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Tunji Junard misplaced a consumer — to not a rival company, however to a software program platform.
It stung. Junard had been working advertising for a restaurant when it dropped him in favor of a tech instrument. However as a substitute of brushing it off, he obtained curious. That call modified the trajectory of his profession and led to him co-founding Steam Boys, a fast-casual Chinese language consolation meals model that grew from three to 9 places.
The tech? Popmenu.
Constructed by two founders who frolicked inside eating rooms, not simply behind laptops, Popmenu wasn’t flashy, but it surely labored. And Junard, as soon as skeptical, turned certainly one of its strongest advocates.
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Tech constructed by listening
Brendan Sweeney and Tony Roy did not simply wish to construct restaurant tech. They needed to construct it with restaurant folks.
As CEO and COO of Popmenu — and co-founders — that distinction formed all the things. From the start, Sweeney and Roy frolicked inside eating rooms, not simply behind laptops. They weren’t excited about software program that regarded good on a pitch deck however fell aside throughout a dinner rush. They needed instruments that solved actual issues like clunky menu updates, disconnected advertising and the fixed query: Is any of this really working?
Sweeney introduced a product background and a willingness to go deep with operators. Roy, who got here from an operational mindset, introduced power and a journey schedule that might rival a touring musician’s. Toronto, Miami, Atlanta — wherever house owners had been speaking, he was listening.
They constructed round a reality: Most operators are flying blind. So that they created Popmenu, a platform that connects a restaurant’s web site, menu and advertising by electronic mail, textual content, social media and AI-powered campaigns. The whole lot lives in a single place and is tied to actual outcomes.
What fueled the corporate’s progress wasn’t simply the product. It was proximity. Roy and Sweeney stayed near the ache factors. They listened, constructed and saved displaying up.
“We’re not separate from our clients,” Roy tells Shawn Walchef of Cali BBQ Media. “We’re a part of the identical world.”
That mindset continues to form the corporate. Staff get fairness. Product managers attend commerce exhibits. Suggestions loops are actual. And it is resonating with operators throughout the nation, although not all the time immediately.
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Asking for assist is not a weak point
Junard is aware of firsthand what it felt wish to be dropped from doing a restaurant’s advertising in favor of Popmenu. “I took it personally,” he says. “However after a minute, I needed to admit, I used to be curious.”
What he discovered was greater than automation. It was a better, related system that truly confirmed what labored.
That discovery caught with him. So when Junard turned chief advertising officer and co-founder of Steam Boys — a rising dumpling idea primarily based within the Southeast — he introduced Popmenu with him.
By the point Steam Boys opened its third location, Junard knew the crew wanted extra readability. That is after they rolled out Popmenu. Because the model expanded to 9 eating places, he lastly stopped guessing what was touchdown. He had actual knowledge to work with — all the way down to the {dollars}.
“I was an excellent guesser,” he says. “Now I’ve the numbers.”
Popmenu gave him again time and confidence. As an alternative of worrying about each publish, he might deal with the model’s id. What does Steam Boys sound like? What does it stand for? That is what he needed to scale.
As the corporate grew, so did the partnership. Junard started counting on Popmenu’s backend patterns — what the founders name a progress playbook. It outlined issues like how huge a visitor database must be to help $3 million in income, or how typically a restaurant ought to message its viewers to keep away from churn. It wasn’t dogma, but it surely was course. And that course modified how Junard thought of advertising.
Probably the most telling half? Junard is now certainly one of Popmenu’s greatest champions. And the founders who constructed it aren’t main with hype. They’re main with humility.
“Ultimately,” Junard says, “I spotted asking for assist does not make you look weak. It makes you quicker.”
That is the sort of mindset Popmenu was constructed to help, not by changing folks, however by giving them the area to deal with what issues: the meals, the story and the visitor.
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Tunji Junard misplaced a consumer — to not a rival company, however to a software program platform.
It stung. Junard had been working advertising for a restaurant when it dropped him in favor of a tech instrument. However as a substitute of brushing it off, he obtained curious. That call modified the trajectory of his profession and led to him co-founding Steam Boys, a fast-casual Chinese language consolation meals model that grew from three to 9 places.
The tech? Popmenu.
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