Independent restaurant owners once relied heavily on foot traffic for marketing, but the global pandemic in 2020 disrupted this traditional approach. Overnight, restaurants had to pivot, adopting online ordering systems, establishing plans for pick-up and delivery, and finding innovative ways to reach customers who were no longer dining out.

In response to the challenges faced by his mother’s dog grooming business, Adam Guild joined forces with Dean Bloembergen to create Owner.com, a platform designed to assist independent restaurant owners in enhancing their online presence. Guild emphasized the increased struggles in the restaurant industry due to inflation, resulting in higher labor and food costs, squeezing already slim profit margins. Owner.com aims to support these businesses by offering a comprehensive solution that includes online ordering, website building, customer relationship management, marketing automation, and a branded mobile app generator.

Dean Bloembergen of owner.com

With the restaurant industry projected to reach sales of $997 billion in 2023, Owner.com sees significant opportunities. The platform has recently integrated artificial intelligence, introducing features such as an AI-powered email marketer. This tool allows restaurant owners to input a sentence describing their message, and the AI generates an email in their style and tone, ready for customer outreach.

Owner.com has rapidly expanded its customer base, tripling its numbers in the past year, processing hundreds of millions of dollars annually, and generating tens of millions in revenue. The company secured $33 million in Series B funding, bringing its total funding to $58.7 million. Guild plans to continue investing in engineering and design teams to meet customer needs and is developing additional tools to enhance the platform.

In a landscape where the guest experience increasingly shifts online, Owner.com aims to empower independent restaurant owners, helping them not only survive technological changes but thrive in an evolving digital business environment