Restaurants are full of software companies. People look at the industry, see how big it is, and decide they only need to solve one small problem to win a slice of it. So they rush to market with tools that aren't ready, backed by big promises and a room full of reps dialing as fast as they can. Restaurant brands have been burned by that again and again. I know, because I've been on the receiving end of those calls as a restaurateur.
We took a different approach. Axial asks a brand for more than a login. It asks people to think differently about their roles, their contribution and hospitality itself. That only happens when the whole team trusts the numbers, understands them and sees their own part in them. So before we sold Axial to anyone, we wanted proof: proof that it solved a real problem, and proof that people would actually use it.
We started building in early 2016 and ran the first version in our own restaurants by the end of that year. Then we spent years testing ideas, watching how they really worked on the floor and changing what didn't. We set a bar of 75% of team members using Axial before we'd go to market, and we didn't move until we hit it. Through all of it, one rule decided every call: the operator's experience comes first.
