Kyle
It all started over 2 years ago in Columbia South Carolina, over a piece of “death by chocolate” cake. It was Chris Hanscom’s birthday and in like most relationships is wife asked him a simple question, “where do you want to eat tonight?”. It was Hansom’s night and he didn’t really care where he ate, but he wanted a piece of death by chocolate cake.
This search, online and through phone calls, almost brought the death of him (or perhaps his smart phone), but Hanscom was determined to find his favorite piece of cake. What he found was a mess of websites for local restaurants. Some had mobile pages, some had scaled down pages, others had flash that he couldn’t get to load, and still others had text that didn’t look right. When he went to the computer, it was much of the same. There was no consistency in the online menu.
With Hanscom’s battle with the chocolate cake, an idea for OpenMenu was born. Now what Hanscom is proposing is a daunting task and he is well aware of that. He’s hoping to make a platform attractive enough that most restaurants will streamline their menus utilizing the OpenMenu platform.
Lets make this abundantly clear though, Hanscom doesn’t have some groovy restaurant app that he wants to sign restaurants up for, he wants them to JUST streamline their menus. The framework around the websites can remain the same, the graphics are all the restaurants, however the menu part, if streamlined and then tied to an API could become a very welcomed thing for restaurant patrons, and a very lucrative startup for Hanscom.
We got a chance to interview this bold entrepreneur. Check out the interview below:
What is OpenMenu?
OpenMenu has created the first standard to regulate the way restaurants store, share and use their menus over the Internet by standardizing the menus’ structure and format. It’s a single, consistent specification to fully and wholly describe a restaurant and its menu items. Having a common standard means not only the restaurant can use this to power their online presence but companies can easily share the restaurants information amongst themselves.
Creating a platform which includes the standard and the tools for restaurants to enter, manage and use their menu, is working towards eliminating the fragmentation of menu information across the web.
A complete solution for restaurants, developers and the restaurant industry as a whole.
In layman’s terms, how does it work?
Restaurants signup for an account on OpenMenu and create their menu using our powerful, easy to use OpenMenu Creator. Once the information is submitted they are issued an OpenMenu (their menu in the OpenMenu standard) which can then be connected to their website, Facebook, integrated with Twitter, receive a free mobile website and their OpenMenu is sent through our large distribution network. For restaurants it’s their menu, maintained in a single location, powering their entire online presence.
Developers not only can use the standard in their applications but they can get access to the OpenMenu Platform and all restaurant information by using our API. OpenMenu supports the developer community by giving back everything we know about a restaurant.
Who are the founders and what are their backgrounds?
Chris Hanscom is the founder and CEO. He has a strong background in web development and was a successful freelance web developer for 11 years developing applications from simple websites to complex applications for insurance companies before starting OpenMenu.
Where are you based?
Columbia, SC
What’s the startup scene/culture like where you’re based?
Slow, however in a shrinking world our location has not inhibited our growth.
How did you come up with the idea for OpenMenu?
It all started with one simple question asked by my wife 4 and a half years ago; “Where do you want to go eat for your birthday?” The question was simple but the search was not. All I wanted that day was a piece of death-by-chocolate cake. So I started searching for a restaurant, looking at websites, loading menus. Loading menu after menu in formats that where large, clunky and often difficult to search through. PDFs, scanned-in images and Flash based. All things I consider user-unfriendly. There had to be a better way.
I thought about this idea for almost 2 years before starting OpenMenu. I thought about how things should work, how the information should be structured and what the name of this idea should be. I could create a standard for the way restaurants store their menus. Then restaurants could store a version of their menu in the new standard or on their website. Then create a centralized location of all these restaurant menus. One menu, in one location, that could be distributed to every website and application that deals with restaurants and restaurant menus.
Don’t underestimate the power of chocolate cake.
How did you come up with the name?
It’s the only name that made sense for creating an open standard for menu information. Our brand, and our name aligns with our beliefs.
What problem does OpenMenu solve?
Fragmentation of menu information. Restaurants have a weak connection into the internet because most of the information about the menu, and the restaurant, is no longer in their control or no longer updated by the restaurant. This disconnected information can quickly become inaccurate. Have you ever counted how many locations a menu is located, how many places attempt to index the menu items, how many places list the operating hours? It’s way more than any restaurant has the time to maintain.
Part of this issue is because of how restaurants publish their menu; PDFs, Flash menus, scanned images and non-standard structures. All formats which are difficult for developers to consume and unfriendly to customers looking to quickly get access to a restaurant’s menu.
OpenMenu solves this by:
1) Standardizing the structure of the menu
2) Create the tools maintain a menu in a single location
3) Connect the restaurant’s menu to their entire online world (website to Facebook to Twitter and beyond)
4) Give developers access to the raw menu data
5) Create the tools so the rendering of menus can be customize to the restaurants brand while keeping it in a format friendly to customer
A solution that makes it better for restaurants, developers and customers.
So how are you going to get a majority of the restaurants to switch to the OpenMenu platform?
By offering a value-prop that changes, for the positive, how a restaurant manages their presence online. By giving restaurants powerful, easy-to-use, tools and developers access to our standardized data gets OpenMenu in front of restaurants.
Comes down to creating a better mousetrap.
What’s your secret sauce?
Our standard, our methodology of menu management and internal controls. OpenMenu is all for the standard, developers and making a positive change for the restaurant industry.
What’s one dilemma you’ve encountered in the startup process?
The difference between building a solution and building a business. It’s a huge difference and for OpenMenu our choices have always stemmed from helping the restaurant industry first, building the business second. We don’t want to get lost in the business and end up making poor decisions for the restaurants and developers who are part of our platform.
What’s one challenge you’ve overcome in the startup process?
Time management. In a startup it’s critical to manage the time spent on the product and the business. One without the other doesn’t work. The difficult part for OpenMenu has always been that first and foremost where developing a standard. Everything is built on this standard. Choices we make have to always go back to “how does this fit the standard”. We’ve gotten very good at making our standard the center of everything we do.
Who are some of your mentors and business role models?
Difficult question to answer. I look up to every tech-startup that succeeds or fails. You can learn something from everyone if you just take the time to try and understand.
What’s next for OpenMenu?
Grow the product offerings to restaurants by giving them more they can do once they have an OpenMenu. Also, working on relationships with companies looking to consume accurate menu data.
Linkage:
Find out more about OpenMenu here at openmenu.org
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