1240: Neil Chand, Co-Founder of FoodServiceIQ

Summary

Restaurant Unstoppable Episode 1240: Neil Chand, Co-Founder of FoodServiceIQ

Release Date: December 29, 2025
Host: Eric Cacciatore
Guest: Neil Chand

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Eric sits down with Neil Chand, Co-Founder of FoodServiceIQ, to dive deep into the strategies and technology that are helping independent restaurants save big on food costs. They explore Neil’s journey from tech to hospitality, what sets FoodServiceIQ apart from traditional group purchasing organizations (GPOs), the transformative power of leveraging technology and AI, and the current and future state of independent restaurants.

Chand shares actionable insights, case studies with impressive savings, and reflections on the industry’s structural challenges—offering practical hope for independent operators aiming to compete against larger chains. The conversation also delves into the existential challenges and opportunities of AI for both foodservice and society at large.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. FoodServiceIQ: Mission and Model

• What is FoodServiceIQ?

  • "We help independent restaurants specifically reduce their food costs by an average of 5 to 7% on a 100% performance-based basis." — Neil Chand [06:04]

• Core Value: Customer Obsession

  • "Customer obsession is our number one value." — Neil Chand [06:30]
  • Chand emphasizes that everyone at FoodServiceIQ, whether customer-facing or not, is responsible for delivering top-notch service.

2. Neil's Background and the Founding Story

• Neil came from a tech background, previously developing trading software for Wall Street.
• Moved to Austin, partnered with Mike (former Sysco COO & PFG president).
  • "Mike was really leveraging his insider expertise as a former distribution executive to help independent restaurants reduce their food costs." — Neil Chand [08:15]
• The initial model was manual and relationship-driven; Neil’s tech experience enabled them to scale and systematize.

3. The FoodServiceIQ Process — More Than a GPO

Three Phases to Maximum Savings

Neil distinguishes FoodServiceIQ from typical GPOs with a robust, multi-phase approach:

1. Distributor Side Optimization:

   • Renegotiate with existing vendors for better pricing and terms—without requiring clients to change vendors or SKUs.
   • "How do you get better pricing and terms with your existing vendor without changing the vendor or the SKUs that you're buying?...That's usually the first big driver of savings in our process." — Neil Chand [19:38]

2. Manufacturer Side Contracting:

   • Secure direct manufacturer deals for high-volume SKUs, especially proteins, leveraging buying power and relationships.
   • Example: A diner chain was paying $56 per case for fries; FoodServiceIQ got it down to $40 via direct negotiation with Lamb Weston. [21:18]
   • "It's capturing as much of that hidden margin as possible in favor of independent restaurants." — Neil Chand [20:48]

3. Ongoing Auditing and Maintenance:

   • Continuously monitor for errors (missed rebates, pricing discrepancies), re-implement short-term manufacturer deals, and provide monthly savings reports.
   • "Mistakes can happen, things get dropped, things get missed. And we do a fair number of audit recoveries." — Neil Chand [25:41]

Notable Distinctions

• Performance-Based Model: If FoodServiceIQ can’t deliver a minimum threshold of savings, they don’t bill. Their fee is flat—the more they save, the more operators keep.
  • [24:12]
• Tailored, Ongoing Service: Every client is managed as a unique “project” with customized procurement strategies.

4. The Power of Technology & AI

Neil’s Contribution

• Built an Integrated Tech Stack: Brought operations, project management, CRM, and analytics into a unified software suite for seamless team and client experience.

  • [16:45]

• AI for Efficiency:

  • Use of GPTs—custom AI agents—for data processing, automating vendor portal data pulls, auditing, and analysis.
  • "With some of these AI tools, they can go through and get the data they need and crunch numbers so much faster..." — Neil Chand [28:08]
  • AI replaces manual, repetitive labor: e.g., monthly report generation is now fully automated, saving significant time. [31:43]

• Competitive Edge through Data:

  • Large-scale data aggregation gives FoodServiceIQ unique insights on what’s possible across vendors and SKUs, informing negotiation strategies.

Neil's Perspective on AI’s Industry Impact

• "It really is the independents who are struggling the most at the moment for a variety of reasons. But rising costs, I think, [are] the main one." — Neil Chand [34:51]
• AI levels the playing field for smaller operators—but also raises questions about consolidation, expectations, and access.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On Independence, Leverage, and Advocacy

"My hope with Restaurant Unstoppable is to make fewer 100-unit operators and more 10 to 30-unit operators to redistribute the money and to really help restaurants stay local."
— Eric Cacciatore [12:02]

"It's really just about getting the vendor to agree to honor and load that new pricing, which is typically not an issue for us."
— Neil Chand [22:21]

On the Emotional Side of Savings

"When we have big success stories like that, there's often a little bit of anger on the operator side...when you realize the imbalance."
— Neil Chand [40:01]

On the Future of Restaurants

"Restaurants have a very important place in human society in general. They're a gathering place...and I don't think it's going anywhere."
— Neil Chand [52:13]

On AI: Hope and Warning

"It's empowering a lot of entrepreneurs to make their dreams a reality... But getting there, I don't think is going to be a smooth path."
— Neil Chand [48:08]

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Key Timestamps for Major Segments

• Meet Neil Chand & FoodServiceIQ’s Mission: [04:51]–[06:14]
• Customer Obsession Value: [06:30]–[07:08]
• Neil’s Background and the FoodServiceIQ Origin Story: [07:21]–[10:01]
• Detailed Model/Process of FoodServiceIQ: [10:18]–[14:04]; [16:45]–[20:55]
• Case Studies and Tactical Examples: [21:18]–[23:52]
• Explaining AI and Internal Innovation: [28:08]–[33:47]
• Industry Reflections—On Independents, Food Costs, and Hope: [34:51]–[39:41]
• AI: Optimism, Caution, and Societal Impact: [42:52]–[48:08]
• Vision for the Future of Restaurants: [52:13]–[53:15]
• Call-Outs to Industry Peers: [53:34]–[54:17]

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Additional Highlights

• FoodServiceIQ’s Savings Structure: FoodServiceIQ’s fee structure ensures alignment of interests—clients risk nothing unless substantial savings are delivered.
• Monthly Savings Dashboard: Each client receives a detailed, line-by-line report on realized savings (a major differentiator).
• Industry Warnings: The conversation ends with broad reflections on AI, market consolidation, and the importance of conscious capitalism in maintaining a healthy restaurant ecosystem.

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Notable Resource, Book, or Person Recommendation

• Restaurant Shout-Out: Marianne’s Diner in New Hampshire, owner Bill Andreoli — called out by Neil as a model operator focused on quality and sustainability. [53:34]
• AI & Societal Analysis Book Mentioned: Power and Progress by Daron Acemoglu. [48:33] (Eric references this for further reflection on who controls technology and the risks of market consolidation.)

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Tone & Closing

The conversation is energetic, open, and grounded in both practical and bigger-picture thinking. Chand is optimistic, analytical, and honest about the challenges and opportunities in both hospitality and AI. Eric underscores the mission to support local, independent, and value-driven operators.

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For Restaurant Owners

• If you’re an independent operator (single or multi-unit), FoodServiceIQ offers:
  • Chain-level pricing and expertise, tech-driven analysis, and support
  • A no-risk, performance-based model
  • Monthly transparency and proactive cost-saving audits

"Support the show, use our links, and any final things before we say goodbye?"
— Eric Cacciatore [54:17]

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Connect with Neil Chand and FoodServiceIQ:
FoodServiceIQ Website
For intros and affiliate inquiries, contact Eric at [e-mail].

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Restaurant Unstoppable continues to bridge the gap between industry giants and the next generation of leaders—helping you make your independent restaurant vision unstoppable.

Transcript

[A]

What up Unstoppables? I just want to take a moment to say thank you so much for listening.

[B]

It means so much to me. You're making my dream come true and you're making this mission to inspire, empower and transform the industry possible. I might have been doing this for 13 years, but honestly, it feels like we're just getting started. And if you're enjoying what we're doing.

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Here and how we're doing it, please subscribe and share the word about what we're doing. And if you can do that, I will do everything in my power to.

[B]

Hold up my end of the deal to get even better people on the show, to continue to do honest, transparent journalistic work and to build a community and to bring you get you access to these people in our community Restaurant Stoppable Network. And if you want to join that, head over to restaurantstoppable.com live and be a part of the conversation.

[A]

Today.

[B]

We have a great show for you.

[A]

Be sure to stick around to the.

[B]

Very end so I can tell you how to connect with these folks over at Food Service iq. Enjoy today's show.

[A]

Welcome to restaurant unstoppable. For 10 years and over 1000 episodes I've been traveling the country chasing word of mouth leads and having in person only long form discussions with the industry's finest owners and operators. Our mission is to inspire, empower and transform the restaurant industry by bridging the gap between this generation's leaders and the next. Listen to today's guest and so many others and get one step closer to becoming unstoppable. This episode is made possible by US Foods and one of the pillars of the US Foods we help you make it promise is more tools which provides resources designed to make running your food service operation easier and more efficient. From the all in one food service app Moxy, which goes beyond order placement to help manage every part of your operation 247 to the digital solutions like check business tools and vitals. US Foods delivers smart time saving tools built to simplify operations and support your success. To learn more visit www.usfoods.com. expect more this episode is made possible by Sir Bony, your all in one bookkeeping and financial solution. We're talking about reliable tax preparation, business incorporation, seamless payroll and compliance reports Strategic CFO services that drive business growth Detailed custom reporting for complete financial clarity Dedicated support for restaurants in multi location businesses. Did I mention bookkeeping late? Sir Bony handled the numbers so you can focus on the vision. Call Sir Bony today at 281-888-2413 to schedule your free 30 minute consultation and discover how Sibonic can streamline your operations and boost your bottom line. Limited time Offer an exclusive to Restaurant Unstoppable listeners. Mention this Message and get 20 off your first month of services. This episode is made possible by Mees. Mies is a digital recipe platform that helps you stay creative, build profitable menus and nail food execution at scale. We know to scale you need consistency because consistency builds trust with your guests and your staff. We all want to know what the.

[B]

Job done right looks like and when.

[A]

You have systems, your systems are a picture of perfection of what that job done right is is and that puts us to peace. We are so happy when we know.

[B]

We'Re doing a good job.

[A]

Me will be the one source of truth for your entire team. It's time to take control of your profitability. Learn more at www.getmes.com unstoppable that's www.g e t m e z.com unstoppable. This episode is made possible by Restaurant Systems Pro and beginning in January 2026, Restaurant Systems Pro is going to be doing Mastery Program. This is valued at $4,000 and if you head over to go.restaurantsystemspro.net profits you can for a limited time get this for only $97. But there is an even better deal if you sign up for a Restaurant.

[B]

Unstoppable network by heading to restaurant stoppable.com live.

[A]

You can get this 30 day mastery.

[B]

Program for free when you join the.

[A]

Community and you also get access to this in perpetuity because they're going to be popping it off. Go into 2026 with all the knowledge.

[B]

And resources and tools you need to be unstoppable in partnership with Restaurant Unstoppable.

[A]

In Restaurant Systems Pro again, Restaurant Unstoppable.com live. Join the community.

[B]

Get access to this training with excitement. Allow me to introduce to you today's.

[A]

Guest co founder of Food Service iq, Neil Chan.

[C]

My man.

[B]

Neil, are you feeling unstoppable today?

[C]

I'm feeling unstoppable.

[B]

I'm psyched to be here. So I've obviously if you're on Instagram, you've probably seen the ads. If you have any. If you've given Instagram any clue that you might own a restaurant, I'm sure you're getting the ads Food Service iq. You guys dialed in your marketing for sure and you were on my radar. I. I was at a mastermind about a month ago and Fred Langley, CEO of Restaurant Systems Pro was saying amazing things about you. And I was like, okay, now I gotta look into this.

[A]

I looked into you and I saw.

[B]

That you worked with a lot of my past guests. And then I got really interested and I digged a little bit deeper. You have some case studies on your website. Blacks Barbecue, you help them go to 7.5% savings on food costs. Oasis Restaurant, 10% savings on food costs. Dish Society of past guests, you saved them $413,000 on annual food costs by negotiating better deals. And then Thunderdome Restaurant Group, another one of my past guests, saved them $500,000 by negotiating a new contract. So in one sentence, what is food Service iq?

[C]

Well, in one sense, what we do is we help independent restaurants specifically reduce their food costs by an average of 5 to 7% on a 100 performance based basis.

[B]

All right, and we're going to get into how you do that, hopefully. I know you can't share all the secrets on how the sausage is made, but hopefully we can get a clue before we dive into who you are, how food Service IQ was started, and what you guys are doing today. Let's get that motivational inspirational ball rolling with a success quarter mantra. What do you got for us?

[C]

Customer obsession is our number one value.

[B]

Customer obsession is your number one value. What is, how is customer obsession a value?

[C]

So what I try to do and the rest of the leadership team at Food Service IQ does with our team is anybody who is client facing or not needs to understand that customer obsession is core to our business. And so even if you're not customer facing, you know, you're on the accounting side or you're on the project management side. We all have a responsibility in our company to deliver the highest quality service to our clients. And everybody is responsible for that.

[B]

Yeah, I love that. And I mean, where do we even start? Where were you before Food Service iq? How did you position yourself to start this organization? When was that?

[C]

Yeah, well, it's an interesting twist of events. So prior to starting Food Service iq, I was actually working on wall building trading software for currency and bond traders. And I had the itch to move out of New York and kind of at a whim, decided to move to Austin. Didn't know anybody down here. And shortly thereafter met my now partner Mike, who is a former Cisco COO and PFG president. And at the time he had a company called Food Service Advantage. I was looking at Mike and I said, you've got an incredible model. You're adding so much value to the restaurants that you work with, but you can only take on a handful of clients at a time. What if I came in with my skill set, a little bit more of a background in technology and helped you scale this thing so that we can take on hundreds of clients or thousands of clients at a time rather than just a handful?

[B]

What was their model at that time that you saw that was special?

[C]

Yeah. So Mike was really leveraging his insider expertise as a former distribution executive to help independent restaurants reduce their food costs. And so Food Service IQ effectively does the same thing that Food Service Advantage was doing, but we do it in a more scalable way and a more robust back end.

[B]

Got it. So he came from the world of distribution, so he basically knew how that world operated and kind of brought operators into what they didn't know to help them basically have an upper hand on leverage.

[C]

Yeah, there's not a lot of mics out there in the world. Right. And so he has a really unique skill set and perspective that combined with aggregating, buying power, building robust backend systems, relationships, data, et cetera, has, has allowed us to really take what Mike started with and bring it scalably to many, many restaurants around the country.

[B]

And your background with technology and developing coding development, that kind of thing, how, how did you see this? Like what, what was it that you thought you could do? How did you envision your, what you could bring to the table? Like, what did that look like in your mind at this point?

[C]

Yeah, well, everything that, that Mike was doing originally was very manual. Right. And required a lot of human input. And this is a very human centric business. Right. So everything that we do is still very much relationship based. It's people calling other people, it's people, people sending emails to vendors and clients and what have you. But a lot of the analysis portion, a lot of the execution, the data aggregation and, you know, the backend systems to be able to manage many different clients at one time. Those were not there. And so that's really where I came in.

[B]

So it's a combination of data analysis, CRM and just bringing it all to one place. Yes, streamlining process. So prior to you coming on scene, what was it that Mike was doing? What was his secret sauce? Like what, what did he have that was serving independent restaurant owners?

[C]

Yeah. So effectively what Mike was doing and that we still do is bring national chain level leverage and strategy to independent restaurants. Right. And these are typically groups that A, can't really afford a full procurement team and B, are really benefiting from. Specifically Mike's experience as a former distribution Executive and then also aggregating buying power, getting custom manufacturer contracting implemented and consistently re implemented, depending on where the market is at at the time. That's kind of the combination of things that Mike was doing and that we still continue to do.

[B]

Was he a gpo?

[C]

There's a GPO side of the business, yes, but that's not the entire thing that we do.

[B]

Was there a GPO side of the business before you came on scene?

[C]

Yes.

[B]

Okay. And, you know, one of the things. So in my study of the restaurant industry and thinking about where is the independent industry right now? Where are independent operators now? Looking at what they're up against in terms of the cost of goods going up, labor costs going up, rent going up, Literally all of the costs are going up right now. And I really worry about the independent sector. Like, my vision, my hope with restaurant unstoppable is to make fewer 100, like 100 unit operators and more 10 to 30 unit operators to redistribute the money and to really help restaurants stay local. I don't see how that's possible, you know, unless we start sharing information and sharing resources. I think that the future of the restaurant industry is leveraging tech and also leveraging some type of fractional executive. So I don't know what Mike's title would be. Would he be like a fractional purchaser? Like a fractional chief, like, purchasing officer? Like, what would that look like?

[C]

Yeah, basically a head of procurement and strategy. You could see him as. But you're getting the best of the best. Right? Somebody with the industry chops, that there are not many people out there.

[A]

Right.

[C]

Like him.

[B]

So I'm thinking about Sir Boni right now. Are you familiar with Sir Bonia? They're based in Houston, Texas.

[C]

I don't think I am.

[B]

So one of the reasons why I'm out in Texas is because I discover them. Jason Carrier, who just opened his second Mama Betty's here in Austin. I'll introduce you to Jason. He referred Sir Boni to me. And Sir Boni is a fractional all in one financial service. So you're essentially getting bookkeeping tax and a fractional cfo. And I think that when I hear you share your story, up to this point is something similar there where it's a lot of just like, basically, like, you're a fractional procurement organization where, like, you get the expertise of Mike. But also like Sir Boni leverages technology that's out there. They outsource to, whether it be Restaurant 365 or Restaurant Assistance Pro and they know how to use those tools. They also manage the technology and the finances where you're, you develop the technology, but you also have the fractional executive in a procurement officer or whatever you would call Mike. I see a lot of like, overlying similarities there. Is that safe to say?

[C]

I would say so, yeah. In addition to lots of buying power. Right. In relationships and data, but you're definitely on the right track.

[B]

So when did you convince Mike to join forces with you?

[C]

You know, it was a, it was a conversation over a handful of months. But as we got to know each other, the more it seemed like the right decision for us to partner up and create Food Service iq.

[B]

What year is that?

[C]

This was about three or four years ago.

[B]

Okay, so you're growing pretty fast. Congratulations.

[A]

Can you get a little bit more.

[B]

Into the, on the technology side, like what you bring to the table, the different types of systems that you brought to the table?

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

So I know you mentioned it before, but like, just go a little bit deeper into that.

[A]

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[B]

Everything that we offer in Restaurant Unstoppable.

[A]

Community, like the live events. The recordings for those live events ad free Restaurant Unstoppable podcasts, the Unstop custom.

[B]

AI agent in more exclusive deals with strategic Restaurant Stoppable partners.

[A]

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[B]

Want to know what the job done right looks like.

[A]

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[C]

So really, really the key was bringing all of the functions of the business into one cohesive software suite so that our team is seamless in terms of transitioning from, you know, one team to another. Right? So, for example, we have the sales team, right? And they're meeting potential clients, they're closing potential clients. That gets translated to our ops team, right? And our ops team will do all the infrastructure setup for that client, pulling data, data analysis, getting it ready for the procurement team to then review. Right. So then it moves over to the procurement team. And so all these facets, right? Operations, project management, CRM are all done cohesively on the back end. And so it's seamless for our team to manage and execute on our client facing work.

[B]

So was Mike doing these things before? But he didn't have the streamlined technology to. He didn't have the technology to streamline all those processes. It was bottlenecked. He couldn't scale.

[C]

It was a very, very. It was a traditional consulting business.

[B]

Got it.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

How is food service IQ different from other group purchasing organizations? Or what's the stand for gpos?

[C]

I always forget the group purchasing organization.

[B]

Organization.

[A]

That's right.

[B]

So how's it different?

[C]

So one thing is we're not just a gpo, right? We have a GPO side of our business, but there's really three phases to our process. And so the first phase is all about the distributor, right? How do you get better pricing and terms with your existing vendor without changing the vendor or the SKUs that you're buying? Right. And that's really where Mike's expertise and our leverage and our relationships come in, is obtaining much improved and best in class distributor prime vendor agreements on behalf of our clients. That's usually the first big driver of savings in our process. The second phase is in part the GPO side. But GPOs, at least in our experience, really only support up to 30% of a restaurant's SKUs. And those are usually not even most of the top SKUs, especially proteins. Right. Proteins tend to be, you know, top of the descending dollar report. And so the other side of the manufacturer side of our business, in addition to the gpo, is, you know, the custom manufacturer contracting and strategy that we're able to implement for our clients. And so usually that's the second big driver of savings in our process. And then the final phase of the three phases is auditing and maintaining all of that work over time. Right. You need to audit the vendors, making sure that, you know, rebates are received in the correct amount at the correct time. The manufacturer deal, especially after Covid, tend to be shorter term, you know, usually 30 days to 12 months. And so those continually have to be re implemented. We can't control the market, Right. But we can control having the best manufacturer deals for where the market's at at the time by leveraging our buying power, et cetera. So that's really our process in a nutshell.

[B]

Did I hear three things there?

[C]

Three phases.

[B]

So three phases, number one, say it one more time.

[C]

Distributor side optimization. Phase two, Phase two is manufacturer side invoice, kind of the back end of the invoice. Right. And then phase three is about auditing and maintaining all that work over time.

[B]

Can you go more into the back end of the invoice?

[A]

What do you mean?

[C]

So there's the supply chain kind of works like this, right? So you have the food manufacturers who are buying kind of the raw material and they package and process the goods. Right. So you might have Lamb Weston or the Tysons of the World. Right. And then the food manufacturers will sell into the food distributors. Right. So Cisco's and PFGS and U.S. food. And then the distributors will of course sell to the restaurants. Right. And so when I say the front end of the invoice, I'm talking about distributor to restaurant. And when I say the back end of the invoice, there's a lot of back end money in this industry and that can often come at the expense of independent restaurants specifically.

[B]

So when you talk about back end money, you're talking all the Way from the actual sourcing from the raw materials to producing the product that's sold to the vendors.

[C]

Yeah. Between the sourcing of the materials to the actual distributor, there's a lot of money. Know, Mike likes to say hidden margin there.

[B]

Right.

[C]

And that's if you really want to get to the core of what we do. It's. It's capturing as much of that hidden margin as possible in favor of independent restaurants.

[B]

So you. I think most restaurants that the. The buck stops at the distributor. Right. They don't go beyond that to negotiate. And that's what Mike brings to the table, is that knowing of the. The. The chain and where there's more room to negotiate. So did they go all the way to the manufacturer?

[C]

Yes.

[B]

So give me an example of one of your clients. You have to name the client, but like an example of a client that was able to save by going straight to the manufacturer.

[C]

Sure. So we had a client, a diner chain, that was buying a ton of Lamb Weston french fries every month. They had, I don't know, maybe 20 locations. And this was a top 10 SKU for them. And they were paying 55, 56 bucks a case for these french fries through their distributor. And our team saw how much money was kind of buried on this product because we had a bunch of deals already secured directly with Lamb Weston on the same SKU, between 38 and 42 bucks a case. And so guess what we did? We went straight to Lamb Weston. We have a lot of buying power with them. We have a really good relationship there. And in this particular instance, I think we got it to around 40 bucks a case for this client.

[B]

So how does the distributor or the vendor get involved with that? Because, like, when you circumnavigate the vendor and the distributor does that like ruffle feathers.

[C]

Yeah. I mean, this is, at the end of the day, not. Not unknown to the industry. This. The strategy of going direct to manufacturer.

[B]

Giant corporations that have the resources to hire the expertise to coach them how to do this.

[C]

Exactly. Yeah. And so, you know, it's really just about getting the vendor to agree to honor and load that new pricing, which is typically not an issue for us.

[B]

And why is it not an issue for you? Say it would be an issue for an independent operator who says has 10 restaurants that's doing maybe 5 million per location.

[C]

Well, one is buying power. Two is relationships. Three is understanding what. What the deal is that you can know the dance. Right. So what is the product mix? The case drops. The frequency of the case drops. There's A lot of factors here that we need to consider when we're securing these types of deals.

[B]

Yeah. And you mentioned something else. I don't think a lot of independents realize right away it's doing a descending list of the whatever goods or products you're selling the most of and prioritizing. Okay, if we want to save money on our cost of goods, what are we selling the most of?

[A]

Start there.

[B]

What's the number one? So you're a burger concept. You're spending most of your money on burgers. Then the next thing is probably going to be french fries and the next thing is probably going to be bread. Right. So in that order, start trying to figure out how you can, well, first control your costs, like what are you wasting then, you know, or maybe first start with, you know, all those things like purchasing, controlling costs in terms of like in house, like how, how are we not wasting or we porches. Portioning correctly. All. Can you get more into that? Descending. What's the term again? Descending.

[C]

Descending dollar.

[B]

Report that.

[C]

Yeah, so it's a, it's. We find a lot of independent operators are not actually aware of this report.

[B]

You can ask your vendor for or your distributor.

[C]

You can, you can. Yeah.

[B]

And they usually push back when they ask.

[C]

I, I found sometimes not all the information is there, especially with certain vendors. They may decline to include weights, for example, of items. And that can be important because what.

[B]

Else do we need to know about what food service IQ does differently than other group purchasing organizations?

[C]

Well, I think, you know, the three phases is certainly very different from your average gpo, which is only working on the back end of the invoice and only has certain deals on certain items, perhaps even through only certain distributors. And so the other thing for us is that we are 100% performance based. And so the way that our model works is if we don't save somebody, a minimum savings threshold, we can't even bill on a monthly basis and we take a percentage of the savings effectively.

[B]

So you have incentive to get the maximum amount of savings. The more you save them, the more potential earning you have.

[C]

Our fee is actually flat. So the more that we save somebody, the more they keep. Right. And so that's just. We found that to be the most straightforward way to work with people. There's no scaling fee or anything. And we've always operated that way. The performance based model.

[B]

Yeah, so you're dropping a lot on me and I'm trying to keep up with all the different ways you serve. We talked about at the different points of the actual product journey from manufacturing to the actual reseller to the distribution. Anything else worth going into in those three buckets?

[C]

Let me think. Well, I think auditing is an important step. Mistakes can happen, things get dropped, things get missed. And we do a fair number of audit recoveries. And I think a lot of independents we work with don't even realize the capabilities that they have to do those audits.

[B]

So when you talk about audit recoveries, what do you mean exactly?

[C]

Well, it could be anything from a missed rebate or an incorrect rebate to pricing that was not loaded. That was supposed to be loaded. Right.

[B]

So making sure what actually happened is what said would be happened in the contract.

[C]

That's correct.

[B]

Okay, yeah, got it. We covered those three buckets in terms of like kind of following almost like vertically integrating the entire supply chain and going to all those points of contact where there's opportunity for saving. That was where kind of Mike came in, where he knew the game and he knew how to negotiate. What the question, what to look for. Right. Then you come in, you say that you really help with the product management side of things, the client facing portals. And when you say project management, you're talking about just creating the software, the technology to streamline process.

[C]

Well, every client has its own project. Right. So we of course have internal tools and systems. Those themselves are projects. But every client is its own project. There's no client that's exactly the same as another. Right. And so building the systems in order to be able to track the things that we need to do for each client, stay on top of auditing, reimplement the manufacturer deals as they come to expire. There's a lot of backend work that needs to happen to make sure nothing gets dropped. Because when you do this at scale, there's lots and lots of deals and agreements and paperwork flying around. And somebody's got to keep track of all that and stay on top of it and make sure nothing on our end gets dropped. Because at the end of the day, that's not good for our client. It's not good for our reputation.

[B]

What do you mean by client facing portals?

[C]

So we have a monthly savings report that we send to our clients at the end of each month that details our actions and, you know, a per sku breakdown of the savings.

[A]

Like a dashboard.

[C]

Yeah, you could think of it as a dashboard. Right. And so.

[B]

Or like a PNL specifically to the costs of.

[C]

Yeah, savings report. Right. So we're just breaking down what. What did Food Service IQ do for you this month?

[B]

Where you would have been and where you are because of our service.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

And that's a really key part of our service. Right. When, when our clients receive that, it's, it's, it's a really good overview of what we've done. And then if they have questions, we usually have a monthly or quarterly call with our clients, but it's usually very clear what we've been up to in that report. And so that's been a critical thing for us to get. Right.

[B]

Got it. In terms of what's new relative to AI, I mean, you seem like somebody is probably really excited about the topic of AI. I have to make the assumption what excites you? Let's start there.

[C]

Well, it's sped up a lot of our projects. It's hard to even measure the impact, but I don't think I'd be crazy in saying 10x anything from crunching spreadsheets to automating certain tasks, follow ups. It's really saved us a lot of kind of menial man hours that our team has then been able to focus more on what they're actually good at. Right. Their actual skill sets. You know, our procurement team, for example, a lot of their job is going through descending dollar reports and invoices and order guides. Right. With some of these AI tools, they can go through and get the data they need and crunch numbers so much faster, and they can get to the point of what they were trying to do in terms of strategy ten times faster. And that's been really impactful on the back end.

[B]

Are these universal AI tools or tools that you're developing in house?

[C]

No, we use a lot of chatgpt.

[B]

Okay.

[C]

Yeah. And then we'll, we'll build our own agents with ChatGPT as the base.

[B]

But when you say build your own agents, are you talking about just using the base model of ChatGPT to train it to do certain jobs? Are you doing like a custom GPT?

[C]

Yeah, custom GPTs.

[B]

Okay.

[C]

They're our own agents.

[B]

So your own LLMs?

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

And then you're basically training those LLMs to what, go through the data of all the information that's out there with all the different vendors and like, like, is it like monitoring the.

[C]

The. Yeah, I mean, the market. Here's a really simple example of an agent that we built a while ago. So we need to log into our customers vendor portals and pull data every month. And our agents will do that now instead of a human, but you're doing.

[B]

It across all of your customers. So you have a wide swath you know, what other. You know what's possible. So you're saying that. And I'm trying to keep up that you're speaking a very specific language. I have a lot to learn in this vertical, so forgive me if I'm not completely staying up with you. So you're saying that you're using the custom GPT to monitor and keep up with the data.

[C]

Yeah, so.

[B]

And that data is the data. The data that's associated. I should probably, I always say data, but it should be plural.

[A]

Right.

[C]

Data's no data.

[B]

Data, yeah. When do you use plural? Is there?

[C]

I've never used data is.

[B]

Someone once corrected me saying, I don't.

[C]

Know, I, I've never heard that term, but. So you're good.

[B]

All the data that's out there, like is the, the custom GPT being fed with the most. Like this is where I kind of disconnect. I don't know what's possible.

[C]

Right, sure.

[B]

So I, I'm assuming that with all the transactions that are happening, negotiating all these different prices, all those different prices across your different clients, you get access to all that information. So, you know, you have a, an in the moment snapshot of what things cost and what's possible in terms of negotiating. Is that what is paying attention?

[C]

We do, we have a really good database of pricing. But in the, in the example that I was giving. Right. To get more specific, what that agent will do is let's say you own, you know, a barbecue restaurant, you've got Eric's Barbecue. And what the agent will do at the end of each month is our savings report is built off of that month's purchasing history. Right. And so in this example, you know, the agent is going to log into Eric's Barbecue's vendor portals.

[B]

So the custom GPT will log into your customer portal.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

That is your built food service IQ software that you built.

[C]

The GPT is. Right. It's our agent and it's going to log into a vendor portal and it's going to pull the descending dollar report or invoices or whatever is needed for our team to then build the savings report off of. Got it. Right.

[B]

So before this is all manual.

[C]

Right. So a human had to go in, look at the login information, you know, type the link to the portal, click login, navigate to where all the reporting is, download the reporting, upload it to the correct folder. And now an agent does that in seconds.

[B]

As of how recently was a person manually doing that within food service iq?

[C]

Yeah. So this agent, within the last few Months is, is when we've implemented it fully. Yeah.

[B]

Wow.

[C]

So it, it very recently and you.

[B]

Said this is 10xing your, your ability.

[C]

To these types of activities.

[B]

This is one example.

[C]

Yeah. This is one example of things that have really saved our team a lot of time.

[B]

Yeah. As you find these custom GPT AI tools and you're able to be more efficient and streamlined, is that something that is increasing your ability?

[A]

Is that paid forward to the customer over time?

[B]

Like what's the vision there to be even more competitive as there's more food service IQs that come to the table?

[C]

Yeah. I think it's. Let's be the Ferrari of what we do.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

And so staying on top of technology like that and making sure that we're using it to perfect our processes in every way possible, that's going to, that's part of what's going to keep us ahead of our competition.

[B]

Got it. Any other examples of how you're using AI to streamline and to increase efficiencies?

[C]

Sure. So when we are looking to secure a manufacturer deal for a particular client, we need to understand what we're going to go and ask for. Right. And so we will have an agent look through the client's purchasing data, their product mix, the case drop frequency and volume, et cetera, and tell us what the potential strategy here is based on our other clients data. And so that's. And then it'll create a priority list of target deals that we're going to go after on behalf of our clients. And that's something else that saved a lot of time because before a human had to go through each purchasing report and compare and so.

[A]

So.

[C]

That'S another example of something that saved us quite a bit of time.

[B]

Yeah. Well, as I'm listening to you talk, it just makes my mind go back to my concern for independent operators. And they would never be able to do all that you're doing. Not to mention you're not just doing this for one client, you're doing it across all clients. So they don't have access to that data. They might not. They definitely don't have access to know how to negotiate and what to look for and how to do that dance all the way to the manufacturing. But they also don't have the, the savviness to leverage AI in these fashions to you know, like this kind of stuff gives me hope that while AI can be scary and we're going to get into that at the same time, I do think that what it does to level the playing Field to make the industry more competitive will kind of give rise and give a little bit more. It will give the big corporations, the 100 unit plus operators, less advantage because people like you will be able to come in and do that for the, the smaller organizations.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

It really is the independents who are struggling the most at the moment for a variety of reasons. But rising costs is I think, the main one.

[B]

Yeah. You know, and it's interesting, I, I make this argument sometimes and you say everyone's saying cost, costs of goods are going up.

[A]

They are.

[B]

Relative to what period of time though? Because if you look back, and maybe this is looking too far back. I don't think it's too far back. But if you go back to like the early 20th century, cost of like food was 20% of the average household incomes expense.

[C]

Right.

[B]

And we just more money went to buying food. But food was also. This is before the industrialization of the food system.

[C]

Yep.

[B]

So I think that when we say the cost of goods or cost of food is going up relative to the 90s. Yeah, it's going up. But relative to this past century, no, they're still way lower than they were a hundred years ago.

[C]

Sure.

[B]

And I think that sometimes we just have this perception of the value of food, but also the food that we've been eating for the past 100 years has made us sick as a nation. So it's like, where are our values? Values? Like should food be more expensive? I do think food should be more expensive. I think that we should spend more of our, our, we should prioritize our income to go towards buying good food that's good for our bodies, but bodies good for the environment. You know, you can't scale a not sick, broken food system like you. You can't, you can't scale that. You have to do it the hard way. Would you agree or disagree with that statement?

[C]

Well, we've certainly gotten very good and very efficient in the process of food production and distribution. But I think you're right that that has come at the expense of not only quality, but yes. Also our health. Right. My fiance is from Mexico. And you can just tell the ingredients there are much fresher. Right, Right. They're not as industrialized in terms of food production and distribution. And so, so there's a real tangible feeling when you're eating something fresher.

[B]

Right.

[C]

And I don't know the solution to that. You know, I've seen some restaurants pop up, especially around here in Austin, that are very focused on buying local and clean ingredients, but they're more expensive. Right.

[B]

And I think that what our mission statement here at Restaurant Unstoppable is to inspire, empower and transform the industry. And when I say transform again, I mean like helping reduce the amount of 100 unit operators and finding services like your yourself to make it possible for there to be more 10 to 30 unit operators in the world and really to keep those restaurants local. But it's also to really look at like we are as an industry so reactive to the consumer are. We always say give the customer what they want, but I don't think the customer knows what they want. And I think the customer. I think the restaurant industry has the power to transform society by educating the consumer of like, you know, we got to be conscious capitalists. We got to be smart about where.

[A]

We put our money.

[B]

And I see how food service IQ and you know how that kind of plays into the picture to make this possible to, to really, I say often it's getting harder and harder for good businesses to do good work. When I say what I mean by doing good work, it is supporting local farms. It is trying to keep your money local. And I think as this, this what you're doing, as that scales, I hope that it can eventually get to that, that independent farmer, you know, and help have them be a part of the system.

[C]

Sure.

[B]

Is that, do you see that being.

[C]

A possibility long term? Yes, I, I think we've been very, we've been laser focused on what we're good at and doing that at scale. I know that we've already made a really big impact for many people. I was talking to an owner of a restaurant in Louisiana. It's just a single location, but they're a beast of a restaurant. They spend I think about a million dollars a year on food. And they've been in business for 25ish years. And the owner was struggling with all the rising costs. And this is a restaurant that's a fixture of that area in Louisiana, that neighborhood. Everybody knows it, everybody's been there. And we started working with him maybe four or five months ago. We saved him around 18%.

[B]

Wow.

[C]

On his food costs.

[B]

Wow. That's crazy. Let me just put this into perspective. You saved him more on his food cost than what most restaurants make in total for profit? Yeah.

[C]

18.

[B]

You're saying 18% relative to food costs. Are you saying you, you lowered his food cost 18% and that add 18 to his profit?

[C]

Yeah. So he was spending about a million dollars a year and off of that $1 million, about180,000.

[B]

Wow.

[C]

Reduction on his food costs. And so there's. It's interesting because when we have big success stories like that, there's often a little bit of anger on the operator side. You know.

[B]

I couldn't imagine. Yeah, yeah. I mean one owners find out the game and how they haven't been playing it well and all the. I mean.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Like it. It should be better balanced right. When you, when you realize the imbalance. Yeah.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

I can see how that could be frustrating.

[A]

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[B]

What else has you excited optimistic about AI? Looking to the future before we talk about how it scares you?

[C]

I think it has the potential to make everybody's life easier, more efficient. It will give people more time to do things that they enjoy, to work on things that are really important to them, to do things that are more aligned with their actual skill set rather than focusing on more simple, straightforward tasks. You had a second part of your question there.

[B]

I think just the future on the optimistic side, looking at AI, what makes you excited about how this can make society better? You said it's exciting and it's also scary. I will save the scary. I might play devil's advocate and little bit, but sure, finish that thought.

[C]

Yeah, it's incredible technology. You know, when I was studying computer science in college, it's incredible to see how far it's come in a relatively short amount of time. Back then I recall, you know, taking an AI class and getting an LLM or the equivalent at that time to spit out a coherent, you know, five word sentence was pretty difficult. And so to see the rapid iteration and I guess exponential iteration of these technologies has been really cool to watch. And I know that it's certainly made my life easier and better and that's why I think it's been adopted at a record rate.

[B]

Yeah, here's where I play devil's advocate because I think a lot of the narrative for people out there that are hopeful for AI, they're going to say, say, oh, like it's going to make life so much easier and we won't have to work as hard because we can have AI do this stuff. And I wonder sometimes if that is a pipe dream because I think what's going to happen is that the expectation is also going to exponentially increase.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

So I don't think we're going to be like, oh, like we were. We're putting out just as much work as we were, maybe even more. We can take a break now. I think that that ability, whatever you, I think the, the expectation is going to rise to the ability to output.

[C]

Oh, definitely.

[A]

There's going to be some crazy person.

[B]

Out there, some psycho that's going to try to maximize as much output as possible and that maximized output will become the new standard. The standard you have to be.

[C]

Oh, absolutely.

[A]

So we're all going to continue to work really hard.

[B]

I think the expectation of output is just going to be exponentially increased.

[C]

Yeah, I think hard work is not going anywhere. I do really believe that People need a purpose, something to work on, something that makes them feel productive and like they're contributing. At least I do. And so I don't. I'm not envisioning a world where AI is doing everything for us. Right. Somebody's got to direct it and somebody's still got to dream up what does tomorrow look like, you know, and how do we make that better? I do think AI is already spurning a lot of smaller companies that are popping up that are able to do previously what took, you know, 20, 30, 40 people with a handful. And I think that's pretty cool. It's empowering a lot of entrepreneurs to make their dreams a reality and go and start something that they may not have been able to before because they would have needed, you know, tons of funding, for example, for salaries or what have you. You.

[B]

Yeah. My, my. Well, more on this line. What, what concerns you about the future of AI? I mean, that was optimism is that AI is going to help fragment and create more opportunity and there's going to be more opportunity for new business that we haven't even dreamt up yet. Right. That's one side of it. But what scares you?

[C]

Well, it's. It's certainly been making changes at, at an almost unprecedented rate. And anytime I feel like change like this happens so quickly, there will be some disruption and there's going to be discomfort, there's going to be unhappiness, there's going to have to be a change in what certain people do for work, for purpose.

[B]

Can you give me an example?

[C]

Well, I guess looking back on the computer, right, you previously had in banks, people doing all of the accounting and balancing the books by hand on paper.

[B]

That gave people purpose.

[C]

Right. And the computer comes out, what do those people do? They're. They're disrupted and now they've got to go and figure out what they're going to do next. They've got to reskill, upskill.

[B]

Learn the technology.

[C]

Learn the technology. Right.

[B]

Yeah. I think you're also pointing out something as I think that to your point, this is going to be exponential. And I think when we talk about the future, we forget to put in the human variable, that the human variable, we are acting as a governor. We can only handle what we are able to keep up with. And I don't think that the malleability, the plasticity of the human brain can keep up with the rate of change of the optimization like we are. We don't learn that fast. We don't develop new habits at the rate at which think Things change. Like we are going to be the, the governor, the firewall.

[C]

It's gonna, I think it's a, it's a bit of a strange time because I think we all know where we're going. Right. And it's going to be the melding of man and machine. Right. Eventually I could envision we're going to have a chip in our head, you know, that's already starting with neuralink.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

That has a lot of these AI models downloaded on it or whatever that looks like in the future. And I guess we're, we're going to become, you know, the next. The V2 version of what it means to be a human. But getting there, I don't think is going to be a smooth path. Yeah.

[B]

Are you familiar with Duran OCMA Glu's book Power in Progress?

[C]

I'm not.

[B]

He basically makes. It's like an anthropological approach to technology over time. And he makes this argument whoever controls the technology, controls the agenda, controls the narrative, controls power. And my concern is that I think it's in human nature to default to the number one option because we are by nature defaulted to go with word of mouth and to go with what people are saying. And I think with the national and global world we live in, instead of relying on what individuals are saying, we're being forced to default to what third parties are saying.

[A]

And I think third parties can easily.

[B]

Be bought and influenced. And I think we're all going to go to these third party entities, these marketplaces like Google or you know, where we get our information.

[A]

Right.

[B]

The sources of information that we go to, to trust. And I think that they're going to. I think that there will be one, two, maybe three AI giant conglomerates that will run the world. That is my concern because we by nature are lazy and we can't keep up with all the options that are out there. So we default to whatever the third party word of mouth is.

[C]

Yeah, I mean consolidation is almost an inevitability in any industry. Certainly happened in the food world. Right. Think about distribution. There's only a handful of big broad line distributors now. And that continues to consolidate. That industry continues to consolidate. Right. We've already kind of been in that world.

[B]

How's that working out for us?

[C]

I mean it's. I think there's pros and cons to everything. I don't think anything is black and white. I mean those. When consolidation happens, it generally allows prices to go down.

[B]

It also generally means the risk. Get richer in the poor, get poorer.

[C]

Certainly wealth disparity is, is a increasing problem.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Who knows how AI is going to impact that, but certainly there are going to be a small handful of people getting very rich off of these technologies.

[B]

I, I mean I didn't expect us to go this deep into the world of AI today. I know that you're very knowledgeable with your background. I'm sure this is something that you pay close attention to. You're obviously leveraging it to make it easier. So this is a good example of how AI can help the little person. Right. But for how long? You know, that's what I'm concerned about. Like how do we use this concept of, concept of conscious capitalism and leveraging AI going forward and saying we got to be really careful about who we let get huge, you know, like, I don't know, like. So have you heard of. What is this Zif's Law? This idea of Zip's law basically states that in a marketplace, whoever is number one in that marketplace likely does twice as much business as number two and three times as much business. Business is number three. But we're in this global marketplace now and that law still holds true. So like using Chat GPT as an example, like are they doing twice as much business as the second AI agent right now or the. Was that Claude?

[C]

Claude is up there. Yeah.

[B]

Do you know if Chat GPT is doing double the amount of business as Claude?

[C]

I don't know. Yeah. I don't have the stats on that off the top of my head.

[B]

And then once that happens, there's going to be an internal need, an in or an uneven distribution of resources. The custom GPT or Chat GPT to be able to better, better market into influence.

[A]

Right.

[B]

So it's already starting to happen. It's scary.

[C]

Yeah. I mean, you know, no question open AI has, has grown at an incredible rate in addition to all the other similar AI and LLM companies that have popped up.

[B]

Yeah. Relative to the world you're in with GPOs and the future, what has you excited about the future and what are you looking to capitalize on with food service iq?

[C]

I think restaurants have a very important place in human society in general. They're a gathering place. They're, you know, the concept of a restaurant has been around for a very, very long time in our history and I don't think it's going anywhere. There's some incredible talent out there and I feel like it's only getting better. And I think people really understand, especially after Covid, the value in that in person experience. Right. Breaking bread together Going out, getting dressed up, you know, doing a special event at your favorite place. Those sorts of experiences, I think are irreplaceable and unique. And I'm just excited for the restaurant industry to see more and more of these independent, unique concepts pop up that have some kind of purpose, some kind of theme, some incredible talent. It's just been really exciting for me to. To see some of the growth that the restaurant industry has had.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So before we say goodbye, I want to give you a chance to call somebody out. So this is how I find the majority of my future guests. My interviews are my research. So all the people you work with, who really impresses you, who's out there doing good work, making the world a better place while making money as they do it.

[C]

Sure. I'm going to call out Bill Andreoli at Marianne's Diner. They're a relatively recent client of ours and I've really enjoyed working with him. He's been in business for a long time. He focuses a lot on the quality of his ingredients, and I think he would be a great guy for you to have on your podcast.

[B]

Where are they based?

[C]

They're based in New Hampshire.

[A]

Oh, beautiful.

[B]

That's where I'm based.

[C]

Great.

[A]

Love that.

[C]

Perfect.

[B]

Look out. It was Bill Amadoli, Andrea Andre only. What's the name of his restaurant?

[C]

Marianne's Diner. And he has one more called Dreo D R E. Where is that? He's got four Marianne's. Okay. You know, I don't know the exact name.

[B]

Look out, Bill. I'm coming after you. Yeah, I'd love to make that happen.

[C]

He's an awesome guy.

[B]

And you do have an affiliate program. Program. I'm going to be signed up for it by the end of this week. I'm going to make sure I get the paperwork done. So please stick around to the closing thoughts. We'll have a call to action for you there. To head over to check out food service iq, we'll have a. A link in the show notes so you can jump over. Please do use my links. You have no idea how much that supports the show. I really want to get behind the organizations I believe in that are helping make it possible for independent operators to survive. I do think food service IQ is one of the pieces to that equation of how we figure it out. I look at you as. As being a fractional executive. Do you think the world of fractional executives is part of that equation? Leveraging, combining, rubbing together the fractional, the specialists of the world, those chiefs with the technology that's what you're doing and I hope that it's part of the solution going forward. So support the show, use our links and any final things.

[C]

Before we say goodbye, just want to thank you for having me and thank you for everything you do in the industry. Free.

[B]

Beautiful. My pleasure. Cheers.

[C]

Thanks, Eric.

[A]

There's another episode wrapped up here at Restaurant Unstoppable.

[B]

If you enjoy today's show with Food Service IQ and you want to learn more, maybe even leverage their services, do me a favor. Reach out to me directly at Eric Restaurant unstoppable.com that's Eric with a C. I will make a personal introduction and when I can make these introductions, it supports the show because Food Service IQ has agreed to pay me out a commission for any lead that comes from the show. So you have no idea how much that supports this mission. And the more support we get, the better I can serve you. And that is my promise. I will continue to make this thing even better. And I want to make sure you know that. On January 5th at 11:00am Eastern, Serboni Services will be joining us for coffee with Eric. These folks are really well versed in the world of everything consulting, whether it be just general accounting or tax season or if you're interested in a fractional CFO, this is a conversation you'll want to join again, that is on January 5th 5th at 11am Eastern, head over to restaurantunstoppable.com CWE if you're not already a member of Restaurant Unstoppable Network, this conversation is on us. I want to make sure you can get access to the mentors and the the knowledge you're you're looking for. So this first one's on us. And I highly encourage you to join all the future conversations we have inside the network by heading over to restaurantstoppable.com live.

[A]

We'll see you next time and Happy New Year.