In the digital revolution that is currently sweeping through the restaurant industry, the independent restaurants are the ones getting kicked around the most.
Single unit or small multi-unit operators don’t have the advantage of scale to leverage better deals from any tech partner, delivery or otherwise. And on the tech side, the top vendors generally aren’t courting them either, because the real money to be made is with the nationwide chain restaurants.
Waitr, a newly-public food delivery service and online marketplace based in Lafayette, Louisiana, is aiming squarely for those independent restaurant clients. In its first quarterly earnings report since going public and acquiring direct competitor Bite Squad, the company laid out plans for future growth and — like Grubhub and others — food delivery is only one piece of the pie that Waitr wants to own.