If Everybody Looked the Same

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Happy Saturday and I hope you had a great week.

This week team Branded was out at the Restaurant Leadership Conference (“RLC”) in Phoenix, AZ. Hitting the road isn’t new to Branded and in fact showing up for industry events continues to be something we’re committed to doing.

Readers of the H^2 are aware of my views on the importance of showing-up and my strong preference for in-person work and meetings. I understand and respect that in this post-COVID world, optionality, and flexibility when it comes to work from home and remote work are in vogue, and I dare say are here to stay. I reserve the right (as we all have) to re-visit this topic years from now to see how this all plays out. I’m particularly interested (and concerned) on how this will have impacted the new talent that entered the workforce since the pandemic and since the embracement of working remotely. As a product of my own experiences (as we all are), the most meaningful, influential, and pivotal moments in my career were all unscripted, spontaneous, and chance encounters. For avoidance of doubt, no such moments, at least for me, have happened on a Zoom call.

The universal embracement of this optionality around in-office and remote work has only made industry events like RLC even more important as our coming together has become more concentrated in these in-person conferences.

There’s been a great deal written about RLC 2024 including below in Branded’s marketing evangelist, David “Rev” Ciancio and while my theme for the Top of the Fold this week was inspired by the conference, I’m going to attempt to play it a little differently (would you expect anything else?).

For those less in the weeds of this conference or even the industry, a few of the takeaways from RLC 2024 included the following:

• Restaurant traffic is down and expected to remain so for the foreseeable future.
• Labor issues remain a critical issue and that includes sourcing talent, retaining talent and the 800-pound gorilla in the room, California’s $20 minimum wage. The industry expects this to become a nationwide wage.
• The M&A market in both restaurant brands and technology is expected to continue and only gain momentum. I’ve been pounding the table on this for a while now but heard this view from many others at the conference.
• If Schatz and I were playing our conference drinking game, where we select a word and take a fictious sip (and sometimes a real one) of a libation every time we hear the word spoken, one word that I heard more this year at RLC 2024 than ever before was “catering.”
• Personalization and that includes loyalty, direct & targeted marketing and actionable guest feedback might not be topics that are new, but were part of many discussions, presentations and for Branded specifically, the subject of several strategic conversations.
• Finally, despite all the attention and emergence of tech & innovation on the restaurant industry, I had more discussions about a reset or how to rethink tech-stacks. I’ve long said we’re still in the early innings of this digital transformation and I felt the discussions around how would you start a tech-stack today were very telling of how many operators have been patient, watching, learning and desire to move with intentionality. Yes, we’re still in the early innings.

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Capital is not ‘Free Fallin,’ and I don’t want anything I’ve been writing to be taken as otherwise.

However, there has most certainly been a loosening or maybe a thawing in the capital markets and that’s proving to be most excellent for Branded’s portfolio companies and other investment management platforms.

Last week I had the privilege of sharing with the subscribers of the H^2 that Bite ; Juicer and Leasecake all successfully closed on meaningful rounds in support of their respective growth strategies.

What I couldn’t announce last week, but I get to do this week is that another Branded portfolio company, Ecotrak , a company that provides an intelligent facility management platform, raised $30mm in funding.

Today’s second shoutout goes to our friends and partners at Chowly . Chowly’s commitment to SMB owners runs deep and this week I have privilege of sharing their Top 7 recommendations on “How to Ace a Conference as an SMB Owner.”

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Readers of the Hospitality Headline, that are interested in learning more about Branded’s portfolio companies, investment strategies and future opportunities, are invited to explore becoming part of our Access Hospitality Network.

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Guy,” and Jimmy Frischling, “The Finance Guy,” are joined by Angela Leet, CEO of QSR Automations and the self proclaimed "Kitchen Chick"!

Angela discusses the company’s innovative kitchen automation solutions and their recent recognition of being named as a finalist for the prestigious Ring of Fire award. She shares insights into their new product, ConnectSmart Recipes Plus, which aims to extend the capabilities of kitchen screen investments and address labor challenges through digital transformation. She delves into QSR Automations’ philosophy of treating the kitchen as the “engine room” of a restaurant, creating a calmer environment with real-time information and predictive data for kitchen staff.

You can tune in on?Spotify ,?Apple ,?Amazon ,?iHeart , or your favorite listening platform!

Who made the B List?

Click HERE to find out!

TECHNOLOGY

The Unstoppable Drive of Mike Collins: Secrets to Building a Thriving Reseller Network

By: Seth Temko, Solutions Services Partner at Branded Hospitality Ventures

Vision, passion, drive and some good product... blend well and distribute caringly. Diving into the secrets to build a thriving reseller network.

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MARKETING

BIGGEST TAKEAWAYS: Restaurant Leadership Conference 2024

By: Rev Ciancio, Head of Revenue Marketing at Branded Hospitality Ventures

RLC is a great show if you want to know what leaders at the biggest and most proactive brands are thinking about and how they are improving their businesses.

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That’s it for today!

See you next week, (about the) same bat-time, same bat-channel.

It takes a village!

Jimmy Frischling Branded Hospitality Ventures [email protected] 235 Park Ave South, 4th Fl | New York, NY 10003

Branded Hospitality Ventures ("Branded") is an investment and advisory platform at the intersection of food service, technology, innovation and capital. As experienced hospitality owners and operators, Branded brings value to its portfolio companies through investment, strategic counsel, and its deep industry expertise and connections.

Learn more about Branded here: Branded At-A-Glance