Axial started in our own restaurants. In early 2016 we began building the tool we wished we had: something that kept leaders on the floor instead of buried in reports. By the end of that year, the first version was running in our stores.
We weren't planning to sell it. Then, in March 2017, a restaurant company going through a big shakeup called. They were desperate for an easy way to see what was going on in their operations and needed answers fast. They asked for help, so we helped. We set them up on Axial, and it soon became how they ran the business. That was our first customer.
For the next three years, Axial was invite-only. New brands came through referrals, and we stayed close to every one of them. We tested ideas, watched how they really played out on the floor, and kept what made the operator's day easier. We held ourselves to one bar before going to market: 75% of team members using Axial. We cleared it at the end of 2019.
Then COVID hit. Instead of launching, we stopped charging any customer whose sales weren't up. For two and a half years, most of our customers used Axial for free. It was our chance to give back to the industry that built us, and it was worth it.
We went to market at the end of 2022. The rule we started with still decides everything we build: the operator's experience comes first.
