The Restaurant Business with Wink Jones, CEO of Meal Ticket

Hospitable

An inspiring conversation with Wink Jones, CEO and founding member of Meal Ticket. Since its launch in 2011, Meal Ticket has been transforming the food service industry with cutting-edge technology.

Wink takes us on his journey from starting in a small garage to leading a company that processes billions in sales data. He shares the challenges and rewards of building relationships in the food tech space, highlights the value of face-to-face interactions, and explains how Meal Ticket uses data to empower restaurants and distributors.

We explore the current state of hospitality technology, the growing influence of AI, and emerging trends to watch as we approach 2025. Wink also offers actionable advice for aspiring entrepreneurs, emphasizing the importance of financial awareness and perseverance in achieving success.

Whether you're part of the hospitality industry or curious about how technology is reshaping food service, this episode is filled with insights and inspiration you won’t want to miss!

Audio Timestamps.

[00:01:43] Distributor data mining for marketing.

[00:08:11] Relationship first in technology.

[00:10:41] Data ownership and management.

[00:11:47] Human to human relationships.

[00:16:20] Building relationships in business.

[00:20:28] Travel's impact on business perspective.

[00:25:19] AI's impact on the restaurant industry.

[00:26:31] AI in operational efficiency.

[00:30:35] Startup challenges and serendipity.

[00:33:49] Serendipitous luck in entrepreneurship.

[00:36:16] Guest suggestions and topics.

Quotes
00:01:20 - "I think it's really hard to engage in a partnership or do something really strategic unless you've sat down at dinner together."
00:04:22 - "We got like crazy click rates, and then they sold out in like two hours."
00:05:40 - "The fun and challenging thing about food tech is that I think we're behind the technology curve as an industry in general."
00:08:59 - "What we do want to do is help them stay in business. We want them to be smarter."
00:12:24 - "But the way that we treat data, the sanctity that we treat data with, it's one of our core values is that your data is your data."
00:12:30 - "Data does tell a story. They could tell us the right story, but we have to put it in a way to make that story accessible, understandable, and usable."
00:16:45 - "I think it's really hard to engage in a partnership or do something really strategic unless you've sat down at dinner together."
00:18:24 - "Technology is only as good as the people that are using it, right?"
00:22:03 - "I didn't expect what I experienced there."
00:25:01 - "We have to make sure that what we're providing isn't just a nice to have, but it actually is saving them money and helping them stay in business."
00:27:12 - "I don't think anybody wants to sit at a bar and be served by a robot yet."
00:28:14 - "I'd like to say in a cheeky way that we've been using AI since AI was cool."
00:32:43 - "You can't underestimate the amount of work that goes in and the amount of serendipity that is responsible for success."
00:34:24 - "Just be careful about taking on financing and you're married to your investors."
00:36:25 - "It's really easy to get lost in the here and now and not the full picture."

Connect
Meal Ticket: https://www.mealticket.com/
Wink Jones:https://www.linkedin.com/in/wink-jones-ba58b0/
Omniboost: https://omniboost.io/
Rob Napoli: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robnap/
Rob Napoli: https://www.robnapoli.com/

Show Produced by: Niranjan Deshpande (Nick), Broken Frames Studio, www.brokenframesstudio.com