The Mellow Mushroom on Peace street in Raleigh NC was the very first restaurant to use Schedulefly. They started using it sometime in 2006 – back when it was running on server at my house in Raleigh. They’ve been a customer ever since and really helped us early on by suggesting stuff to add or…
Month: March 2011
The Stars of Restaurant Owners Uncorked: Chris Sommers
Pi Pizzeria has been wildly successful in a short amount of time. Chris and his partner, Frank Uible, opened their first location on “Pi Day” March 14 (3.14) 2008, and by that October then-Senator and presidential candidate Barack Obama enjoyed some of their pizza after a St. Louis campaign rally. He loved it, and Pi,…
Tell your story and you might just hook ’em
A buddy of mine (Scott) has built a nice software service for fishing guides. He is a Charter Fishing Captain himself and also a CPA – so he has a great story and reason for creating this business. Fishing guides use his service to manage their clients and trips – and also to keep track…
Restaurant Owners Uncorked mentioned in a Wall Street Journal blog post
We were thrilled to see our book Restaurant Owners Uncorked mentioned today in a blog post by the Wall Street Journal. The article is called How to Open a Restaurant and contains tips from Damien Scoditti, a NYC restaurateur. The post also includes a shout out to Bobby Flay’s new reality show and links to…
The Stars of Restaurant Owners Uncorked: Mic Heynekamp
Mic and Molley Heynekamp started Socorro Springs Restaurant & Brewery in 1999. After four and a half years of planning, they took their original $1,000,000 business plan down to $100,000. And they wound up starting with only $70,000. Ten years later they opened Eddyline Restaurant & Brewery. Both restaurants have been very successful, and Mic…
What any entrepreneur can learn from restaurant owners
Yesterday my mom called me and said she had just started reading Restaurant Owners Uncorked. The first comment she made was, “William, this book is not just for restaurant people. It’s for any entrepreneur.” She’s right. This book is full of excellent general business wisdom that anybody starting a business could learn from. Here are…
Do what you love, be yourself and completely ignore anyone who steps in your way…
Something inspired me today to write this blog post…. Business owner or not, “entrepreneur” or not, married or not, young or old, if you ever find yourself doing something that you don’t enjoy immensely, or living a life you wish you were not living, or hanging out with people you don’t want to be with,…
The Stars of Restaurant Owners Uncorked: Penny Karas
Penny Karas left a career in policy-related communications work in Washington, D.C. to start Hello Cupcake. She opened her first store in 2008, and is getting ready to open a second location soon, as well as launch a national shipping platform. Hello Cupcake makes gourmet cupcakes fresh from scratch, all day, every day, using high-quality,…
Why restaurant software guys published a book about successful restaurant owners
About a year ago, Wes and I started batting around an idea for a restaurant concept, and we decided we’d try to open a restaurant together one day in ten years or so. Right now we’re 100% focused on Schedulefly, but we figured ten years from now we may be at a point where we…
Memories of calling the restaurant and checking the schedule on the wall…
When I began to create Schedulefly, there were no official “software requirements”. There were no meetings beforehand with other developers or shareholders or investors. There was no money. There was no discussion about out how the system would be architected, where it would live, how it would scale to thousands of users etc. There was…
What do Facebook, Twitter and Schedulefly have in common?
All three are featured together on Pi Pizzeria’s web site. We’re stoked to be lumped together with those two, especially by the folks at this hip St. Louis pizzeria that makes President Obama’s favorite Chicago-style pizza. Hey Mark Zuckerberg and Biz Stone, make room for Wes Aiken! The Schedulefly Crew.
The Counter Burger in NYC joins the Schedulefly family!
We are stoked to have The Counter Burger in New York City in the Schedulefly family. Located in Times Square, I suspect scheduling and communication with their team is a 24 hour job! Fortunately, we make it terribly simple to keep in touch, keep in sync and stay organized from a browser or a mobile…