Restaurants + Technology

The $3 trillion global restaurant industry is massively relevant and vital to all economies. In the U.S. alone, over 1 million restaurants will generate more than $800 billion in sales and employed 14+ million employees in 2017. But, the $800 billion US restaurant industry may also be in recession. It needs growth to survive. Restaurants are on the hunt for fresh ideas and new channels to improve sales and maintain margins. They must discover new sales channels and leverage new technologies.

But this is only part of the story. The broader foodservice industry employs more than 20 million and combined, has a total economic impact of $1.7 trillion. That's 4% of the U.S. GDP!

Even more impressive is the transformative effects restaurant tech is having on the industry globally, both B2C and B2B. Investors have sunk over $20 billion in restaurant technology startups in the last 8 years and ecosystem of cloud solutions can be confusing. Here is the opportunity to create, innovate with affect change.

With over 40 years of experience in all facets of the foodservice industry, Bailiwick Ventures is an active brand marketer developer and financier. We work with restaurateurs, developers and entrepreneurs in the U.S. and the U.K.

We invent, refine and re-define restaurants and consumer brands targeting the broader foodservice industry. We leverage our experience as operators, entrepreneurs and advisors to brands and rich connections to influencers to execute vision.

As investment bankers with hundreds of transactions, assignments and projects behind us, we bring everything we know and everyone we know to each project, partnership and assignment.

We have experience in technology, entertainment, retail, food, beverage, robotics, media, film, sports, fitness, restaurants and hospitality. These experiences cross business-to-business and business-to-consumer globally.

Michael L. Atkinson is a frequent speaker on topics related to restaurant automation, data and analytics, leaderships, entrepreneurship, food-maker robotics and the emergence and use of voice technology and conversational commerce.

Our leadership team has broad reach to industry affiliates, business colleagues, restaurant leadership, and influencers, affiliates, dealers and media relationships. We bring decades of relevant experience to our investing partners and portfolio companies. We bring operations, culinary, development and corporate finance expertise. We have held BOH and FOH unit-level and C-level positions at regional and national chains. We are food and restaurant tech entrepreneurs and social media pioneers.

We are practitioners and thought-leaders and with an operators' perspective. We are passionate about the restaurant industry and excited about how enabling technologies are transforming our industry every day. Technology helps create operational efficiencies leading to profitability and that make operators more competitive and relevant.

We have unique access to opportunities because we have been actively engaged as operators, digital media and Internet entrepreneurs, restaurateurs, financiers, food and restaurant technology sales and social media marketers for decades.

We have transaction experience as investment banker and entrepreneur. We live and work at the intersection of restaurant and technology working with clients and partners around the globe.

We are experienced entrepreneurs in food and beverage, restaurants, retail and Internet technology. We have an investment bankers' perspective, so we are deal makers with vision and access to key resources required to execute on our plans. We invest, create and operate.

Bailiwick Ventures is a part of Food Tech Strategics, a restaurant technology agency providing strategic services to restaurant and hotel brands worldwide.