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We’re Nick Evans and Shayan Guha, co-founders of **Avocado** - a point-of-sale system for restaurants that now includes a **fully integrated AI assistant**. We’re thrilled to share our biggest update yet.\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=91825&key=user_uploads/258127/ce5f4736-b005-49ce-b579-8bf8596ce1e8)\n\n---\n\n## **🧠 The problem: running a restaurant is overwhelming**\n\nIndependent restaurant owners juggle dozens of tools, dozens of vendors, and constant interruptions - all while trying to serve food and keep customers happy. Managing the POS, updating menus, pulling sales reports, figuring out Instagram posts, dealing with changing prices… it’s a full-time job _on top of_ their actual full-time job.\n\nBut the real bottleneck? **Information is trapped in systems that don’t talk to each other**, and most POS systems are clunky, hard to use, or just dumb.\n\n---\n\n## **🍳 The solution: an AI agent that _knows_ your restaurant**\n\nAvocado is a POS system designed from the ground up to work with an AI assistant. Our agent understands your menu, your modifiers, your sales data, your customers, your staff - and it can take action across the system in real time.\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=91825&key=user_uploads/258127/4f4d0889-0077-48bd-a427-72d160f30492)\n\nYou can ask it:\n\n* “Add a matcha latte to the menu for $5.50”\n* “What’s my best-selling item on weekends?”\n* “Update all egg-based items to reflect the new cost of eggs”\n* “Create a social media post featuring today’s specials”\n* “Tell me which servers had the highest tips last week”\n\n…and it just **does it**. Right away. No UI to navigate, no learning curve, no training required.\n\n💡 This is more than a chatbot. This is a **restaurant-native AI agent** with full control over the POS, KDS, kiosk, and online ordering systems - like having a superpowered GM in your pocket.\n\n---\n\n# **Check out our launch video here**\n\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2QaQdDJlb0\n\n---\n\n# **✨ Here are some examples from the video:**\n\n**Prompt** “Add a matcha latte to the menu”\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=91825&key=user_uploads/258127/f4589fd7-69da-40c2-8d3f-a16fd766dbad)\n\n**Prompt** “Write an Instagram post announcing our new matcha lattes”\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=91825&key=user_uploads/258127/3e7c0988-ed76-486c-b3e0-e96ecb21629f)\n\n**Prompt** “Raise all the prices of my egg dishes by 10%, round to the nearest quarter”\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=91825&key=user_uploads/258127/0bfaae04-2776-442b-b3ba-3679ecedf2c7)\n\n**Prompt** “We’re out of bacon. Mark everything with bacon as out of stock.”\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=91825&key=user_uploads/258127/2f4ec1fd-7ff8-4720-bce0-753093934587)\n\n\\\n**👩‍🍳 Why we built Avocado**\n\nWe’ve worked with restaurants for years and have seen the same story over and over: people want to focus on hospitality and food - not software. But they were stuck with outdated POS systems or janky integrations between too many tools.\n\nSo we built Avocado to be the _last_ system a restaurant needs - tightly integrated hardware + software, a beautiful POS UI, and now, a deeply capable AI agent.\\\n(Also, we were frustrated that nobody else had done it right. So we did.)\n\n---\n\n## **📣 Call to action**\n\nWe're looking to work with independent restaurants, food trucks, cafes, and anyone tired of using 5 different tools to run their shop. If you want to try Avocado or just want to chat about what we’re building:\n\n📬 Email us: [founders@avocadopos.com](mailto:founders@avocadopos.com)\\\n📱 Text us: (512) 580-7988\\\n🌐 Website:[ https://avocadopos.com](https://avocadopos.com)\n\n---\n\n## **🙏 Asks**\n\n* If you know restaurant owners - especially in Texas or California - please send them our way.\n* We’d love feedback on the demo and ideas for what the AI agent should do next.\n\nThanks YC - can’t wait to hear what you think.\\\n**Nick & Shayan**\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=91825&key=user_uploads/258127/00157e2d-711b-4e9d-a612-d43f7e95d3b3)\n\n", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/Nt3-avocado-restaurant-pos-with-a-built-in-ai-agent", "votes": 18, "created_at": "2025-07-03T13:21:35.353Z" } ] }, { "id": 24746, "name": "Atlas", "slug": "atlas", "former_names": [], "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/b5fbe6f0988ece99d1e7fc4b4ccb58b5d8ab3808.png", "website": "https://atlas.kitchen", "all_locations": "Singapore, Singapore", "long_description": "Atlas is building the operating system for restaurants. Atlas is the easiest way to start, run and grow any restaurant online and offline. We are the team that previously built Grain, a venture-backed online restaurant, to millions in revenue. Team and investors are from Grain, Accenture, Microsoft, Udacity, McKinsey, Salesforce, Y Combinator and others. https://atlas.kitchen", "one_liner": "Operating system for restaurants, focusing on Southeast Asia", "team_size": 12, "industry": "B2B", "subindustry": "B2B", "launched_at": 1628404726, "tags": [ "Restaurant Tech" ], "tags_highlighted": [], "top_company": false, "isHiring": true, "nonprofit": false, "batch": "Summer 2021", "status": "Active", "industries": [ "B2B" ], "regions": [ "Singapore", "Southeast Asia", "Remote", "Partly Remote" ], "stage": "Early", "app_video_public": false, "demo_day_video_public": true, "app_answers": null, "question_answers": null, "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/atlas", "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/summer-2021/atlas.json", "year_founded": 2021, "city": "Singapore", "country": "SG", "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/atlaskitchen", "x_url": "", "fb_url": null, "cb_url": null, "github_url": null, "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/b5fbe6f0988ece99d1e7fc4b4ccb58b5d8ab3808.png", "app_video_url": null, "dday_video_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/video_event/54/1630616511631-sszu73xepg-d5526b91ff059e8b0c12f49c49f772c8/9b49da8dd62b6279d04ec956202683bb.mp4?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAQC4NIECABPQ2AHNW%2F20261020%2Fus-west-2%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20261020T022700Z&X-Amz-Expires=3600&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Signature=925b519063cadbaba0d916b439a008c6cf87d2c5fcaefe1f0d47d27df466a75e", "company_photos": [], "primary_partner": { "name": "Gustaf Alstromer", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/people/gustaf-alstromer" }, "founders": [ { "user_id": 29797, "full_name": "Yi Sung (Sung) Yong", "title": "Founder", "founder_bio": "Co-creator of Grain and Atlas. When I was young, my aspiration was to be a clown with a medical degree. Currently distracted by my obsession to build great products that can change people’s lives for the better.", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/yongyisung/", "x_url": "", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/d7eae8623084a308127716dfe818832940cde3f3.jpg" }, { "user_id": 732570, "full_name": "Shawn Liam", "title": "Founder", "founder_bio": "Co-founder of Atlas. Lives and breathes in the intersection of tech and design. Oversees the product strategy and direction at Atlas. In a previous life led UX and Design at Malaysian satellite TV and content conglomerate Astro. Mexican cuisine lover, beer nerd, loves adventure, rock climbing and the outdoors.", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawnliam/", "x_url": "", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/a6a224b4ca166fca8381d7a63c2a61f8fa54a9e1.jpg" }, { "user_id": 657053, "full_name": "Ernest Sim", "title": "Founder", "founder_bio": "Co-founder of Atlas. Also the co-founder of Grain, a venture-backed (Series B) online restaurant in Singapore. I'm passionate about F&B tech and believe that the future of food is inevitable, and it will come whether we like it or not. The real question is, will we watch it happen? Or make it happen?\n\nIn my free time, I love to sing and play music. I am creative by heart, and I have a knack for figuring computers out. I enjoy brainstorming and ideation.", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/ernestsim/", "x_url": "", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/5c497513f35837145bd43733c68c3e509d1e2307.jpg" }, { "user_id": 583142, "full_name": "Surendhar Reddy ‎", "title": "Founder", "founder_bio": "I love engineering, startups, history, warm coffee, and good food", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/twkrr", "x_url": "", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/4998310118c835efcf8a5142d6bd7733262354be.jpg" } ], "jobs": [ { "id": 49880, "title": "UIUX Designer", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/atlas/jobs/jYQdJWU-uiux-designer", "location": "SG", "type": "Full-time", "role": "Design", "role_type": "UI / UX", "salary_range": "$50K - $120K", "equity_range": "0.50% - 3.00%", "experience": "3+ years", "visa": "US citizenship/visa not required", "skills": [] }, { "id": 84271, "title": "Senior Software Engineer", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/atlas/jobs/fw45u7I-senior-software-engineer", "location": "SG", "type": "Full-time", "role": "Engineering", "role_type": "Full stack", "salary_range": "$76K - $84K", "equity_range": "0.50% - 1.00%", "experience": "6+ years", "visa": "US citizenship/visa not required", "skills": [ "PostgreSQL", "React", "Ruby on Rails" ] }, { "id": 84272, "title": "Senior Software Engineer, Product Infrastructure", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/atlas/jobs/dBWmt4X-senior-software-engineer-product-infrastructure", "location": "SG", "type": "Full-time", "role": "Engineering", "role_type": "Devops", "salary_range": "$76K - $84K", "equity_range": "0.50% - 1.00%", "experience": "6+ years", "visa": "US citizenship/visa not required", "skills": [ "Google Cloud", "Kubernetes", "PostgreSQL", "Ruby on Rails" ] } ], "news": [], "launches": [] }, { "id": 27815, "name": "OfOne", "slug": "ofone", "former_names": [], "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/6f20cb0518a4682de040512f68325cefe65fca72.png", "website": "https://www.of.one", "all_locations": "San Francisco, CA, USA", "long_description": "OfOne is building software to automate order taking at fast-food drive-thrus. Using conversational AI, we help restaurant chains operate more efficiently and level-up their customer experience.\r\n\r\nOfOne can answer questions, intelligently upsell - like suggesting ice cream on a hot day - and always says please and thank you.\r\n\r\nThere are 200,000 drive-thrus in the US and they are the industry's largest order channel.\r\n\r\nOur mission is to deliver human centric experiences that help restaurant operators prosper, deliver delight for their customers, and empower their workers.", "one_liner": "AI-powered order taker for restaurant drive-thrus", "team_size": 5, "industry": "B2B", "subindustry": "B2B", "launched_at": 1675101964, "tags": [ "Generative AI", "Restaurant Tech" ], "tags_highlighted": [], "top_company": false, "isHiring": false, "nonprofit": false, "batch": "Winter 2023", "status": "Acquired", "industries": [ "B2B" ], "regions": [ "United States of America", "America / Canada" ], "stage": "Early", "app_video_public": false, "demo_day_video_public": false, "app_answers": null, "question_answers": null, "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/ofone", "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/winter-2023/ofone.json", "year_founded": 2022, "city": "San Francisco", "country": "US", "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/of-one/", "x_url": "", "fb_url": null, "cb_url": null, "github_url": null, "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/6f20cb0518a4682de040512f68325cefe65fca72.png", "app_video_url": null, "dday_video_url": null, "company_photos": [], "primary_partner": null, "founders": [ { "user_id": 1162985, "full_name": "Will Edwards", "title": "Founder", "founder_bio": "Previously VP, Revenue @ Crew, a frontline employee communications app. I was the first business hire and helped scale Crew from 0 to 1M+ users and millions in ARR before being acquired by Square in 2021.\n\nBefore Crew, I worked on the Corporate Development team at Intuit where I focused on M&A and venture investments.", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/wedwards3/", "x_url": "", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/c011c52895d609a4070290409b96ecdd4fd828ef.jpg" }, { "user_id": 11973, "full_name": "Adam Proschek", "title": "Founder", "founder_bio": "Previously led product and engineering @ Crew, a frontline-employee communications app. I helped scale Crew from 0 to 1M+ users and millions in ARR before being acquired by Square in 2021.\n\nBefore Crew, I was an iOS engineer at Hotel Tonight (acquired by Airbnb).", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/aproschek/", "x_url": "", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/72acd1560e8c31c1b4776ccb1d5c2691111c65db.jpg" } ], "jobs": [], "news": [ { "title": "Deepgram raises $130M at $1.3B valuation and buys a YC AI startup | TechCrunch", "url": "https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/13/deepgram-raises-130m-at-1-3b-valuation-and-buys-a-yc-ai-startup/", "date": "Jan 13, 2026" } ], "launches": [ { "id": 69517, "title": "🤖 🌮 OfOne - Automating order taking at fast food drive-thrus", "tagline": "We help fast food restaurants improve operating margins by automating order taking at the drive-thru.", "body": "**TL;DR:** OfOne is building software to automate order taking at fast-food drive-thrus. Using LLMs, we can save the typical restaurant owner $60,000 in labor costs per store annually.\n\nHi YC community - Adam Proschek (right) and Will Edwards (center) here - founders of [OfOne](https://www.of.one/). \n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=69517&key=user_uploads/1162985/20300ff2-47c3-4229-83f1-f4987fe5ffd1)\n\n### **The Problem:**\n\nQuick-service restaurants are a $300B industry in the United States, comprising roughly 300,000 individual restaurant units. These businesses are low-margin with food & labor costs making up \\~70% of OPEX. In recent years, operators (many of whom are immigrants and small business owners) have been getting squeezed as inflation and wages rise and labor becomes more scarce.\n\n### **The Solution:**\n\nOfOne is helping fast food operators make more money by automating their largest ordering channel: the drive-thru.\n\nThere are 200,000 drive-thrus in the United States and in many cases they contribute 70%+ of order volume. They are also expensive, costing on average $14.00 per hour to staff and operating for 12 hours per day - representing $12B in aggregate labor costs.\n\nWe’re offsetting these labor costs by automating the end-to-end ordering process - from greeting customers to answering questions to processing orders through the point-of-sale. Plus, it works with existing drive-thru audio systems.\n\nAdditionally, OfOne can intelligently upsell - like suggesting ice cream on a hot day - and always says please and thank you, raising average order size and improving customer experience.\n\nWe currently have signed & deployed pilots at major national chain stores.\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=69517&key=user_uploads/1162985/7d2fbb4f-dcc7-456f-b7d4-d5dcd518392a)\n\n### **Why we’re building OfOne:**\n\nWe both know the quick-service industry well from building Crew (acq. by Square in 2021), which sold employee communication software to QSR brands, like Taco Bell.\n\nThrough this experience, we built valuable industry relationships and more importantly gained an in-depth understanding of how critical controlling labor costs is for restaurant success. Frankly, it can be the difference between a growing business and defaulting on interest payments for a personally guaranteed loan.\n\n### **Our Ask:**\n\nIf you have any connections with **franchisees**, **multi-unit restaurant operators**, or **leaders at corporate brands** (e.g., Taco Bell Corporate), we’d love to speak with them and share how we can help!\n\n_Here’s a quick blurb you can copy and paste_: A team of restaurant tech entrepreneurs recently launched an AI-powered order taker for quick-service restaurant drive-thrus. They are helping operators boost margins by reducing labor costs and increasing order sizes. You can contact [will@of.one](mailto:will@of.one) for more information.\n\nIf easier, I can also craft an easily forwardable email for you. Just reach out and let me know 😊.", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/I5F-ofone-automating-order-taking-at-fast-food-drive-thrus", "votes": 32, "created_at": "2023-02-21T22:52:05.447Z" } ] }, { "id": 28881, "name": "Chow Central Inc", "slug": "chow-central-inc", "former_names": [], "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/b180100ca46fba5b88d5f7f8c9ef48ce2f462433.png", "website": "https://chowcentral.com", "all_locations": "Lagos, LA, Nigeria", "long_description": "Chow Central is building technology to disrupt the food industry in Nigeria. The goal is to profitably provide food to as many people as possible in record time. \r\n\r\nChow Central has launched its first product \"500chow\". A delivery-only quick service restaurant that serves customers in record time. 500chow has 10x lower costs than traditional brick-and-mortar restaurants, and 10x more online orders. \r\n\r\nOur customers love us for our super fast and cheaper deliveries. We are able to do this by launching hyper-locally within a 3km radius.\r\n\r\nWe are very focused on solving real problems in the food industry one scalable product at a time.", "one_liner": "Asset Light Chipotle for Africa", "team_size": null, "industry": "Consumer", "subindustry": "Consumer -> Food and Beverage", "launched_at": 1690480530, "tags": [ "Consumer", "Restaurant Tech", "Food", "Food & Beverage" ], "tags_highlighted": [], "top_company": false, "isHiring": false, "nonprofit": false, "batch": "Summer 2023", "status": "Active", "industries": [ "Consumer", "Food and Beverage" ], "regions": [ "Nigeria", "Africa", "Remote", "Partly Remote" ], "stage": "Early", "app_video_public": false, "demo_day_video_public": false, "app_answers": null, "question_answers": null, "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/chow-central-inc", "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/summer-2023/chow-central-inc.json", "year_founded": 2022, "city": "Lagos", "country": "NG", "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/chowcentral", "x_url": "https://twitter.com/500chow", "fb_url": null, "cb_url": null, "github_url": null, "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/b180100ca46fba5b88d5f7f8c9ef48ce2f462433.png", "app_video_url": null, "dday_video_url": null, "company_photos": [], "primary_partner": null, "founders": [ { "user_id": 902934, "full_name": "Tosin Onafuye", "title": "Founder", "founder_bio": "Building tomorrow today.", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://linkedin.com/in/tosin-onafuye-241441117", "x_url": "", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/28a1fcd7e3444d582622df52e387f87b01a2f3af.jpg" }, { "user_id": 729074, "full_name": "Christopher Obasi", "title": "Founder", "founder_bio": "Building the future today", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://linkedin.com/in/christopherobasi", "x_url": "", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/e239f72e94141225485d0fdc93753ac0a763732d.jpg" }, { "user_id": 974857, "full_name": "Adeyemi Onafuye", "title": "Founder", "founder_bio": "Chief Product Officer at Chow Central. I have 8 years of experience in technology and management consulting. I have worked extensively in the tech startup ecosystem in Nigeria. I am a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers Community.\n", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://linkedin.com/in/adeyemi-onafuye-6b620666", "x_url": "", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/27080340b31a4ecdea8ed755be464938b3c14301.jpg" } ], "jobs": [], "news": [], "launches": [ { "id": 73617, "title": "Chow Central, virtual restaurant chains in African cities", "tagline": "Meet Chow Central, building Chipotle of Africa!", "body": "Hi YC 👋🏾, we’re Tosin, Christopher, and Adeyemi operating from Lagos, Nigeria.\n\nChow Central is building restaurant chains for Millennials and Gen Z living in African cities who want high-quality and healthy meals. Think of us as Chipotle for African meals. \n\nChow Central started as a fun experiment shortly after we graduated from University.  We created a virtual restaurant page on Twitter to sell affordable meals and also help underutilized restaurants get sales during the Covid lockdown.\n\nWe relaunched 18 months ago, currently active in just one region and we are doing over $80,000 in monthly revenue.\n\nWe have modified our approach, we operate a central kitchen to improve quality and maintain consistency. We then partner with highly-vetted underutilized commercial kitchens to serve as our fulfillment centers. \n\nOur customers love our delicious recipes and our faster & cheaper deliveries. Our approach of leveraging underutilized kitchens allows us to initially launch in a location with minimal capital investment.\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=73617&key=user_uploads/902934/4b087e33-4f96-45e7-adf8-2811c6cd3e8b)\n\n\\\nWe operate two restaurant brands:\n\nFirstly, 500chow is a high-quality restaurant that serves delicious local African delicacies. Our second restaurant is a healthy grill, shawarma, and barbecue restaurant.\n\nMillennials and Gen Z in African cities who want to order meals online are still underserved. There are over 50 million of them, if we can serve 5 million of them once every month with an average spend of $8, this represents a $5B market opportunity. \\\n\\\nChris and Yemi previously built industry-leading products at Moniepoint. Tosin previously worked at Vendease (W21) a restaurant supply-chain company.\\\n\\\n**How can you help?** \n\n* Refer us to your friends visiting or living in Lagos, Nigeria\n* [Check out our newly released mobile application](https://chowcentral.onelink.me/bvtE/t8dfjd86) and give feedback on the user experience (Pro tip, set your location to Lekki Phase 1)\n\n Want to talk about food? Shoot us an email [founders@500chow.com](mailto:founders@500chow.com)", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/J9N-chow-central-virtual-restaurant-chains-in-african-cities", "votes": 19, "created_at": "2023-07-31T20:28:54.555Z" } ] }, { "id": 29519, "name": "Forge Rewards", "slug": "forge-rewards", "former_names": [ "Forge", "Forge Rewards", "Forge" ], "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/c135eee2915601bd39910219334c34b2549944a0.png", "website": "https://www.joinforge.app/", "all_locations": "San Francisco, CA, USA", "long_description": "", "one_liner": "Starbucks app for restaurants", "team_size": 5, "industry": "B2B", "subindustry": "B2B", "launched_at": 1710184013, "tags": [ "Restaurant Tech", "Food Tech", "AI" ], "tags_highlighted": [], "top_company": false, "isHiring": false, "nonprofit": false, "batch": "Winter 2024", "status": "Active", "industries": [ "B2B" ], "regions": [ "United States of America", "America / Canada" ], "stage": "Early", "app_video_public": false, "demo_day_video_public": false, "app_answers": null, "question_answers": null, "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/forge-rewards", "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/winter-2024/forge-rewards.json", "year_founded": 2023, "city": "San Francisco", "country": "US", "linkedin_url": "https://linkedin.com/company/forgerewards", "x_url": "https://twitter.com/ForgeRewards", "fb_url": null, "cb_url": null, "github_url": null, "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/c135eee2915601bd39910219334c34b2549944a0.png", "app_video_url": null, "dday_video_url": null, "company_photos": [ "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/attachments/46d7565b5b6a3ffe0b258723fce9c7bb8943ca14.png", "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/attachments/1a0fc3db046bcc9899ace891de1a57c398cc5b47.png" ], "primary_partner": null, "founders": [ { "user_id": 1751413, "full_name": "Ethan Chang", "title": "Founder/CEO", "founder_bio": "Changing how restaurant run, prev Stanford\n", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://linkedin.com/in/changethan", "x_url": "https://twitter.com/ethchang20", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/1c92832085b90dda455f6d4c10b2e97ac39acbae.jpg" }, { "user_id": 1757853, "full_name": "Isaac Kan", "title": "Founder", "founder_bio": "Studied CS at Stanford and interned at Stanford Med, building CNN models. I'm now a co-founder of Forge, where we're transforming how restaurants build their brand and online presence.", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://linkedin.com/in/isaackan", "x_url": "", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/da95a10d603829ba4432374b9029695202fd85bc.jpg" } ], "jobs": [], "news": [], "launches": [ { "id": 79288, "title": "Forge Rewards: The Starbucks app for your restaurant brand", "tagline": "We connect any restaurant with their community by making loyalty accessible.", "body": "**TL;DR: Forge makes premium, white-labeled loyalty apps for leading restaurant brand – think a Starbucks app for your own restaurant.**\n\nHey everyone! We’re [Ethan](https://www.linkedin.com/in/changethan/) and [Isaac,](https://www.linkedin.com/in/isaackan/) and we’re building [Forge](https://www.linkedin.com/company/forgerewards)[.](https://www.forgerewards.com/) Our journey started as roommates at Stanford where we worked on ad-branded contraceptives, AI-generated Spotify playlists, and exploring new restaurants in Palo Alto. Today, we’re on a mission to enhance customer relationships through restaurant loyalty, and have 300+ partners including Chubby Group, Liuyishou Hotpot, and Daeho Dining.\n\n**The Problem**\n\nIn high school, Ethan saw firsthand, while helping manage a 3 location Korean corndog shop, that local mom-and-pop restaurants struggle with building digital presence and customer retention; since they fail to acquire and retain repeat customers; while losing 30% to third-party delivery apps and big corporations.\n\nOn the other hand, publicly-trading mega-corporations like Starbucks and Domino’s are well equipped with teams of in-house engineers that spend $MM’s every year to control their customer’s dining journey with their technology.\n\n**Our Solution: Forge, the Starbucks app for your brand.**\n\nForge brings this sophisticated technology to any restaurant brand, white-labeled at a very low-cost. We want to level the playing field for any restaurant to compete with these conglomerates, so we make premium loyalty apps that include Amex-like status, tiers, points, membership subscriptions, in-app orders, and a whole suite of AI-powered marketing tools.\n\nThis has already resulted in stronger customer relationships, new revenue, recurring revenue streams, and increases in both average customer spend and visit frequencies with over $60M in new revenue redirected to our partners, 3x increased visits, and over 500,000 active users across our apps!\n\n**Our Asks**\\\nIf you want to join the Forge family or know any restaurant brands or places you’d like to see us help out with loyalty, email us at [founders@forgerewards.com](mailto:founders@forgerewards.com)!\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=79288&key=user_uploads/1751413/c3b552ae-0b80-4348-a327-9af31ca1d871)\n\nEthan and Isaac (at HE&C Wagyu Garden)", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/Kcq-forge-rewards-the-starbucks-app-for-your-restaurant-brand", "votes": 44, "created_at": "2024-03-11T22:33:36.865Z" } ] }, { "id": 30759, "name": "Certus AI", "slug": "certus-ai", "former_names": [], "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/4913536f9defe2e375acb9a499aa2ac443e9dc95.png", "website": "https://www.certus-ai.com/", "all_locations": "San Francisco, CA, USA", "long_description": "Certus AI is replacing the restaurant phone line with Voice AI.\r\n\r\nRestaurants lose up to $100,000 per year per location from missed calls, lost orders, and abandoned hold lines. Staff are overwhelmed. IVRs frustrate customers. Call centers are expensive and impersonal.\r\n\r\nIt’s 2025. Guests don’t leave voicemails or wait on hold. They just move on.\r\n\r\nCertus is an AI voice agent built for restaurants. It answers every call, 24/7 — taking orders, processing deliveries, booking reservations, upselling, and handling complaints in English, Spanish, French and more. Certus is built to manage the phone line end to end, from the customer call to the restaurant tech stack, with zero human intervention required. It currently integrates with industry-leading systems like Toast, Square, Clover, UberEats, DoorDash, and more.\r\n\r\nWe’re building the voice layer of the modern restaurant — the employee they’ll never fire.\r\n\r\nWe started Certus because we lived the pain. Gurveer (CEO) grew up answering phones in his family’s restaurant and helped operate them, growing from 1 to 11 locations in 7 years. Later, he and Adam (CRO) ran a restaurant growth startup to help others increase revenue, but kept watching clients bleed cash because no one picked up the phone. So we built the solution the industry always wished existed.\r\n\r\nUntil now, this problem was considered unsolvable. But Voice AI has finally crossed the conversational chasm and 72% of consumers now prefer AI over humans as long as it means faster and better service.\r\n\r\nMore importantly, the market is begging for this. The North American restaurant industry crossed $1 trillion in 2024, and it's projected to hit $1.5 trillion in 2025. Yet over $100 billion is still lost annually to missed calls, human error, and outdated tech. As the market continues to grow, so do the losses!\r\n\r\nOur customers say it best:\r\n\r\n- “Certus changed my life overnight.”\r\n- “We were losing the ability to give great in-house service — the phone was killing us.”\r\n- “70% of my business comes through the phone. That’s mine and my 16 staffs livelihood.”\r\n- “Before Certus, I used to lose 40 - 60 calls a day…. now my printer just stays printing!”\r\n- “I’ve been in the business 38 years. I’ve been waiting for this since then.”\r\n\r\nCertus is here to fix the $120B phone problem — one call at a time.\r\n\r\nAnd in doing so, we’re redefining how the restaurant industry communicates forever, starting with the phone line.", "one_liner": "Replacing the restaurant phone line with Voice AI", "team_size": 8, "industry": "B2B", "subindustry": "B2B", "launched_at": 1753135662, "tags": [ "SaaS", "B2B", "Restaurant Tech", "AI" ], "tags_highlighted": [], "top_company": false, "isHiring": false, "nonprofit": false, "batch": "Summer 2025", "status": "Active", "industries": [ "B2B" ], "regions": [ "United States of America", "America / Canada" ], "stage": "Early", "app_video_public": false, "demo_day_video_public": false, "app_answers": null, "question_answers": null, "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/certus-ai", "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/summer-2025/certus-ai.json", "year_founded": 2025, "city": "San Francisco", "country": "US", "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/104576510/", "x_url": "https://x.com/certus_ai", "fb_url": "https://www.facebook.com/certusai/", "cb_url": null, "github_url": null, "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/4913536f9defe2e375acb9a499aa2ac443e9dc95.png", "app_video_url": null, "dday_video_url": null, "company_photos": [], "primary_partner": { "name": "Tyler Bosmeny", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/people/tyler-bosmeny" }, "founders": [ { "user_id": 2362198, "full_name": "Gurveer Singh", "title": "Founder/CEO", "founder_bio": "Co-founder & CEO of Certus AI. \n\nI started answering phones at my family’s restaurant at 9 and helped scale it from 1 to 11 locations. Later, I co-founded a restaurant growth startup with Adam (now Certus CRO), helping independents grow revenue across takeout, catering, and event— but clients still lost money because no one answered the phone. That’s what led me to build Certus: the solution I wish we had when I was 15 and the kitchen was on fire.", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/gurveer-singh-35168031b/", "x_url": "https://x.com/gurveersingh299", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/382987456b7ac9a69be4ce36f64e24cd613219da.jpg" }, { "user_id": 2365312, "full_name": "Adam Gamieldien", "title": "Founder/CRO", "founder_bio": "Co-founder & CRO of Certus AI. \n\nBefore Certus, I helped scale a restaurant growth startup with Gurveer, working directly with dozens of independent restaurants and closing our deals. We helped drive revenue across delivery, catering, and events — but time after time, sales fell through because no one picked up the phone. That’s what led us to build Certus. I now lead GTM and speak with operators daily to uncover what’s broken and how Certus can fix it.", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-gamieldien-067605247/", "x_url": "https://x.com/AdamGamieldien", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/9b31eb17e8add0a07e52c37fd0caa7ce885114b6.jpg" }, { "user_id": 2365310, "full_name": "Isaac Nichols", "title": "Founder/CTO", "founder_bio": "Co-founder & CTO of Certus AI. \n\nI got my start at 16 with a full-time internship at Falcon Eye Drones. Since then, I’ve built AI systems across logistics, telecom, and restaurant tech, always focused on automation and operational leverage. Before Certus, I was a founding engineer at Hive AI, co-founded 2 startups, and built a full-stack hospitality management system. That gave me deep insight into how restaurants really run, and why fixing the phone line had to be next.", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/isaac-nichols-963857251/", "x_url": "https://x.com/_apisaac", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/699dc47d352b8bfaf0ef2d5e0a2eaab76bd1a5ea.jpg" } ], "jobs": [], "news": [], "launches": [ { "id": 92344, "title": "☎️ 👨‍🍳 Certus AI: Replacing the Restaurant Phone Line with Voice AI", "tagline": "The AI Phone System Restaurants Rely On", "body": "**We’re Gurveer (CEO), Adam (CRO), and Isaac (CTO),** and we’re solving the $100B+ phone problem for restaurants\n\nhttps://youtu.be/ydTdJDJMiKE\n\n## TL;DR — Certus AI is an AI voice agent for restaurants. Certus answer every call, take orders, processes deliveries, and books reservations.\n\n---\n\n### ❌ The Problem\n\nRestaurants lose **up to $100,000 per year per location** because of missed calls.\n\n* The average restaurants gets 75 calls/day from customers trying to order, book, or ask a simple question\n* 25% of those calls go unanswered on any given day\n* Every missed call = lost revenue/ angry customer\n* Call centers are expensive. IVRs frustrate customers. Staff is overloaded.\n\nThe phone is still one of the most valuable channels in hospitality, yet it costs the industry **$100B+ annually**.\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=92344&key=user_uploads/2362198/84bc1556-5735-4b05-8664-5054b06ba4e7)\n\n---\n\n### ✅ Our Solution\n\n**Certus AI is a multilingual Voice AI agent that answers every call:**\n\n* Takes orders\n* Books reservations\n* Processes deliveries\n* Handles complaints better than humans\n* And always upsells, increasing AOV\n\nIt answers every call, in real time, and **connects to POS, reservation and delivery systems like:**\n\n* Toast\n* Square\n* Clover\n* UberEats\n* DoorDash & more\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=92344&key=user_uploads/2362198/78dc0426-c23d-4db3-8144-4427fce04bc7)\n\n---\n\n### 🎯 Why Now\n\n* **72% of consumers** are comfortable speaking to AI if it means faster service\n* **LLMs and voice synthesis** have finally crossed the quality threshold for real-world use\n* **Labor costs are rising, staff is burning out**, and operators are actively searching for solutions\n* The **restaurant industry crossed $1T** in 2024 and it's bleeding $100B/year to missed calls, human error, and outdated workflows\n\n---\n\n### 👋 Who We Are\n\n---\n\nI’m Gurveer, and **I’ve been answering restaurant phones since I was 9.**\n\nMy family started with one location and grew to 11. At every stage, the phone _made or broke_ the business: missed calls meant missed orders, staff burnout, and broken operations. That chaos didn’t go away as we scaled.\n\n**In the early days, we couldn’t afford to lose revenue, BUT, we also couldn't afford to hire someone just to manage the phone.** So I became the phone guy. I was so obsessed with not missing calls that **I carried our restaurant hotline with me _everywhere:_** to the gym, school, or even parties. No joke. I’d step out mid-convo to take a catering order.\n\nLater, Adam (CRO) and I ran a growth startup for restaurants. We’d drive serious demand, but the same problem always came back: no one picked up the phone to covert that into revenue.\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=92344&key=user_uploads/2362198/a1a5d359-a692-4803-8a78-357383fcd24d)\n\nThat obsession, and frustration, is what led us to build Certus. The phone line is still one of the most valuable, yet broken, parts of a restaurant. **Now, it’s finally being replaced by Certus AI.**\n\n---\n\n### **💬 What Our Customers Say**\n\n> Certus **changed my life overnight.**”\n>\n> “We were losing the ability to give great in-house service… **the phone was killing us**.”\n>\n> “**70% of my business comes through the phone. That’s mine and my 16 staffs livelihood.**”\n>\n> “Before Certus, **I used to lose 40 - 60 calls a day…. now my printer just stays printing!**”\n>\n> “I’ve been in the business 38 years. **I’ve been waiting for this since then.**\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=92344&key=user_uploads/2362198/ea3d515c-f5fe-4c96-9bb6-6357d7f6f510)\n\n---\n\n### 🙋 Our Ask\n\n* **Do you know a restaurant group, franchise operator, or overwhelmed manger?** A warm intro would mean the world!\n\n---\n\n### 👑 Thank you!\n\nWe’re super excited to introduce you to Certus AI, but more importantly, we’re excited to build and grow alongside all of you!\n\n**– Gurveer, Adam & Isaac**", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/O1Q-certus-ai-replacing-the-restaurant-phone-line-with-voice-ai", "votes": 30, "created_at": "2025-07-22T02:52:29.974Z" } ] }, { "id": 32223, "name": "Marble", "slug": "joinmarble", "former_names": [ "Remy", "Truffle" ], "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/fd8594643506090563d23eac2d8bee3b9c1e526f.png", "website": "https://joinmarble.ai/", "all_locations": "New York City, NY, USA", "long_description": "Marble is the first AI-native operating system for the restaurant back-of-house. \r\n\r\nRestaurants, cafes and bars still run on a patchwork of disconnected point solutions, spreadsheets, clipboards and tribal knowledge, which costs the industry billions each year in stockouts, food waste, and lost profit. \r\n\r\nMarble replaces that entire stack with one system. Computer vision and voice AI capture real-time inventory levels 90% faster than manual counts, ML models forecast item-level demand at 97% accuracy, and AI agents run dozens of end-to-end workflows autonomously, from procurement and invoice reconciliation to scheduling, food prep, menu engineering, and more.", "one_liner": "The autonomous back-of-house for restaurants.", "team_size": 2, "industry": "B2B", "subindustry": "B2B", "launched_at": 1782079217, "tags": [ "SaaS", "Restaurant Tech", "AI" ], "tags_highlighted": [], "top_company": false, "isHiring": true, "nonprofit": false, "batch": "Summer 2026", "status": "Active", "industries": [ "B2B" ], "regions": [ "United States of America", "America / Canada" ], "stage": "Early", "app_video_public": false, "demo_day_video_public": false, "app_answers": null, "question_answers": null, "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/joinmarble", "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/summer-2026/joinmarble.json", "year_founded": 2026, "city": "New York City", "country": "US", "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/joinmarble/", "x_url": "https://x.com/joinmarble", "fb_url": null, "cb_url": null, "github_url": null, "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/fd8594643506090563d23eac2d8bee3b9c1e526f.png", "app_video_url": null, "dday_video_url": null, "company_photos": [ "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/attachments/b4010ede5729d3391d58ce8364837483ffe142b9.png" ], "primary_partner": { "name": "Brad Flora", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/people/brad-flora" }, "founders": [ { "user_id": 1278164, "full_name": "Aakar Khanna", "title": "Founder/CEO", "founder_bio": "Co-Founder and CEO at Marble (YC S26). Previously Head of Strategy & Operations at Kouper (healthcare applied AI) and an early BizOps hire at AtoB (YC S20). Started career as an Investment Banking Analyst at Goldman Sachs covering Restaurants and Food & Beverage. Grew up managing family's multi-unit restaurant business. Undergrad from the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business with a minor in Computer Science. ", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/aakarkhanna/", "x_url": "https://x.com/khannauno", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/10b55e1df529bf42691cc6106a60970b8dcc3cc2.jpg" }, { "user_id": 306060, "full_name": "Arjun Chaliha", "title": "Founder/CTO", "founder_bio": "Co-Founder & CTO at Marble (YC S26). Previously Senior Software Engineer at Bloomberg, leading AI/ML initiatives for Electronic Trading. CFA Charterholder. BSE Computer Science from University of Michigan. While in college, founded a peer-to-peer tutoring marketplace, backed by University of Michigan.", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/achaliha/", "x_url": "https://x.com/arjunjchaliha", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/08d4fd14f0ed0a02d3cd986bfeaf28c11c0ee14a.jpg" } ], "jobs": [ { "id": 109611, "title": "Founding Engineer", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/joinmarble/jobs/JIr3duM-founding-engineer", "location": "New York, NY, US", "type": "Full-time", "role": "Engineering", "role_type": "Full stack", "salary_range": "$150K - $225K", "equity_range": "1.00% - 3.00%", "experience": "1+ years", "visa": "US citizen/visa only", "skills": [] }, { "id": 110135, "title": "Founding Ops", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/joinmarble/jobs/1V1GfLm-founding-ops", "location": "New York, NY, US", "type": "Full-time", "role": "Operations", "role_type": null, "salary_range": "$100K - $150K", "equity_range": "0.20% - 0.75%", "experience": "1+ years", "visa": "US citizen/visa only", "skills": [] } ], "news": [], "launches": [ { "id": 108273, "title": "Marble: The autonomous back-of-house for restaurants", "tagline": "Marble uses computer vision and voice AI to count inventory in minutes and a collection of AI agents that run inventory and labor management on autopilot.", "body": "Hey YC! We’re Arjun and Aakar, and we’re launching Marble (previously Truffle), the first AI-native operating system for the restaurant back-of-house.\n\n**TL;DR:** We help restaurants control their two biggest costs, inventory and labor—saving them thousands of dollars per month in food waste, stockouts, and labor overage. We replace today's patchwork of disconnected point solutions, spreadsheets and clipboards with a single, easy to use system that actually does the work. We use computer vision and voice AI to count inventory 90% faster than manual counts, ML models to forecast item-level demand with 97% accuracy, and AI agents that run dozens of end-to-end workflows autonomously, including ordering, invoice reconciliation, scheduling, food prep, menu engineering, and more.\n\n**The result**: We're live and scaling rapidly across multi-unit operations in the US and Canada. You can find us today in A&W Restaurants, The Kati Roll Company, Sophie’s Cuban, Kokomo NYC, HolyShred, Dead Letter No. 9 and many more. We’ve driven a 40% reduction in food waste, eliminated stockouts, and saved managers 30+ labor hours per week.\n\nCheck us out here:[ www.joinmarble.ai](http://www.joinmarble.ai)\n\n**Our ask:** If you run or know someone who runs a restaurant, café, bar, or hospitality group, we'd love to talk. You can reach us at [founders@joinmarble.com](mailto:founders@joinmarble.com).\n\n**Everyone knows someone who runs a restaurant, bar, or cafe - we’re also giving away $500 (or an Oura Ring) per referral!** [www.joinmarble.com/refer](http://www.joinmarble.com/refer) \n\n \n\n**The Problem**\n\nRestaurant operators face an uphill battle. Ultra-competitive markets, rising food and labor costs, unforgiving hours, and after all of it, they take home 5% in net profit (if they're lucky).\n\nA restaurant can be full all day and night, but it's the back office operations that determine whether that money hits the bottom line. Today that back office still runs on clipboards, spreadsheets, and guesswork. Inventory gets counted by hand, if at all, so no one has a real-time picture of what's actually on the shelf. Orders get placed from memory, so operators either over-buy (contributing to $150B+ in annual food waste) or under-buy and stock out on the exact items guests came for. Food prep and schedules are built on best-effort guesses, and invoices go unchecked while suppliers quietly raise prices line by line.\n\nEvery one of these is a margin decision, and every one is being made blind, leading to errors that compound every day, across every location.\n\n**The Solution**\n\nMarble runs the entire back office for restaurants. This centers around managing the two biggest cost centers (inventory and labor) and works in 4 phases:\n\n* **Capture:** Computer vision + voice AI through our mobile app allow operators to count inventory 90% faster than manual counts, with 99% accuracy. No more hours spent counting items in a walk-in freezer with a clipboard (IYKYK). Invoices and deliveries are captured the same way.\n* **Forecast:** ML models predict item-level demand for the weeks ahead at 97% accuracy. In addition to that, LLM-powered agents scan the signals a spreadsheet never sees - local events, weather, news, reservations, holidays - and adjust the forecast for what's actually happening around each location.\n* **Act:** A set of AI agents run the workflows that actually move the needle on profitability: placing optimized orders, building demand-informed prep sheets, drafting schedules, proactively tracking and flagging waste, reconciling invoices, engineering menus, and more.\n* **Learn:** This industry runs on tribal knowledge. We have built the product as a closed-loop system from day one: every count, correction, and order flows back into the platform as context that our agents carry forward, so Marble learns how each location actually runs, adapts to its patterns automatically, and gets sharper every day.\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=108273&key=user_uploads/1278164/1dd8a396-a754-4277-ad3b-1613bf1d4212)\n\n**Team**\n\nWe’ve been close friends for nearly 10 years, since our freshman year at Michigan, and we're having a blast taking on this industry.\n\nAakar grew up managing the back office for his family's multi-unit quick service restaurants, where he saw the problem up close. He later covered the restaurant sector as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs before leaving to lead growth at an applied-AI startup in healthcare.\n\nArjun is a second-time founder and was previously a Senior Software Engineer at Bloomberg, where he led AI/ML initiatives on the Electronic Trading team. At Bloomberg, he built out complex trading systems that processed tens of millions of dollars daily.\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=108273&key=user_uploads/1278164/2bab9f3a-cca8-4846-8be1-6cf2a4e38dcf)\n\n", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/SAL-marble-the-autonomous-back-of-house-for-restaurants", "votes": 40, "created_at": "2026-07-30T17:31:56.143Z" } ] }, { "id": 32815, "name": "TryNearby", "slug": "trynearby", "former_names": [], "small_logo_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/043d0df2ce658d03b7ad1d70bb0deaa3f2282ea5.png", "website": "https://trynearby.com", "all_locations": "Los Angeles, CA, USA", "long_description": "TryNearby connects local businesses with creators who live nearby. Restaurants subscribe monthly and automatically get booked visits from local creators who film, edit, and post a review to the local algorithm. This creates a steady stream of content that compounds into discovery on TikTok, Instagram, and increasingly AI search. Over 100 restaurants and thousands of creators are on the platform across Southern California, with AI agents handling matching, booking, and every creator conversation.", "one_liner": "Local creators for local businesses", "team_size": 5, "industry": "B2B", "subindustry": "B2B -> Marketing", "launched_at": 1786488480, "tags": [ "Restaurant Tech", "Marketing", "Creator Economy", "SMB" ], "tags_highlighted": [], "top_company": false, "isHiring": true, "nonprofit": false, "batch": "Summer 2026", "status": "Active", "industries": [ "B2B", "Marketing" ], "regions": [ "United States of America", "America / Canada", "Remote", "Partly Remote" ], "stage": "Early", "app_video_public": false, "demo_day_video_public": false, "app_answers": null, "question_answers": null, "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/trynearby", "api": "https://devasheeshg.github.io/yc-api/batches/summer-2026/trynearby.json", "year_founded": 2025, "city": "Los Angeles", "country": "US", "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/trynearby", "x_url": "https://www.x.com/trynearby_", "fb_url": null, "cb_url": null, "github_url": null, "logo_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/043d0df2ce658d03b7ad1d70bb0deaa3f2282ea5.png", "app_video_url": null, "dday_video_url": null, "company_photos": [], "primary_partner": { "name": "Brad Flora", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/people/brad-flora" }, "founders": [ { "user_id": 3490413, "full_name": "Yousef Abdelfattah", "title": "Founder/CEO", "founder_bio": "Co-founded FaZe Clan after starting as a 14 year old YouTuber in 2010. Spent the last 15 years in the creator economy turning FaZe into the first internet-native content company to IPO at $1B. Now building TryNearby; for local creators and businesses.", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/yousef-abdelfattah-b0906b336/", "x_url": "https://x.com/fazeapex", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/52fe637c6c284fe53525e44b365bc3238f135ff9.jpg" }, { "user_id": 426164, "full_name": "Obaida Albaroudi", "title": "Founder/COO", "founder_bio": "Co-Founder at TryNearby. Early Replit employee and former Goldman Sachs. Cofounder of Clipping Exe, one of the first and largest video clipping infrastructures, processing tens of thousands of videos per month.", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/obaida-a-b7b366279", "x_url": "", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/a29f3fda4d88efcf96283b58215738c69a92286c.jpg" }, { "user_id": 2518184, "full_name": "Ahmad Ibrahim", "title": "Founder/CTO", "founder_bio": "Founder at TryNearby. Previously CTO/Cofounder at Clipping Exe, building video clipping infrastructure that scaled to tens of thousands of videos monthly.", "is_active": true, "linkedin_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/ahmibrahim97/", "x_url": "", "avatar_thumb_url": "https://bookface-images.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/avatars/d5b633fb361c59514c234a4c2f456173f7dc26d6.jpg" } ], "jobs": [ { "id": 111232, "title": "Harness Engineer", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/trynearby/jobs/MtlKiOm-harness-engineer", "location": "CA, US", "type": "Full-time", "role": "Engineering", "role_type": "Full stack", "salary_range": "$120K - $150K", "equity_range": "0.25% - 1.00%", "experience": "1+ years", "visa": "US citizen/visa only", "skills": [ "AI Agents" ] }, { "id": 111234, "title": "Founding Operations Lead", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/trynearby/jobs/LUvHWP0-founding-operations-lead", "location": "CA, US", "type": "Full-time", "role": "Operations", "role_type": null, "salary_range": "$100K - $130K", "equity_range": "0.25% - 0.75%", "experience": "Any (new grads ok)", "visa": "US citizen/visa only", "skills": [] }, { "id": 111236, "title": "Founding Sales/Growth Lead", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/trynearby/jobs/Q8SAxNF-founding-sales-growth-lead", "location": "CA, US", "type": "Full-time", "role": "Sales", "role_type": null, "salary_range": "$80K - $120K", "equity_range": "0.10% - 0.50%", "experience": "Any (new grads ok)", "visa": "US citizen/visa only", "skills": [] }, { "id": 111457, "title": "Founding Content Lead", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/trynearby/jobs/696hTHA-founding-content-lead", "location": "CA, US", "type": "Full-time", "role": "Marketing", "role_type": null, "salary_range": "$120K - $150K", "equity_range": "0.25% - 1.00%", "experience": "Any (new grads ok)", "visa": "US citizen/visa only", "skills": [] }, { "id": 111459, "title": "Founding Creator & Community Lead", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/trynearby/jobs/Eoisuz0-founding-creator-community-lead", "location": "CA, US", "type": "Full-time", "role": "Operations", "role_type": null, "salary_range": "$100K - $130K", "equity_range": "0.25% - 0.75%", "experience": "Any (new grads ok)", "visa": "US citizen/visa only", "skills": [] } ], "news": [], "launches": [ { "id": 110956, "title": "TryNearby: Every local business needs to be discoverable. That $150B market is moving toward local creators.", "tagline": "Word of mouth at scale for local restaurants", "body": "Hey everyone,\n\nWe're Yousef, Obaida, and Ahmad, the founders of **TryNearby**.\n\nYousef co-founded FaZe Clan and spent 15 years creating content for 10M+ followers alongside hundreds of other creators. Ahmad and Obaida co-founded one of the first social media clipping companies, building the infrastructure that tracked billions of views across thousands of videos for creator campaigns. We've watched creator content become the most powerful distribution channel on the internet, and we're bringing it to local businesses.\n\n## **TL;DR**\n\n84% of small businesses on TikTok say it helped grow their business. Almost every restaurant owner we meet knows that and has no idea how to act on it.\n\nTryNearby handles it. Every month we send a new group of creators who live nearby to visit, film, and post a review, for a $399 subscription. All of it is handled by us and our AI agents.\n\nToday, 120+ restaurants are subscribed and have had 2,500+ videos posted for them. We nearly doubled one restaurant's revenue in their first month, and owners tell us people walk in every day saying \"we saw you on TikTok.\" Almost half our new restaurants now come from other owners referring us.\n\nOur launch video: \n\n## **The problem**\n\nThere are about 1 million restaurants and cafes in the US. Most of them are invisible in the places people actually decide where to eat.\n\nThe options an owner has today:\n\n* Agencies cost thousands a month and often don’t drive real results\n* Influencers work, but finding the right local ones, negotiating, and doing it again every month is a job by itself\n* Creating their own content is a second full-time job they don't have time for, or a full-time hire they don't have the budget for\n\nAnd here's the thing: _the algorithm doesn't reward a business talking about itself. It rewards people talking about the business._\n\nSo the thing that actually works — someone who lives nearby posting about your food — happens once or twice, or not at all.\n\nAnd the platforms keep rewarding the ones who show up. TikTok's new Local Feed ranks by location and recency, so the restaurants getting fresh content every month reach their own neighborhood. The ones who don't, disappear.\n\n## **The solution**\n\nTryNearby is a subscription that puts local creators inside local restaurants every month, and their followers through the door.\n\n$399/month. Every month we automatically schedule a new group of vetted creators who live nearby. They come in, film, edit, and post. The restaurant just serves the food.\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=110956&key=user_uploads/3490413/7721f4f4-96e4-4a68-b860-841fee782765)\n\n### **Part 1 — They sign up, creators start showing up**\n\nThe moment a restaurant joins, our matching agent finds the creators nearby who fit that spot and sends the invites. Sometimes a creator is scheduled to visit within five minutes of a restaurant signing up. Creators pick their own time from the restaurant's availability. The restaurant doesn't coordinate anything or answer a single message.\n\n### **Part 2 — An AI agent runs every creator relationship**\n\nEvery creator on TryNearby is managed over iMessage by an agent we built. Onboarding, match invites, booking, reminders, reschedules, questions. It handles over 10,000 texts a month.\n\nIt also learns as it goes. Every conversation teaches it more about that creator: what they like to eat, where they'll actually drive, when they're free, what they turn down. That context feeds the matching, so the invites get better the longer someone is on the platform.\n\nFor creators, it's a personal assistant that helps them become better creators while bringing collaborations straight to their iMessage instead of them chasing restaurants.\n\n### **Part 3 — Restaurant owners get their own AI agent to text**\n\nOwners get an assistant in iMessage too. It watches every video, comment, and review, and tells them what's happening: who's visiting this week, how the last video performed, what people are saying. So when a dish sells out the week after a creator posted about it, the owner knows exactly why.\n\nOur team sits behind both agents. Anything either one can't handle gets flagged to us in seconds.\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=110956&key=user_uploads/3490413/5ff964f8-9013-42d7-9617-29d6ccb2164a)\n\n## **Traction**\n\n10 months in:\n\n* 120+ paying restaurants across Southern California\n* 37% month-over-month growth with over 90% monthly restaurant retention since November\n* 2,500+ videos posted by local creators → \\~35M views, almost entirely from people within a few miles\n\nWhat that turned into for the restaurants:\n\n* A restaurant in San Diego nearly doubled revenue in a single month\n* Another had a whole new demographic of customers drive a 50% increase in sales\n* Dishes featured in creator videos hit record sales the following week\n\nEvery single owner tells us the same thing: **people are walking in and saying they saw them on TikTok.**\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=110956&key=user_uploads/3490413/3301e743-2fef-43c4-9138-aaa5631d1eb8)\n\n## **Team**\n\n**Yousef** co-founded FaZe Clan after starting as a 14-year-old YouTuber in 2010. He spent 15 years in the creator economy, built an audience of 10M+ followers and over a billion views, and helped take FaZe public on the Nasdaq at a $1B valuation.\n\n**Ahmad** co-founded one of the first social media clipping companies, where he built the first and largest infrastructure for short-form clipping, tracking 10B+ views across tens of thousands of videos for some of the biggest creators on the internet. UC Berkeley CS, previously a senior engineer at WeightWatchers.\n\n**Obaida** co-founded the clipping company alongside Ahmad. He was an early employee at Replit, previously Goldman Sachs, and grew a consumer app from $360K to $2M ARR in 18 months. Master's in applied economics from Johns Hopkins.\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post&id=110956&key=user_uploads/3490413/031126b7-4cbd-49dc-989f-ef79381b8bd9)\n\nIf you own a restaurant, know an owner who wants more foot traffic, are a local creator, or are just interested in TryNearby, we'd love to talk → 📧 [hello@trynearby.com](https://mailto:hello@trynearby.com)", "url": "https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/Src-trynearby-every-local-business-needs-to-be-discoverable-that-150b-market-is-moving-toward-local-creators", "votes": 50, "created_at": "2026-08-17T18:03:07.676Z" } ] } ]