Pavement is a cloud-based eCommerce platform. We make it easy for anyone to sell food online directly to their community.

For 10 years we were an event production company specializing in immersive design (a boujee way of saying we threw epic parties). Sure, we had some coding chops but it was the peas to our steak, a necessary evil to our main course.

In 2019 we opened our first restaurant alongside our friend and long time food designer, an epic tiki bar serving the best damn Detroit styled pizza you’ve ever had.

Then all hell broke loose.

Four months in we faced our first shutdown. Being the new kid on the block, we needed a strong brand to build a customer base and sure has heck couldn't afford to give away 30% of our profits to Uber Eats.

So we hacked together a solution that allowed us to engage with our customers directly, building a gorgeous guest experience and avoiding third-party apps completely.

We gave it to some friends, who gave it to their friends and before we knew it slinging cocktail bowls and creating good times had been replaced with lines of code and computer screens.

Growing up in hospitality, people have always been our motivation. We cut our teeth in a tight-knit community that has each other's back, where long days and late nights are driven by a passion for creating unforgettable guest experiences.

The look on a customer's face biting into a perfectly cooked steak, a group of strangers forgetting their troubles and dancing to the wee hours of the morn... For us, there's nothing better.

We thought a love for people was behind every business out there. News flash... it ain't.

After the first shutdown it became obvious that big tech was going to make a ton of money off F&B. From jacked up commission fees to expensive websites as useless a submarine in the outback, everywhere we turned was dollars rolling out, nothing coming in.

This was confirmed last year when the big 3 (Uber eats, DoorDash and Just Eat [Grubhub, Skip the Dishes, Menulog]) posted combined profits of 964M while 84% of restaurant owners reported the lowest profits in 4 years. 😢

While big tech has revolutionized industries like retail, it fails in those that demand connection to a hyper-local audience. This failure boils down to a fundamental difference in core values that frankly, we're uncertain can be resolved and even if they could, we aren't sure big tech wants to them to be resolved.

1.THERE GOES THE NEIGHBOURHOOD

Successful restaurant owners know the core of their business starts and ends with their local community. Aside from a few outliers (franchises, ghost kitchens, etc), the majority of a restaurant's customer base comes from within a 20km radius with two thirds of all sales come from repeat customers.

As such, the most influential brands invest as much time engaging their local neighbourhood as they do refining recipes, knowing that that their true product isn't a burger on a grill, but is crafting a shared experience for locals to come together.

In such a hyper local market, global expansion holds very little value. A burger joint in Toronto doesn't care about shipping fries to New York, and while global notoriety can help with influence it vary rarely affects the bottom line.

Similar to the retail giants WalMart, big tech like Uber and DoorDash thrive when the connection between owners and locals is destroyed, replacing individualism and authenticity with generic apps and bland experiences.

It turns a profit by selling a mass produced product at scale, sacrificing quality and personality for convenience. When successful this model generates incredible wealth for its CEOs and investors, but does so at the cost of local community.

The effect of third party apps on our neighbourhoods is no different than that of big box stores. By silencing owners' creativity they erode a key part of what makes our local neighbourhoods exceptional, reducing an artists craft down to lukewarm food in a box, denying people of connection that so deeply enriches our lives.

2. GIVE ME REAL, LEAVE THE FAKE

Chefs earn their way to ownership by washing dishes and slogging it out on the line. As a result they have a deep-rooted understanding of where they came from breeding a culture madly in love with authenticity.

From the secret rib joint on the outskirts of town to the little Italian place ran down the alley, the industry has turned its back on pomp and bluster understanding that small authentic experiences enrich their local audience so much more.

This love of authenticity plays out on every level of business valuing the reliability of local suppliers who deliver on their promises over flash in the pan concepts. They're not inspired by world-changing, earth-shattering solutions; they simply want tools that enable them to connect with their local community.

3. MORE MONEY, MORE PROBLEMS.

But the most glaring disconnect is tech's unrelenting obsession for money over people.

Owning a restaurant is a terrible idea. A high rate of failure, miniscule profit margins, a horrible work life balance and the third biggest burnout rate across all industries. It's not cash that motivates chefs to own, but a love of people and a deep seated passion for their craft that keeps them coming back for more.

None of this is more evident than in their response to the pandemic.

When things got bad most of our industry mates stopped drawing pay checks to ensure their staff could afford rent. They hit pause on expansion to keep prices low for their customers and helped each other out when the supply chain went to hell. Even now being hammered by inflation, they feel the need to post a 4 page apology for the slightest price increase.

ET PHONES HOME.

For us the love of people is the only motivating factor to running a business. Accidentally falling into an industry we don't belong feels like being the dude in a Hawaiian shirt at a black tie event. 

The challenge of reinventing ourselves, grappling major imposter syndrome and navigating mental health after three years of in front of screens (😬😬) has taken its toll. But the truth is, we're just a small business in the north end of smoggy Hamilton having a whinge. It's been a tough three years for anyone running a business and we're just griping along with ya. 

ALL HAIL THE ALMIGHTY DOLLAR

At its core, tech worships globalization, hype and cold hard cash. It salutes tight suits and seven-figure salaries in the endless pursuit of being a unicorn 🦄.

Global solutions don't solve local problems and until big tech figures this out, it will continue to fail industries that require community engagement and authenticity.

THE FUTURE IS TASTY.

It’s been a year and a half since we released V2 and despite all our whinging, the fruit of our hard yakka has finally started to show.

60% percent of our vendors no longer use third-party apps, 90% trimmed their dependence on them by a third and the average direct-to-consumer sale increased by 150%. Heck, each of our top 10 vendors each just hit $1M in sales through the platform. Bazinga.

While this is peanuts in comparison to the big guys, the fact a tiny company from the middle of nowhere has made the smallest scratch in the armour of big tech really gets our mojo going.

THE END IS NOT NEAR.

Once a year we get together with a bunch of local chefs on a farm to eat, cook, drink and chat about flavour and passion. Sitting there last week on a cold drizzly Canadian night, discussing issues like homelessness in our city, how to reduce cost of living and Europe's epic metal scene we were finally home.

We don't know if it's possible to make it in tech when your core is hospitality, but hot damn we're still gonna give it a go. We may not own a black tie, but Hawaiian shirts are bloody awesome and we've got no intention of taking ours off.

For the past 8 months we've been partnering with vendors on pilot programs built to engage their local communities. From extended range delivery to a hush hush customer facing app that drives traffic to order direct from locals. Its been fun and we can't wait to show it to ya.

To all those who have stood by us post-pandemic, we want to say a massive thank you. Your support in helping us build a community-focused platform means more to us than you can imagine.  We're excited to continue this journey with you and can't wait to dance.

This is not the end... just the beginning.

In contrast, big tech celebrates the hype from the top down. It's one big love affair with bullcrappery over substance, rewarding big talk and big egos with cash bonuses and prime seats at fireside chats. This is shown time and time again, from WeWork to Theranos, Musk to Bankman-Fried, selling us a revolution but delivering nothing but cheese puffs.

This systemic culture of hype comes from its people.

From higher ups talking about a product release as if they're reversing climate change (seriously dude... its just a calendar app). To the almighty developers who swing their elongated technical prowess like a god, blaming substandard work and missed deadlines on anyone but themselves (it's the project managers fault right?). To employees expecting 6 figure salaries on an internship, whinging constantly about their workload while earning more than 80% of the country.

The fact is, big tech is still pretending to be outcasts hacking away in the basement when in reality they're the oil tycoons of our age. Until they understand authenticity is more than sponsoring marginalized communities for a tax break, they'll continue to fail industries that require substance.

Compare this to big tech where the smallest dip in revenue prompted massive price hikes and employee layoffs faster than a chook on a barbie. A few minutes of ugly crying on zoom and they were celebrated as fiscally responsible leaders keeping money safe in the pockets of their share holders. 

The Future is Tasty.

The Pavement Crew.

A group that just wants to dance.