Welcome to the Arena from ICR – Conversations with Today's Innovators & Business Leaders Noah Glass, Founder and CEO at Olo – Changing Your Order: The digital transformation of the restaurant industry
Summary:
We take for granted how rapidly restaurants have gone digital in the past few years, but it's actually been a vision 20 years in the making. And it all started with today's guest.
Noah Glass is the founder and CEO of Olo, a leading commerce platform powering the restaurant industry's digital transformation. Over 600 of the most recognized restaurants and C-Store brands use Olo to grow digital sales, preserve direct consumer relationships, and maximize profitability. More than 85 million consumers run their orders through the platform annually.
After attending Yale and spending some time abroad, Noah founded Olo at the age of 24. He established the company before the rise of the smart phone, starting out with a focus on text message ordering. Noah is now recognized as among the most influential leaders in the restaurant industry, and was named number one on 2020's Nation's Restaurant News Power List.
Noah and I talked about Olo's inspirational origin story, the incredible impact the company has had on the restaurant industry, and the huge opportunities in this space going forward.
Highlights:
- An introduction to Olo (3:23)
- Noah tells Olo's origin story (4:01)
- From protype to actually commercializing the product - getting restaurants on board in the early days (8:27)
- Noah takes us through Olo's products (10:51)
- The challenges of digital transformation in the restaurant industry (14:39)
- Noah talks about the total addressable market and how far into digital transformation we really are (16:38)
- The status of the restaurant industry, and the mindset around tech adoption (18:14)
- Olo's approach to R and D (21:06)
- Noah discusses Olo's financial position and philosophy on acquisitions (22:59)
- The culture at Olo (25:23)
- What investors might not understand about Olo (27:32)
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Feedback:
If you have questions about the show, or have a topic in mind you'd like discussed in future episodes, email our producer, marion@lowerstreet.co.