I built a restaurant inventory system after seeing the same problem in my wife's family business. Now I'm stuck at 0 users.
I didn't plan to build software for restaurants.
It started because I kept seeing the same problem in my wife's family business.
Inventory was always slightly wrong — never broken enough to notice immediately, but always bad enough to lose money over time.
Every week:
- Running out of ingredients mid-service
- Over-ordering and wasting food
- Manual stock counts that took hours
- Discovering issues days later, when it was already too late
Nothing looked broken on the surface.
But everything was just out of sync enough to hurt operations.
The Real Problem
Most tools focus on tracking inventory.
But in restaurants, the problem isn't tracking — it's reality changing faster than the system.
During service:
- Things move constantly
- Staff don't have time for extra steps
- Spreadsheets and POS exports are always delayed
So even if the numbers look correct, they're often already outdated.
What I Noticed Beyond Inventory
Another thing we struggled with was visibility into profit over time.
At the end of a season, we could see revenue — but we never really knew where the profit went.
Was it:
- Waste?
- Over-ordering?
- Pricing issues?
- Inefficiencies in operations?
It was never clear. Everything was mixed together.
What I Built
I started with one simple idea:
Instead of trying to maintain a perfect stock number, track every change as it happens.
Inventory becomes a history of events:
- Deliveries in
- Ingredients used in prep
- Sales deductions
- Waste and spoilage
This means you can always reconstruct what actually happened — not just see a snapshot that might already be wrong.
I also paired it with a kitchen display system so inventory and kitchen flow stay connected in real time.
Early Results
We tested it in a few restaurants in the family network.
What changed:
✅ Food waste dropped ~12–18%
✅ Stock counts: hours → under an hour
✅ Fewer "we just ran out" surprises during service
Nothing magical — just better visibility during the day instead of after it.
Where I'm At Now
I'm a software engineer (DevOps / platform background), so building the product hasn't been the hard part.
The system works in real environments.
But I built it originally to solve a problem — not to create a product.
Only later did it become clear it could be useful beyond the original context.
Current status:
- Full product built (web + desktop)
- Landing page + docs ready
- ~40 visitors/week
- 0 paying customers outside people I know
The Real Problem I'm Stuck On
I can build systems and understand workflows well.
But I'm struggling with something else entirely: distribution.
I'm not sure how to properly reach restaurant owners.
My current thinking:
- Cold outreach
- Short demo videos
- Free onboarding calls
But I don't know if this is actually how this market is reached.
Restaurants aren't very online-first, and traditional SaaS playbooks might not apply the same way here.
Lessons So Far
What I've learned building this:
- Real workflows matter more than features
- If software slows people down during service, it won't get used
- Spreadsheets survive because they're fast, not because they're good
- Building the product is easier than getting it into users' hands
- Visibility matters as much as tracking
What I'm Trying to Figure Out
If you've built or sold software into offline industries (restaurants, retail, hospitality, construction, etc.):
How did you get your first real customers?
Did you rely on:
- In-person visits?
- Partnerships?
- Cold outreach?
- Something completely different?
Right now it feels like I built something useful — but I'm not in front of the right people.
If you've been through this, I'd really appreciate your perspective 🙏
Happy to share more details if helpful.
I know how challenging distribution can be, especially for niche markets. I actually know a few founders or sales leaders in offline industries who would probably be happy to answer your questions on how they got their first customers.
That’s a common spot to be in, you solved a real problem, but getting the first users is a different challenge. Start by going back to where the problem came from: talk to a few local restaurants, show them a quick demo, and offer to set it up for free or at a very low cost just to get feedback and real usage. Focus on one clear benefit—like saving time or reducing waste, instead of trying to sell everything at once. Even a couple of early users can give you testimonials and help you improve the product. It’s a bit like how a cookout allergen menu adds value, restaurants don’t think about it until they see how clearly it helps customers understand ingredients and make safer choices; once they see the benefit, it becomes something they actually want to use. Same idea here: show the value in action, and users will follow.
https://cookoutmenu.net/cookout-allergen-menu
I think the right approach for me is to keep it simple and test both:
I’ll probably offer it free to the first couple of places in exchange for feedback and real usage, just to learn what actually works.
One thing I’m a bit unsure about - I have the impression that my local restaurants don’t seem very open to new tools in general and often the person on-site isn’t the one who can make decisions.
Any idea what tends to work best to get past it?
This is a classic “offline market” problem.
Restaurants don’t adopt from content or traffic — they adopt from trust + proximity.
The fact that it already works in real kitchens is your biggest advantage.
If I were you, I’d ignore scale for now and do something simple:
walk into 10–15 similar restaurants nearby and show a 2–3 min demo on the spot.
In this market, 1 strong in-person user > 100 website visitors.
Once you get a few, word-of-mouth inside that local network can kick in.
That “trust + proximity” point makes sense, especially in this market.
I think my challenge is that I’m not naturally sales-driven, so walking in and pitching isn’t something I’m strong at. With all that online market now there should be a more modern/natural way to achieve that even if its slower.
I’m thinking more about targeted outreach to start conversations and only going in-person once there’s interest.
Can this work or face-to-face is almost unavoidable early on ?
You can try online — but in this market it’s usually a slower, harder path.
Not because online doesn’t work, but because restaurant owners don’t respond to cold messages unless there’s already trust.
Face-to-face isn’t about being “salesy” — it’s just about reducing friction.
You’re not pitching, you’re showing:
“this is what’s already working in a kitchen like yours”
That’s a very different dynamic.
If walking in feels uncomfortable, a middle ground that works well:
→ go during non-rush hours
→ ask for 2 minutes, not a meeting
→ show one specific problem (e.g. stock mismatch → loss)
→ leave
No pressure, no pitch.
The goal early isn’t scale — it’s getting 2–3 real users who trust you.
After that, then online starts working much better.
The “2 minutes” approach feels much more realistic for me.
I’ll probably test that alongside targeted outreach and see which one actually gets traction first. I’m also considering things like partnerships or bringing in someone stronger on sales—but I think I need a few real users first before that makes sense.
Appreciate the advice.
Yeah — I think you’re overthinking the “sales” part.
In this case, walking in isn’t sales — it’s just shortening the feedback loop.
Online = wait → maybe reply → maybe call → maybe demo
In-person = 2 mins → yes / no → done
You don’t need to be good at selling — you just need to show:
“this is already working in a kitchen like yours”
That alone carries most of it.
I’d honestly run 5–10 quick in-person tries first — just to see real reactions.
That’ll teach you more than any outreach.
I think you are right - I am overthinking this, probably because I don’t have experience with it yet and it doesn’t feel natural.
But if i approach it more casually, it may work, so there’s not much to lose anyway :)
Appreciate the perspective
Yeah exactly — the feedback loop point clicked.
I’ll run a few quick in-person tries first just to see real reactions, then layer outreach on top of that.
Appreciate you pushing me on this 👍