restaurant-ai
(2)
The Phone Wouldn't Stop Ringing. Hostie Turned That Restaurant Headache Into a $16 Million AI Company
A restaurateur and an AI engineer started with one painfully ordinary problem: the phone ringing during dinner service. Their answer now handles millions of guest conversations - but its real test is whether automation can make a restaurant feel more human, not less.
Expo
Expo is an AI platform for multi-unit restaurant operators that consolidates fragmented data from POS, inventory, labor, and guest-feedback systems into a single intelligent dashboard. Non-technical managers can ask their restaurant data questions in plain English and get answers - no analysts, no SQL, no Tableau build required. Founded by chef-turned-operator Will Pacio and tech veteran Dave Lu (the team formerly behind restaurant-staffing marketplace Pared), Expo connects to systems like Toast, Restaurant365, Crunchtime, Square, and DoorDash to automate reporting and surface operational insights for chains from QSR to fine dining.