September 15, 2025 • 32 mins
In this episode of the Restaurant Technology Guys podcast, Jeremy Julian hosts Ross, the founder of Rocket Box, a company that revolutionizes third-party delivery and kitchen synchronization. Ross shares his inspiring journey from running a family pizzeria to founding a technology company aimed at solving inefficiencies in restaurant operations. They delve into the innovative ways Rocket Box integrates with POS systems, manages delivery orders, and addresses critical issues in order timing and synchronization. Ross also discusses the company's global approach, including multi-language support and future plans for enhanced reporting and guest communication.
00:00 Rocket Box
00:14 Introduction and Welcome
01:19 Ross's Background and Journey into Tech
03:35 The Birth of Rocket Box
07:11 Challenges in Restaurant Operations
14:48 Rocket Box Solutions and Features
22:09 Global Reach and Multi-Language Support
29:49 Future Plans and How to Connect
31:02 Conclusion and Farewell
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker (00:02):
This is the Restaurant Technology Guides podcast,
helping you run your restaurantbetter.
In today's episode, I am joinedby the founder of Rocket Box,
and I had actually never heardof them until he reached out to
be on the show and I was blownaway with what he and his team
(00:23):
have been building.
They really are taking adifferent approach to third
party delivery and the way thatit integrates back with the core
systems of point of sale, hereally dug in and lived in the
trenches in a bunch of differentrestaurants to try and
understand what it was gonnatake to make this process better
for the operators.
And he is really.
Looking to expand his reach inNorth America.
(00:45):
He's got some really innovativeways that take a different
approach than what most have.
If you don't know me, my name isJeremy Julian.
I'm the Chief Revenue Officerfor CBS Northstar.
We sell the North Star point ofsale product for multi-units.
Please check usout@cbsnorthstar.com and now
onto the episode.
Jeremy Julian (01:03):
Welcome back to the Restaurant Technology Guys
podcast.
I thank everyone out there forjoining us, as I say each and
every time.
and I appreciate you guysspending time with us each week
where I get to talk to some techfounders and some people that
are doing some really coolstuff.
And today is no exception.
Ross.
I love, I'd love for you toshare a little bit about your
background, who Ross is prior tojumping into your latest
(01:24):
project.
'cause I am quite excited tohear about, what you guys have
been building most.
Most lately.
But I also know that, this isn'tyour first foray into, into tech
or into any of these kind ofthings.
So why don't you give everybodya little bit of background on
who
Ross Cronin (01:36):
Yeah.
I guess it started off when Iwas about 14 years old.
My dad opened his firstpizzeria.
I initially started off,delivering some leaflets door to
door.
after myself and my brotherfinished, we got to go back,
behind the scenes of thekitchen.
we get our pizza, and I got tosee the chefs worked their
magic.
I think after about, threeweeks, I bothered my dad enough
(01:57):
that he agreed to.
To let me get into the kitchenand I started off on bases, got
onto toppings, work in the oven,by the time I was 18 years old I
was running the show.
and then we, expanded intomulti-locations.
So we went to four stores, thenstarted to franchise, got up to
18 stores, got up to 43 stores,And yeah, basically while I was
(02:17):
studying, my business degree, wewere opening up franchises,
left, right and center, got upto 43 locations.
And then, essentially my dadsold the business to Yum and he
got outta the restaurant game.
And that's when I got involvedin restaurant technology.
So I guess it was started offby, reselling, US technology,
for online ordering.
ran into some kind of.
(02:39):
Consistent, problems with thetech.
it made the tough decision to goout.
Find my own team, and to buildour own product essentially.
So we did that, about eightyears ago, launched menu.com,
which is white label onlineordering.
and, been doing that for anumber of years up until the
point where I.
I guess, we then, I came acrossanother problem, which is that,
(03:01):
there is no synchronization inthe kitchen between, the
preparation of orders anddelivery drivers and, I'm still
in the restaurant business.
and, I found a problem thatneeded a solution and decided.
I was gonna build sometechnology, using the experience
that I've gained over the years,both in the restaurant game and
also, on the technology side ofthings.
So I think it's a great matchand, we've done a great job so
(03:24):
far, in, bringing a greatproduct together.
Jeremy Julian (03:27):
Yeah, no, and I'm excited.
and my favorite episodes arethose that, people are
scratching a niche that they hador that they, there's a problem
that they saw out in the space.
And so your latest project, forthose that are on video, you can
see it on your, on your jacket,but, rocket Box, why don't you
talk us through a little bitabout what Rocket Box.
Is before we dig into kind ofhow did you get to that place
because, it is definitely aninteresting origin story as to
(03:49):
how how you've con continued tosee this problem and then work
to solve it.
Ross Cronin (03:53):
I guess it started off when I'm standing in one of
my own kitchens and I'm lookingat a fleet of delivery drivers,
that are waiting for orders tobe prepared.
Then I look at the kitchen and Isee right beside the oven
there's a bunch of ordersprepared.
But for some reason, none ofthose orders are for the drivers
that are waiting, and thedrivers are waiting for the
orders that are over on theother side.
(04:13):
And I'm looking at them going,they haven't made the orders
yet.
Okay.
what if the orders were changedaround in the kitchen so that
driver was able to come in, pickup their food, and, and leave.
So what I started to do was, Istarted to do it manually.
So I was walking around withthese machines in my hand, and I
had tickets in the restaurant.
And I would literally, whenthere was a status update, I
(04:34):
would just move the stuffaround.
and I noticed that theefficiency of the restaurant and
the stress levels of therestaurant just went down.
so then what we did was is okay,we, one step farther.
we built, the prototype, we putit into the restaurant, we
tested the daylights out of it,and yeah, basically.
ended up, building, a greatproduct that, that, I guess it
(04:54):
was time to start to share withthe world.
the idea of it is that, asorders come in, we are,
monitoring the contents of theorders.
We're monitoring the, sources ofthe order, so all the different
channels.
in some cases, there can bemanual rules set by the.
By the restaurant, for pickupsor delivery orders or, dining
(05:15):
orders, that sort of thing.
we monitor all of the orders,with the delivery channels so we
know, what driver's beenassigned, how many orders he's
due to take up, what's his ETA?
Oh, he's been taken off theorder.
Another driver's been put onwhat's his ETA and essentially
in the simplest form, the chefis just looking at a KDS like he
(05:36):
normally would.
And he's just told what order tomake and when he's told not to
make orders, and he's told,okay, now you can make these
orders, future orders come in.
They can look at them, they canget them outta their view, and
then they'll automatically popback into the screen at the
right time when they're supposedto be made.
yeah, I guess in, in, its, inits simplicity, it's about
monitoring, all of the differentsources of the orders and then,
(05:58):
making sure that the rightorders made at the right time.
Jeremy Julian (06:01):
Yeah.
No, and I love that, that youguys are working this Ross.
'cause I think, your example ofwalking around and seeing a
bunch of delivery drivers andseeing a bunch of orders that
aren't completed, but a bunch oforders that aren't completed
without delivery drivers forthem is huge.
before I get too far ahead ofmyself.
those that are listening and orwatching, probably hear the
accent.
and then your first reference isDeliveroo.
(06:22):
And up until a couple of monthsago, probably in the states,
nobody knew what Deliveroo was.
But why don't you just breakdown a little bit about where
you've been building this asyou're coming stateside.
Ross Cronin (06:30):
Yeah.
we are based in Dogpatch Labs,which is in Dublin City Center.
you can see me, my background isnot fake.
This is one of the vault areasof the, old building.
I think it was an old warehousewhere they used to, store
alcohol, once it got shipped offthe ship.
So we're in the very heart ofDublin City Center right now.
although we're a Dublin based,tech company, our focus is
(06:51):
primarily on the US market.
Jeremy Julian (06:54):
I love it.
'cause, again, up until, the,DoorDash, Deliveroo, merger, I
didn't even know what Deliveroowas and I'm like, oh, that's,
and again, some of our US basedlisteners that might have missed
that press release might, Ididn't even have known that.
And so I wanted to just makesure I catch people up that,
that's kinda where you guys hadstarted and where, Where the
accent came from, but really youguys are solving that problem.
Dig in a little bit deeper,Ross, to the problem because why
(07:15):
is it that there's such a dividebetween the third party delivery
service providers and thekitchen?
Automation.
you talked about the problemthat you saw and then you
started to solve manually.
But walk me through why aren'tthose things connected and why
is it so hard to manage timingand really even prioritization
of the orders that are comingand going from the kitchen?
(07:37):
Because I think, it's a hugeproblem.
And I would say in the top threewhen I talk to our own clients.
About understanding, how do Iinform the guests?
How do I inform the deliverydrivers of these things?
It, staffing is a problem andmaking sure that they're doing
this, but, order accuracy.
And then this would be one ofthe top three problems when I'm
talking to restaurant executivesthat they bring up is being able
(07:58):
to inform my guests and reallythe delivery drivers on what's
going on is a huge piece.
Why do you think that's thecase?
Ross Cronin (08:04):
if you think about it, traditional systems are
really dealing with orders in afirst come, first serve basis,
FIFO.
Okay?
So in, in and Out.
Now that doesn't really work inan environment where delivery
drivers are essentially arrivingand collecting orders outta
sequence.
then you have the, differentchannels, whether it's DoorDash,
GrubHub, whoever.
they all have their ownindividual applications, but no
(08:24):
one's really brought ittogether.
from a kitchen sense, you havecompanies like Olo and Direct,
bringing the orders into thePOS, but once they get into the
POS, you've got a traditionalP-O-S-K-D-S that doesn't
necessarily have all of thisadditional functionality, in
terms of prioritization.
what's the alternative then?
So you've got all of theseorders, that are lying there
(08:45):
either in virtual or physicaltickets.
and, one of the only ways toactually manage this process is
literally by grabbing thetablets and staring at them.
And as orders are updated thento, change your making order.
But that's very difficult.
we're hiring chefs, notlogistical managers.
you know what we.
what we're looking for is, atool to be able to pull all of
(09:06):
this information together.
Give me all of my orders in oneplace.
Now, tell me when to make eachone of them so that they're all
on time.
The busier we get, we need, weneed a system to be able to help
with the thinking process.
if you think about how long ittakes to train a staff member
up, and what happens if you losestaff members, now you've gotta
(09:28):
hire, a new logistics managerto, to organize these orders.
so yeah, I think in reality.
the current systems that are outthere are just not built for
delivery.
And I guess, that comes.
right back to where I came from,which is the pizza delivery
business.
so I've always thought andrelate back to that kind of
(09:49):
operation and seeing, how canwe, how can we make things a
little easier for the chefs?
at the end of the day, I.
They don't wanna have to movetickets around and, trying to
work out what order to makenext.
Oh, let's wait till the driverarrives and then make it, now
we're creating delays.
Those delays are passed on tothe customer.
you know that driver
Jeremy Julian (10:09):
besides the fact that some of these delivery
service providers will chargeyou more if you're making their
delivery drivers sit and wait,at least in the state side, I
don't know how it is in, in, in,in Ireland, but I know for sure
here in the states if they haveto wait too long, sometimes
they'll just abandon altogetherand sometimes they'll have to,
sometimes they end up chargingthe restaurant back if they're,
if they're delayed
Ross Cronin (10:27):
yeah.
I mean there's a number ofdrawbacks to that.
The first of all is if thedriver can just drop the order
and then now the platform has togo and find you another driver
when you just had one.
and then, if you then go, okay,Now I might be, if you
constantly do that, you're notnecessarily gonna be prioritized
by the platform because of theseconstant delays, I think the
stores or the businesses thathave, solid operations are the
(10:50):
ones that will be prioritizeddrivers ahead of those who
aren't.
because they know that if theysend orders to your business,
that it's gonna be, ready,there's gonna be minimal amount
of wait time, and then they cankeep their drivers running and
running.
They're, if they're all dealingwith their own challenges, and
they need their drivers to be asproductive as possible, within
(11:11):
that hour, you know that he'sworking.
it'll kill them if drivers canonly do two deliveries an hour
because the restaurants, don'thave their act together
operationally.
Jeremy Julian (11:20):
Yep.
and Ross, talk me through howyou guys are managing in-store
orders.
'cause that, in pizza delivery,large percentage of pizzas are
delivered, in certain types ofenvironments, but in a casual
dining environment.
you've got different channels,you've got walk-ins, you've got
phone orders, you've gotdelivery orders, you've got
in-person orders in the diningroom.
Managing all of that is, takes adegree in physics and lots of
(11:43):
different logarithms that haveto manage that because you want
to make sure that you take careof your guests and in-house as
well as the walk-ins as well asyour third
Ross Cronin (11:50):
You know what?
That's not the most complicatedpart.
Okay?
order.
Order.
They're just order sources atthe end of the day.
Okay?
The complicated part is, havinga flexible enough solu solution
out there that's gonna fit intocertain types of business models
and their floats.
do they need service?
based, routing of orders?
deliveries.
Go over here, dins, go overthere.
(12:11):
Do they need station, routing.
Where grill, pizza, drinks, allthat sort of stuff needs to get
split up.
I find that the complexities areactually in splitting everything
up across a business and thenbringing it back together again.
but the trick being, thatpreparation is synchronized in a
way that everything can be readyat the same time.
So if you've got a steak thattakes 20 minutes and then you've
(12:33):
got french fries, that takes twoand a half, based on how busy
that station is.
the system will then determinewhen it should be fired.
what the ETA of the order iswhat's most important.
so if you set rules, like Iwant, first courses to be,
served within 15 minutes, I wantsecond courses to be served
within 30 minutes.
you program those rules in.
(12:55):
All of the orders go into thesystem and it will basically
still, fire the orders at theright times, the right products
to the right stations, and makesure that the orders are made on
time as much as possible.
Obviously, with high volumethere, there could be delays,
but the system is supposed toanticipate this and, and,
prioritize it as best aspossible.
Jeremy Julian (13:15):
Yeah.
and the other thing that I liketo talk to people about, and I
know that this doesn't, oftenget thought about is this menu
mix.
when I talk to certain brands,they're really heavy in salads.
salads take less time thansteaks, right?
They just do, there's nothingyou can say that salads take
less time than steaks.
And so if you're heavy salads,your pantry station is gonna be
working.
I'm turning orders faster and,but if I'm a steak heavy, brand
(13:37):
and my grill might be a lot, alot heavier, does that go into
effect as far as what, whateveryour channels are, like you
said.
Ross Cronin (13:43):
I think, look, every single order, has an ETA,
whether it's by product or bythe whole order by itself, in,
in the case of delivery,everything must be ready by a
specific time.
In the case of dine in, youbreak that down into multiple
ets and you just, and again,some of these rules.
are purely based on what therestaurant, configures in the
control panel.
(14:03):
So they set the rules and thenthe system will operate using AI
in order to make sure that, theright order's made at the right
time.
Jeremy Julian (14:11):
I love it.
we're 15 minutes in.
We finally hit the word ai.
There's been no shows in 2025that have gone on without having
AI at least mentioned in thefirst 30 minutes of the show.
So thank you for that.
you're keeping my streak alive,Ross.
talk me through what, so we'vedefined the problem.
We know that it's a huge issue.
We know that it's gotta be onthe top two or three issues for
all brands, is ensuring thatthey are by channel, not only.
(14:34):
Delivering food that's hot andfresh, but communicating that
back out to, whether it's theDSPs or any of those kind of
things, and even their staff andfiguring out how to, how do we
manage it?
'cause that's the other thingI'd love to talk through, but
why don't we, why don't we leapover to now we, we know what the
problem is.
How is Rocket Box uniquelysolving this challenge?
what are you guys tackling firstand where are you guys at on
this journey of really trying tosolve these
Ross Cronin (14:55):
That's a good question.
It's quite interesting because alot of the feedback that we're
getting is from operators,operators of all sizes.
we're, we have had the, fortuneof meeting a lot of great
operators who are, who aredonating the time, to answering
all of our annoying questions.
what we are doing is reallygoing in there and going, okay,
so you might be using, a po s'sKDS and it's like, all right.
(15:19):
And a lot of the times itdoesn't take too much pressing
to find out, what does this keys not do that you'd like it to
do?
You ask 10 people and all of asudden the same things start
popping up.
so in reality, our niche is thatwe're, focusing on some of the
more complex scenarios that astandard KDS, doesn't do.
(15:41):
So that's really where we'vetried to focus, our time on and
really trying to understand theneeds of the business, to
understand.
why they think they need it, isit the best option?
And and really what we've doneis this, I'll give you one
example.
We were at the Food on DemandShow in Vegas, and we met with
about 25 different operators.
We have, stayed in touch withmany of those operators.
(16:02):
They've been great with, meetingwith us, talking through
functionality.
but I would say that from that,that one show and the operators
that we met, we've alreadystarted to, release
functionality.
That is based on feedback fromthat show.
and I expect that actually ahundred percent of the feedback
that we got and that we decidedto move ahead with is gonna be
(16:22):
built probably within the nextfour weeks and released.
it, it's all about theoperators.
It's all about the operators andwhat they need, so I'm not gonna
tell them what we do.
It's gonna be what do you need?
Tell me why.
Let's talk through it.
understand it.
because, at the end of the day,like I said, you've got all the
different channels, that's fine.
You take them in and then we'vegotta find out a way to
(16:43):
prioritize them.
Great.
But then we need to fit thatinto your kitchen.
and, oh, you've multiplekitchens.
Oh, you want order throttlingbetween the kitchens.
You want delivery orders goingover to kitchen B when it's
open.
Do you want a way to be able to,to open and close kitchen b And
when you do that, when you closeit, it all orders get rerouted
(17:04):
automatically to a, this is allthe stuff that we're building
with the operators.
So it's all.
Jeremy Julian (17:10):
I was having dinner with, one of the former
operators from Chipotle andthey'd had the whole kitchen, a
kitchen b at Chipotle when theywere, when, before they got mass
adoption of stores where there'sa store on, feels like every
other corner here in the States.
they were at a place where theywere so busy with digital orders
and even going back to faxing,he said they would do exactly
that.
But then on a low Tuesdayafternoon at three o'clock, you
don't need both kitchens.
(17:31):
So everything goes to the frontline.
But, I love that idea that says,how do, how do you smart route
those things based on thosekitchens?
Are you guys even doing it innerchain, where, at certain chains
they're more efficient incertain areas because of the
layout or product mix or any ofthose kind of things?
Or is it overlaid and I'm notjudging as much as just trying
to understand how deep you guysare going to help operators get
(17:52):
to that
Ross Cronin (17:52):
I would say going super deep.
Yeah.
I, like I did with Menu, I builtan extremely, flexible platform
that, you know.
met the needs of our customers.
obviously development prioritiesare based on, how many customers
are gonna need a particularfunction, but then, you have the
bigger customers that havespecific requirements and you
have to go there too.
(18:12):
we're very much a, a customerdriven, development pipeline.
So the more
Jeremy Julian (18:19):
to con confirm,
Ross Cronin (18:20):
go.
You go ahead.
You go ahead.
Jeremy Julian (18:22):
I was gonna say, just to confirm, so are you guys
going into existingimplementations and replacing
their KDS?
just walk me through that.
'cause you talked a lot aboutthe data and evaluating the
data, but I'm assuming it's alsothe screens that the chef is
seeing on what to prepare whenand all of the data that's above
it to make better businessdecisions.
Is that
Ross Cronin (18:41):
Yes it is.
Yeah.
yeah, basically it, it dependsbecause in, in some cases they
are totally doing a rip andreplace and they're putting in a
new POS and we're Coming in aspart of that new package, in
other, in other ways.
They're currently using a POS,they're using the KDS, but they
were unhappy with thefunctionality.
We're working with that KDSpartner in order to, to
(19:02):
basically retrofit our solutionin, into their existing, into
their existing operation.
So we're pause agnostic.
We don't really mind which pauseyou use.
and that's the way we'd like totry and keep things and like we
see ourselves as a compliment tothe POS if your POS does not
have, if your KDS doesn't haveall of the functionality that
(19:22):
your customer needs, at leastyou have the ability to bring
someone like us in that we'll beable to fill that gap.
Jeremy Julian (19:30):
I love that.
I'm gonna flip back over topizza'cause I was just at, ec, a
multiunit restaurant, tech showearlier this year and I got to
hear the, the guy that was, Thatwas on the Domino's Pizza
Tracker, project.
And he talked about that.
And as a guest, I know that's abig thing that people are
looking to get to.
Talk me through where RocketBoxes are on that journey.
(19:50):
you've got the operators, you'vebeen working really tightly with
the operators, but now it comesdown to the guests.
The guests want to know.
Amazon tells me.
That the package is nine stopsaway, and then it's eight stops
away, and then it's seven stopsaway.
And I think in general, in foodservice, a lot of people are
wanting to get to that place.
And I think Domino's has set thestandard in that regard.
help me understand how RocketBox is, where they're at on that
(20:10):
journey.
Ross Cronin (20:11):
I guess we, we log absolutely everything, from the
second that an order comes intothe restaurant, even way past
the.
The handover to the driver, wecontinue to track until that
order has been delivered.
so every single touch pointalong the way, is recorded by
the system.
So that we can then take thatdata, use it, for that person's
(20:33):
next order.
We know if someone got a lateorder, ideally we'll like to
know if they complained, laterso we can try and do some
service recovery.
There's a lot of opportunitywith having this information, at
your disposal.
but yeah, I think the main thingis that we capture everything
and it was, intentional from dayone that we wanted to be able
to, capture all of the data.
(20:54):
Then ultimately figure out, howdoes it need to be used?
Do we need to send an SMSmessage to the customer to let
them know their order's readyfor pickup?
we already, tell the platforms,Hey, the order's ready for your
driver to collect and that sortof thing.
I think that there is gonna bean evolution.
and I guess also from our side,it's how much of it do we do
versus how much of it do we handover to the individual platforms
(21:15):
to handle themselves?
we work with, the third partydelivery.
we also work with, first partyonline ordering companies.
and then you've got the POSitself.
I think that, I think
Jeremy Julian (21:25):
lot of work that you guys put into to building
that ecosystem,
Ross Cronin (21:29):
Yeah, exactly.
look, it is.
And I guess you could say thatthe last eight years of
building, another platform,certainly gets you, all of the
knowledge that you need in orderto do something like rock box,
but do it really well.
I think if I didn't have those,25 plus years of pizza delivery
under the belt and that it wouldbe a difficult job to do
something like this.
(21:49):
'cause essentially.
What I'm doing is, jumping intopeople's kitchens, analyzing
their operations, understandingtheir wants, but also then
presenting them with, with theoptions that are available and
in some cases then discussingwhat sort of custom development
might be required in order toget them, that extra 10% that
they're looking for.
Jeremy Julian (22:09):
Yeah.
two more things on the productside, Ross.
'cause you've talked a lot aboutwhat you guys do.
and it was in the bio that, yourteam sent over multi-language.
that blew me away.
'cause again, dumb American,what's the joke?
talk to me about some of the, Idunno.
I'll tell you the joke.
It's, somebody said this joke tome, what do you say, somebody
that speaks two languages,bilingual, what do you say that
somebody speaks, threelanguages, trilingual.
What do you say?
That somebody speaks onelanguage in American?
(22:31):
Because in America we only speakEnglish.
And so with that, the fact thatyou guys have got over 15
languages built into the productis blows me away.
help me understand how did thateven come about and how do you
manage that?
'cause
Ross Cronin (22:41):
okay, so first of all, your restaurant may be in
the US but that doesn't meanthat is the, English is the
first, language of the chefwho's making the food.
like there's a few things.
So the first thing is we takethe language of the country that
the restaurant is in, let's callit English.
So everything that prints fromthe kitchen and stuff like that.
So we handle all of the printingside of things as well.
(23:03):
That's not done by the POS.
all the receipts will be printedin English, however, the screen,
that's there, you can basicallytoggle it from French to German
to Mandarin to Arabic if youwant.
all within seconds.
And it's really just about,making it comfortable for the
chefs that are working, on, sothat, they.
You have to recognize that, thepeople who are in these kitchens
(23:23):
aren't necessarily firstlanguage English.
So we needed to make it asflexible as we can.
Also, we, we have built thisplatform, from a global
perspective.
So if somebody wants this, inthe UAE, they can have it in
Arabic, they can have it inEnglish if you want to deploy it
in the Netherlands.
there's your Dutch.
so it was important for us.
at the end of the day, languageis, it's not that difficult to
(23:45):
do these days, as it used to be.
but yeah, I, we're starting offat 15, but actually, we'll be
probably adding, whether anothermaybe 10 to 15 languages.
We'll stop at around 30 and thenwe'll add them, on a demand
basis.
If there's a demand for morelanguages, then we'll add them
on.
But we thought 15 is a prettygood coverage to start with.
Jeremy Julian (24:06):
Yeah, it's incredible and most products
that, that are getting into thespace, and again, not that you
guys are brand new in thisspace, but you guys are
relatively young.
Don't start there.
So I love that, that.
Ross Cronin (24:15):
Yeah, I think it comes to, look, we are, we're,
being in Dublin, we're European.
we have all of the benefit oftraveling to Italy, to Portugal,
all these sort of places and,we've respect and awareness that
language is a key piece.
All of our developers areactually based in SoFi.
yeah, look, we've built itinternational from day one.
(24:35):
I think investors will like thattoo.
Jeremy Julian (24:38):
Yeah.
No, I love that.
last thing on the product side,Ross, you guys built, so you
talked a lot about kind ofinternal to the store, internal
to what goes on operationally.
Talked a little bit about theguest journey.
Talk to me a little bit aboutthe above store reporting,
master agent level, for lack ofa better term, content
management and reporting abovestore.
(24:59):
being able to see that from acorporate level or even from
wherever I am in the world, is acritical piece to whether you
talk about guest recovery oroperational efficiencies or any
of those kind of things.
So I'd love to have you talk alittle bit about what you guys
built there as well.
Ross Cronin (25:12):
there's a lot we can do with it.
I think what we have at themoment is, I would say is fairly
basic in terms of the dashboardreporting.
We have, individual loca, wehave individual order reporting,
location reporting.
Brand reporting.
you can even technically havemultiple brands if you have,
multiple brands under yourumbrella, all of that.
there we also have an API, soyou'd be able to pull all of the
(25:33):
data into your own businessintelligence platform too.
in, in terms of the, we're verymuch focused on the operational
side of things at the moment.
but.
the reporting side of things isan area that I am, I'm quite
interested in getting into, butI would say we need more data to
be able to really focus on thatas a next steps.
(25:55):
But in the meantime, the APIhelps businesses to connect to
their existing platforms andtake the data that they want.
Jeremy Julian (26:03):
and I could see it also as a guest recovery
tool.
It's having to dial in, log todeliver, act to, log into any of
these systems to go figure outthese things.
It's just, it's extra work.
So now being able to see thatfrom a high level and being able
to manage it is really
Ross Cronin (26:16):
it's, it's gonna be very helpful.
if you have, some sort of adispute that you'd be able to
just, Hey, which system do I loginto?
Hey, let's go in, into RocketBox.
Let's look at that particularorder.
I see the order coming in.
I see it on the prep station.
I see it was bumped here.
I see it when it went into theoven.
I see what time, it, got pickedup by the driver.
Dropped off by the driver.
you're right.
Jeremy Julian (26:35):
No, I can see that being a huge operational,
even going back to operations.
Ross Cronin (26:38):
theory, the more restaurants that also use Rocket
Box, the better because thenwe'll actually have, More
information about all the ordersthat run through the platform,
not just, from that particularbrand or restaurant.
we'll, when we're talking aboutour kind of logistical side, if
we have a, let's call it, anarea where all hundred
(26:58):
restaurants are using RocketBox, now we are able to
orchestrate scenarios where,where we are operationally,
making.
Restaurant a, and restaurant B'Sorders synchronize in terms of,
okay, there's a distance betweenthis at three minutes, make this
order, three minutes now firethat order so that it can be
ready in the second restaurant.
(27:20):
there's a lot that can be donewith this in terms of a network
effect and the more restaurantsthat used Rocka box, the more
information it has at hand to beable to, to prioritize the
orders appropriately.
Jeremy Julian (27:33):
and I think it's amazing,'cause you guys are one
of the first ones that I've seenthat kind of started from the
external orders to build, tohelp automate some of the
kitchen.
Whereas most of the systemsStarted in-house, whether that's
A-P-O-S-K-D-S or any of the KDSsolutions that are out there,
you guys said, my big challengeis all of these, multiple
channels, how do I manage themand then back backfill and
integrate into the POS.
(27:54):
So I love that
Ross Cronin (27:55):
Yeah, unfortunately can't, you still can't ignore,
some of the kind of dining, inrequests, coursing and things
like that, but that, yeah.
We're doing things from back tofront.
Jeremy Julian (28:05):
it's just, it's, because again, most of the
solutions out there that youguys are in competing with, were
created when delivery didn'teven really exist other than in
a
Ross Cronin (28:13):
APIs didn't exist.
Jeremy Julian (28:15):
Yeah, exactly.
Exactly.
Ross Cronin (28:17):
Yeah.
go.
Jeremy Julian (28:19):
I was just gonna say, so Russ, something that's
been weighing on my mind sinceyou brought it up earlier,
what's been harder building outa restaurant brand and growing a
restaurant brand or building outa tech brand and continuing to
grow it?
think back in your history andthink
Ross Cronin (28:33):
think you should you ask me that question again
in 25 years?
I know which, I still ownrestaurants and I still have a
huge passion for it.
and nothing more than arestaurant that just nails the
operations on a Friday night.
there's a lot of satisfactionthat I get out from knowing that
shift ran really smooth.
but at the end of the day, Ialso, Love building software.
(28:55):
love solving problems.
I love taking on challenges.
when someone says something isdifficult from a software
perspective, I like to bring itto my team and break it down
and, come up with some cleverways to do things.
fortunately, the team that Ihave, we've been working
together for over eight years.
and, I think that is, a hugehelp.
that we're able to take all ofthese problems and, and really
(29:19):
just break them down and getthem built.
Jeremy Julian (29:22):
I love that.
and again, you're unique in thatregard'cause you started in
restaurants building, with yourfamily business and then, you
still operate restaurants, butnow you're on the tech side.
And anybody that I know that's,traversed
Ross Cronin (29:32):
Which one do I like,
Jeremy Julian (29:33):
they're both hard.
Ross Cronin (29:34):
they're both hard in their own way.
and I would say running therestaurants is harder.
it's harder, the intensity ofit.
Jeremy Julian (29:44):
and the urgency of it.
Yeah.
No, and, I love that, thatanswer.
So thanks for sharing.
How would people learn more?
How do people get in touch?
How do people, what would nextsteps look like?
Run more if they wanted to.
They sat and listened.
They're like, we love this.
We need to talk.
We, we have the problem that heis solving for.
Ross Cronin (30:01):
Yeah, I think the best thing to do would be, I
head to our website and we'vegot a link there for getting
started.
I can post it here if you want.
where do I chat here?
So there's the link there.
I.
Jeremy Julian (30:14):
bottom right hand corner.
Ross Cronin (30:15):
Rocket Box io slash get started.
fill that out.
you'll be able to book a timeslot with one of the guys and
they'll be able to, run throughyour requirements, see if
there's a good fit.
And, yeah, we can take it fromthere.
Jeremy Julian (30:29):
I love it.
I know you're coming to theStates for a couple of shows
coming up this, later this year.
you wanna throw out, I know, Iknow there's one in July, one
in, one in August, I don't knowexactly.
Or one in September I think.
what shows will you be here ifpeople,
Ross Cronin (30:40):
so we'll be at, we'll be at retail now.
retail now predominantly lookingfor some resellers.
and then after that we'll be atFS Tech.
and then after that we'll be atthe Fast Casual Executive
Summit.
now I'm sure there's more thatI've haven't mentioned, but,
those are the ones that come tomind right now.
But yeah, basically we'll beactively, on the scene and
(31:00):
making it to as many shows as wecan.
Jeremy Julian (31:04):
Well, Ross, I'm grateful that, people like you
exist in the world.
I truly do love talking tofounders that have, have built a
product that solves somethingthat, that really they saw as a
huge piece because they have adifferent lens by which they
solve the problem becausethey're looking at it and
saying, you know what?
I see this problem.
The fact that you even walkedaround with the tablets manually
to solve this problem
Ross Cronin (31:24):
they were calling me Ross at Box.
They were calling me Uck'causethey knew I was building it, but
it wasn't, it wasn't live.
And I was trying to get familiarwith the process and, so they'd
be able to spot things that arewrong.
So I was standing there, with,holding four or five tablets
going around and then I replacedme with a screen.
Jeremy Julian (31:44):
Yeah, no.
And, we'll have to, put that inthe show notes, Ross at Box, the
in inception of Rocket Box.
But, but I love that.
And again, those are
Ross Cronin (31:50):
that was the, the real MVP.
Jeremy Julian (31:53):
yeah, no, I love that.
thank you for creating thesolution.
thanks for coming on and sharingyour story.
To our listeners, guys, we knowthat you guys have got lots of
choices, so thanks for hangingout with us.
If you haven't alreadysubscribed to the show, please
do so on your favorite,listening platform and, make it
a great day.
Ross Cronin (32:07):
Thanks.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
Thanks for listening to The Restaurant Technology
Guys podcast.
Visit restaurant technologyguys.com for tips, industry
insights, and more to help yourun your restaurant better.
This is the Restaurant Technology Guides podcast,
helping you run your restaurantbetter.
In today's episode, I am joinedby the founder of Rocket Box,
and I had actually never heardof them until he reached out to
be on the show and I was blownaway with what he and his team
(00:23):
have been building.
They really are taking adifferent approach to third
party delivery and the way thatit integrates back with the core
systems of point of sale, hereally dug in and lived in the
trenches in a bunch of differentrestaurants to try and
understand what it was gonnatake to make this process better
for the operators.
And he is really.
Looking to expand his reach inNorth America.
(00:45):
He's got some really innovativeways that take a different
approach than what most have.
If you don't know me, my name isJeremy Julian.
I'm the Chief Revenue Officerfor CBS Northstar.
We sell the North Star point ofsale product for multi-units.
Please check usout@cbsnorthstar.com and now
onto the episode.
Jeremy Julian (01:03):
Welcome back to the Restaurant Technology Guys
podcast.
I thank everyone out there forjoining us, as I say each and
every time.
and I appreciate you guysspending time with us each week
where I get to talk to some techfounders and some people that
are doing some really coolstuff.
And today is no exception.
Ross.
I love, I'd love for you toshare a little bit about your
background, who Ross is prior tojumping into your latest
(01:24):
project.
'cause I am quite excited tohear about, what you guys have
been building most.
Most lately.
But I also know that, this isn'tyour first foray into, into tech
or into any of these kind ofthings.
So why don't you give everybodya little bit of background on
who
Ross Cronin (01:36):
Yeah.
I guess it started off when Iwas about 14 years old.
My dad opened his firstpizzeria.
I initially started off,delivering some leaflets door to
door.
after myself and my brotherfinished, we got to go back,
behind the scenes of thekitchen.
we get our pizza, and I got tosee the chefs worked their
magic.
I think after about, threeweeks, I bothered my dad enough
(01:57):
that he agreed to.
To let me get into the kitchenand I started off on bases, got
onto toppings, work in the oven,by the time I was 18 years old I
was running the show.
and then we, expanded intomulti-locations.
So we went to four stores, thenstarted to franchise, got up to
18 stores, got up to 43 stores,And yeah, basically while I was
(02:17):
studying, my business degree, wewere opening up franchises,
left, right and center, got upto 43 locations.
And then, essentially my dadsold the business to Yum and he
got outta the restaurant game.
And that's when I got involvedin restaurant technology.
So I guess it was started offby, reselling, US technology,
for online ordering.
ran into some kind of.
(02:39):
Consistent, problems with thetech.
it made the tough decision to goout.
Find my own team, and to buildour own product essentially.
So we did that, about eightyears ago, launched menu.com,
which is white label onlineordering.
and, been doing that for anumber of years up until the
point where I.
I guess, we then, I came acrossanother problem, which is that,
(03:01):
there is no synchronization inthe kitchen between, the
preparation of orders anddelivery drivers and, I'm still
in the restaurant business.
and, I found a problem thatneeded a solution and decided.
I was gonna build sometechnology, using the experience
that I've gained over the years,both in the restaurant game and
also, on the technology side ofthings.
So I think it's a great matchand, we've done a great job so
(03:24):
far, in, bringing a greatproduct together.
Jeremy Julian (03:27):
Yeah, no, and I'm excited.
and my favorite episodes arethose that, people are
scratching a niche that they hador that they, there's a problem
that they saw out in the space.
And so your latest project, forthose that are on video, you can
see it on your, on your jacket,but, rocket Box, why don't you
talk us through a little bitabout what Rocket Box.
Is before we dig into kind ofhow did you get to that place
because, it is definitely aninteresting origin story as to
(03:49):
how how you've con continued tosee this problem and then work
to solve it.
Ross Cronin (03:53):
I guess it started off when I'm standing in one of
my own kitchens and I'm lookingat a fleet of delivery drivers,
that are waiting for orders tobe prepared.
Then I look at the kitchen and Isee right beside the oven
there's a bunch of ordersprepared.
But for some reason, none ofthose orders are for the drivers
that are waiting, and thedrivers are waiting for the
orders that are over on theother side.
(04:13):
And I'm looking at them going,they haven't made the orders
yet.
Okay.
what if the orders were changedaround in the kitchen so that
driver was able to come in, pickup their food, and, and leave.
So what I started to do was, Istarted to do it manually.
So I was walking around withthese machines in my hand, and I
had tickets in the restaurant.
And I would literally, whenthere was a status update, I
(04:34):
would just move the stuffaround.
and I noticed that theefficiency of the restaurant and
the stress levels of therestaurant just went down.
so then what we did was is okay,we, one step farther.
we built, the prototype, we putit into the restaurant, we
tested the daylights out of it,and yeah, basically.
ended up, building, a greatproduct that, that, I guess it
(04:54):
was time to start to share withthe world.
the idea of it is that, asorders come in, we are,
monitoring the contents of theorders.
We're monitoring the, sources ofthe order, so all the different
channels.
in some cases, there can bemanual rules set by the.
By the restaurant, for pickupsor delivery orders or, dining
(05:15):
orders, that sort of thing.
we monitor all of the orders,with the delivery channels so we
know, what driver's beenassigned, how many orders he's
due to take up, what's his ETA?
Oh, he's been taken off theorder.
Another driver's been put onwhat's his ETA and essentially
in the simplest form, the chefis just looking at a KDS like he
(05:36):
normally would.
And he's just told what order tomake and when he's told not to
make orders, and he's told,okay, now you can make these
orders, future orders come in.
They can look at them, they canget them outta their view, and
then they'll automatically popback into the screen at the
right time when they're supposedto be made.
yeah, I guess in, in, its, inits simplicity, it's about
monitoring, all of the differentsources of the orders and then,
(05:58):
making sure that the rightorders made at the right time.
Jeremy Julian (06:01):
Yeah.
No, and I love that, that youguys are working this Ross.
'cause I think, your example ofwalking around and seeing a
bunch of delivery drivers andseeing a bunch of orders that
aren't completed, but a bunch oforders that aren't completed
without delivery drivers forthem is huge.
before I get too far ahead ofmyself.
those that are listening and orwatching, probably hear the
accent.
and then your first reference isDeliveroo.
(06:22):
And up until a couple of monthsago, probably in the states,
nobody knew what Deliveroo was.
But why don't you just breakdown a little bit about where
you've been building this asyou're coming stateside.
Ross Cronin (06:30):
Yeah.
we are based in Dogpatch Labs,which is in Dublin City Center.
you can see me, my background isnot fake.
This is one of the vault areasof the, old building.
I think it was an old warehousewhere they used to, store
alcohol, once it got shipped offthe ship.
So we're in the very heart ofDublin City Center right now.
although we're a Dublin based,tech company, our focus is
(06:51):
primarily on the US market.
Jeremy Julian (06:54):
I love it.
'cause, again, up until, the,DoorDash, Deliveroo, merger, I
didn't even know what Deliveroowas and I'm like, oh, that's,
and again, some of our US basedlisteners that might have missed
that press release might, Ididn't even have known that.
And so I wanted to just makesure I catch people up that,
that's kinda where you guys hadstarted and where, Where the
accent came from, but really youguys are solving that problem.
Dig in a little bit deeper,Ross, to the problem because why
(07:15):
is it that there's such a dividebetween the third party delivery
service providers and thekitchen?
Automation.
you talked about the problemthat you saw and then you
started to solve manually.
But walk me through why aren'tthose things connected and why
is it so hard to manage timingand really even prioritization
of the orders that are comingand going from the kitchen?
(07:37):
Because I think, it's a hugeproblem.
And I would say in the top threewhen I talk to our own clients.
About understanding, how do Iinform the guests?
How do I inform the deliverydrivers of these things?
It, staffing is a problem andmaking sure that they're doing
this, but, order accuracy.
And then this would be one ofthe top three problems when I'm
talking to restaurant executivesthat they bring up is being able
(07:58):
to inform my guests and reallythe delivery drivers on what's
going on is a huge piece.
Why do you think that's thecase?
Ross Cronin (08:04):
if you think about it, traditional systems are
really dealing with orders in afirst come, first serve basis,
FIFO.
Okay?
So in, in and Out.
Now that doesn't really work inan environment where delivery
drivers are essentially arrivingand collecting orders outta
sequence.
then you have the, differentchannels, whether it's DoorDash,
GrubHub, whoever.
they all have their ownindividual applications, but no
(08:24):
one's really brought ittogether.
from a kitchen sense, you havecompanies like Olo and Direct,
bringing the orders into thePOS, but once they get into the
POS, you've got a traditionalP-O-S-K-D-S that doesn't
necessarily have all of thisadditional functionality, in
terms of prioritization.
what's the alternative then?
So you've got all of theseorders, that are lying there
(08:45):
either in virtual or physicaltickets.
and, one of the only ways toactually manage this process is
literally by grabbing thetablets and staring at them.
And as orders are updated thento, change your making order.
But that's very difficult.
we're hiring chefs, notlogistical managers.
you know what we.
what we're looking for is, atool to be able to pull all of
(09:06):
this information together.
Give me all of my orders in oneplace.
Now, tell me when to make eachone of them so that they're all
on time.
The busier we get, we need, weneed a system to be able to help
with the thinking process.
if you think about how long ittakes to train a staff member
up, and what happens if you losestaff members, now you've gotta
(09:28):
hire, a new logistics managerto, to organize these orders.
so yeah, I think in reality.
the current systems that are outthere are just not built for
delivery.
And I guess, that comes.
right back to where I came from,which is the pizza delivery
business.
so I've always thought andrelate back to that kind of
(09:49):
operation and seeing, how canwe, how can we make things a
little easier for the chefs?
at the end of the day, I.
They don't wanna have to movetickets around and, trying to
work out what order to makenext.
Oh, let's wait till the driverarrives and then make it, now
we're creating delays.
Those delays are passed on tothe customer.
you know that driver
Jeremy Julian (10:09):
besides the fact that some of these delivery
service providers will chargeyou more if you're making their
delivery drivers sit and wait,at least in the state side, I
don't know how it is in, in, in,in Ireland, but I know for sure
here in the states if they haveto wait too long, sometimes
they'll just abandon altogetherand sometimes they'll have to,
sometimes they end up chargingthe restaurant back if they're,
if they're delayed
Ross Cronin (10:27):
yeah.
I mean there's a number ofdrawbacks to that.
The first of all is if thedriver can just drop the order
and then now the platform has togo and find you another driver
when you just had one.
and then, if you then go, okay,Now I might be, if you
constantly do that, you're notnecessarily gonna be prioritized
by the platform because of theseconstant delays, I think the
stores or the businesses thathave, solid operations are the
(10:50):
ones that will be prioritizeddrivers ahead of those who
aren't.
because they know that if theysend orders to your business,
that it's gonna be, ready,there's gonna be minimal amount
of wait time, and then they cankeep their drivers running and
running.
They're, if they're all dealingwith their own challenges, and
they need their drivers to be asproductive as possible, within
(11:11):
that hour, you know that he'sworking.
it'll kill them if drivers canonly do two deliveries an hour
because the restaurants, don'thave their act together
operationally.
Jeremy Julian (11:20):
Yep.
and Ross, talk me through howyou guys are managing in-store
orders.
'cause that, in pizza delivery,large percentage of pizzas are
delivered, in certain types ofenvironments, but in a casual
dining environment.
you've got different channels,you've got walk-ins, you've got
phone orders, you've gotdelivery orders, you've got
in-person orders in the diningroom.
Managing all of that is, takes adegree in physics and lots of
(11:43):
different logarithms that haveto manage that because you want
to make sure that you take careof your guests and in-house as
well as the walk-ins as well asyour third
Ross Cronin (11:50):
You know what?
That's not the most complicatedpart.
Okay?
order.
Order.
They're just order sources atthe end of the day.
Okay?
The complicated part is, havinga flexible enough solu solution
out there that's gonna fit intocertain types of business models
and their floats.
do they need service?
based, routing of orders?
deliveries.
Go over here, dins, go overthere.
(12:11):
Do they need station, routing.
Where grill, pizza, drinks, allthat sort of stuff needs to get
split up.
I find that the complexities areactually in splitting everything
up across a business and thenbringing it back together again.
but the trick being, thatpreparation is synchronized in a
way that everything can be readyat the same time.
So if you've got a steak thattakes 20 minutes and then you've
(12:33):
got french fries, that takes twoand a half, based on how busy
that station is.
the system will then determinewhen it should be fired.
what the ETA of the order iswhat's most important.
so if you set rules, like Iwant, first courses to be,
served within 15 minutes, I wantsecond courses to be served
within 30 minutes.
you program those rules in.
(12:55):
All of the orders go into thesystem and it will basically
still, fire the orders at theright times, the right products
to the right stations, and makesure that the orders are made on
time as much as possible.
Obviously, with high volumethere, there could be delays,
but the system is supposed toanticipate this and, and,
prioritize it as best aspossible.
Jeremy Julian (13:15):
Yeah.
and the other thing that I liketo talk to people about, and I
know that this doesn't, oftenget thought about is this menu
mix.
when I talk to certain brands,they're really heavy in salads.
salads take less time thansteaks, right?
They just do, there's nothingyou can say that salads take
less time than steaks.
And so if you're heavy salads,your pantry station is gonna be
working.
I'm turning orders faster and,but if I'm a steak heavy, brand
(13:37):
and my grill might be a lot, alot heavier, does that go into
effect as far as what, whateveryour channels are, like you
said.
Ross Cronin (13:43):
I think, look, every single order, has an ETA,
whether it's by product or bythe whole order by itself, in,
in the case of delivery,everything must be ready by a
specific time.
In the case of dine in, youbreak that down into multiple
ets and you just, and again,some of these rules.
are purely based on what therestaurant, configures in the
control panel.
(14:03):
So they set the rules and thenthe system will operate using AI
in order to make sure that, theright order's made at the right
time.
Jeremy Julian (14:11):
I love it.
we're 15 minutes in.
We finally hit the word ai.
There's been no shows in 2025that have gone on without having
AI at least mentioned in thefirst 30 minutes of the show.
So thank you for that.
you're keeping my streak alive,Ross.
talk me through what, so we'vedefined the problem.
We know that it's a huge issue.
We know that it's gotta be onthe top two or three issues for
all brands, is ensuring thatthey are by channel, not only.
(14:34):
Delivering food that's hot andfresh, but communicating that
back out to, whether it's theDSPs or any of those kind of
things, and even their staff andfiguring out how to, how do we
manage it?
'cause that's the other thingI'd love to talk through, but
why don't we, why don't we leapover to now we, we know what the
problem is.
How is Rocket Box uniquelysolving this challenge?
what are you guys tackling firstand where are you guys at on
this journey of really trying tosolve these
Ross Cronin (14:55):
That's a good question.
It's quite interesting because alot of the feedback that we're
getting is from operators,operators of all sizes.
we're, we have had the, fortuneof meeting a lot of great
operators who are, who aredonating the time, to answering
all of our annoying questions.
what we are doing is reallygoing in there and going, okay,
so you might be using, a po s'sKDS and it's like, all right.
(15:19):
And a lot of the times itdoesn't take too much pressing
to find out, what does this keys not do that you'd like it to
do?
You ask 10 people and all of asudden the same things start
popping up.
so in reality, our niche is thatwe're, focusing on some of the
more complex scenarios that astandard KDS, doesn't do.
(15:41):
So that's really where we'vetried to focus, our time on and
really trying to understand theneeds of the business, to
understand.
why they think they need it, isit the best option?
And and really what we've doneis this, I'll give you one
example.
We were at the Food on DemandShow in Vegas, and we met with
about 25 different operators.
We have, stayed in touch withmany of those operators.
(16:02):
They've been great with, meetingwith us, talking through
functionality.
but I would say that from that,that one show and the operators
that we met, we've alreadystarted to, release
functionality.
That is based on feedback fromthat show.
and I expect that actually ahundred percent of the feedback
that we got and that we decidedto move ahead with is gonna be
(16:22):
built probably within the nextfour weeks and released.
it, it's all about theoperators.
It's all about the operators andwhat they need, so I'm not gonna
tell them what we do.
It's gonna be what do you need?
Tell me why.
Let's talk through it.
understand it.
because, at the end of the day,like I said, you've got all the
different channels, that's fine.
You take them in and then we'vegotta find out a way to
(16:43):
prioritize them.
Great.
But then we need to fit thatinto your kitchen.
and, oh, you've multiplekitchens.
Oh, you want order throttlingbetween the kitchens.
You want delivery orders goingover to kitchen B when it's
open.
Do you want a way to be able to,to open and close kitchen b And
when you do that, when you closeit, it all orders get rerouted
(17:04):
automatically to a, this is allthe stuff that we're building
with the operators.
So it's all.
Jeremy Julian (17:10):
I was having dinner with, one of the former
operators from Chipotle andthey'd had the whole kitchen, a
kitchen b at Chipotle when theywere, when, before they got mass
adoption of stores where there'sa store on, feels like every
other corner here in the States.
they were at a place where theywere so busy with digital orders
and even going back to faxing,he said they would do exactly
that.
But then on a low Tuesdayafternoon at three o'clock, you
don't need both kitchens.
(17:31):
So everything goes to the frontline.
But, I love that idea that says,how do, how do you smart route
those things based on thosekitchens?
Are you guys even doing it innerchain, where, at certain chains
they're more efficient incertain areas because of the
layout or product mix or any ofthose kind of things?
Or is it overlaid and I'm notjudging as much as just trying
to understand how deep you guysare going to help operators get
(17:52):
to that
Ross Cronin (17:52):
I would say going super deep.
Yeah.
I, like I did with Menu, I builtan extremely, flexible platform
that, you know.
met the needs of our customers.
obviously development prioritiesare based on, how many customers
are gonna need a particularfunction, but then, you have the
bigger customers that havespecific requirements and you
have to go there too.
(18:12):
we're very much a, a customerdriven, development pipeline.
So the more
Jeremy Julian (18:19):
to con confirm,
Ross Cronin (18:20):
go.
You go ahead.
You go ahead.
Jeremy Julian (18:22):
I was gonna say, just to confirm, so are you guys
going into existingimplementations and replacing
their KDS?
just walk me through that.
'cause you talked a lot aboutthe data and evaluating the
data, but I'm assuming it's alsothe screens that the chef is
seeing on what to prepare whenand all of the data that's above
it to make better businessdecisions.
Is that
Ross Cronin (18:41):
Yes it is.
Yeah.
yeah, basically it, it dependsbecause in, in some cases they
are totally doing a rip andreplace and they're putting in a
new POS and we're Coming in aspart of that new package, in
other, in other ways.
They're currently using a POS,they're using the KDS, but they
were unhappy with thefunctionality.
We're working with that KDSpartner in order to, to
(19:02):
basically retrofit our solutionin, into their existing, into
their existing operation.
So we're pause agnostic.
We don't really mind which pauseyou use.
and that's the way we'd like totry and keep things and like we
see ourselves as a compliment tothe POS if your POS does not
have, if your KDS doesn't haveall of the functionality that
(19:22):
your customer needs, at leastyou have the ability to bring
someone like us in that we'll beable to fill that gap.
Jeremy Julian (19:30):
I love that.
I'm gonna flip back over topizza'cause I was just at, ec, a
multiunit restaurant, tech showearlier this year and I got to
hear the, the guy that was, Thatwas on the Domino's Pizza
Tracker, project.
And he talked about that.
And as a guest, I know that's abig thing that people are
looking to get to.
Talk me through where RocketBoxes are on that journey.
(19:50):
you've got the operators, you'vebeen working really tightly with
the operators, but now it comesdown to the guests.
The guests want to know.
Amazon tells me.
That the package is nine stopsaway, and then it's eight stops
away, and then it's seven stopsaway.
And I think in general, in foodservice, a lot of people are
wanting to get to that place.
And I think Domino's has set thestandard in that regard.
help me understand how RocketBox is, where they're at on that
(20:10):
journey.
Ross Cronin (20:11):
I guess we, we log absolutely everything, from the
second that an order comes intothe restaurant, even way past
the.
The handover to the driver, wecontinue to track until that
order has been delivered.
so every single touch pointalong the way, is recorded by
the system.
So that we can then take thatdata, use it, for that person's
(20:33):
next order.
We know if someone got a lateorder, ideally we'll like to
know if they complained, laterso we can try and do some
service recovery.
There's a lot of opportunitywith having this information, at
your disposal.
but yeah, I think the main thingis that we capture everything
and it was, intentional from dayone that we wanted to be able
to, capture all of the data.
(20:54):
Then ultimately figure out, howdoes it need to be used?
Do we need to send an SMSmessage to the customer to let
them know their order's readyfor pickup?
we already, tell the platforms,Hey, the order's ready for your
driver to collect and that sortof thing.
I think that there is gonna bean evolution.
and I guess also from our side,it's how much of it do we do
versus how much of it do we handover to the individual platforms
(21:15):
to handle themselves?
we work with, the third partydelivery.
we also work with, first partyonline ordering companies.
and then you've got the POSitself.
I think that, I think
Jeremy Julian (21:25):
lot of work that you guys put into to building
that ecosystem,
Ross Cronin (21:29):
Yeah, exactly.
look, it is.
And I guess you could say thatthe last eight years of
building, another platform,certainly gets you, all of the
knowledge that you need in orderto do something like rock box,
but do it really well.
I think if I didn't have those,25 plus years of pizza delivery
under the belt and that it wouldbe a difficult job to do
something like this.
(21:49):
'cause essentially.
What I'm doing is, jumping intopeople's kitchens, analyzing
their operations, understandingtheir wants, but also then
presenting them with, with theoptions that are available and
in some cases then discussingwhat sort of custom development
might be required in order toget them, that extra 10% that
they're looking for.
Jeremy Julian (22:09):
Yeah.
two more things on the productside, Ross.
'cause you've talked a lot aboutwhat you guys do.
and it was in the bio that, yourteam sent over multi-language.
that blew me away.
'cause again, dumb American,what's the joke?
talk to me about some of the, Idunno.
I'll tell you the joke.
It's, somebody said this joke tome, what do you say, somebody
that speaks two languages,bilingual, what do you say that
somebody speaks, threelanguages, trilingual.
What do you say?
That somebody speaks onelanguage in American?
(22:31):
Because in America we only speakEnglish.
And so with that, the fact thatyou guys have got over 15
languages built into the productis blows me away.
help me understand how did thateven come about and how do you
manage that?
'cause
Ross Cronin (22:41):
okay, so first of all, your restaurant may be in
the US but that doesn't meanthat is the, English is the
first, language of the chefwho's making the food.
like there's a few things.
So the first thing is we takethe language of the country that
the restaurant is in, let's callit English.
So everything that prints fromthe kitchen and stuff like that.
So we handle all of the printingside of things as well.
(23:03):
That's not done by the POS.
all the receipts will be printedin English, however, the screen,
that's there, you can basicallytoggle it from French to German
to Mandarin to Arabic if youwant.
all within seconds.
And it's really just about,making it comfortable for the
chefs that are working, on, sothat, they.
You have to recognize that, thepeople who are in these kitchens
(23:23):
aren't necessarily firstlanguage English.
So we needed to make it asflexible as we can.
Also, we, we have built thisplatform, from a global
perspective.
So if somebody wants this, inthe UAE, they can have it in
Arabic, they can have it inEnglish if you want to deploy it
in the Netherlands.
there's your Dutch.
so it was important for us.
at the end of the day, languageis, it's not that difficult to
(23:45):
do these days, as it used to be.
but yeah, I, we're starting offat 15, but actually, we'll be
probably adding, whether anothermaybe 10 to 15 languages.
We'll stop at around 30 and thenwe'll add them, on a demand
basis.
If there's a demand for morelanguages, then we'll add them
on.
But we thought 15 is a prettygood coverage to start with.
Jeremy Julian (24:06):
Yeah, it's incredible and most products
that, that are getting into thespace, and again, not that you
guys are brand new in thisspace, but you guys are
relatively young.
Don't start there.
So I love that, that.
Ross Cronin (24:15):
Yeah, I think it comes to, look, we are, we're,
being in Dublin, we're European.
we have all of the benefit oftraveling to Italy, to Portugal,
all these sort of places and,we've respect and awareness that
language is a key piece.
All of our developers areactually based in SoFi.
yeah, look, we've built itinternational from day one.
(24:35):
I think investors will like thattoo.
Jeremy Julian (24:38):
Yeah.
No, I love that.
last thing on the product side,Ross, you guys built, so you
talked a lot about kind ofinternal to the store, internal
to what goes on operationally.
Talked a little bit about theguest journey.
Talk to me a little bit aboutthe above store reporting,
master agent level, for lack ofa better term, content
management and reporting abovestore.
(24:59):
being able to see that from acorporate level or even from
wherever I am in the world, is acritical piece to whether you
talk about guest recovery oroperational efficiencies or any
of those kind of things.
So I'd love to have you talk alittle bit about what you guys
built there as well.
Ross Cronin (25:12):
there's a lot we can do with it.
I think what we have at themoment is, I would say is fairly
basic in terms of the dashboardreporting.
We have, individual loca, wehave individual order reporting,
location reporting.
Brand reporting.
you can even technically havemultiple brands if you have,
multiple brands under yourumbrella, all of that.
there we also have an API, soyou'd be able to pull all of the
(25:33):
data into your own businessintelligence platform too.
in, in terms of the, we're verymuch focused on the operational
side of things at the moment.
but.
the reporting side of things isan area that I am, I'm quite
interested in getting into, butI would say we need more data to
be able to really focus on thatas a next steps.
(25:55):
But in the meantime, the APIhelps businesses to connect to
their existing platforms andtake the data that they want.
Jeremy Julian (26:03):
and I could see it also as a guest recovery
tool.
It's having to dial in, log todeliver, act to, log into any of
these systems to go figure outthese things.
It's just, it's extra work.
So now being able to see thatfrom a high level and being able
to manage it is really
Ross Cronin (26:16):
it's, it's gonna be very helpful.
if you have, some sort of adispute that you'd be able to
just, Hey, which system do I loginto?
Hey, let's go in, into RocketBox.
Let's look at that particularorder.
I see the order coming in.
I see it on the prep station.
I see it was bumped here.
I see it when it went into theoven.
I see what time, it, got pickedup by the driver.
Dropped off by the driver.
you're right.
Jeremy Julian (26:35):
No, I can see that being a huge operational,
even going back to operations.
Ross Cronin (26:38):
theory, the more restaurants that also use Rocket
Box, the better because thenwe'll actually have, More
information about all the ordersthat run through the platform,
not just, from that particularbrand or restaurant.
we'll, when we're talking aboutour kind of logistical side, if
we have a, let's call it, anarea where all hundred
(26:58):
restaurants are using RocketBox, now we are able to
orchestrate scenarios where,where we are operationally,
making.
Restaurant a, and restaurant B'Sorders synchronize in terms of,
okay, there's a distance betweenthis at three minutes, make this
order, three minutes now firethat order so that it can be
ready in the second restaurant.
(27:20):
there's a lot that can be donewith this in terms of a network
effect and the more restaurantsthat used Rocka box, the more
information it has at hand to beable to, to prioritize the
orders appropriately.
Jeremy Julian (27:33):
and I think it's amazing,'cause you guys are one
of the first ones that I've seenthat kind of started from the
external orders to build, tohelp automate some of the
kitchen.
Whereas most of the systemsStarted in-house, whether that's
A-P-O-S-K-D-S or any of the KDSsolutions that are out there,
you guys said, my big challengeis all of these, multiple
channels, how do I manage themand then back backfill and
integrate into the POS.
(27:54):
So I love that
Ross Cronin (27:55):
Yeah, unfortunately can't, you still can't ignore,
some of the kind of dining, inrequests, coursing and things
like that, but that, yeah.
We're doing things from back tofront.
Jeremy Julian (28:05):
it's just, it's, because again, most of the
solutions out there that youguys are in competing with, were
created when delivery didn'teven really exist other than in
a
Ross Cronin (28:13):
APIs didn't exist.
Jeremy Julian (28:15):
Yeah, exactly.
Exactly.
Ross Cronin (28:17):
Yeah.
go.
Jeremy Julian (28:19):
I was just gonna say, so Russ, something that's
been weighing on my mind sinceyou brought it up earlier,
what's been harder building outa restaurant brand and growing a
restaurant brand or building outa tech brand and continuing to
grow it?
think back in your history andthink
Ross Cronin (28:33):
think you should you ask me that question again
in 25 years?
I know which, I still ownrestaurants and I still have a
huge passion for it.
and nothing more than arestaurant that just nails the
operations on a Friday night.
there's a lot of satisfactionthat I get out from knowing that
shift ran really smooth.
but at the end of the day, Ialso, Love building software.
(28:55):
love solving problems.
I love taking on challenges.
when someone says something isdifficult from a software
perspective, I like to bring itto my team and break it down
and, come up with some cleverways to do things.
fortunately, the team that Ihave, we've been working
together for over eight years.
and, I think that is, a hugehelp.
that we're able to take all ofthese problems and, and really
(29:19):
just break them down and getthem built.
Jeremy Julian (29:22):
I love that.
and again, you're unique in thatregard'cause you started in
restaurants building, with yourfamily business and then, you
still operate restaurants, butnow you're on the tech side.
And anybody that I know that's,traversed
Ross Cronin (29:32):
Which one do I like,
Jeremy Julian (29:33):
they're both hard.
Ross Cronin (29:34):
they're both hard in their own way.
and I would say running therestaurants is harder.
it's harder, the intensity ofit.
Jeremy Julian (29:44):
and the urgency of it.
Yeah.
No, and, I love that, thatanswer.
So thanks for sharing.
How would people learn more?
How do people get in touch?
How do people, what would nextsteps look like?
Run more if they wanted to.
They sat and listened.
They're like, we love this.
We need to talk.
We, we have the problem that heis solving for.
Ross Cronin (30:01):
Yeah, I think the best thing to do would be, I
head to our website and we'vegot a link there for getting
started.
I can post it here if you want.
where do I chat here?
So there's the link there.
I.
Jeremy Julian (30:14):
bottom right hand corner.
Ross Cronin (30:15):
Rocket Box io slash get started.
fill that out.
you'll be able to book a timeslot with one of the guys and
they'll be able to, run throughyour requirements, see if
there's a good fit.
And, yeah, we can take it fromthere.
Jeremy Julian (30:29):
I love it.
I know you're coming to theStates for a couple of shows
coming up this, later this year.
you wanna throw out, I know, Iknow there's one in July, one
in, one in August, I don't knowexactly.
Or one in September I think.
what shows will you be here ifpeople,
Ross Cronin (30:40):
so we'll be at, we'll be at retail now.
retail now predominantly lookingfor some resellers.
and then after that we'll be atFS Tech.
and then after that we'll be atthe Fast Casual Executive
Summit.
now I'm sure there's more thatI've haven't mentioned, but,
those are the ones that come tomind right now.
But yeah, basically we'll beactively, on the scene and
(31:00):
making it to as many shows as wecan.
Jeremy Julian (31:04):
Well, Ross, I'm grateful that, people like you
exist in the world.
I truly do love talking tofounders that have, have built a
product that solves somethingthat, that really they saw as a
huge piece because they have adifferent lens by which they
solve the problem becausethey're looking at it and
saying, you know what?
I see this problem.
The fact that you even walkedaround with the tablets manually
to solve this problem
Ross Cronin (31:24):
they were calling me Ross at Box.
They were calling me Uck'causethey knew I was building it, but
it wasn't, it wasn't live.
And I was trying to get familiarwith the process and, so they'd
be able to spot things that arewrong.
So I was standing there, with,holding four or five tablets
going around and then I replacedme with a screen.
Jeremy Julian (31:44):
Yeah, no.
And, we'll have to, put that inthe show notes, Ross at Box, the
in inception of Rocket Box.
But, but I love that.
And again, those are
Ross Cronin (31:50):
that was the, the real MVP.
Jeremy Julian (31:53):
yeah, no, I love that.
thank you for creating thesolution.
thanks for coming on and sharingyour story.
To our listeners, guys, we knowthat you guys have got lots of
choices, so thanks for hangingout with us.
If you haven't alreadysubscribed to the show, please
do so on your favorite,listening platform and, make it
a great day.
Ross Cronin (32:07):
Thanks.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
Thanks for listening to The Restaurant Technology
Guys podcast.
Visit restaurant technologyguys.com for tips, industry
insights, and more to help yourun your restaurant better.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Bobby Bones Show
Listen to 'The Bobby Bones Show' by downloading the daily full replay.