Papa Gino's is a New England pizzeria chain known for its thin-crust pizza, pasta, and subs. Founded in East Boston in 1961 by Italian immigrant Michael Valerio and his wife Helen as a by-the-slice shop called Piece O' Pizza, it grew into a regional institution across Massachusetts and neighboring states. After a 2018 bankruptcy that shrank the chain dramatically, it was bought by Wynnchurch Capital and now operates roughly 78-79 locations, leaning on its New England roots and a 2026 partnership with Patriots quarterback Drake Maye to win back fans.
Slang AI builds an agentic voice AI platform purpose-built for restaurants and hospitality. Its 'Superhost' answers every inbound call 24/7 with warmth and precision - booking and modifying reservations, fielding private-dining and event inquiries, recognizing returning guests, and routing high-value requests to staff. The platform serves 2,000+ restaurant locations, has handled roughly 25 million calls from 10 million unique guests, and reports 95%+ guest satisfaction, helping operators stop missing calls and recover lost revenue.
PathSpot is a New York-based health and safety company for the food service industry. Its flagship HandScanner uses visible-light fluorescence spectroscopy to detect invisible contaminants on employees' hands in about two seconds, flagging the molecules that carry norovirus, E. coli, Salmonella, Listeria and Hepatitis A. Around that scanner the company built SafetySuite, a connected hardware-and-software platform covering temperature logging, digital task lists and food labeling. PathSpot operates in more than 10,000 food service locations worldwide.
SparkPlug is a San Francisco-based incentive management platform that turns frontline retail and restaurant employees into a brand's most effective sales force. By integrating directly with point-of-sale systems, it automates sales contests, goals, and commissions - often funded by the brands and vendors whose products those employees sell - and pays rewards out automatically. The company works with thousands of retail locations and hundreds of brand partners, betting that the people closest to the customer are the most underused influence in physical commerce.
Patricia Smith is listed as a Group Chief Executive Officer associated with Smith, the Asbury Park hospitality collective behind Porta, Pascal & Sabine, Homesick, and Lovesick. Her public footprint is thin; her affiliation places her inside one of New Jersey's most recognizable restaurant groups, an operation that helped re-light Asbury Park's main streets after 2006.
Shayla Spencer is listed as a CEO connected to Da Kitchen Cafe, the cult Maui plate-lunch institution famous for oversized portions of local grinds, a Kahului base, and a comeback story that survived the 2020 closures.
Ottimate (formerly Plate IQ) is an AI-powered accounts payable automation platform that captures, codes, verifies, and pays invoices end-to-end. Founded in 2014 to fix the back-office mess inside restaurants, it now serves CFOs and AP teams across hospitality, healthcare, construction, retail, and grocery.
Workstream is an HR, hiring and payroll platform built for the deskless economy - the 80 million Americans who clock in by the hour at restaurants, gyms, car washes and franchises. Founded in 2017 by three immigrants in San Francisco, it uses texting, voice AI and automation to cut time-to-hire by roughly 70% for chains like Burger King, Jimmy John's and Chick-fil-A franchisees.
Zavo is building the AI-powered operating system for restaurants and hospitality businesses. Founded in May 2025 by Can Zehebi and Ilkan Gezer and backed by Y Combinator (F25), Zavo replaces the patchwork of disconnected tools most restaurant operators rely on - separate POS, payments, reservations, and marketing software - with a single unified platform that uses agentic AI to automate finance, operations, and customer engagement. With 800+ businesses on the platform less than a year after launch, Zavo is moving fast in a market dominated by legacy incumbents.