Podcast Summary

Podcast: RESTAURANT STRATEGY
Host: Chip Klose
Episode: Popmenu Co-Founders, Brendan Sweeney and Tony Roy
Date: September 22, 2025

Episode Overview

This episode of Restaurant Strategy features an insightful discussion with Popmenu co-founders Brendan Sweeney and Tony Roy. The conversation centers on the evolution of restaurant technology, the rise of the “all-in-one” digital platform, and how independent restaurant owners can harness data, automation, and AI to drive consistent profitability. Key themes include best-in-class digital tools, measuring marketing ROI, and leveraging AI to maximize efficiency and guest engagement.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. What is Popmenu? The Elevator Pitch

• Popmenu as an “All-in-One” Digital Platform:
  • Brendan Sweeney: “We’re a digital presence company for restaurants and we help restaurants consolidate everything they have to do digitally to attract new guests and engage the ones they already have.” (04:04)
  • Tony Roy: “Think about an Amazon E-comm experience… and then all that data fuels the back end so that restaurants can market to the individual in a very personalized way because now they know their interest. So Amazon meets Salesforce.” (04:29)

2. Evolution from Menu to All-in-One Solution

• Origins in Dynamic Menu Experiences:
  • Brendan explains they started by replacing static PDF menus with interactive, dynamic, photo- and review-rich digital menus. Client demand pushed Popmenu towards full website development, CRM, omnichannel marketing, and online ordering. (05:35)
• The Power of Consolidation:
  • Tony Roy: “Every restaurant wants to do more with less... less vendors, less tools, and have more time back... The area of consolidation started a while back when we initiated that.” (07:05)

3. ‘All-in-One’ as a Buzzword—But What Does It Really Mean?

• What Popmenu Offers That Replaces Separate Vendors:
  • Website and menu management (dynamic/interactable menus)
  • Integrated online ordering
  • Built-in marketing tools (email, SMS, social)
  • CRM and unique data/insights
  • Delivery integrations
  • Tony Roy: “…all in one basic encompasses every marketing tool that restaurants are or should be using. Combined with the interactive menu which gives them really unique data insights and then things like menu management, online ordering, delivery integrations.” (08:29)

4. Reducing Complexity & Driving Action Through Automation

• Operator Challenges:
  • “If it becomes too cumbersome, if you have to go to too many places, it just won’t get done.” – Chip Klose (09:51)
  • Tony highlights how busy operators simply can’t manage 8-10 disparate manual marketing tools and maintain consistency. Automation and simplified workflows are crucial. (09:58)
• Product Team Focus:
  • Tony: “We know the next best action people should be taking and in instances where we can do that for them, we will because we know it leads to results, impressions, follower capturing, transactions.” (09:58)

5. The Formula for Predictable Restaurant Revenue Growth

• The Impressions Engine:
  • Brendan Sweeney: “We’re an impressions engine. We can see a very, very strong correlation between impressions and either sustenance of a certain level of revenue or growth.” (12:17)
  • Popmenu’s data from thousands of restaurants shows that more guest contacts in a database and more frequent, targeted touchpoints (emails, SMS, etc.) directly correlate with higher revenue tiers.
    • Example: Median client at $1-1.5M in revenue has ~1,664 contacts; at $7-10M, median database is ~10,000 contacts. Top quartile operators have much higher numbers.
    • Regular and frequent personalized communications is key: “If you’re not touching people once per week … that’s really it. Can you touch them once per week?” (16:21)

Formula at a Glance (15:09–18:15):

• Revenue growth aligns with:
  • Total Contacts in Database (grows with revenue)
  • # New Contacts Added Monthly
  • # Mass Emails / Automated Emails / SMS Sent
  • Top performing restaurants dramatically outpace the median in these metrics.

6. Measuring ROI and Overcoming Skepticism

• Visibility into Marketing ROI:
  • Brendan: “Most people just do not have any visibility into their ROI. … That’s the other part that I think we bring to the table.” (19:06, 19:46)
  • Chip notes: “Net new subscriber growth is the number one metric that I hear really smart people talk about over and over and over.” (19:46)

7. Connecting Data Silos & Enabling Automation

• Integrating POS and Reservation Data:
  • Brendan shared Popmenu’s recent progress in data integration: “More of our POS partners and also OpenTable are now flowing consumer data into our clients and it’s having a dramatic impact...” (20:26)
  • Chip: “We do a really bad job of connecting the what to the who. And now that’s becoming finally so, so much easier to put together.” (20:55)

8. The Real-World Impact of AI in Restaurants

• Why AI Matters—Even for Skeptics:
  • Tony Roy: “Any restaurant, I don’t care how long you’ve been [open], you should be at least learning about it to see how it can help your teams do more with less. That’s just a fact today.” (21:58)
• Popmenu’s AI Innovations:
  • Sentiment analysis for reviews, AI phone system to handle incoming calls and labor shortages, AI Marketing Calendar that auto-generates an entire month of email, SMS, and social content.
  • “It develops an entire month's worth of marketing activity across multiple mediums... If they get busy... at least they know there’s a base level of activity happening.” (24:35)
  • The goal: “How can they help [restaurants] produce more marketing content faster, effectively at a fraction of the cost.” (24:35)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Popmenu’s Vision:

  • “Amazon meets Salesforce. We hope we're half as successful as those two and we'll be just fine.”
    —Tony Roy (04:29)

• On Restaurant Growth:

  • “If you want to compete and keep the revenue and protect the revenue that you have, you have to follow this. But if you want to grow … the number you have to have that you're touching on a monthly basis or weekly basis, and then the number of times you're touching them has to go up at a fairly dramatic rate…”
    —Brendan Sweeney (16:21)

• On Consistency in Marketing:

  • “The biggest thing for restaurants... is the lack of consistency in the marketing. … All in one isn’t just about putting everything there, but it’s how can you get them working in symphony together and automating to ensure that activities are being done.”
    —Tony Roy (09:58)

• On AI for Operators:

  • “The bigger question is can you be the only one that can afford not to at least be learning about [AI]?”
    —Tony Roy (21:58)

• On Restaurant Data Integration:

  • “We do a really bad job of connecting the what to the who. And now that’s becoming finally so much easier to put together.”
    —Chip Klose (20:55)

Timestamps for Key Segments

| Timestamp | Key Segment / Topic | |-----------|--------------------------------------| | 04:04 | What is Popmenu? The Elevator Pitch | | 05:35 | Origins: Dynamic Menus to Full Websites | | 07:05 | Consolidation & Operator Challenges | | 08:29 | Defining ‘All-in-One Solution’ | | 09:51 | The Problem with Disparate Tools | | 12:17 | Predictable Revenue Growth Formula | | 15:09 | Deep Dive: Database Size & Revenue | | 16:21 | Key Growth Metrics | | 19:06 | Importance of Measuring ROI | | 20:26 | Data Integration with POS/Reservations | | 21:35 | How Popmenu Uses AI | | 24:35 | Real-World Impact of AI Marketing |

Conclusion

Brendan, Tony, and Chip provide actionable insights for independent restaurant owners seeking to drive profitability and efficiency. The discussion underscores the critical role of consolidating best-in-class digital tools, automating and personalizing marketing, growing and leveraging guest data, and embracing AI-driven efficiencies. Consistency and automation—enabled by platforms like Popmenu—are shown as non-negotiable for sustained revenue growth in an ever-competitive landscape.

Connect with the guests:
Links to Popmenu and further resources are provided in the show notes.
Special Offer: Listeners can access exclusive Popmenu offers via popmenu.com/restaurantstrategy.