Friends of Branded!

Happy Saturday, and I hope you had a great week.

Mark Cuban’s message to young hustlers – learn and master AI! In an article for Forbes this week, Mr. Cuban went on to emphasize that AI will be a baseline skill like e-mail or Excel in 5-years and that entrepreneurs should embrace it or get left behind.

On a recent episode of the Hospitality Hangout podcast, Schatzy said if he another kid (he has three adult children), he was going to name the child “AI Schatzberg” which he felt would all but guaranty financial success for his progeny.

There is no question that AI is not only dominating the headlines, but with almost two-thirds of all US venture funding going to AI companies in the first half of 2025, they’re also doing pretty well in the category of attracting investment capital as well!

For avoidance of any doubt, Branded has enthusiastically jumped embraced AI and we’re thrilled to have partnered with the good people at ARI Venture Studio (the only venture studio exclusively focused on AI-solutions for restaurants) and we’re supporting our portfolio companies that are embracing AI for their respective platforms).

AI-solutions, however, while critically important and timely, isn’t the focus of this week’s Top of the Fold. It’s been the KISS theory (Keep It Simple Schatzy) that’s been on my mind and maybe it’s b/c of the understandable euphoria for AI that’s put me in that (New York) state of mind (that’s for you JB, and it’s nice to bring you back into the Fold).

I was reading this week about DoorDash and a reminder of how four Stanford University students made a pitch to Y Combinator in 2013 with a fairly basic idea – help restaurants deliver food. Their value proposition: restaurants want to deliver, customers want delivery, DoorDash will connect them (I want to give a thank you to Jordan Lio and his LinkedIn post that reminded me of this story and that simple & in-your-face ideas can be incredibly important and wildly valuable).

DoorDash wasn’t the first food delivery company in the US, but today they rank as the largest by food delivery market share.

Being first has its benefits and that includes of course early-attention and market share. The first movers get to set standards, are loved by early-adopters and are afforded the opportunity to attract and influence investors. But being first doesn’t translate to being a winner (even if it sometimes can feel that way). Being first most certainly gives you the opportunity to win, but being better is what matters more and I’m specifically talking about executing better (as opposed to executing earlier).

Peter Drucker, the Austrian American management consultant and educator, famously said, “culture eats strategy for breakfast,” but in the world of technology, the spin on Mr. Drucker’s famous saying is that “execution eats strategy for breakfast.” Big ideas are plentiful, but success is found among those who can execute.

In the world of restaurants, where operations are complex and margins are thin, execution is everything. Sorry, not sorry, but operators don’t give a damn about who came first, they care about what works when they open the doors to their guests. We’ve seen this time and time again and several friends and partners of Branded have proved this by establishing themselves as the market leaders in their respective domains.

Operators want tech that works, and they love tech that works better and solves real pain points and friction.

I can’t tell you (but I will try) how many investors have been critical of ResTech companies that have been built to be better than the existing platforms but are shunned and passed on for investment b/c they’re assumed to be too late, or the space is too crowded.

An investing veteran once said to me that in venture, ”being wrong and too early is the same thing.” He’s 100% correct! As I work with emerging technology companies that are penetrating the market and winning by being better than the incumbents, it reaffirms my conviction that speed to market, in the world of hospitality, is irrelevant and it’s the ones who execute better and respect the chaos of hospitality that win.

I’ve got uber respect for innovators and those that create, but the winnings don’t go to the first movers or the ones who invent a category, they go to the ones who perfect the category (and the bar isn’t set at perfection, it’s set at being better than your competitors). We’re an industry where we don’t let perfection be the enemy of good enough. We want reliable, we want companies that listen to us (operators) and that want to hear what’s keeping us up at night (just ask us, we’ll tell you).

ResTech companies, if you build for operators and help them address their challenges and take care of their guests, you will win!

While I’ve been focused on technology here, being better as opposed to being first holds true for restaurants and brands as well.

Just as being first doesn’t protect ResTech companies, being first doesn’t protect restaurant companies in their respective domain. I’ll go further and argue that it’s often the second movers who are afforded the opportunity to study the landscape, simplify the menu, sharpen the operations and do it better.

I think what I’m trying to say that there’s Room for Seconds (see what I did there GM 😊) and that includes and isn’t limited to those who come later, those who have second acts (or third and even fourth ones) and those who don’t necessarily create the new, but deliver & execute better than those that came before them.

My brother-from-another-mother, my personal Mr. Wolf, told me that if you’re standing still, you’re falling behind. There are many reasons why people and companies become complacent, stop innovating and stop moving forward. It happens to some of the best of them! But regardless of the reason, it happens and that’s why the opportunity to disrupt the status quo is so wonderfully available and why the game never ends and is always changing.

But you don’t need to be new. You need to be better!

It takes a village.

The FIRST shoutout goes to our partners at Foodbuy, a national procurement leader with more than $35 billion in managed spend.

This week Navigator Group Purchasing, Inc., a Managed Health Care Associates, Inc. Company, and the largest and most experienced full-service GPO exclusively focused on senior living, announced it has extended its strategic partnership with Foodbuy.

This renewed partnership strengthens Navigator's mission to help people age with grace and helps its members achieve both their resident care goals and financial outcomes. Navigator members will continue to receive best-in-class pricing and benefit from tailored analytics for smarter purchasing, culinary consulting to enhance resident satisfaction and comprehensive programs supporting operational excellence. Members also gain insights into emerging trends to help stay ahead of the market.

The Branded team had the privilege of collaborating with the good people at Foodbuy at the Influencer Row out at INFORMA’s Restaurant Leadership Conference this past year. These are some of the very people to work with and they care deeply about their customers and the success of operators.

You can checkout the podcast we did with Mr. Mike Barbier, VP of Client Solutions at Foodbuy here: Unlocking the Power of Group Purchasing

The SECOND shoutout goes to our partners at MarginEdge and its partnership with FIXE, a bookkeeping and accounting service for restaurants.

Clients of FIXE will migrate to the MarginEdge platform, which offers features such as automation, AI-driven forecasting, daily financial insights and improved reporting functionalities.

MarginEdge has been selected as FIXE’s preferred system for restaurant management, particularly for invoice processing, inventory management, recipe management and food-costing.

As an operator-centric investment platform, Branded loves how MarginEdge empowers restaurants with a holistic software solution, that’s delivered with the same exceptional service that restaurants provide to their guests (see what I did there Bo 😊).

Many of Branded’s ResTech portfolio companies are led by restaurant people and that’s absolutely the case when it comes to MarginEdge. They’re a software platform for restaurant people, by restaurant people.

We love that!

The THIRD and final shoutout this week goes to our partners at Copia and our favorite place for cheesecake, that also just happens to operate about 350 full-service restaurants with over 250 menu items (😊), The Cheesecake Factory.

The Cheesecake Factory has partnered with Copia, the markets leading B2B SaaS company specializing in waste reduction and redistribution, to help power its Nourish Program.

Food donations to those in need, you’d hope would be an easy and obvious solution to reducing food waste, but such not the case. Not all food can be easily donated due to health and safety reasons, and it can prove challenging to transport the food to where it needs to go before it spoils. That's where tech comes in handy and the partnership between The Cheesecake Factory and Copia, the market’s zero food waste platform and app, that easily connects non-profits with the food donations available. Copia’s app is also used for scheduling on-demand pickups, so the leftovers aren't sitting around.

Through this partnership, The Cheesecake Factory has significantly increased its food donations and reduced food waste.

Cheers to The Cheesecake Factory and to Copia for doing what they do to combat food waste effectively and to have created a food donation program that ensures its leftover food reaches the right channels.

Branded invites readers of the H^2 that are interested in learning more about our portfolio companies, and investment strategies to be part of our Access Hospitality Network.

This week on Hospitality Hangout, we kick off Season 14 with a powerhouse guest: Heather Neary, President & CEO of Taco John’s International. Heather brings bold insights and strategic wisdom to the mic, sharing how she’s helping shape the future of hospitality—from scaling legacy brands to leading with innovation in an ever-changing industry. This episode dives into digital hospitality, brand growth, leadership, and what's next for Taco John’s.

Whether you're building a brand, investing in the space, or just love staying ahead of the trends, this conversation is full of takeaways you won’t want to miss. Tune in for expert strategies, emerging market insights, and a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to lead in the modern hospitality world.

Listen on Spotify:

Listen on Apple Podcasts:

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In today’s rapidly evolving hospitality landscape, the restaurant industry stands at a crucial crossroads. Operators are being asked to do more with less, manage labor shortages, rising food costs, complex compliance issues, and demanding guest expectations, often while operating on razor-thin margins. In this environment, supporting technology is no longer a “nice to have”; it is a must-have.

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Chef Massimo Bottura, one of the world’s most celebrated culinary minds, was in the kitchen when his pastry chef dropped a flawless lemon tart. It splattered everywhere. But instead of tossing it, Bottura leaned in and said, “Let’s serve it… exactly like that.” They gave it a name: "Oops! I Dropped the Lemon Tart." And just like that, a kitchen accident became a Michelin-starred masterpiece.

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The first time I truly saw it was during a Saturday night dinner rush at a family-run spot in Red Deer. The place was packed tight, the ticket printer was spitting orders like a slot machine, and the chef on the grill, Jay moved like he’d been born for this. He barked temperatures, flipped burgers without looking, slid garnishes onto plates with the same hand that was stirring a sauce. Around him, the team was starting to fray under the weight of the rush. But Jay? He was calm, quick, almost joyful in the middle of it.

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As with any digital ad campaign, the important thing is to reach streaming audiences who will convert. Roku’s self-service Ads Manager stands ready with powerful segmentation and targeting — plus creative upscaling tools that transform existing assets into CTV-ready video ads. Bonus: we’re gifting you $5K in ad credits when you spend your first $5K on Roku Ads Manager. Just sign up and use code GET5K. Terms apply.

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By: David Meltzer

Most people treat problems like roadblocks—something to avoid, minimize, or stress over. But what if the problem isn’t the problem? What if the way we think about the problem is the real limitation?

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That’s it for today!

See you next week, same bat-time, same bat-channel.

It takes a village!

Jimmy Frischling

Branded Hospitality Ventures

[email protected]

235 Park Ave South, 4th Fl | New York, NY 10003

Branded Hospitality Ventures ("Branded") is an investment and solutions platform at the intersection of foodservice, technology, innovation and capital. As experienced hospitality owners and operators, Branded brings value to its partners through investment, strategic counsel, and its deep industry expertise and connections.

Learn more about Branded here: Branded At-A-Glance