Adam’s Solution?
kea starts testing its technology with a few locations at major pizza chains including Papa John’s and Domino’s.
The company quickly becomes a “Gold Partner,” leading to the onboarding of major Olo restaurant chains, including Newk’s Eatery, PINCHO, California Fish Grill, and Hopdoddy.
The usual path for a startup involves twists and turns, and kea’s path was no different. The founding team constantly wondered what they got themselves into, questioning if they could really disrupt the status quo for restaurants. But the glimmer of hope – the potential to make a difference in the restaurant industry and beyond – kept them moving forward.
Our story begins in 2017 when founder Adam Ahmad saw an opportunity at the Las Vegas Wingstop Convention. With all the successes highlighted at the convention, from celebrity franchisees to vendors displaying the latest and greatest in tech, there was still one problem on everyone’s minds: “How do we solve the labor crisis?” In fact, there was an entire panel dedicated to the consequences of short-staffed restaurants.
Operating at 50% below normal staffing levels, restaurants weren’t able to keep their quality consistently, trending at 1-2 stars below their typical Yelp ratings year-over-year. Order make times were over 20 minutes, as opposed to 15 the year prior, and a whopping 40%+ of phone order calls were not being answered.
