December 16, 2024 • 34 mins
In this episode of the Restaurant Technology Guys podcast, Jeremy Julian, Chief Revenue Officer of Custom Business Solutions, is joined by Jeff Porter and Ryan Burhorn, co-founders of RAD, a next-generation analytics platform designed for restaurant operators. Their guest, James McGee, CFO and franchisee at Dave's Hot Chicken, shares insights into how RAD helps the rapidly growing brand make data-driven decisions that improve guest and employee experiences. The discussion covers RAD's innovative approach to providing actionable insights from existing data systems, the importance of understanding financial versus productivity metrics, and the critical role of customer sentiment. The episode highlights RAD's customized analytics solutions and how they help franchisees enhance their return on investment while maintaining consistent, high-quality service in a scalable manner.
00:00 Introduction to Today's Episode
01:00 Meet the Co-Founders of Rad
02:00 Introducing James McGee from Dave's Hot Chicken
02:20 The Genesis of Rad
03:24 Rad's Approach to Data Analytics
05:51 Holistic Data Analysis in Restaurants
08:03 James McGee's Journey and Dave's Hot Chicken
09:48 Actionable Data and Productivity Metrics
13:42 Engaging Franchisees with Rad
26:16 Future of Rad and Restaurant Analytics
30:46 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
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 restaurantbetter.
Jeremy (00:14):
In today's episode, we are joined by the co-founders of
rad, rad as a next generationplatform that allows restaurant
operators.
To create actionable data fromthe tools that they already have
within their environment.
Jeff and Ryan are one of a kindin the way that they tackle the
data and really solve things forpeople.
(00:36):
They also were able to bring onone of their clients, James
McGee, from Dave's hot chicken.
If you're not familiar withtheir brand.
James talks quite a bit aboutwho they are and what they do,
where they came about.
James was audio is a little bitrough.
I did what I could to clean itup.
But, hope you enjoy the show.
If you don't know me.
My name is Jeremy Julian.
I am the chief revenue officerfor custom business solutions.
(00:59):
We do restaurant point of salefor multiunit restaurants.
Check us www.Cbsnorthstar.com.
Jeremy Julian (01:05):
Welcome back to the restaurant technology guys
podcast.
I thank everyone out there forjoining us.
as I say each and every time, Iknow you guys got lots of
choices.
So thanks for hanging out today.
I am joined by a couple of cofounders and one of their
brands.
And so I'm going to start with,Jeff, why don't you introduce
yourself?
And then we can go around thehorn and let everybody know who
all is on the recording, andthen we can talk a little bit
about, about the product thatyou guys built and.
(01:27):
Why it's solving so many awesomeproblems.
James McGehee (01:29):
at Dave's Hot Chicken.
Uh, I also co founded an
Jeff Porter (01:30):
Okay.
Great, thanks.
My name is Jeff Porter.
I am the COO of Rad RestaurantAnalytics delivered.
Ryan and I are the founders ofthis company, and we're excited
to chat.
Jeremy Julian (01:41):
Awesome.
How about you, Ryan?
You want to, you want to takethat other co founder moniker
over and talk a little bit aboutyourself?
Ryan Burhorn (01:47):
Yeah, sure.
Thanks, Jeremy.
I'm Ryan Burhorn.
I am other co founder of rad andcurrently acting as the CEO.
So
Jeremy Julian (01:56):
Awesome.
And you guys chose to bring oneof your amazing customers.
And ironically, I knew thiscustomer before I met you guys.
And I, obviously know theproduct, but, but James, you're
facing and a name that I know alot of people around the
industry.
I'll know, but why don't youintroduce yourself and talk a
little bit about what you get todo before we jump into rad and,
and why rad exists.
James McGehee (02:14):
Absolutely.
Nice to see you guys.
James McGee, he's CFO over atDave's Hot Chicken.
I also co founded an advisorygroup, Results Crew Strategy,
about 18 years ago.
outside of being the CFO over atDave's, I'm also a franchisee.
Jeremy Julian (02:30):
not know
James McGehee (02:30):
I get
Jeremy Julian (02:31):
pretty cool.
That's awesome.
so Jeff, I'm going to, I'm goingto start with you.
Talk to me a little bit aboutrad.
besides the fact that it's likea 1980s, adjective that we used
to use for things.
where did rad come from?
Talk to me a little bit about,why does rad exist?
and, you and Ryan obviouslychose to step out on a limb and,
cause there's not enoughanalytics platforms out there.
There's not enough people thatare looking at data to do
(02:52):
things.
And you guys chose, chose to dosomething about it.
Jeff Porter (02:55):
Yeah, definitely partially came from the fact
that it's a great adjective fromthe eighties.
100%.
Ryan and I both come from abackground that's rich in.
Um, data, working with data, andworking mostly in a consulting
fashion, we together saw theopportunity to, after many years
of rebuilding the same model,the, in a consulting capacity,
(03:19):
for restaurant and hospitalitygroups to take that expertise
that we had developed and createmore of an analytics solution.
That's very focused on theindustry.
And, rather than just.
Takes data and puts it in frontof people, actually helps them
make prescriptive decisionsaround them.
So that's the genesis of theidea and how we put it together.
Jeremy Julian (03:37):
Awesome.
Ryan, talk to me a little bitabout, because again, data, and
I've said this quite a few timeson the show, data, not analyze
data, not put into aprescriptive way to drive
business decisions, I don'twanna say it's worthless, but
it's, it does very little, whereI have seen others, not your
guys's product, but where I'veseen others as they throw a
whole bunch of stuff up on thescreen, but it doesn't
(03:58):
necessarily drive the behavior,it doesn't drive those things.
Talk to me a little bit abouthow you guys created a theory
that says Every data elementthat we have should really be
giving the user, the end user,that needs to be able to make a
business decision.
it needs to create some emotionfor them to do something.
Talk to me a little bit abouthow you guys think about that.
Ryan Burhorn (04:18):
yeah, absolutely right.
We have a saying that rad cutsthrough the noise, if you will,
right?
You're absolutely right.
In that there is a wealth ofdata out there.
in standalone, It can be, superhard to comb through.
We really sought out to build asolution, that is analytics
first in its approach, meaning,really a guided and directed
(04:41):
experience of not necessarilywhat you did, how are you
trending reporting, which isstill critical and we can
support, but really more ofthis, what should I be doing?
To differentiate ourselves andto, ultimately, honestly, have
that measurable impact on anorganization.
we aim to cut through the noiseand provide all levels of the
(05:01):
organization, the metrics thatmatter to them, and accessible
at their fingertips.
Jeremy Julian (05:06):
Yeah.
Haven't been in the restauranttech space, which is where James
and I had engaged, some close to20 years ago.
there's lots of different dataelements.
there's sales, there's labor,there's inventory, there's food
costs, there's staffing, there'sweather data.
There's so many different dataelements.
Talk to me really about whererad focuses, because again,
every one of those impacts, Iremember talking with a brand
(05:27):
that used to be right up theroad from Anaheim stadium and on
game days, the place was bombed,but the place, the traffic.
Changed on game days becauseeverybody wanted to be at the
store at 5 30 so that they couldget to the game by seven.
And then when the angels changedtheir game times to earlier,
they changed those theories.
And so sales, labor, all of ithas to come into play.
So talk to me a little bit abouthow you guys focus, because just
(05:49):
looking at sales, absence oflabor, absence of food costs,
absence of any of those kinds ofthings in a vacuum is really, I
guess short sighted if you'renot looking at it holistically.
Talk to me a little bit aboutkind of the theory before we
jump into kind of how Dave's hotchicken is using the data that
you guys are producing.
Ryan Burhorn (06:04):
For sure.
And you mentioned a word thereholistically, which is totally
key.
we have a, an offering in rad ifyou will, that we call our
opportunities matrix.
You can think of the big four ofwhat you were talking about.
Sales, labor, cogs, And guestsentiment being a key component
there.
each on their own, important tounderstand, but as you said,
(06:27):
operating in a vacuum.
The power of what we do isreally bringing that together,
in an in your face sort ofapproach.
The metrics correlated so thatyou can understand the
triangulation of how is guestsentiment impacting labor.
Vice versa.
How's labor impacting guestsentiment?
How is this all driving sales orperhaps, hurting sales.
(06:48):
So we really aim for again, thatholistic view, simple, easy to
use in your face.
But being able to make thosecorrelations, between the
metrics that matter the most.
Jeff Porter (07:01):
And I think an interesting thing to really add
in there is, we've alwaysunderstood and focused on the
fact that restaurant operatorsjob is not to understand data.
That is not their goal.
What we can do for them, in aworld where there's ever
increasing amounts of data, theplatform where they can.
Refine that information andunderstand and use it to make
(07:24):
decisions that help them engagetheir guests, give guests a
better experience.
that's always our drive.
Jeremy Julian (07:30):
and the funny part is, amongst all of us, we
probably have, somewhere closeto a hundred years of restaurant
experience and in a vacuum, whenyou look at it, you go, Oh, this
all makes sense.
Hey, I'm understaffed.
So guess what?
My guests are more frustrated.
But when you're, when you don'tlook at it in that holistic
manner, it makes it really toughwhere, cause you're like, Oh
yeah, that totally makes sense.
Hey, three people didn't show upfor their shift today.
(07:51):
We're going to deliver a crappyshift and that crappy shift is
going to, be impacted, whetherit be on guest sentiment, and,
or cook times are going to belonger.
My drive through times are gonnabe longer, whatever those items
are.
In a vacuum, it's very easy tosee.
But when you're running brandsthat have got hundreds of units
and you're trying to figure outwhy this store, the store that's
two miles away from the nextclosest store is not doing as
(08:12):
well, looking at data is how youcan get down to the bottom of
that.
And so I'm going to pivot hereto James.
James, how and when did we getinto running restaurants outside
of the consulting side?
Because, I had no idea that youwere also, running a restaurant.
Also a franchisee, that's a funstory.
I'd love to have you share withour listeners before we dig into
why, because you literally canhave the pick of the litter as
far as analytics tools.
(08:33):
And you obviously partnered withrad, but tell me a little bit
about the journey to being afranchisee,
James McGehee (08:38):
Yeah, it's a great question.
So I was, I've been veryfortunate to partner with
several different great brands,and several different great
ownership groups.
So if you take a look at myjourney, after starting our own
practice.
Results through strategy, what Irealized is that there was a
massive vacuum in the publicfractional CFO space.
(09:00):
I ended up partnering withdifferent private equity group.
Patterson Brentwood to name afew some great brands, like
Mendocino farms, pretzels,plates, pizza, and ultimately
with Dave pot chicken.
because of the like ownershipgroup with Wetzel's Pretzels
and, Blaze Pizza.
(09:21):
For me, I've been veryfortunate, right?
I've been here since store one.
just in the last five weeks,we've opened 17 stores.
and we're on track to open up100 stores next year, 100 to 110
stores next year.
And on a base of 260.
And that's all in a five yearperiod of time.
So we were very fortunate to getintroduced to Rad, through our
(09:46):
VP of IT, who had worked withthem over at Smashburger, and
what I saw was a product thatQuite candidly, 3 years ago was
probably is still a little bitraw, but they have the vision
for what the restaurant neededrestaurant industry needed.
And the 1 piece we haven'ttalked on, which I think is
really important.
(10:07):
Is there's 2 types of data,there's financial data and
there's productivity data.
Okay.
Financial data is an end result.
And has no actionable qualitiesto it.
Okay, I cannot affect the costgood sold percentage.
I can affect actual versustheoretical.
(10:27):
I cannot affect laborpercentage.
I can affect productivitymeasures like on phrase per
labor hour.
Okay, metrics that I can go fromregion to region, regardless of
type here.
Or timeframe to timeframe,regardless of things like
minimum wage increases, which inCalifornia.
We just went from 16 to 20 forlimited service restaurants.
(10:49):
And, you start looking at allthose different factors.
Rad had the vision to reallycombine all the disparate data
sources into productivitymeasures that were actionable
for operations, right?
How many hours of labor Ineeded?
How many cases, in my case, ofchickens I, that I'm missing.
(11:10):
I go through 26 million poundsof chicken a year now.
Jeremy Julian (11:15):
I, funny enough, I remember when Dave's first
came about and I had theprivilege probably 10 years ago
to go to the, some of theoriginal Nashville hot chicken
places in Nashville.
can you take 30 seconds forthose that may have been living
under a rock and don't know whatDave's hot chicken is?
Because, It does go into why youguys have been able to scale.
Because again, I've had peoplecause you guys have grown so
rapidly.
It's not like this brand that'sbeen around for 40 years where
(11:37):
everybody's gone there for, somebirthday dinner or some
something.
can you just give a 30 secondsnippet on where did Dave's come
from and how, and why has itgrown so fast before we jump
into why this is so critical?
Cause I love what you had to sayand I want to dig into
actionable data, but.
just for those listeners thatare like Dave's hot chicken.
What is Dave's hot chicken?
How did they get to 150?
I don't even know who they are.
James McGehee (11:57):
Is amazing.
I've never seen anything likeit.
I've been doing nothing elsebesides restaurant finance and
accounting for 31 years.
Okay?
This restaurant started at one,not even one unit.
We started in a parking lot withthree founders that literally
combined, had 900 bucks, andthey went to Home Depot, bought
a fryer, bought a table, boughtan easy.
(12:18):
And then borrowed their friends,family's parking lot, and had
some great.
support in the parking lot,moved to their first location
and at their first location, wefound them, which is the, the
management team and ownershipteam that's there today.
The founders, I give them allthe credit in the world.
They have a vision for thebrand, which is, spicy hot
(12:42):
chicken done in Tennessee style,which is basically you take a
fried tender, you dip it in oiland you apply a spice blend to
it.
Dave is a fine dining culinarychef.
he has worked in some of thebest restaurants.
He's a spice nerd by trade.
and he's done an awesome job ofmaintaining the brand.
(13:03):
Arman, one of our other cofounders, is an absolute social
media genius.
To put it in perspective, wehave more followers on Instagram
and TikTok than Chipotle has,and they have literally 3000
restaurants.
We have 230.
Jeremy Julian (13:22):
That's incredible.
James McGehee (13:23):
So yeah, it's been a juggernaut, but the
biggest piece of our growth isreally came from our literally
85 franchisees that are thewho's of franchisees.
These are all multi-unit.
groups with existinginfrastructures.
Managing other brands, So we'revery
Jeremy Julian (13:43):
and again, fast, casual walk up to the counter
and order, as well as many ofthe stores have a drive thru.
I know the original store didnot have a drive thru.
At least I don't believe it didwhen I went up to LA to go to
that first store, I think themajority of what you guys are
building are now.
So just, I wanted to give thatcontext for those that, that
aren't aware, James, I'm goingto dig in a little bit to your
comments about financial data,because all too often I hear
(14:05):
from operators that all thefinance people want to know is
what's my PNL going to be?
What's my labor percentage goingto be?
And.
I love that you take theopposite approach that says,
let's give the people that arein the stores that are helping
us make the money a different, adifferent metrics to strive for,
because you know what,ultimately those PNLs are a
(14:25):
result of their actions in thestores.
They're a result of the guestsentiment.
They're a result of what'shappening, not necessarily the,
they're the end result, notnecessarily the means how and
why have you gotten thatphilosophy over the last 30
years?
Because I think it's anincredible, incredibly
different.
purview that a lot of financialpeers don't think about.
And then let's talk a little bitabout how Rad helps you get to
(14:46):
those numbers.
James McGehee (14:47):
no, listen, I'm a.
An op support, that's what Icall our team.
literally our only job as asupport center at day is to
improve the return on investedcapital.
For our franchisee, plain andsimple, their only job, drive
sales, control constructioncosts, control time loss.
(15:09):
Okay.
That's it.
It's very simple.
Now, within that is store leveloperations.
within store level operations,what are we doing?
We're isolating opportunities.
Or our franchisees to figure outexactly where in sales they have
the ability to grow.
for instance, attachment ratesof drinks, third party delivery
(15:31):
percentage as a percent of totalversus their exact region.
These are all things that weapply within rad to make sure
that our franchisees know whereto look.
I'll give you one specificexample.
Our marketing, our Minnesotafranchisee, and they know this,
I'll call them out on it.
They literally only spent 0.
16 percent of third partydelivery on marketing.
(15:56):
Okay.
The industry average is actually4%, 5%.
Okay, so when we looked at theirthird party delivery percent of
total sales, it was only running19 percent versus our company
average, which is 26%.
And we immediately isolated anopportunity for that, so there's
(16:17):
so many other components withinrad that are, I'm going to call
it leading indicators that helpdrive revenue.
So right now we're focusing onemployee sentiment driving
customer sentiment driving salesgrowth.
Okay.
One of the big misnomers in ourindustry is that speed of
service, even with groups thathave drive throughs, is the
(16:39):
number one indicator of salesgrowth.
It's not.
It's actually customersentiment.
Okay?
Because at Dave's, we're made toorder and we're making sure that
every single bite of our chickenis piping hot and spiced to
perfection.
and it's a different mindset.
it's a
Jeremy Julian (16:56):
I was just on the phone with, I just had a, I just
released a podcast with DannyKlein from FSR, QSR magazine.
And he and I were talking aboutexactly that.
everybody wants to talk aboutdrive through times and guest
sentiment at Chick fil A isthrough the roof and their drive
through times are awful as, asfar as a total.
and again, I'm not saying thatit's awful because they're bad
operators, it's awful justbecause total time, because
(17:17):
they've got so many people andI, I'm sure they compete with
you guys, so it was less aboutbringing that up, but he and I
talked about the fact that theyset the bar for what people
expect and they are still waybeyond, in and out.
And again, another institutionin Southern California, they
also Amazing guest sentiment andtheir drive through times are
not the best.
And very much so looking at thatdata and then being able to make
(17:40):
some business decisions.
Ryan, talk to me a little bitabout how do you guys consider
what data elements you guysbring in?
Because, You've got to partner.
in my mind, it sounds like youguys partner pretty deeply with
the brand to understand who arethey and why are they trying to
get there before you just startthrowing data at them?
Because if you don't know whereyou're trying to get to, you're
never going to, you're nevergoing to find a way to help
(18:00):
them.
So talk to me about how you andJeff use, even your consulting
background and the things thatyou guys have done in the past
to consider that, because itsounds like that's part of the
DNA for rad is not just throw abunch of data up and say, here,
you guys go figure it out.
It's let me help you get towhere you're trying to get.
Ryan Burhorn (18:16):
Yeah, you're absolutely right.
And I think the genesis there isa bit from our consulting
background.
RAD isn't just a software thatyou install, that we walk away
from and hopefully you canfigure out.
RAD really is a partnership.
we've got, we're very blessedwith a great set of logos of
clients and what we've done isbuilt really what we consider a
(18:38):
strategic ecosystem, being ableto work with the brains like
James at Dave's, We continuouslybuild, not only our product.
But our overall offering, right?
We can take ideas that we'redeveloping together, to the
industry as a whole via ourother strategic client partners.
And that's really what we'resetting out to do here, right?
(19:00):
visionaries we hope on a missionto change the way that the
restaurant industry, consumesand interacts with its data.
a big part of it obviously isunderstanding their business,
right?
Dave's is different then anotherbrand that we work with,
obviously very similar in a lotof things, but on Dave's main
dashboard, you're going to see ametric there that is the
(19:23):
attachment rate of in addingcheese modifier, to chicken
tenders.
So operationally, they're veryinterested in that metric.
It's on their face, it's ontheir main operations dashboard.
and it's really a deepunderstanding of what's driving
their business.
Now, of course, holistically, weaim to get the enterprise of
data.
(19:43):
for all of our partners.
that's when data starts to tella story again.
It's that triangulation andcorrelation.
but it all starts with,obviously, what are they
selling?
understanding their business,the point of selling, getting
interactive with them.
and then, going from there, Iwould say, certainly, and you
guys were just touching on it.
guest sentiment, is that firstnext point of triangulation
(20:07):
after sales and labor.
and so from our perspective,that will be a key system that
we go after, but there is a keyunderstanding of their business
before we just start throwingthings, throwing things at
Jeremy Julian (20:18):
Yeah.
And just selfishly, James, sinceI've never ordered cheese on my
tenders, help me understandthat.
I there's, there actually is aDave's right next to my office.
So I'm there on a semi regularbasis and I don't get it, I look
at it and go, that's notsomething that sounds good to
me.
So I'd love to understand, andmaybe I just need to go try it
out.
Okay, gotcha.
It's all good.
I was
James McGehee (20:38):
And just so we're clear, only 17 percent of the
people add fees.
So
Jeremy Julian (20:43):
Okay, cool.
I just, I literally, I look atit and I go, I don't get it, but
it's all good.
Jeff, help walk us through whatan engagement looks like,
because I could see myselfsitting here as an operator
going, this sounds sooverwhelming.
You guys are going to move mycheese.
And so help walk me through.
What helping them move theircheese, not in a bad way, but in
a way that's going to ultimatelymake a material difference on
(21:04):
their guests and on theirbusiness looks like, because all
too often I run into operators,they hear about these fantastic
things and go, I love it.
And I don't know how, so make itsimple for me.
What does it look like to engagewith those brands?
Because I'm certain that's oneof your guys barriers to entry
in some of these places.
This, they don't want to do thehard work to change.
they're good with the metricsthat they created in 1996 that
(21:27):
seem to be working for them.
Jeff Porter (21:30):
Man, it is a trick.
and you are absolutely correct.
Ryan and I for years have dealtwith this when we talk with
people.
And, one of our very sort ofearly tactics with, this was
Here's everything right?
Like we'll figure it outtogether.
and ultimately that's not thesolution, right?
Like we have to come with a verystandardized set of.
(21:51):
Here's our rollout process.
Here's how we're quickly goingto show value.
Here's how we're going to handlesome of your blocking and
tackling reporting.
But more importantly, this isthe path to get you from I have
these five systems to I'mlooking at an opportunities
matrix within the four walls ofthe restaurant to tell me what
to do.
so our big focus in the lastyear or two has been, number
one, defining that standardizedpackage that answers 80 percent
(22:14):
of the questions.
number two, providing peoplewith the ad hoc tools that they
can use to self service answerthe other 20 percent of the
questions.
and then number three, adding onthat analyst as a service, thing
where we give the feedbackchannel from other partners and
help you develop the next gen ofprescriptive tools on top of
what we've already put together.
so that rollout process has beensuper critical for us,
(22:35):
standardizing it and Just makingsure we can engage people
rapidly and tell them, Hey,here's what you get as part of
this, as opposed to you have allthis, let's figure it out.
So big
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Jeremy Julian (23:47):
I love that you guys have found your way to
that.
Cause oftentimes I find, evenguests on the show, they create
the best tech in the world andit sits on the shelf because
they can't get operators tochange their way of doing
business.
And so helping walk them throughthat is, is really critical.
Jeff Porter (23:59):
Absolutely.
Jeremy Julian (24:00):
James, talk to me a little bit about how you guys
get the franchisees to, infranchise environments.
You've been around long enoughto realize that they never trust
what corporate's given them,especially when sales are down.
And so help me understand howyou take the data.
And every time I ask you aquestion, I feel like I get a
chuckle.
So for those that are watchingthis on YouTube, but at the end
of the day, this, they're allskeptical.
(24:20):
They all think that they have itfigured out.
They, a lot of the brands thatyou guys are working with.
Are in a place that they havedone it before.
They've done it with otherbrands that might be bigger than
Dave's.
So you're coming to them withsomething different.
Oftentimes, help me understandhow you get them to internalize
this and make better businessdecisions.
You use the example about yourMinnesota franchisee, just
earlier in the show.
James McGehee (24:40):
let's put things in perspective.
I have franchisees that up untiljust this year owned more
restaurants than Dave had in itsecosystem.
I have, great people like.
All until Carter, whose fatherstarted Carl's junior.
Okay.
So they have over 100 callsjuniors.
What am I going to do?
(25:01):
Tell them how to run theirbusiness?
Oh, not look.
Everybody's going to utilize thetool for the simple things like.
Sales and traffic and things ofthat nature, right?
It really comes down to showingthem how to leverage the tools
to help them improve.
And I'll get back to it.
Their return on investedcapital.
We gave an entire breakoutsession at our franchise
(25:23):
convention with 450 people.
They're solely focused onshowing them how to improve the
return on their.
investment to pay back 33percent faster.
Okay, and that resonates withour franchisees.
And by the way, so does ourcurrent return.
I mean, the reason
Jeremy Julian (25:44):
through the roof.
The volumes are through Theroof.
People are making money.
So that's good.
James McGehee (25:48):
are good, but what we have built is a system
that they can replicate over andover again.
And it's that consistency ofthat replication that gives them
the confidence to move faster.
Okay, even myself as afranchisee, I signed up for a 9
unit or 7 unit territory.
I've got 3 open, I've got the4th that I'm building right now.
(26:08):
I'm trying to expand myterritory, right?
I'm a great indicator becauseI'm actually a very conservative
finance person that's willing togo into doing things like
signing personal guarantees onleases because that's how strong
4 wall economic model.
Rad supports all of that throughour productivity metric.
Jeremy Julian (26:31):
I love that.
I'm going to ask Ryan, where isit going?
Where's rad going?
James would allude to the factthat, when they came on board
with you guys a couple of yearsago, you guys, maybe we're a
little bit raw.
You guys have had some reallydeep levels of understanding of
where we're at, but what's thenext phase for red?
is it just growth of differentrestaurants?
Is it different business models?
Help me understand where youguys are at and how you guys see
(26:53):
the future of analytics andreally predictive analytics that
are going to drive behavior.
Because part of why this showexists, part of why I do what I
do is I love the restaurantindustry.
It's given me and my family 30plus years of.
fantastic opportunities toengage with great people.
And I want to see restaurantssucceed.
Nothing pains me more than whena local restaurant in our
(27:15):
industry fails, whether it's abig brand, huge brand, national
brand that's struggling, or it'sthe local, watering hole that's
struggling.
I want to see people succeed andtools like Rad help people
succeed as James has beentalking about the whole show.
So where's it at and where is itgoing?
Ryan Burhorn (27:30):
Yeah.
honestly, where is it going?
our push and our belief andwhere we're driving development
efforts, our approach and ourconversations is really that
more simplified, prescriptiveapproach to the data, right?
And let's be honest, likethere's tools out there.
There's lots of buzzwords in theanalytic space of AI can solve
(27:53):
this, just stick this tool ontop of that data and this data
or whatever.
and see these insights, it, itall markets and sells well, our
belief is wholeheartedly that alot of that, the power there
truly is in the make cuttingthrough the noise, right?
As we talked about earlier,getting the data together into a
(28:14):
way that's really perfect builtfor reporting and analytics.
and so to enable some of the.
around words like prescriptive,you still need the wealth of
that data, but that's really ourapproach is more of a simplified
to the operator.
What are the things that I cando that will have a positive
impact on my business today,this week, and then ultimately
(28:36):
the longterm.
So Where we're going with that,right?
Again, is that prescriptivemodel around our opportunities
matrix, but really driving it tobe more exceptions based alerts.
So then an operator can have ontheir phone.
Hey, you hit X in entrees perlabor hour as your main
productivity metric that we knowthat we're driving that we've
(28:58):
built a culture around.
Your ideal is Z in your face.
You should be paying attentionto that.
So really more of this, guidedand directed exceptions based
alerting towards those, aprescriptive approach on those
productivity metrics.
of course, from there, there's.
lots of technology.
we've recently implementedthings inside of our tech stack
(29:21):
where we have enabled naturallanguage query searches, right?
So instead of needing to knowhow to build reports or,
whatever it may be, an end usercan have a business conversation
with their data.
What are the top 10 stores withthe highest labor opportunity
last week?
our tool enables that so thatsomebody can ask those types of
(29:42):
questions, see it in their facevery quickly and easily.
I would certainly welcome Jeffand James to chime in more, but
again, we really do see it.
Exceptions based alerts aroundproductivity metrics and just
making it easier, right?
The right metric in the righthand at the right times.
And the more we can support thatwith, enabling with technology
(30:02):
and features like natural querylanguage, is where we're taking
our offering.
James McGehee (30:07):
in
Jeff Porter (30:08):
there's a Ryan 100 percent right on the product
where we need to take it.
there's a cool component that'semerging right now for us to,
traditionally we've grownentirely by word of mouth and
now that we're at volume,there's this bigger feedback
channel between ourselves, thebrands we work with, or there's
starting to become a sense ofcommunity as well.
(30:28):
I think that's something I wantto see as nurture as we, so that
we can start having these peopletalk to each other and really
help them create, best to breedsolutions in their analytics
platform.
Jeremy Julian (30:38):
I love that.
and again, I know I gave, Jameskudos earlier, but, I love the
fact that he's one of thosepeople that's in your guys's
advisory group to help you guysdrive this product because he
thinks so different than many ofthe finance people that are in
his same space.
And not only is he an operator,but he's trying to create
something that's going to helpthe operators.
Get to the best place to be ableto drive those things.
(31:00):
So is there anything that wemissed talking about that you
guys want to make sure that,that our listeners here, James,
is there anything that you, youwent through that you're like,
Oh, I forgot to talk about this.
And you want our listeners tohear about when they, when they
go dig into the, to the ratopportunity.
James McGehee (31:13):
I think it's like anything else, the tool that you
can have the best tool if it'snot adopted by operations at the
store level, then it doesn'tmatter.
So I think the option of anytool, and I don't care if we're
talking about RAD or, customersentiment scrapes or anything
else.
It needs to be utilized at thestore level.
(31:34):
It needs to be mobile based.
It needs to be productivitymeasure based.
I can't stress that enough.
I've been talking about this fora guy.
So many years now.
but I really mean it.
and I think that it, there's astruggle in our industry.
Understand that the financialmodel is going to be very
(31:55):
dynamic.
Hey, California, right with a 25percent increase in minimum
wage.
Okay.
You cannot manage your laboranymore as a percentage of
sales.
That's okay, right?
At the end of the day, you gotto ask yourself, what is the
customer experience?
How do I support that customerexperience with productivity
(32:15):
measures?
and then more importantly, and Isaid this early, but I'll say it
again.
How do I push those, thecustomer sentiment all the way
back to employee sentiment.
Because I do think that's goingto be a really critical piece of
this going forward.
At Dave, we focus heavily onproductivity measures.
But the way we do it isn't bycutting labor.
(32:37):
We look at meaningful labor.
Okay, what do I mean bymeaningful labor?
Do you get value out of fillingsauce cups with Dave's sauce?
Or do you do that for in storeand you get packets for to go?
Okay, that's something at Dave'swe did.
Do we hire cleaning crews at theend of the night?
Because our cleaning crews, thelast time I checked, the last
(32:58):
thing our employees want to doafter a 10 hour shift is clean a
toilet.
Okay, so I'm heavily focused onmeaningful labor within the
restaurant industry and makingour employees lives better.
Jeremy Julian (33:12):
frankly is the problem that every operator that
I've talked to in the lastcouple of years has struggled
with is getting people in thedoor and keeping them there for
any length of time.
I love what you guys are doing,Ryan and Jeff, thank you guys
for creating this.
Cause again, for me, it's myfavorite to sit and listen.
And the fact that you guys wereable to bring James on who's not
only an operator, but also issomebody that endorses the
product has been awesome.
(33:33):
So thank you guys for your time.
Thank you guys for creating asolution that's making a
difference.
Thanks.
And the restaurants that youguys serve, James, thanks for
hanging out.
And, to our listeners, make it agreat day.
Thanks for listening to theRestaurant Technology Guys
podcast.
Visit www.
RestaurantTechnologyGuys.
com for tips, industry insights,and more to help you run your
(33:54):
restaurant better.
This is the RestaurantTechnology Guys podcast.
Helping you run your restaurantbetter.
Jeremy (00:14):
In today's episode, we are joined by the co-founders of
rad, rad as a next generationplatform that allows restaurant
operators.
To create actionable data fromthe tools that they already have
within their environment.
Jeff and Ryan are one of a kindin the way that they tackle the
data and really solve things forpeople.
(00:36):
They also were able to bring onone of their clients, James
McGee, from Dave's hot chicken.
If you're not familiar withtheir brand.
James talks quite a bit aboutwho they are and what they do,
where they came about.
James was audio is a little bitrough.
I did what I could to clean itup.
But, hope you enjoy the show.
If you don't know me.
My name is Jeremy Julian.
I am the chief revenue officerfor custom business solutions.
(00:59):
We do restaurant point of salefor multiunit restaurants.
Check us www.Cbsnorthstar.com.
Jeremy Julian (01:05):
Welcome back to the restaurant technology guys
podcast.
I thank everyone out there forjoining us.
as I say each and every time, Iknow you guys got lots of
choices.
So thanks for hanging out today.
I am joined by a couple of cofounders and one of their
brands.
And so I'm going to start with,Jeff, why don't you introduce
yourself?
And then we can go around thehorn and let everybody know who
all is on the recording, andthen we can talk a little bit
about, about the product thatyou guys built and.
(01:27):
Why it's solving so many awesomeproblems.
James McGehee (01:29):
at Dave's Hot Chicken.
Uh, I also co founded an
Jeff Porter (01:30):
Okay.
Great, thanks.
My name is Jeff Porter.
I am the COO of Rad RestaurantAnalytics delivered.
Ryan and I are the founders ofthis company, and we're excited
to chat.
Jeremy Julian (01:41):
Awesome.
How about you, Ryan?
You want to, you want to takethat other co founder moniker
over and talk a little bit aboutyourself?
Ryan Burhorn (01:47):
Yeah, sure.
Thanks, Jeremy.
I'm Ryan Burhorn.
I am other co founder of rad andcurrently acting as the CEO.
So
Jeremy Julian (01:56):
Awesome.
And you guys chose to bring oneof your amazing customers.
And ironically, I knew thiscustomer before I met you guys.
And I, obviously know theproduct, but, but James, you're
facing and a name that I know alot of people around the
industry.
I'll know, but why don't youintroduce yourself and talk a
little bit about what you get todo before we jump into rad and,
and why rad exists.
James McGehee (02:14):
Absolutely.
Nice to see you guys.
James McGee, he's CFO over atDave's Hot Chicken.
I also co founded an advisorygroup, Results Crew Strategy,
about 18 years ago.
outside of being the CFO over atDave's, I'm also a franchisee.
Jeremy Julian (02:30):
not know
James McGehee (02:30):
I get
Jeremy Julian (02:31):
pretty cool.
That's awesome.
so Jeff, I'm going to, I'm goingto start with you.
Talk to me a little bit aboutrad.
besides the fact that it's likea 1980s, adjective that we used
to use for things.
where did rad come from?
Talk to me a little bit about,why does rad exist?
and, you and Ryan obviouslychose to step out on a limb and,
cause there's not enoughanalytics platforms out there.
There's not enough people thatare looking at data to do
(02:52):
things.
And you guys chose, chose to dosomething about it.
Jeff Porter (02:55):
Yeah, definitely partially came from the fact
that it's a great adjective fromthe eighties.
100%.
Ryan and I both come from abackground that's rich in.
Um, data, working with data, andworking mostly in a consulting
fashion, we together saw theopportunity to, after many years
of rebuilding the same model,the, in a consulting capacity,
(03:19):
for restaurant and hospitalitygroups to take that expertise
that we had developed and createmore of an analytics solution.
That's very focused on theindustry.
And, rather than just.
Takes data and puts it in frontof people, actually helps them
make prescriptive decisionsaround them.
So that's the genesis of theidea and how we put it together.
Jeremy Julian (03:37):
Awesome.
Ryan, talk to me a little bitabout, because again, data, and
I've said this quite a few timeson the show, data, not analyze
data, not put into aprescriptive way to drive
business decisions, I don'twanna say it's worthless, but
it's, it does very little, whereI have seen others, not your
guys's product, but where I'veseen others as they throw a
whole bunch of stuff up on thescreen, but it doesn't
(03:58):
necessarily drive the behavior,it doesn't drive those things.
Talk to me a little bit abouthow you guys created a theory
that says Every data elementthat we have should really be
giving the user, the end user,that needs to be able to make a
business decision.
it needs to create some emotionfor them to do something.
Talk to me a little bit abouthow you guys think about that.
Ryan Burhorn (04:18):
yeah, absolutely right.
We have a saying that rad cutsthrough the noise, if you will,
right?
You're absolutely right.
In that there is a wealth ofdata out there.
in standalone, It can be, superhard to comb through.
We really sought out to build asolution, that is analytics
first in its approach, meaning,really a guided and directed
(04:41):
experience of not necessarilywhat you did, how are you
trending reporting, which isstill critical and we can
support, but really more ofthis, what should I be doing?
To differentiate ourselves andto, ultimately, honestly, have
that measurable impact on anorganization.
we aim to cut through the noiseand provide all levels of the
(05:01):
organization, the metrics thatmatter to them, and accessible
at their fingertips.
Jeremy Julian (05:06):
Yeah.
Haven't been in the restauranttech space, which is where James
and I had engaged, some close to20 years ago.
there's lots of different dataelements.
there's sales, there's labor,there's inventory, there's food
costs, there's staffing, there'sweather data.
There's so many different dataelements.
Talk to me really about whererad focuses, because again,
every one of those impacts, Iremember talking with a brand
(05:27):
that used to be right up theroad from Anaheim stadium and on
game days, the place was bombed,but the place, the traffic.
Changed on game days becauseeverybody wanted to be at the
store at 5 30 so that they couldget to the game by seven.
And then when the angels changedtheir game times to earlier,
they changed those theories.
And so sales, labor, all of ithas to come into play.
So talk to me a little bit abouthow you guys focus, because just
(05:49):
looking at sales, absence oflabor, absence of food costs,
absence of any of those kinds ofthings in a vacuum is really, I
guess short sighted if you'renot looking at it holistically.
Talk to me a little bit aboutkind of the theory before we
jump into kind of how Dave's hotchicken is using the data that
you guys are producing.
Ryan Burhorn (06:04):
For sure.
And you mentioned a word thereholistically, which is totally
key.
we have a, an offering in rad ifyou will, that we call our
opportunities matrix.
You can think of the big four ofwhat you were talking about.
Sales, labor, cogs, And guestsentiment being a key component
there.
each on their own, important tounderstand, but as you said,
(06:27):
operating in a vacuum.
The power of what we do isreally bringing that together,
in an in your face sort ofapproach.
The metrics correlated so thatyou can understand the
triangulation of how is guestsentiment impacting labor.
Vice versa.
How's labor impacting guestsentiment?
How is this all driving sales orperhaps, hurting sales.
(06:48):
So we really aim for again, thatholistic view, simple, easy to
use in your face.
But being able to make thosecorrelations, between the
metrics that matter the most.
Jeff Porter (07:01):
And I think an interesting thing to really add
in there is, we've alwaysunderstood and focused on the
fact that restaurant operatorsjob is not to understand data.
That is not their goal.
What we can do for them, in aworld where there's ever
increasing amounts of data, theplatform where they can.
Refine that information andunderstand and use it to make
(07:24):
decisions that help them engagetheir guests, give guests a
better experience.
that's always our drive.
Jeremy Julian (07:30):
and the funny part is, amongst all of us, we
probably have, somewhere closeto a hundred years of restaurant
experience and in a vacuum, whenyou look at it, you go, Oh, this
all makes sense.
Hey, I'm understaffed.
So guess what?
My guests are more frustrated.
But when you're, when you don'tlook at it in that holistic
manner, it makes it really toughwhere, cause you're like, Oh
yeah, that totally makes sense.
Hey, three people didn't show upfor their shift today.
(07:51):
We're going to deliver a crappyshift and that crappy shift is
going to, be impacted, whetherit be on guest sentiment, and,
or cook times are going to belonger.
My drive through times are gonnabe longer, whatever those items
are.
In a vacuum, it's very easy tosee.
But when you're running brandsthat have got hundreds of units
and you're trying to figure outwhy this store, the store that's
two miles away from the nextclosest store is not doing as
(08:12):
well, looking at data is how youcan get down to the bottom of
that.
And so I'm going to pivot hereto James.
James, how and when did we getinto running restaurants outside
of the consulting side?
Because, I had no idea that youwere also, running a restaurant.
Also a franchisee, that's a funstory.
I'd love to have you share withour listeners before we dig into
why, because you literally canhave the pick of the litter as
far as analytics tools.
(08:33):
And you obviously partnered withrad, but tell me a little bit
about the journey to being afranchisee,
James McGehee (08:38):
Yeah, it's a great question.
So I was, I've been veryfortunate to partner with
several different great brands,and several different great
ownership groups.
So if you take a look at myjourney, after starting our own
practice.
Results through strategy, what Irealized is that there was a
massive vacuum in the publicfractional CFO space.
(09:00):
I ended up partnering withdifferent private equity group.
Patterson Brentwood to name afew some great brands, like
Mendocino farms, pretzels,plates, pizza, and ultimately
with Dave pot chicken.
because of the like ownershipgroup with Wetzel's Pretzels
and, Blaze Pizza.
(09:21):
For me, I've been veryfortunate, right?
I've been here since store one.
just in the last five weeks,we've opened 17 stores.
and we're on track to open up100 stores next year, 100 to 110
stores next year.
And on a base of 260.
And that's all in a five yearperiod of time.
So we were very fortunate to getintroduced to Rad, through our
(09:46):
VP of IT, who had worked withthem over at Smashburger, and
what I saw was a product thatQuite candidly, 3 years ago was
probably is still a little bitraw, but they have the vision
for what the restaurant neededrestaurant industry needed.
And the 1 piece we haven'ttalked on, which I think is
really important.
(10:07):
Is there's 2 types of data,there's financial data and
there's productivity data.
Okay.
Financial data is an end result.
And has no actionable qualitiesto it.
Okay, I cannot affect the costgood sold percentage.
I can affect actual versustheoretical.
(10:27):
I cannot affect laborpercentage.
I can affect productivitymeasures like on phrase per
labor hour.
Okay, metrics that I can go fromregion to region, regardless of
type here.
Or timeframe to timeframe,regardless of things like
minimum wage increases, which inCalifornia.
We just went from 16 to 20 forlimited service restaurants.
(10:49):
And, you start looking at allthose different factors.
Rad had the vision to reallycombine all the disparate data
sources into productivitymeasures that were actionable
for operations, right?
How many hours of labor Ineeded?
How many cases, in my case, ofchickens I, that I'm missing.
(11:10):
I go through 26 million poundsof chicken a year now.
Jeremy Julian (11:15):
I, funny enough, I remember when Dave's first
came about and I had theprivilege probably 10 years ago
to go to the, some of theoriginal Nashville hot chicken
places in Nashville.
can you take 30 seconds forthose that may have been living
under a rock and don't know whatDave's hot chicken is?
Because, It does go into why youguys have been able to scale.
Because again, I've had peoplecause you guys have grown so
rapidly.
It's not like this brand that'sbeen around for 40 years where
(11:37):
everybody's gone there for, somebirthday dinner or some
something.
can you just give a 30 secondsnippet on where did Dave's come
from and how, and why has itgrown so fast before we jump
into why this is so critical?
Cause I love what you had to sayand I want to dig into
actionable data, but.
just for those listeners thatare like Dave's hot chicken.
What is Dave's hot chicken?
How did they get to 150?
I don't even know who they are.
James McGehee (11:57):
Is amazing.
I've never seen anything likeit.
I've been doing nothing elsebesides restaurant finance and
accounting for 31 years.
Okay?
This restaurant started at one,not even one unit.
We started in a parking lot withthree founders that literally
combined, had 900 bucks, andthey went to Home Depot, bought
a fryer, bought a table, boughtan easy.
(12:18):
And then borrowed their friends,family's parking lot, and had
some great.
support in the parking lot,moved to their first location
and at their first location, wefound them, which is the, the
management team and ownershipteam that's there today.
The founders, I give them allthe credit in the world.
They have a vision for thebrand, which is, spicy hot
(12:42):
chicken done in Tennessee style,which is basically you take a
fried tender, you dip it in oiland you apply a spice blend to
it.
Dave is a fine dining culinarychef.
he has worked in some of thebest restaurants.
He's a spice nerd by trade.
and he's done an awesome job ofmaintaining the brand.
(13:03):
Arman, one of our other cofounders, is an absolute social
media genius.
To put it in perspective, wehave more followers on Instagram
and TikTok than Chipotle has,and they have literally 3000
restaurants.
We have 230.
Jeremy Julian (13:22):
That's incredible.
James McGehee (13:23):
So yeah, it's been a juggernaut, but the
biggest piece of our growth isreally came from our literally
85 franchisees that are thewho's of franchisees.
These are all multi-unit.
groups with existinginfrastructures.
Managing other brands, So we'revery
Jeremy Julian (13:43):
and again, fast, casual walk up to the counter
and order, as well as many ofthe stores have a drive thru.
I know the original store didnot have a drive thru.
At least I don't believe it didwhen I went up to LA to go to
that first store, I think themajority of what you guys are
building are now.
So just, I wanted to give thatcontext for those that, that
aren't aware, James, I'm goingto dig in a little bit to your
comments about financial data,because all too often I hear
(14:05):
from operators that all thefinance people want to know is
what's my PNL going to be?
What's my labor percentage goingto be?
And.
I love that you take theopposite approach that says,
let's give the people that arein the stores that are helping
us make the money a different, adifferent metrics to strive for,
because you know what,ultimately those PNLs are a
(14:25):
result of their actions in thestores.
They're a result of the guestsentiment.
They're a result of what'shappening, not necessarily the,
they're the end result, notnecessarily the means how and
why have you gotten thatphilosophy over the last 30
years?
Because I think it's anincredible, incredibly
different.
purview that a lot of financialpeers don't think about.
And then let's talk a little bitabout how Rad helps you get to
(14:46):
those numbers.
James McGehee (14:47):
no, listen, I'm a.
An op support, that's what Icall our team.
literally our only job as asupport center at day is to
improve the return on investedcapital.
For our franchisee, plain andsimple, their only job, drive
sales, control constructioncosts, control time loss.
(15:09):
Okay.
That's it.
It's very simple.
Now, within that is store leveloperations.
within store level operations,what are we doing?
We're isolating opportunities.
Or our franchisees to figure outexactly where in sales they have
the ability to grow.
for instance, attachment ratesof drinks, third party delivery
(15:31):
percentage as a percent of totalversus their exact region.
These are all things that weapply within rad to make sure
that our franchisees know whereto look.
I'll give you one specificexample.
Our marketing, our Minnesotafranchisee, and they know this,
I'll call them out on it.
They literally only spent 0.
16 percent of third partydelivery on marketing.
(15:56):
Okay.
The industry average is actually4%, 5%.
Okay, so when we looked at theirthird party delivery percent of
total sales, it was only running19 percent versus our company
average, which is 26%.
And we immediately isolated anopportunity for that, so there's
(16:17):
so many other components withinrad that are, I'm going to call
it leading indicators that helpdrive revenue.
So right now we're focusing onemployee sentiment driving
customer sentiment driving salesgrowth.
Okay.
One of the big misnomers in ourindustry is that speed of
service, even with groups thathave drive throughs, is the
(16:39):
number one indicator of salesgrowth.
It's not.
It's actually customersentiment.
Okay?
Because at Dave's, we're made toorder and we're making sure that
every single bite of our chickenis piping hot and spiced to
perfection.
and it's a different mindset.
it's a
Jeremy Julian (16:56):
I was just on the phone with, I just had a, I just
released a podcast with DannyKlein from FSR, QSR magazine.
And he and I were talking aboutexactly that.
everybody wants to talk aboutdrive through times and guest
sentiment at Chick fil A isthrough the roof and their drive
through times are awful as, asfar as a total.
and again, I'm not saying thatit's awful because they're bad
operators, it's awful justbecause total time, because
(17:17):
they've got so many people andI, I'm sure they compete with
you guys, so it was less aboutbringing that up, but he and I
talked about the fact that theyset the bar for what people
expect and they are still waybeyond, in and out.
And again, another institutionin Southern California, they
also Amazing guest sentiment andtheir drive through times are
not the best.
And very much so looking at thatdata and then being able to make
(17:40):
some business decisions.
Ryan, talk to me a little bitabout how do you guys consider
what data elements you guysbring in?
Because, You've got to partner.
in my mind, it sounds like youguys partner pretty deeply with
the brand to understand who arethey and why are they trying to
get there before you just startthrowing data at them?
Because if you don't know whereyou're trying to get to, you're
never going to, you're nevergoing to find a way to help
(18:00):
them.
So talk to me about how you andJeff use, even your consulting
background and the things thatyou guys have done in the past
to consider that, because itsounds like that's part of the
DNA for rad is not just throw abunch of data up and say, here,
you guys go figure it out.
It's let me help you get towhere you're trying to get.
Ryan Burhorn (18:16):
Yeah, you're absolutely right.
And I think the genesis there isa bit from our consulting
background.
RAD isn't just a software thatyou install, that we walk away
from and hopefully you canfigure out.
RAD really is a partnership.
we've got, we're very blessedwith a great set of logos of
clients and what we've done isbuilt really what we consider a
(18:38):
strategic ecosystem, being ableto work with the brains like
James at Dave's, We continuouslybuild, not only our product.
But our overall offering, right?
We can take ideas that we'redeveloping together, to the
industry as a whole via ourother strategic client partners.
And that's really what we'resetting out to do here, right?
(19:00):
visionaries we hope on a missionto change the way that the
restaurant industry, consumesand interacts with its data.
a big part of it obviously isunderstanding their business,
right?
Dave's is different then anotherbrand that we work with,
obviously very similar in a lotof things, but on Dave's main
dashboard, you're going to see ametric there that is the
(19:23):
attachment rate of in addingcheese modifier, to chicken
tenders.
So operationally, they're veryinterested in that metric.
It's on their face, it's ontheir main operations dashboard.
and it's really a deepunderstanding of what's driving
their business.
Now, of course, holistically, weaim to get the enterprise of
data.
(19:43):
for all of our partners.
that's when data starts to tella story again.
It's that triangulation andcorrelation.
but it all starts with,obviously, what are they
selling?
understanding their business,the point of selling, getting
interactive with them.
and then, going from there, Iwould say, certainly, and you
guys were just touching on it.
guest sentiment, is that firstnext point of triangulation
(20:07):
after sales and labor.
and so from our perspective,that will be a key system that
we go after, but there is a keyunderstanding of their business
before we just start throwingthings, throwing things at
Jeremy Julian (20:18):
Yeah.
And just selfishly, James, sinceI've never ordered cheese on my
tenders, help me understandthat.
I there's, there actually is aDave's right next to my office.
So I'm there on a semi regularbasis and I don't get it, I look
at it and go, that's notsomething that sounds good to
me.
So I'd love to understand, andmaybe I just need to go try it
out.
Okay, gotcha.
It's all good.
I was
James McGehee (20:38):
And just so we're clear, only 17 percent of the
people add fees.
So
Jeremy Julian (20:43):
Okay, cool.
I just, I literally, I look atit and I go, I don't get it, but
it's all good.
Jeff, help walk us through whatan engagement looks like,
because I could see myselfsitting here as an operator
going, this sounds sooverwhelming.
You guys are going to move mycheese.
And so help walk me through.
What helping them move theircheese, not in a bad way, but in
a way that's going to ultimatelymake a material difference on
(21:04):
their guests and on theirbusiness looks like, because all
too often I run into operators,they hear about these fantastic
things and go, I love it.
And I don't know how, so make itsimple for me.
What does it look like to engagewith those brands?
Because I'm certain that's oneof your guys barriers to entry
in some of these places.
This, they don't want to do thehard work to change.
they're good with the metricsthat they created in 1996 that
(21:27):
seem to be working for them.
Jeff Porter (21:30):
Man, it is a trick.
and you are absolutely correct.
Ryan and I for years have dealtwith this when we talk with
people.
And, one of our very sort ofearly tactics with, this was
Here's everything right?
Like we'll figure it outtogether.
and ultimately that's not thesolution, right?
Like we have to come with a verystandardized set of.
(21:51):
Here's our rollout process.
Here's how we're quickly goingto show value.
Here's how we're going to handlesome of your blocking and
tackling reporting.
But more importantly, this isthe path to get you from I have
these five systems to I'mlooking at an opportunities
matrix within the four walls ofthe restaurant to tell me what
to do.
so our big focus in the lastyear or two has been, number
one, defining that standardizedpackage that answers 80 percent
(22:14):
of the questions.
number two, providing peoplewith the ad hoc tools that they
can use to self service answerthe other 20 percent of the
questions.
and then number three, adding onthat analyst as a service, thing
where we give the feedbackchannel from other partners and
help you develop the next gen ofprescriptive tools on top of
what we've already put together.
so that rollout process has beensuper critical for us,
(22:35):
standardizing it and Just makingsure we can engage people
rapidly and tell them, Hey,here's what you get as part of
this, as opposed to you have allthis, let's figure it out.
So big
Jeremy (22:46):
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Jeremy Julian (23:47):
I love that you guys have found your way to
that.
Cause oftentimes I find, evenguests on the show, they create
the best tech in the world andit sits on the shelf because
they can't get operators tochange their way of doing
business.
And so helping walk them throughthat is, is really critical.
Jeff Porter (23:59):
Absolutely.
Jeremy Julian (24:00):
James, talk to me a little bit about how you guys
get the franchisees to, infranchise environments.
You've been around long enoughto realize that they never trust
what corporate's given them,especially when sales are down.
And so help me understand howyou take the data.
And every time I ask you aquestion, I feel like I get a
chuckle.
So for those that are watchingthis on YouTube, but at the end
of the day, this, they're allskeptical.
(24:20):
They all think that they have itfigured out.
They, a lot of the brands thatyou guys are working with.
Are in a place that they havedone it before.
They've done it with otherbrands that might be bigger than
Dave's.
So you're coming to them withsomething different.
Oftentimes, help me understandhow you get them to internalize
this and make better businessdecisions.
You use the example about yourMinnesota franchisee, just
earlier in the show.
James McGehee (24:40):
let's put things in perspective.
I have franchisees that up untiljust this year owned more
restaurants than Dave had in itsecosystem.
I have, great people like.
All until Carter, whose fatherstarted Carl's junior.
Okay.
So they have over 100 callsjuniors.
What am I going to do?
(25:01):
Tell them how to run theirbusiness?
Oh, not look.
Everybody's going to utilize thetool for the simple things like.
Sales and traffic and things ofthat nature, right?
It really comes down to showingthem how to leverage the tools
to help them improve.
And I'll get back to it.
Their return on investedcapital.
We gave an entire breakoutsession at our franchise
(25:23):
convention with 450 people.
They're solely focused onshowing them how to improve the
return on their.
investment to pay back 33percent faster.
Okay, and that resonates withour franchisees.
And by the way, so does ourcurrent return.
I mean, the reason
Jeremy Julian (25:44):
through the roof.
The volumes are through Theroof.
People are making money.
So that's good.
James McGehee (25:48):
are good, but what we have built is a system
that they can replicate over andover again.
And it's that consistency ofthat replication that gives them
the confidence to move faster.
Okay, even myself as afranchisee, I signed up for a 9
unit or 7 unit territory.
I've got 3 open, I've got the4th that I'm building right now.
(26:08):
I'm trying to expand myterritory, right?
I'm a great indicator becauseI'm actually a very conservative
finance person that's willing togo into doing things like
signing personal guarantees onleases because that's how strong
4 wall economic model.
Rad supports all of that throughour productivity metric.
Jeremy Julian (26:31):
I love that.
I'm going to ask Ryan, where isit going?
Where's rad going?
James would allude to the factthat, when they came on board
with you guys a couple of yearsago, you guys, maybe we're a
little bit raw.
You guys have had some reallydeep levels of understanding of
where we're at, but what's thenext phase for red?
is it just growth of differentrestaurants?
Is it different business models?
Help me understand where youguys are at and how you guys see
(26:53):
the future of analytics andreally predictive analytics that
are going to drive behavior.
Because part of why this showexists, part of why I do what I
do is I love the restaurantindustry.
It's given me and my family 30plus years of.
fantastic opportunities toengage with great people.
And I want to see restaurantssucceed.
Nothing pains me more than whena local restaurant in our
(27:15):
industry fails, whether it's abig brand, huge brand, national
brand that's struggling, or it'sthe local, watering hole that's
struggling.
I want to see people succeed andtools like Rad help people
succeed as James has beentalking about the whole show.
So where's it at and where is itgoing?
Ryan Burhorn (27:30):
Yeah.
honestly, where is it going?
our push and our belief andwhere we're driving development
efforts, our approach and ourconversations is really that
more simplified, prescriptiveapproach to the data, right?
And let's be honest, likethere's tools out there.
There's lots of buzzwords in theanalytic space of AI can solve
(27:53):
this, just stick this tool ontop of that data and this data
or whatever.
and see these insights, it, itall markets and sells well, our
belief is wholeheartedly that alot of that, the power there
truly is in the make cuttingthrough the noise, right?
As we talked about earlier,getting the data together into a
(28:14):
way that's really perfect builtfor reporting and analytics.
and so to enable some of the.
around words like prescriptive,you still need the wealth of
that data, but that's really ourapproach is more of a simplified
to the operator.
What are the things that I cando that will have a positive
impact on my business today,this week, and then ultimately
(28:36):
the longterm.
So Where we're going with that,right?
Again, is that prescriptivemodel around our opportunities
matrix, but really driving it tobe more exceptions based alerts.
So then an operator can have ontheir phone.
Hey, you hit X in entrees perlabor hour as your main
productivity metric that we knowthat we're driving that we've
(28:58):
built a culture around.
Your ideal is Z in your face.
You should be paying attentionto that.
So really more of this, guidedand directed exceptions based
alerting towards those, aprescriptive approach on those
productivity metrics.
of course, from there, there's.
lots of technology.
we've recently implementedthings inside of our tech stack
(29:21):
where we have enabled naturallanguage query searches, right?
So instead of needing to knowhow to build reports or,
whatever it may be, an end usercan have a business conversation
with their data.
What are the top 10 stores withthe highest labor opportunity
last week?
our tool enables that so thatsomebody can ask those types of
(29:42):
questions, see it in their facevery quickly and easily.
I would certainly welcome Jeffand James to chime in more, but
again, we really do see it.
Exceptions based alerts aroundproductivity metrics and just
making it easier, right?
The right metric in the righthand at the right times.
And the more we can support thatwith, enabling with technology
(30:02):
and features like natural querylanguage, is where we're taking
our offering.
James McGehee (30:07):
in
Jeff Porter (30:08):
there's a Ryan 100 percent right on the product
where we need to take it.
there's a cool component that'semerging right now for us to,
traditionally we've grownentirely by word of mouth and
now that we're at volume,there's this bigger feedback
channel between ourselves, thebrands we work with, or there's
starting to become a sense ofcommunity as well.
(30:28):
I think that's something I wantto see as nurture as we, so that
we can start having these peopletalk to each other and really
help them create, best to breedsolutions in their analytics
platform.
Jeremy Julian (30:38):
I love that.
and again, I know I gave, Jameskudos earlier, but, I love the
fact that he's one of thosepeople that's in your guys's
advisory group to help you guysdrive this product because he
thinks so different than many ofthe finance people that are in
his same space.
And not only is he an operator,but he's trying to create
something that's going to helpthe operators.
Get to the best place to be ableto drive those things.
(31:00):
So is there anything that wemissed talking about that you
guys want to make sure that,that our listeners here, James,
is there anything that you, youwent through that you're like,
Oh, I forgot to talk about this.
And you want our listeners tohear about when they, when they
go dig into the, to the ratopportunity.
James McGehee (31:13):
I think it's like anything else, the tool that you
can have the best tool if it'snot adopted by operations at the
store level, then it doesn'tmatter.
So I think the option of anytool, and I don't care if we're
talking about RAD or, customersentiment scrapes or anything
else.
It needs to be utilized at thestore level.
(31:34):
It needs to be mobile based.
It needs to be productivitymeasure based.
I can't stress that enough.
I've been talking about this fora guy.
So many years now.
but I really mean it.
and I think that it, there's astruggle in our industry.
Understand that the financialmodel is going to be very
(31:55):
dynamic.
Hey, California, right with a 25percent increase in minimum
wage.
Okay.
You cannot manage your laboranymore as a percentage of
sales.
That's okay, right?
At the end of the day, you gotto ask yourself, what is the
customer experience?
How do I support that customerexperience with productivity
(32:15):
measures?
and then more importantly, and Isaid this early, but I'll say it
again.
How do I push those, thecustomer sentiment all the way
back to employee sentiment.
Because I do think that's goingto be a really critical piece of
this going forward.
At Dave, we focus heavily onproductivity measures.
But the way we do it isn't bycutting labor.
(32:37):
We look at meaningful labor.
Okay, what do I mean bymeaningful labor?
Do you get value out of fillingsauce cups with Dave's sauce?
Or do you do that for in storeand you get packets for to go?
Okay, that's something at Dave'swe did.
Do we hire cleaning crews at theend of the night?
Because our cleaning crews, thelast time I checked, the last
(32:58):
thing our employees want to doafter a 10 hour shift is clean a
toilet.
Okay, so I'm heavily focused onmeaningful labor within the
restaurant industry and makingour employees lives better.
Jeremy Julian (33:12):
frankly is the problem that every operator that
I've talked to in the lastcouple of years has struggled
with is getting people in thedoor and keeping them there for
any length of time.
I love what you guys are doing,Ryan and Jeff, thank you guys
for creating this.
Cause again, for me, it's myfavorite to sit and listen.
And the fact that you guys wereable to bring James on who's not
only an operator, but also issomebody that endorses the
product has been awesome.
(33:33):
So thank you guys for your time.
Thank you guys for creating asolution that's making a
difference.
Thanks.
And the restaurants that youguys serve, James, thanks for
hanging out.
And, to our listeners, make it agreat day.
Thanks for listening to theRestaurant Technology Guys
podcast.
Visit www.
RestaurantTechnologyGuys.
com for tips, industry insights,and more to help you run your
(33:54):
restaurant better.
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