Burnt 🔥

Software To Save Restaurants Money

Author

Brett Perlmutter
July 30, 2024

Setting the Scene

  • Restaurants are facing unprecedented challenges as rising costs continue to outpace revenue growth.

  • These challenges include:

    • An outdated procurement process, characterized by inefficient ingredient ordering through phone calls and emails.

    • Error-prone, old-school inventory management using manual tracking on Excel or paper.

    • A lack of live data and real-time insights on sales and inventory, hampering decision-making.

  • This week’s company provides a comprehensive platform for managing operations to help restaurants save money efficiently.

In a Sentence

Burnt is a platform designed to streamline a restaurant’s back-end operations, enabling data-driven decision-making to improve profitability and operational efficiency.

  • Operations: Burnt simplifies activities such as inventory, ordering, and financial management.

  • Data-Driven: Using real-time data and analytics, restaurants can make informed decisions to maximize inventory and minimize spend.

Bulleted Version: Think of Burnt like Google Analytics for restaurant management, providing real-time data and insights to make informed decisions about inventory, ordering, and finances.

The Basics

  • Industry: Fintech

  • Headquarters: New York City

  • Year Founded: 2022

  • Employee Count: 6

  • Investors: Hari Raghavan (autopilot.fund), Benjamin Fernandes (founder of Nala), and other fintech angels.

  • Business Model: B2B SaaS

  • Early Traction: 9k orders processed, ~200 restaurants on waitlist ($1.25M once onboarded), 150+ suppliers receiving orders via Burnt

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH

  • Do you want to pitch your startup on a podcast listened to by millions? 3 spots left!

  • .tech startups have collectively raised over $5 billion and are catching angel investor and star VC Jason Calacanis's attention - he is exclusively inviting 3 more startups using .tech domains to pitch directly to him on his podcast, This Week in Startups.

  • So, if you are one of the many innovative founders building your startup's website on a .tech domain, you can apply. Not using a .tech domain yet? Apply anyway, and switch to a .tech domain if selected to pitch to JCal.

Due Diligence

WHAT WE LIKE

  • Market Opportunity: The restaurant management software market, is massive and growing quickly, presenting a vast opportunity for digital transformation, particularly in back-of-house operations where inefficiencies are prevalent.

  • Sticky Product: Burnt has positioned itself for a high retention rate, as once a restaurant updates their software and sees a return on investment, they will be life-long customers.

  • Vision: Burnt's vision involves establishing a strong foundation with restaurants and then targeting suppliers, leveraging existing customer relationships to achieve a low customer acquisition cost.

POTENTIAL RISKS

  • Adoption Challenges: Convincing traditional restaurants to adopt a new technology platform may be difficult, especially for those used to manual processes, potentially slowing customer acquisition.

  • Data Security: Handling sensitive financial and operational data for numerous restaurants carries significant responsibility; any data breaches or security lapses could undermine trust with customers.

  • Regulatory Hurdles: The restaurant industry is subject to various regulations and compliance requirements, and ensuring Burnt's platform adheres to these standards across different regions may be challenging and resource-intensive.

Founder Profiles

To request an introduction to the founder, respond to this email.

Comps

Why Burnt: By streamlining operations, providing real-time data, and enhancing decision-making, Burnt prevents inefficiencies from burning through a restaurant's profits.

Event Board

  • NYC Industry Agnostic Dinner for Founders & Funders: On August 5th, we are hosting a dinner in NYC. Apply HERE.

  • NESCAC Nexus: We are hosting an event for NESCAC alumni on August 6th in NYC. If you are a founder, funder, or operator who attended Amherst, Bates, Bowdoin, Colby, Connecticut College, Hamilton, Middlebury, Trinity, Tufts, Wesleyan, or Williams College, please join us for a very special event featuring industry veterans and first-time founders. Apply HERE.

Cast Your Vote

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Last Week Today

  • The results are in: FIY a company that simplifies heavy machinery maintenance and streamlines instruction manuals, was favored in last week’s poll.

  • Subscriber feedback: “This is a huge market to potentially scale, however, to adopt this type of tool the entire safety protocols and culture of a company would have to shift drastically.”