, it'sgetting digitized Significantly,
so like everything else andvenues has been a part of this
(05:30):
to venues have been usingdigital signage solutions for a
significant amount of time.
They had the digital billboardsin the in their venues
showcasing their offerings.
what we are doing at Finch isbringing these digital
billboards into the venues.
(05:52):
in a very cost effective manner,basically at zero cost, training
the venues on how to use themthe best, how to, improve their
margins, get the customers toget returned to the venue more
frequently.
so helping out with, retentionand revenue, their retention and
revenue.
And on the advertiser side, weare giving them, we are giving
(06:14):
the brands access to an audiencewho's sitting in these venues
for a significant amount oftime.
we are allowing them to be partof the conversation at the
table, basically.
Jeremy Julian (06:28):
I'd love to talk about what are people doing
today?
Because I think that all toooften, at least in my
experience, they're doing someform of advertising within the
venue.
You talked a little bit aboutdigital menu boards, but if I'm
at that, that sports bar, whatare they doing today to both
drive behavior and kind of talkto me about what is Finch
solving for lack of a betterterm?
(06:49):
Because I think at the end ofthe day, you're going to get a
lot of listeners that are like,I just have TVs and they're
playing the basketball game orthey're playing the football
game and.
I don't really care, but at theend of the day, I think
controlling the guest experienceis a huge piece of what we talk
about here on the show.
Often, whether that's throughthe digital app or that's
through advertising where that'sthrough menu selection or how
(07:09):
you're greeting your guests.
There's so many different waysyou're controlling the guest
experience.
What are people doing today whenthey don't have Finch?
What does it look like?
Talk us through just thestandard environment as to who
is a customer that you guysmight go in and be able to
change their world and turn itupside down if they do implement
Can Ipekci (07:24):
They are already, the venue owners are already
doing in venue advertising.
This is basically, they'respecial on the, in the front of
their, menu.
It could be flyers that they,they post up in the venue.
Showcasing, their menuhighlights, events they might be
hosting, and, there are, like,hundreds of, venues in Brooklyn,
(07:48):
where, in where I live, that hasall kinds of events.
These could be open mic nights,these could be, movie nights in,
in the venue, and they, Try toadvertise this, using, using
posters and other, costly,costly, both from a, financial
and, human resource, side,costly, solutions.
(08:08):
What Finch is doing is, puttingup a, a digital screen in the
venue.
Right next to the, screens thatare showing the basketball game.
And, that's, that game is,getting the attention of the,
that game is getting theattention of the, guests.
And right next to it, they'readvertising, hey, get, get 5,
(08:30):
drink special during the game.
It's, an engaging, piece ofcreative that promotes whatever
they want to promote, whateverthey want to test, like it's,
for a restaurant, it could be,showcasing their, best desserts.
you do not get, as a guest, youdo not get, the dessert options.
At the end of the meal, but youget ready for it while you are
(08:51):
eating you while you are hungryYou see that tasty tiramisu up
there And so when the wait staffasks for you, do you want the
dessert?
You are already primed to sayyes
Jeremy Julian (09:02):
Love that.
And so historically you, youtalked about it.
It was either point of purchase.
I've got a flyer, I've got atable tent, I've got a menu
insert and or it was somethingthat was a physical piece of, of
paper or a poster that wasposted on the board to try and
drive guest behavior.
You guys are flipping that alldigital.
and so before we go down, howcan you guys deliver this at
(09:24):
very little cost to the enduser?
For those that, that don't evenunderstand how to create a
digital ad that, that is goingto do these things, how hard is
it to go down that path?
Because if I'm not a graphicartist, I'm not one of those
people that understands how togo create these things.
I've got my menu guy that's beendoing my menus for the last 20
years.
I tell them I'm doing the newchicken sandwich special.
(09:45):
I'm doing the new tiramisuspecial.
They give me a, a flyer that Ican stick into my menu.
They get all of that.
as these things go digital,what, what and why, not even
why, because I think Iunderstand why as an owner or as
somebody that's running thisvenue.
How do we make it simple forthem to go create these
advertisements and they can dothem on the fly because they are
digital.
(10:05):
They are something that they cando and change as time goes on.
Can Ipekci (10:08):
that's actually one of the first feedbacks we got
from the cast the venue ownersbefore we even launched our
product that was their firstconcern like I don't have time
to create these or like it'sexpensive Great.
one of the first, features webuilt into, Finch was,
templates.
We now have, hundreds, if not,over a thousand templates for
(10:31):
everything from, any kind of,any kind of food items you might
think of, celebration, seasonalcelebrations.
Upcoming, upcoming games, trivianights, open mic nights,
everything we have.
Now you just go into the Finchapp, you search for what you
want to put up there, you seeprobably a few, templates that
(10:51):
match that, you edit the text onit, just like you would write
something on Instagrambasically.
And then, put it up to the, toyour screen in two minutes, less
than two minutes, probably onceyou get the hang of it,
Jeremy Julian (11:05):
Love that.
you talk about advertising or doyou have clients that are using
them for other things,celebrating a bartender that's
doing great, celebrating a guestthat's a regular, any of those
kinds of things, or is itprimarily just driving, driving
menu behavior, driving beveragebehavior, those kinds of things.
Can Ipekci (11:21):
the driving, driving menu behavior is the, most
common use case, but we do seedepending on the vibe of the
venue, we have seen, venues thatcelebrate the, birth, birthday
of a, of a regular, which.
it's a personalized.
it's a personalized experience.
we have seen the stuff, stuff ofthe month, stuff of the week,
(11:42):
engagements that these venuescreate.
So it's all, It's all possiblewith Finch.
We are, like, it's all up to,it's the screen, experience
belongs to the venue.
They can put up whatever theywant up there, and, we do see
very creative, use cases.
Jeremy Julian (11:57):
I could see that.
I remember years ago, I was in ataco place and it was a unique
taco place.
And they actually had theirTwitter feed on.
And if you tag their Twitter,your tweet could come up with a
picture of your sandwiches andthose kinds of things.
And it was interesting.
They ultimately had to take itdown because, they struggled
because there was no, there wasnobody gatekeeping what people
are posting.
And now it's showing up on a,on, on a venue and, on a digital
(12:20):
display within the venue.
Talk me through, how do you guysdeal with that?
how do you guys deal with peoplenot being able to hijack those
televisions and send stuff tothem?
again, I, I know that there'sstories out there of people
being able to hack into thesethings and display things.
how are you guys getting aroundthat?
Can Ipekci (12:34):
we work on a closed loop system, it's, basically,
our, hardware is tied to the TVsthat, we own and operate, so
there is no third party,reaching to these screens.
it's all comes to our server.
And luckily with the, with thisstage AI is in at the moment,
it's can really easily flag anytype of inappropriate content
(12:59):
and we do, we do, flag them and,we do take.
take it off is not the rightword.
We do not allow that kind ofcontent to go up.
and because the control is justwith the venue manager and, and
the people that they designate,but we still have that control
because a disgruntled employeemight.
(13:20):
something.
That was one of the concerns aswell.
the disgruntled employees thathave the control of the device.
And we do have those.
We do have those, safety checksin place for that kind of
behavior.
I haven't seen it yet, but it'sbetter to be safe than sorry.
So we built that.
Jeremy Julian (13:39):
Yeah.
and again, humans are humans andthey're going to do stupid
things from time to time.
And so that, that's a, that'salways something to safeguard.
And again, I think we'll go downthe path of how you guys are
paying for this.
One of the other thoughts Iguess I'm thinking about is do
you have the ability through theFinch app to display different
items on different TVsthroughout the venue?
I'm in the bar.
(13:59):
I want the bar specials to hit,but if I'm in the dining room.
It's showing the appetizers orthe tiramisu as you talked about
or is it all just broadcasteverything is on the same
because Again, I think you'regonna have customers that are
gonna ask these they've got twodifferent, parts of their venue
That might be a little bitdifferent.
how is it that how is it thatyou guys?
able are able to give them theAbility to say something
(14:21):
different on the differentscreens throughout the venue.
Can Ipekci (14:23):
so currently it's a bit hacky.
That's a feature we are workingon, designated different,
different, places in the venueto show different content.
Currently, what we do isbasically create a duplicate of
the venue, as if it was a newvenue and assign the TVs to
different places.
So if they really need it, wehave ways of doing it, but we
(14:44):
are working on streamlining it.
Jeremy Julian (14:47):
I Love that.
Can talk me through how can youdo this at very little cost to
the operators because I thinkyou know You keep you've said
zero cost a couple of times andI know every time that we say
that People go, yeah, it's toogood to be true.
Help me understand how it isthat you guys are doing that.
Because I think part of yourmonetization strategy is not
necessarily different.
It's just, it's not necessarilyblack and white through what
(15:09):
you've shared so far.
So explain to me how you guys doit at little or no cost to, to
the operators or no cost, likeyou keep saying,
Can Ipekci (15:16):
it's not rocket science because, think of it
this way.
The internet as we know it, It'sfree, like every product that
you use, Google, Facebook,Instagram, whatever you use is
free to the end user.
because there are people, thereare brands who's willing to pay
(15:37):
a premium to appear on yourfeed, appear on a small part of
your screen.
think of it that way.
there are advertisers, there arebrands who are willing to reach
To these audiences.
the guests in the bar isvaluable for them, so they get
to pay us for the privilege ofreaching out to these venues and
(15:58):
these guests in the venue so wecan make our products for free.
Just like the Google does it forthe rest of the internet.
Jeremy Julian (16:05):
so help me understand if I'm a, how much
control do I have over thoseadvertisers that are showing up
in my feed?
Again, you and I talked pre showabout what percentage of the
advertising is your own contentversus how much of it you guys
are selling out to advertisers.
I guess first, let's talkthrough what is that ratio and
how does that exactly work andthen.
Okay.
Me as a venue owner, if I'mexclusive to Coca Cola, you
(16:27):
definitely don't want Pepsi adsshowing up in, in your venue
because that'd be really bad.
sure, some of our listenersprobably saw the, the Pepsi
commercials with the, with thesports cars running up to
different, well known cookplacesand doing that.
But help me understand, how isit, how as a venue owner, how as
a operator do I deal with that?
Can Ipekci (16:44):
we do, first of all, we do not accept, ads from
potential competitors, likeother local businesses that are
in the, in the hospitalitybusiness, that's one thing they
have been really serious about.
the biggest coffee chain in theU.
S.
in the world, has beenadvertising with us.
And there have been a couple ofvenues that, that highlight
(17:08):
their coffees, did not wantthat.
They can reach out to us likethey can reach out to us and, we
take it down.
that's not, that's not, Thingthat we encourage because at the
end of the day, we need to be asustainable business but if the
venue, if the venue reallythinks that an ad is not fit for
(17:29):
that venue for competitivereasons for Political reasons we
have been through a An electioncycle where, we had, politicians
as our advertisers and somevenues were not okay with it,
and it's their rights.
we don't, they say we don'twant, politics in this venue.
and we say, okay, we, and wetake it down.
We hit a revenue hit.
(17:50):
But at the end of the day, theyknow their audience the best and
if their audience is going to beturned off by these ads, we
don't want that.
Jeremy Julian (18:00):
You want to give them control of that, which
makes sense.
And I think that's one of thosethings that I know I, we were,
we do business with a group thatdoes have some digital
advertising within their stores,but they happen to be a faith
based organization and theydon't want alcohol and drugs in,
in their venues.
So they would want to turn thatoff.
You say it's free.
Do you guys supply all of thehardware and the cabling and the
electricity?
(18:20):
obviously not the electricity.
They, the venue needs to dothat.
Is that something that you guyshelp offset those costs to get
them installed?
walk me through, what does anengagement look like if I'm a
potential venue and I've got, Iwant to put in six digital
advertisement, screens, or is itjust a single one?
Talk me through I'm one of thosepeople that's sitting out here
going.
All right.
I want to give Can a chance.
let's go figure out how to makethis happen.
(18:40):
What does that look like?
And how does that work?
Can Ipekci (18:42):
the first thing we do, like even when we are, in
the, in the early talks with thevenue is to, scout out the best
locations to put those screensin, because we want them to be
in impactful places where, theguests could see them and,
engage with them.
because we do supply, everypiece of hardware, the
(19:04):
installation and the softwarefor free.
what we ask, from the venue isthe electricity and internet.
Basically that's all they haveto do.
We do everything else for them.
We, if there's any issue withthe, issue with the screens, we
go back and fix them.
if, someone throws a bottle atthem again, never happened yet,
(19:25):
but
Jeremy Julian (19:25):
It will.
Can Ipekci (19:26):
okay, let's say tonight, hopefully, but it's
probably well, When, when thathappens, we'll be replacing the
TV the next day for free again.
Jeremy Julian (19:35):
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jen you talked about the factthat that the Patrons themselves
or the restaurant venue has theability to do their own
(20:17):
advertising.
What is that mix?
Is it 90 advertising and 10?
Restaurant items that they'retrying to drive the tiramisu
What you know what is the mixand how much of those screens
that you guys are giving themfor free?
Do they have control over versushow much of it is paid via
advertising?
Can Ipekci (20:33):
70 percent of the screen time belongs to the
venue.
it is the advertising is at most30 percent.
it's, usually not even that atthe moment.
we are in early stages, but wefound that to be a sweet spot
because like we don't want, wedon't want advertising to be the
prominent thing on those screensbecause we want those screens to
(20:55):
have a utility.
first of all, we don't, likeeven though we make our money
off of advertising, we knowthat, for this to be valuable
for the venue, they need to havethe majority of the content.
So 70 30 is the sweet spot thatwe found.
Jeremy Julian (21:13):
Love that.
and as a restaurant owner, Ithink I would want to be able to
control that have you guysgotten to multi units where they
A restaurant owner has three orfour four different restaurants
that they're advertising withfinch at this point And if so,
how have you guys dealt with it?
Is it all solely at the unitlevel?
Or do they have the ability toshare some of the content across
the different?
venues in the brand
Can Ipekci (21:33):
so it is, we do have some, owners who own multiple,
multiple venues.
Even if it's not the, if it'sthe same brand, they have the
ability to and share the contentthey created for one menu to the
others.
it's, it is not like we don'thave a, this a bit too
technical, but we don't have amulti tenant system yet.
(21:55):
the best way to do it is toexport and, re import.
So ads.
another minute to the process ifthey want to edit to another
venue.
yeah, we do support that and wedo have, such, such venues.
We don't, we are not in, we arenot in, franchises yet or,
bigger chains and we do notforesee that we'll be in them in
(22:17):
the near future.
Jeremy Julian (22:18):
that makes sense.
so I'm a restaurant manager.
I'm a restaurant owner.
I'm a venue owner You've talkedabout it a couple of times and I
want to go place an ad up on thescreen It's Friday night.
The game just got canceled.
Now.
I'm gonna give them half offwings Is that even possible to
do and again?
I'm just you know, everybodycame in for the game gets rained
out Now I want to keep themthere and I want to place an ad.
(22:38):
Is it something that I can dothat real time where I can throw
up an ad for half price wings orwhatever?
Talk me through what thatprocess even looks like young
Can because i'd love to Simplifyit for these restaurant
operators because oftentimes asyou said in the beginning people
are like, ah, I got too much todo I don't want to be a graphic
artist.
I don't know how to do all ofthis stuff To your commentary
(22:59):
and some of the early successthat you guys have had it's
driving some crazy behavior soi'd love to Walk through even
hey, I come up with an idea.
It's Friday night The game getsrained out and now I want to
keep people here drinking andeating And I want to go throw a
special up there.
What would it take for somebodyto do that?
Can Ipekci (23:13):
Okay, I'll actually tweak the experience a bit.
Let's say the local team won.
instead of the game raining out,let's think about happy
scenarios.
The local team won.
and then you are feelinggenerous.
You want to keep your guests in,celebrate there.
you take your phone out.
You launch the Finch app.
(23:35):
you want to give, half of wings.
So you search for, wings in theapp, in the template library
that we have.
You pick one of the templatesthat we have.
You write 50 percent of wingstonight.
You set it to go liveimmediately, and you can put an
expiration date on it, untilmidnight, let's say.
You push a button.
(23:56):
in less than two minutes, it'sgoing to go up on the screen.
It's
Jeremy Julian (24:01):
That's incredible.
That's awesome
Can Ipekci (24:03):
quite nice.
Yeah, it's quite nicetechnology.
Jeremy Julian (24:06):
because from that perspective, People will talk
about digital menu boards evenin a quick service environment
and being able to make thosechanges I think being able to do
it in a full service venue.
I Continue to run into peoplegoing oh, why would I want to
have a digital menu board forsit down dining and to, to your
point, you want to be able to, Idon't say change behavior, but
at least make sure that peopleunderstand the offerings.
(24:28):
I know for myself, when I go outto a brand, I go out to the
cheesecake factory, I'm going toeat one of two things.
When I go out to OutbackSteakhouse, I'm going to eat one
of two things.
When I go out to any of thesechains, if I'm going to my local
restaurant, my local Vinny'sItalian, I always get the same
thing.
If I'm going to this otherplace, I always get the same
thing.
We continue to want to grow ourrestaurant businesses and bar
business.
(24:48):
We need to be able to movepeople through the menu
selection and have them orderingother things that might be
either more profitable or easierto produce or any of those kinds
of things.
So making that awareness,because sometimes in brands, I
don't even open up the menubecause I know exactly what I
want when I get there.
And so being able to change thatbehavior, do you have any
success stories from a brand ortwo and what changed from pre
(25:08):
Finch to post Finch and thatyou'd be willing to share with
our audience?
Can Ipekci (25:12):
one of the restaurants we have in San
Francisco, is using Finch appto, help the guests visualize
the daily special.
Because daily special is usuallysomething that, your wait staff
comes and says, okay, today'sspecial is, this and this,
cooked with this.
So it's, it's Really hard foryou to visualize what it looks
(25:34):
like.
It might, if it sounds tasty,you might order it, but, I
usually don't.
That's personal experience.
I usually go with the, menuitems.
But one of our venues is, theyare quite good with their,
iPhone photography.
So they prepare a plate.
They take a really nice, photoof it.
put it up on the screen andthen, it's, it starts, showing
(25:56):
on the screen.
So when the, when the guests aresitting there, waiting for their
waitstaff, they see the dailyspecial over there.
So when that conversationstarts, they have a point of
reference on what to expect,which was taken a few hours ago.
So it's not a stock photo of, ofthe special.
and Oh, this looks good.
(26:16):
it's increased the, it'sincreased the, daily special,
sales by more than 20%.
As per the venue owner, I don't,we don't yet have access to the
transaction data, but empiricalevidence says that it works for
them.
And that's something we aretrying to educate other venue
owners, as well.
Jeremy Julian (26:36):
Yeah, no, and I could see that being something I
know oftentimes, people willfood specials, on Monday it's
this and Tuesday it's that.
They have these specials on aregular basis, but I know well
run restaurants oftentimes willmake, whatever was left over
from last night, they'll turn itinto the special for the next
day.
Oftentimes whether that's aprotein or some of those things.
Unfortunately, if you don't sellit.
(26:58):
It ends up being waste a lot oftimes because you can only leave
it in the in the menu for soLong so being able to drive
that.
Can Ipekci (27:03):
Think of it the other way too.
Like it doesn't have to beleftover stuff.
there is a, there's a trend ofgoing to the farmer's market by
chef, getting whatever they findfor that day and be creative
with it.
think of it that way.
It's, it something unique,something for that night only
because, it might not show up inthe farmer's market tomorrow.
(27:24):
And, the, Restaurants owner, thechef wants to share that with
the, with the guests.
it's a powerful tool for that aswell.
Jeremy Julian (27:32):
and being able to communicate that digitally as
well as you know Just it changesthe because you can't print
menus.
You can't reprint menus on adaily basis But doing them on a
digital there's almost noincremental cost to Taking that
iPhone photo photograph, postingit up there with what the daily
special is.
I love that use case.
how do people learn more?
Tell me a little bit more aboutwhat the engagement would look
like if they were to reach outto your team.
(27:54):
is it, something that they canbe up and running, in 30 days,
60 days, what is that engagementlook like when they start with
your team and start to learnmore about what it is that you
guys are doing?
Can Ipekci (28:02):
first of all, it depends on the market there and
we currently operate in NewYork, San Francisco, Los Angeles
and Miami.
so as long as, they're in one ofthose markets, we do, we would
send, we would send one of ouraccount executives to the venue,
to talk a bit more about it.
and decide on where to, where todo the placements, etc.
(28:26):
And we usually install it inLess than a week if the venue,
if it's fits the venue schedule.
So we have a pretty quickturnaround times, advantages of
being a startup.
we can approve and install avenue in less than a week.
If they're in a market that wedo not operate yet, we do ask
(28:48):
their permission to reach backto them when we open that
market.
We want to launch four newmarkets in 2025, so hopefully
they'll be in one of those fourmarkets.
And again, they'll be the firstto have Finch in their venues
when we launch the market.
Jeremy Julian (29:08):
love the, I love the thought of it.
And again, I think you, you're,you using the example of kind
of.
Google and or Facebook orwhatever the, whatever we want
to talk about it at the end ofthe day, getting people to see
the items that we have to beable to change their behavior is
a huge piece of, of that.
last question.
I want to talk about, as far asthe tech where, what other.
And I know grocery, retail,cinema, theaters, like a lot of
(29:38):
them have been trying to get in,shopping malls have been trying
to get into this digitaladvertising space, where do you
see it growing most in both yourareas, as well as just some
other areas so that people canstart to think about it after
they've now gotten educatedabout what Finch is doing and
go, Oh, I see what they're doingthere so that they can start to
internalize it for themselves.
Can Ipekci (29:55):
Okay, one of the things that, we want to do is to
launch a really easy to, tostart, loyalty and offers
program.
we are about to launch a, B2Capp that is, that allows the
venues to advertise for anyoffer, let's say, free appetizer
(30:16):
in your next visit on the Finchscreens.
All the user needs to do is to,download, Finch app, claim that
offer.
And the next time they're in thevenue, they get there, they get
that offer.
So we want to increase the,visit frequency to the venue
because, at the end of the day,there are some very Low cost,
(30:36):
but high value items that, theguests appreciate and the venues
are more than happy to give awayfor free if they come back into,
sit down and have another dinnerthere.
So that is the, connecting the,connecting those digital screens
to the, user's phones is, is thenext step.
(30:57):
'cause at the end of the day,having.
Constant communication, allowingthe constant communication with
the customer is the holy grailof marketing.
that's what we are trying tosolve for as well.
And that applies to every kindof business.
I think the, in venue experienceis great, but you have to make
sure that you bring both newpeople and the, and the current
(31:21):
guests, back into the physicallocations more frequently and,
restaurants do not have theluxury of, doing e commerce,
yeah, they, they could do fooddelivery, but, It's not the
same.
if that's going to
Jeremy Julian (31:35):
its own fair share of problems as we've
talked to multiple guests in thepast about.
and, again, I think, you said itat the beginning of the show.
I think it's going to be, canbecome one of those things that,
You know 10 years from now we'regonna be like how did we not
have these screens to tell uswhat was going on?
and I see finch as one of those,opportunities to really change
the game what else have we notshared with the audience that
(31:56):
you think that They should thinkabout and they should be
learning about as they're eitherin one of these venues in these
cities where you guys are or Asyou guys are growing outside of
the current venues that you guysare in and they're starting to
think about You guys come into acity near them What other things
should they be thinking aboutthat you might not have shared
on today's show
Can Ipekci (32:12):
we shared quite a bit, but like it does, it does
make sense to be in a networkand at Finch we want to, we want
to, build a network of thesevenues.
To give the, give the smallbusinesses a fighting chance
against the, against the giants.
I think there's a realopportunity here.
(32:32):
Cause like these kinds of toolsare usually too expensive for
SMBs to buy.
But the giants are too slow toimplement them.
So the, everyone loses out, theguests lose out, SMBs lose out
and the giants lose out becausethey are slow to the market.
The opportunity we have withFinch is that.
If you join, the Finch networkas a small business, you get
(32:58):
access to these tools for free,at zero cost at a startup speed.
speed you couldn't, buy anywhereelse at a price that you
couldn't find anywhere else.
Jeremy Julian (33:08):
set it in a week from the time they come in and
do the venue.
you guys, if you guys can pullthat off, that's incredible.
Can Ipekci (33:13):
we are.
architecture to be able to dothat, basically.
Jeremy Julian (33:17):
Yeah, and again, we've talked about, guest
experience on the show being soparamount, ensuring that your
guests are getting the bestproducts that you produce.
You talked about this farmer'smarket idea.
I love that concept.
And it's like, how do we makethe guest experience as good as
possible?
Because at the end of the day,when you do that, you get repeat
guests coming back.
(33:38):
means that restaurants continueto succeed.
And I love that you guys havebuilt this.
I love that you guys arebuilding a network in these
different communities to trulyhelp these restaurants continue
to grow, which is why I lovehaving you on the show today.
Can Ipekci (33:48):
thank you very much for, thank you very much for
inviting me to the show.
would love to get in touch withany venues that are interested
in learning more about Finch.
our primary, our primary channelfor communication, with these
venues we found out isInstagram.
They love using Instagram.
So at Finch venues is ourInstagram account.
(34:08):
send us a DM or they can send usan email at hi at Finch now.
com.
So would love to learn moreabout what they need, what we
can do for them and hopefullyonboard them in less than a week
if they're in the right place.
Jeremy Julian (34:26):
I love it.
thank you very much forcontinuing to solve the problem.
Part of why the show exists isto help, small operators to not
make mistakes that ultimatelycost them too much money.
And they, it hurts their bottomline, hurts the guest
experience.
So I love what you guys aredoing.
I love the fact that so much ofthis stuff is getting digital.
So thank you for creating, thesolution to our listeners, guys.
Like I said at the beginning,you guys have got lots of
(34:46):
choices.
So thanks for hanging out withme today.
thanks Can for sharing thevision of what it is that you
guys are building and where it'sgoing and to our listeners, make
it a great day.
This is the RestaurantTechnology Guys podcast, helping
you run your restaurant better.
Jeremy Julian (00:12):
In today's episode, we are joined by John,
who is.
Building a digital mediaplatform for restaurants.
If our restaurant owners outthere aren't aware the digital
media network continues to hitretail all over.
I spent a decent amount of timetalking to different grocers.
And whether it's Walmart or it'sKroger.
(00:34):
They're all putting digitaladvertising within their stores
to try and drive some customerbehavior.
Can and his organization havecreated the exact same thing for
restaurants.
If you're not familiar with it,he and I go super deep into the
what and the why and the how,and his offer is coming to you
free.
If you guys are interested,they'll allow you to.
(00:58):
Advertise within the store.
Some of the items that you guysare looking to drive behaviors,
as well as sell some of the,screen time to other digital
advertisers to pay for theequipment and the installation
and such.
I would encourage you all toeducate yourself on digital
media.
And digital advertising withinyour venues because there's lots
(01:20):
of opportunities to not onlydrive the behavior you're
looking for within your guests,but also the ability to help
you.
Increase your margins on theitems that you're looking to
push in ways that youtraditionally might not have
thought about it.
If you're not familiar with me,my name is Jeremy Julian.
I am the chief revenue officerfor custom business solutions.
(01:41):
We write the north star point ofsale solution for restaurants
and multiunit restaurants,particularly.
Uh, I have spent over 25 yearsof my career in the restaurant
tech industry.
And love giving back.
And so these conversationscontinue to help inform the, uh,
the industry and help you guysnot make mistakes that others
have already made.
(02:01):
Enjoy the show.
welcome back to the RestaurantTechnology Guys podcast.
I thank everyone out there forjoining us.
As I say each and every time, Iknow you guys got lots of
choices.
So thank you guys for spendingsome time this week with me.
today we are joined by a guestthat, I'm excited for Can to
share a little bit about hisbackground, where the idea came
from, multiple time founders, Ilove entrepreneurial stories.
(02:22):
And so I'm going to, let Can,why don't you introduce yourself
to our group?
Who is Can?
where did you come from?
And then let's talk a little bitabout, what you guys are
building.
'cause I'm excited, and I thinkrestaurants are gonna be taken
back with, all of the stuff thatyou're doing.
'cause I think there's a lot of,runway for it.
And if people haven't alreadystarted, explored, it'll be cool
to talk through that.
But tell everybody a little bitof a story, your background,
(02:42):
where you came from and as wellas some of the stuff that you've
done in the past.
Can Ipekci (02:45):
yeah, sure.
first of all, thank you for thisopportunity, like really excited
to be here.
And this is actually my firstpodcast.
really excited about this.
I've been in the startupindustry in the last almost 20
years now, started with, somelocal startups in Turkey,
including, Groupon.
(03:06):
back there, that's where Ifirst, got to meet, hospitality
businesses, bars andrestaurants, as a business
partner.
and then, around 10 years ago, Imoved to the U S, worked on
startups again, and this time itwas mostly focused on, digital
out of home advertising, firston taxi tops, then in, sports
(03:27):
bars.
I'm familiar with the, with howthe advertising works.
And I was talking to a friend ofmine who's, who used to live in
San Francisco.
We were having, we were having aburger in a New York diner and
told him about the opportunitiesin the space.
And, he was like, why don't weStart a business around this.
(03:50):
And we started talking, westarted talking about how we
can, improve the margins of thebusinesses by, allowing them to
do better marketing at zerocost, build a marketing
operation, operating system forthese, venues, without charging
them through advertising.
we took the idea to, someinvestors.
(04:11):
They liked it, they liked theopportunity, and we launched
Finch almost a year ago, earlyJanuary last year.
Jeremy Julian (04:19):
Wonderful.
and I think by the time thiscomes around it'll probably be,
celebrating your, your one yearanniversary, which is, which is
incredible, especially in thestartup space, because, As
that's not easy tracking forthose, digging a little bit for
me, Can, about what is digitaladvertising even mean?
Because I think those thataren't in, in media and or in
advertising and in marketingdon't get it.
(04:40):
They're used to seeing either TVads or you see the Super Bowl
ads or any of those kinds ofthings.
You talked about your historywith, advertising on the top of
taxicabs.
But I think there's a veryunknown commodity that's out
there, which is the attention ofthe people that are already in
your venue.
So talk to me a little bit aboutwhat Finch is trying to solve
for, because I think at the endof the day, we are going to all
be hit with more and more ofthis type of, digital
(05:02):
engagement, in venues as wecontinue to expand and continue
to grow.
Can Ipekci (05:06):
yep.
Yes, we definitely will be if wecan help it basically digital
autofoam is Advertising that'syou have been used to on on the
buses on the billboards, on theside of the road on everything
you see outside now, it'sgetting digitized Significantly,
so like everything else andvenues has been a part of this
(05:30):
to venues have been usingdigital signage solutions for a
significant amount of time.
They had the digital billboardsin the in their venues
showcasing their offerings.
what we are doing at Finch isbringing these digital
billboards into the venues.
(05:52):
in a very cost effective manner,basically at zero cost, training
the venues on how to use themthe best, how to, improve their
margins, get the customers toget returned to the venue more
frequently.
so helping out with, retentionand revenue, their retention and
revenue.
And on the advertiser side, weare giving them, we are giving
(06:14):
the brands access to an audiencewho's sitting in these venues
for a significant amount oftime.
we are allowing them to be partof the conversation at the
table, basically.
Jeremy Julian (06:28):
I'd love to talk about what are people doing
today?
Because I think that all toooften, at least in my
experience, they're doing someform of advertising within the
venue.
You talked a little bit aboutdigital menu boards, but if I'm
at that, that sports bar, whatare they doing today to both
drive behavior and kind of talkto me about what is Finch
solving for lack of a betterterm?
(06:49):
Because I think at the end ofthe day, you're going to get a
lot of listeners that are like,I just have TVs and they're
playing the basketball game orthey're playing the football
game and.
I don't really care, but at theend of the day, I think
controlling the guest experienceis a huge piece of what we talk
about here on the show.
Often, whether that's throughthe digital app or that's
through advertising where that'sthrough menu selection or how
(07:09):
you're greeting your guests.
There's so many different waysyou're controlling the guest
experience.
What are people doing today whenthey don't have Finch?
What does it look like?
Talk us through just thestandard environment as to who
is a customer that you guysmight go in and be able to
change their world and turn itupside down if they do implement
Can Ipekci (07:24):
They are already, the venue owners are already
doing in venue advertising.
This is basically, they'respecial on the, in the front of
their, menu.
It could be flyers that they,they post up in the venue.
Showcasing, their menuhighlights, events they might be
hosting, and, there are, like,hundreds of, venues in Brooklyn,
(07:48):
where, in where I live, that hasall kinds of events.
These could be open mic nights,these could be, movie nights in,
in the venue, and they, Try toadvertise this, using, using
posters and other, costly,costly, both from a, financial
and, human resource, side,costly, solutions.
(08:08):
What Finch is doing is, puttingup a, a digital screen in the
venue.
Right next to the, screens thatare showing the basketball game.
And, that's, that game is,getting the attention of the,
that game is getting theattention of the, guests.
And right next to it, they'readvertising, hey, get, get 5,
(08:30):
drink special during the game.
It's, an engaging, piece ofcreative that promotes whatever
they want to promote, whateverthey want to test, like it's,
for a restaurant, it could be,showcasing their, best desserts.
you do not get, as a guest, youdo not get, the dessert options.
At the end of the meal, but youget ready for it while you are
(08:51):
eating you while you are hungryYou see that tasty tiramisu up
there And so when the wait staffasks for you, do you want the
dessert?
You are already primed to sayyes
Jeremy Julian (09:02):
Love that.
And so historically you, youtalked about it.
It was either point of purchase.
I've got a flyer, I've got atable tent, I've got a menu
insert and or it was somethingthat was a physical piece of, of
paper or a poster that wasposted on the board to try and
drive guest behavior.
You guys are flipping that alldigital.
and so before we go down, howcan you guys deliver this at
(09:24):
very little cost to the enduser?
For those that, that don't evenunderstand how to create a
digital ad that, that is goingto do these things, how hard is
it to go down that path?
Because if I'm not a graphicartist, I'm not one of those
people that understands how togo create these things.
I've got my menu guy that's beendoing my menus for the last 20
years.
I tell them I'm doing the newchicken sandwich special.
(09:45):
I'm doing the new tiramisuspecial.
They give me a, a flyer that Ican stick into my menu.
They get all of that.
as these things go digital,what, what and why, not even
why, because I think Iunderstand why as an owner or as
somebody that's running thisvenue.
How do we make it simple forthem to go create these
advertisements and they can dothem on the fly because they are
digital.
(10:05):
They are something that they cando and change as time goes on.
Can Ipekci (10:08):
that's actually one of the first feedbacks we got
from the cast the venue ownersbefore we even launched our
product that was their firstconcern like I don't have time
to create these or like it'sexpensive Great.
one of the first, features webuilt into, Finch was,
templates.
We now have, hundreds, if not,over a thousand templates for
(10:31):
everything from, any kind of,any kind of food items you might
think of, celebration, seasonalcelebrations.
Upcoming, upcoming games, trivianights, open mic nights,
everything we have.
Now you just go into the Finchapp, you search for what you
want to put up there, you seeprobably a few, templates that
(10:51):
match that, you edit the text onit, just like you would write
something on Instagrambasically.
And then, put it up to the, toyour screen in two minutes, less
than two minutes, probably onceyou get the hang of it,
Jeremy Julian (11:05):
Love that.
you talk about advertising or doyou have clients that are using
them for other things,celebrating a bartender that's
doing great, celebrating a guestthat's a regular, any of those
kinds of things, or is itprimarily just driving, driving
menu behavior, driving beveragebehavior, those kinds of things.
Can Ipekci (11:21):
the driving, driving menu behavior is the, most
common use case, but we do seedepending on the vibe of the
venue, we have seen, venues thatcelebrate the, birth, birthday
of a, of a regular, which.
it's a personalized.
it's a personalized experience.
we have seen the stuff, stuff ofthe month, stuff of the week,
(11:42):
engagements that these venuescreate.
So it's all, It's all possiblewith Finch.
We are, like, it's all up to,it's the screen, experience
belongs to the venue.
They can put up whatever theywant up there, and, we do see
very creative, use cases.
Jeremy Julian (11:57):
I could see that.
I remember years ago, I was in ataco place and it was a unique
taco place.
And they actually had theirTwitter feed on.
And if you tag their Twitter,your tweet could come up with a
picture of your sandwiches andthose kinds of things.
And it was interesting.
They ultimately had to take itdown because, they struggled
because there was no, there wasnobody gatekeeping what people
are posting.
And now it's showing up on a,on, on a venue and, on a digital
(12:20):
display within the venue.
Talk me through, how do you guysdeal with that?
how do you guys deal with peoplenot being able to hijack those
televisions and send stuff tothem?
again, I, I know that there'sstories out there of people
being able to hack into thesethings and display things.
how are you guys getting aroundthat?
Can Ipekci (12:34):
we work on a closed loop system, it's, basically,
our, hardware is tied to the TVsthat, we own and operate, so
there is no third party,reaching to these screens.
it's all comes to our server.
And luckily with the, with thisstage AI is in at the moment,
it's can really easily flag anytype of inappropriate content
(12:59):
and we do, we do, flag them and,we do take.
take it off is not the rightword.
We do not allow that kind ofcontent to go up.
and because the control is justwith the venue manager and, and
the people that they designate,but we still have that control
because a disgruntled employeemight.
(13:20):
something.
That was one of the concerns aswell.
the disgruntled employees thathave the control of the device.
And we do have those.
We do have those, safety checksin place for that kind of
behavior.
I haven't seen it yet, but it'sbetter to be safe than sorry.
So we built that.
Jeremy Julian (13:39):
Yeah.
and again, humans are humans andthey're going to do stupid
things from time to time.
And so that, that's a, that'salways something to safeguard.
And again, I think we'll go downthe path of how you guys are
paying for this.
One of the other thoughts Iguess I'm thinking about is do
you have the ability through theFinch app to display different
items on different TVsthroughout the venue?
I'm in the bar.
(13:59):
I want the bar specials to hit,but if I'm in the dining room.
It's showing the appetizers orthe tiramisu as you talked about
or is it all just broadcasteverything is on the same
because Again, I think you'regonna have customers that are
gonna ask these they've got twodifferent, parts of their venue
That might be a little bitdifferent.
how is it that how is it thatyou guys?
able are able to give them theAbility to say something
(14:21):
different on the differentscreens throughout the venue.
Can Ipekci (14:23):
so currently it's a bit hacky.
That's a feature we are workingon, designated different,
different, places in the venueto show different content.
Currently, what we do isbasically create a duplicate of
the venue, as if it was a newvenue and assign the TVs to
different places.
So if they really need it, wehave ways of doing it, but we
(14:44):
are working on streamlining it.
Jeremy Julian (14:47):
I Love that.
Can talk me through how can youdo this at very little cost to
the operators because I thinkyou know You keep you've said
zero cost a couple of times andI know every time that we say
that People go, yeah, it's toogood to be true.
Help me understand how it isthat you guys are doing that.
Because I think part of yourmonetization strategy is not
necessarily different.
It's just, it's not necessarilyblack and white through what
(15:09):
you've shared so far.
So explain to me how you guys doit at little or no cost to, to
the operators or no cost, likeyou keep saying,
Can Ipekci (15:16):
it's not rocket science because, think of it
this way.
The internet as we know it, It'sfree, like every product that
you use, Google, Facebook,Instagram, whatever you use is
free to the end user.
because there are people, thereare brands who's willing to pay
(15:37):
a premium to appear on yourfeed, appear on a small part of
your screen.
think of it that way.
there are advertisers, there arebrands who are willing to reach
To these audiences.
the guests in the bar isvaluable for them, so they get
to pay us for the privilege ofreaching out to these venues and
(15:58):
these guests in the venue so wecan make our products for free.
Just like the Google does it forthe rest of the internet.
Jeremy Julian (16:05):
so help me understand if I'm a, how much
control do I have over thoseadvertisers that are showing up
in my feed?
Again, you and I talked pre showabout what percentage of the
advertising is your own contentversus how much of it you guys
are selling out to advertisers.
I guess first, let's talkthrough what is that ratio and
how does that exactly work andthen.
Okay.
Me as a venue owner, if I'mexclusive to Coca Cola, you
(16:27):
definitely don't want Pepsi adsshowing up in, in your venue
because that'd be really bad.
sure, some of our listenersprobably saw the, the Pepsi
commercials with the, with thesports cars running up to
different, well known cookplacesand doing that.
But help me understand, how isit, how as a venue owner, how as
a operator do I deal with that?
Can Ipekci (16:44):
we do, first of all, we do not accept, ads from
potential competitors, likeother local businesses that are
in the, in the hospitalitybusiness, that's one thing they
have been really serious about.
the biggest coffee chain in theU.
S.
in the world, has beenadvertising with us.
And there have been a couple ofvenues that, that highlight
(17:08):
their coffees, did not wantthat.
They can reach out to us likethey can reach out to us and, we
take it down.
that's not, that's not, Thingthat we encourage because at the
end of the day, we need to be asustainable business but if the
venue, if the venue reallythinks that an ad is not fit for
(17:29):
that venue for competitivereasons for Political reasons we
have been through a An electioncycle where, we had, politicians
as our advertisers and somevenues were not okay with it,
and it's their rights.
we don't, they say we don'twant, politics in this venue.
and we say, okay, we, and wetake it down.
We hit a revenue hit.
(17:50):
But at the end of the day, theyknow their audience the best and
if their audience is going to beturned off by these ads, we
don't want that.
Jeremy Julian (18:00):
You want to give them control of that, which
makes sense.
And I think that's one of thosethings that I know I, we were,
we do business with a group thatdoes have some digital
advertising within their stores,but they happen to be a faith
based organization and theydon't want alcohol and drugs in,
in their venues.
So they would want to turn thatoff.
You say it's free.
Do you guys supply all of thehardware and the cabling and the
electricity?
(18:20):
obviously not the electricity.
They, the venue needs to dothat.
Is that something that you guyshelp offset those costs to get
them installed?
walk me through, what does anengagement look like if I'm a
potential venue and I've got, Iwant to put in six digital
advertisement, screens, or is itjust a single one?
Talk me through I'm one of thosepeople that's sitting out here
going.
All right.
I want to give Can a chance.
let's go figure out how to makethis happen.
(18:40):
What does that look like?
And how does that work?
Can Ipekci (18:42):
the first thing we do, like even when we are, in
the, in the early talks with thevenue is to, scout out the best
locations to put those screensin, because we want them to be
in impactful places where, theguests could see them and,
engage with them.
because we do supply, everypiece of hardware, the
(19:04):
installation and the softwarefor free.
what we ask, from the venue isthe electricity and internet.
Basically that's all they haveto do.
We do everything else for them.
We, if there's any issue withthe, issue with the screens, we
go back and fix them.
if, someone throws a bottle atthem again, never happened yet,
(19:25):
but
Jeremy Julian (19:25):
It will.
Can Ipekci (19:26):
okay, let's say tonight, hopefully, but it's
probably well, When, when thathappens, we'll be replacing the
TV the next day for free again.
Jeremy Julian (19:35):
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jen you talked about the factthat that the Patrons themselves
or the restaurant venue has theability to do their own
(20:17):
advertising.
What is that mix?
Is it 90 advertising and 10?
Restaurant items that they'retrying to drive the tiramisu
What you know what is the mixand how much of those screens
that you guys are giving themfor free?
Do they have control over versushow much of it is paid via
advertising?
Can Ipekci (20:33):
70 percent of the screen time belongs to the
venue.
it is the advertising is at most30 percent.
it's, usually not even that atthe moment.
we are in early stages, but wefound that to be a sweet spot
because like we don't want, wedon't want advertising to be the
prominent thing on those screensbecause we want those screens to
(20:55):
have a utility.
first of all, we don't, likeeven though we make our money
off of advertising, we knowthat, for this to be valuable
for the venue, they need to havethe majority of the content.
So 70 30 is the sweet spot thatwe found.
Jeremy Julian (21:13):
Love that.
and as a restaurant owner, Ithink I would want to be able to
control that have you guysgotten to multi units where they
A restaurant owner has three orfour four different restaurants
that they're advertising withfinch at this point And if so,
how have you guys dealt with it?
Is it all solely at the unitlevel?
Or do they have the ability toshare some of the content across
the different?
venues in the brand
Can Ipekci (21:33):
so it is, we do have some, owners who own multiple,
multiple venues.
Even if it's not the, if it'sthe same brand, they have the
ability to and share the contentthey created for one menu to the
others.
it's, it is not like we don'thave a, this a bit too
technical, but we don't have amulti tenant system yet.
(21:55):
the best way to do it is toexport and, re import.
So ads.
another minute to the process ifthey want to edit to another
venue.
yeah, we do support that and wedo have, such, such venues.
We don't, we are not in, we arenot in, franchises yet or,
bigger chains and we do notforesee that we'll be in them in
(22:17):
the near future.
Jeremy Julian (22:18):
that makes sense.
so I'm a restaurant manager.
I'm a restaurant owner.
I'm a venue owner You've talkedabout it a couple of times and I
want to go place an ad up on thescreen It's Friday night.
The game just got canceled.
Now.
I'm gonna give them half offwings Is that even possible to
do and again?
I'm just you know, everybodycame in for the game gets rained
out Now I want to keep themthere and I want to place an ad.
(22:38):
Is it something that I can dothat real time where I can throw
up an ad for half price wings orwhatever?
Talk me through what thatprocess even looks like young
Can because i'd love to Simplifyit for these restaurant
operators because oftentimes asyou said in the beginning people
are like, ah, I got too much todo I don't want to be a graphic
artist.
I don't know how to do all ofthis stuff To your commentary
(22:59):
and some of the early successthat you guys have had it's
driving some crazy behavior soi'd love to Walk through even
hey, I come up with an idea.
It's Friday night The game getsrained out and now I want to
keep people here drinking andeating And I want to go throw a
special up there.
What would it take for somebodyto do that?
Can Ipekci (23:13):
Okay, I'll actually tweak the experience a bit.
Let's say the local team won.
instead of the game raining out,let's think about happy
scenarios.
The local team won.
and then you are feelinggenerous.
You want to keep your guests in,celebrate there.
you take your phone out.
You launch the Finch app.
(23:35):
you want to give, half of wings.
So you search for, wings in theapp, in the template library
that we have.
You pick one of the templatesthat we have.
You write 50 percent of wingstonight.
You set it to go liveimmediately, and you can put an
expiration date on it, untilmidnight, let's say.
You push a button.
(23:56):
in less than two minutes, it'sgoing to go up on the screen.
It's
Jeremy Julian (24:01):
That's incredible.
That's awesome
Can Ipekci (24:03):
quite nice.
Yeah, it's quite nicetechnology.
Jeremy Julian (24:06):
because from that perspective, People will talk
about digital menu boards evenin a quick service environment
and being able to make thosechanges I think being able to do
it in a full service venue.
I Continue to run into peoplegoing oh, why would I want to
have a digital menu board forsit down dining and to, to your
point, you want to be able to, Idon't say change behavior, but
at least make sure that peopleunderstand the offerings.
(24:28):
I know for myself, when I go outto a brand, I go out to the
cheesecake factory, I'm going toeat one of two things.
When I go out to OutbackSteakhouse, I'm going to eat one
of two things.
When I go out to any of thesechains, if I'm going to my local
restaurant, my local Vinny'sItalian, I always get the same
thing.
If I'm going to this otherplace, I always get the same
thing.
We continue to want to grow ourrestaurant businesses and bar
business.
(24:48):
We need to be able to movepeople through the menu
selection and have them orderingother things that might be
either more profitable or easierto produce or any of those kinds
of things.
So making that awareness,because sometimes in brands, I
don't even open up the menubecause I know exactly what I
want when I get there.
And so being able to change thatbehavior, do you have any
success stories from a brand ortwo and what changed from pre
(25:08):
Finch to post Finch and thatyou'd be willing to share with
our audience?
Can Ipekci (25:12):
one of the restaurants we have in San
Francisco, is using Finch appto, help the guests visualize
the daily special.
Because daily special is usuallysomething that, your wait staff
comes and says, okay, today'sspecial is, this and this,
cooked with this.
So it's, it's Really hard foryou to visualize what it looks
(25:34):
like.
It might, if it sounds tasty,you might order it, but, I
usually don't.
That's personal experience.
I usually go with the, menuitems.
But one of our venues is, theyare quite good with their,
iPhone photography.
So they prepare a plate.
They take a really nice, photoof it.
put it up on the screen andthen, it's, it starts, showing
(25:56):
on the screen.
So when the, when the guests aresitting there, waiting for their
waitstaff, they see the dailyspecial over there.
So when that conversationstarts, they have a point of
reference on what to expect,which was taken a few hours ago.
So it's not a stock photo of, ofthe special.
and Oh, this looks good.
(26:16):
it's increased the, it'sincreased the, daily special,
sales by more than 20%.
As per the venue owner, I don't,we don't yet have access to the
transaction data, but empiricalevidence says that it works for
them.
And that's something we aretrying to educate other venue
owners, as well.
Jeremy Julian (26:36):
Yeah, no, and I could see that being something I
know oftentimes, people willfood specials, on Monday it's
this and Tuesday it's that.
They have these specials on aregular basis, but I know well
run restaurants oftentimes willmake, whatever was left over
from last night, they'll turn itinto the special for the next
day.
Oftentimes whether that's aprotein or some of those things.
Unfortunately, if you don't sellit.
(26:58):
It ends up being waste a lot oftimes because you can only leave
it in the in the menu for soLong so being able to drive
that.
Can Ipekci (27:03):
Think of it the other way too.
Like it doesn't have to beleftover stuff.
there is a, there's a trend ofgoing to the farmer's market by
chef, getting whatever they findfor that day and be creative
with it.
think of it that way.
It's, it something unique,something for that night only
because, it might not show up inthe farmer's market tomorrow.
(27:24):
And, the, Restaurants owner, thechef wants to share that with
the, with the guests.
it's a powerful tool for that aswell.
Jeremy Julian (27:32):
and being able to communicate that digitally as
well as you know Just it changesthe because you can't print
menus.
You can't reprint menus on adaily basis But doing them on a
digital there's almost noincremental cost to Taking that
iPhone photo photograph, postingit up there with what the daily
special is.
I love that use case.
how do people learn more?
Tell me a little bit more aboutwhat the engagement would look
like if they were to reach outto your team.
(27:54):
is it, something that they canbe up and running, in 30 days,
60 days, what is that engagementlook like when they start with
your team and start to learnmore about what it is that you
guys are doing?
Can Ipekci (28:02):
first of all, it depends on the market there and
we currently operate in NewYork, San Francisco, Los Angeles
and Miami.
so as long as, they're in one ofthose markets, we do, we would
send, we would send one of ouraccount executives to the venue,
to talk a bit more about it.
and decide on where to, where todo the placements, etc.
(28:26):
And we usually install it inLess than a week if the venue,
if it's fits the venue schedule.
So we have a pretty quickturnaround times, advantages of
being a startup.
we can approve and install avenue in less than a week.
If they're in a market that wedo not operate yet, we do ask
(28:48):
their permission to reach backto them when we open that
market.
We want to launch four newmarkets in 2025, so hopefully
they'll be in one of those fourmarkets.
And again, they'll be the firstto have Finch in their venues
when we launch the market.
Jeremy Julian (29:08):
love the, I love the thought of it.
And again, I think you, you're,you using the example of kind
of.
Google and or Facebook orwhatever the, whatever we want
to talk about it at the end ofthe day, getting people to see
the items that we have to beable to change their behavior is
a huge piece of, of that.
last question.
I want to talk about, as far asthe tech where, what other.
And I know grocery, retail,cinema, theaters, like a lot of
(29:38):
them have been trying to get in,shopping malls have been trying
to get into this digitaladvertising space, where do you
see it growing most in both yourareas, as well as just some
other areas so that people canstart to think about it after
they've now gotten educatedabout what Finch is doing and
go, Oh, I see what they're doingthere so that they can start to
internalize it for themselves.
Can Ipekci (29:55):
Okay, one of the things that, we want to do is to
launch a really easy to, tostart, loyalty and offers
program.
we are about to launch a, B2Capp that is, that allows the
venues to advertise for anyoffer, let's say, free appetizer
(30:16):
in your next visit on the Finchscreens.
All the user needs to do is to,download, Finch app, claim that
offer.
And the next time they're in thevenue, they get there, they get
that offer.
So we want to increase the,visit frequency to the venue
because, at the end of the day,there are some very Low cost,
(30:36):
but high value items that, theguests appreciate and the venues
are more than happy to give awayfor free if they come back into,
sit down and have another dinnerthere.
So that is the, connecting the,connecting those digital screens
to the, user's phones is, is thenext step.
(30:57):
'cause at the end of the day,having.
Constant communication, allowingthe constant communication with
the customer is the holy grailof marketing.
that's what we are trying tosolve for as well.
And that applies to every kindof business.
I think the, in venue experienceis great, but you have to make
sure that you bring both newpeople and the, and the current
(31:21):
guests, back into the physicallocations more frequently and,
restaurants do not have theluxury of, doing e commerce,
yeah, they, they could do fooddelivery, but, It's not the
same.
if that's going to
Jeremy Julian (31:35):
its own fair share of problems as we've
talked to multiple guests in thepast about.
and, again, I think, you said itat the beginning of the show.
I think it's going to be, canbecome one of those things that,
You know 10 years from now we'regonna be like how did we not
have these screens to tell uswhat was going on?
and I see finch as one of those,opportunities to really change
the game what else have we notshared with the audience that
(31:56):
you think that They should thinkabout and they should be
learning about as they're eitherin one of these venues in these
cities where you guys are or Asyou guys are growing outside of
the current venues that you guysare in and they're starting to
think about You guys come into acity near them What other things
should they be thinking aboutthat you might not have shared
on today's show
Can Ipekci (32:12):
we shared quite a bit, but like it does, it does
make sense to be in a networkand at Finch we want to, we want
to, build a network of thesevenues.
To give the, give the smallbusinesses a fighting chance
against the, against the giants.
I think there's a realopportunity here.
(32:32):
Cause like these kinds of toolsare usually too expensive for
SMBs to buy.
But the giants are too slow toimplement them.
So the, everyone loses out, theguests lose out, SMBs lose out
and the giants lose out becausethey are slow to the market.
The opportunity we have withFinch is that.
If you join, the Finch networkas a small business, you get
(32:58):
access to these tools for free,at zero cost at a startup speed.
speed you couldn't, buy anywhereelse at a price that you
couldn't find anywhere else.
Jeremy Julian (33:08):
set it in a week from the time they come in and
do the venue.
you guys, if you guys can pullthat off, that's incredible.
Can Ipekci (33:13):
we are.
architecture to be able to dothat, basically.
Jeremy Julian (33:17):
Yeah, and again, we've talked about, guest
experience on the show being soparamount, ensuring that your
guests are getting the bestproducts that you produce.
You talked about this farmer'smarket idea.
I love that concept.
And it's like, how do we makethe guest experience as good as
possible?
Because at the end of the day,when you do that, you get repeat
guests coming back.
(33:38):
means that restaurants continueto succeed.
And I love that you guys havebuilt this.
I love that you guys arebuilding a network in these
different communities to trulyhelp these restaurants continue
to grow, which is why I lovehaving you on the show today.
Can Ipekci (33:48):
thank you very much for, thank you very much for
inviting me to the show.
would love to get in touch withany venues that are interested
in learning more about Finch.
our primary, our primary channelfor communication, with these
venues we found out isInstagram.
They love using Instagram.
So at Finch venues is ourInstagram account.
(34:08):
send us a DM or they can send usan email at hi at Finch now.
com.
So would love to learn moreabout what they need, what we
can do for them and hopefullyonboard them in less than a week
if they're in the right place.
Jeremy Julian (34:26):
I love it.
thank you very much forcontinuing to solve the problem.
Part of why the show exists isto help, small operators to not
make mistakes that ultimatelycost them too much money.
And they, it hurts their bottomline, hurts the guest
experience.
So I love what you guys aredoing.
I love the fact that so much ofthis stuff is getting digital.
So thank you for creating, thesolution to our listeners, guys.
Like I said at the beginning,you guys have got lots of
(34:46):
choices.
So thanks for hanging out withme today.
thanks Can for sharing thevision of what it is that you
guys are building and where it'sgoing and to our listeners, make
it a great day.
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