This Fredericton Startup Hopes To Change How You Dine
FREDERICTON – It may be the epitome of a first world problem.
“Where do you want to eat tonight?”
“I don’t know, does anywhere have any specials on?”
This is usually followed by cruising through Facebook and Google trying to pin down all the possibilities. The problem becomes 100x more annoying when you’re in, say, a new city.
It’s a problem a new Fredericton Startup is hoping to solve.
Featured is an app that will allow restaurants to connect directly with restaurant-goers to feature their specials and deals while collecting data and feedback from their guests. It also aims to offer guests a single access point for information to help them decide where to eat – providing them information on specials around them as well as suggestions for where to go based on the app’s predictive analytics.
The idea came to founder and CEO Matt Nicholson during his years working in serving and management of restaurants.
“We would actually have weekly meeting about what could we do to extend out reach of social media,” Nicholson says. “I actually said to my owner ‘there should be an app’ and I kind of cut myself off.”
He knew he was onto something.
“I just kind of went on from there. This has probably been 3 years in the making and just been assembling a team, we found a developer,” Nicholson says. “Things started falling into place and then we got into Propel ICT.”
Nicholson says Featured will create a one-stop-shop for people’s food and drink needs.
“Basically anything you want to know about restaurants, it’s the place to look. Right now there are Facebook, Twitter, and things like that, but there’s nothing that’s kind of amalgamated into one thing that’s an easy tool to use,” he says. “You can’t just go and find deals, so we are like Expedia where everything is one place.”
Feature will also include a “mood” component, which is basically a restaurant matchmaker.
“It’s almost like a Tinder model. It will show you about 10 pictures and it will be able to decide what mood you’re in,” Nicholson says. “So if it shows you a picture of a beer or wings, or salad or wine, by then end of those 10 pictures our app will suggest a place for you to go based on what your told us.”
Featured plans on releasing its MVP (minimum viable product) within the next two months. Nicholson says they have about 25 establishments signed-up as early adopters in the Fredericton area. He says new features will continue to be added as the app grows.
When the app officially launches in the September, they plan to hit New Brunswick’s three major cities hard, particularly on university campuses. They also plan on launching in Halifax, Montreal, Quebec City and Calgary in the fall as well.
“What we want to have is a community,” Nicholson says. “We want to have a culture that changes the way people go about going out to eat.”
Nicholson says being a part of Propel ICT’s Launch cohort has been beneficial so far, particularly with connecting them in mentors and other entrepreneurs to learn from.
“We have got so much support through this program, literally anything we need help with they are here to help, it is really awesome,” he says. “I would highly recommend people go through this program if they get the chance, it has helped us immensely.”
With the app still in its inception, there’s still a lot to learn. But Nicholson says he’s learned some important things since jumping into he startup world.
“Having the right team in place is probably the biggest thing we have learned. There is always something that can be learned or has to be done. Also learned that they aren’t enough hours in the day” he says.
“We are on the runway going at a good speed, but we should be off the ground soon.”