Open Table
One of the companies we stopped by and talked with on Monday was OpenTable. I view our technology as complementary to what they're doing.Open Table caters to many different users, including concierge, caterers, restaurant owners / operators, and people wanting to eat at restaurants. The general gist of the program is that users log onto their website and book a table at one of their "high end" restaurants. Typically, food ranges between $40 and $50 per plate at their establishments (though they do have lower priced restaurants also). The system then looks up free times, and allows the user to make a reservation in a time-slot. The reservation is stored in their ASP database.
Restaurants have a touch-screen provided by OpenTable which links in with their ASP. Restaurants are able to view existing reservations, make new ones (which are updated on the ASP), and seat guests based on the software.
It's very neat -- but it's old technology. Judging by the whole host of venture backing that they have, it would appear to me that the company has managed to survive the Dot-Com bust. The strength of their product, in this case, is not necessarily their technology (which is fine), but the fact that they have some very key partners -- including Expedia and The Washington Post.
The issue I have with their product is that it caters to very high end restaurants, and that usually means very high end customers. What about the average restaurant ... the average restaurant operator is a $750,000 / year and less 20 employee operation?
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