How Success Happens Steve Fredette, Co-Founder of Toast, on Technological Innovation
May 25, 2022
Steve Fredette, president and co-founder of Toast, Inc., shares insights from his journey in tech and entrepreneurship. He reflects on his early influences from an entrepreneurial family and his shift from chemistry to programming. The conversation highlights his experience at Endeca, the choice to focus on the restaurant industry, and the creation of Toast's cloud POS system. He discusses overcoming initial skepticism, rapid growth during challenging times like COVID, and the importance of a strong company culture dedicated to hospitality.
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Early Investors Dismissed Restaurant Tech
- Steve Fredette recounts that in 2011 VCs dismissed restaurant tech as dead and uninvestable.
- He says being ahead of the trend made fundraising much harder but proved advantageous later.
Self-Taught Engineering Sparked Tech Passion
- Steve describes teaching himself C++ and building test systems at a precision optics company in high school.
- That early self-directed engineering work sparked his love of tech and practical problem solving.
Facebook Clone And A Missed Offer
- Steve tells how he and teammates built a Facebook clone and got an AIM message from Mark Zuckerberg to shut it down.
- He recalls deciding not to join Facebook and later viewing it as a learning chapter that fueled entrepreneurship.