Dave Mcclure writes about a possible technology revolution in the restaurant industry:
Well, I hope I’ve enlightend you and piqued your imagination about the opportunity to make an everyday experience like eating MUCH better via the use of technology and online menus. Note that the current incumbents are ill-equipped to provide most of this innovation – they are big, dumb, old DINOSAURS, much like the newspaper, music, and movie businesses which are getting disrupted as we speak. Yet nobody seems to notice we spend as much or more money on food as any of those other things, and current food technology blows. We can make this a LOT better, and very quickly.
As mentioned above, this is a HUGE market. Everyone eats, 1-3x per day, and many of us eat out at least weekly if not daily. We spend untold amounts of time waiting, waiting, waiting.. to execute a very inefficient and highly unsatisfactory ordering experience, when it could be an absolutely wonderful, amazing, and AWESOME experience – which is what eating food with friends & family should be in the first place. FOOD should be Awesome.
As some of the commenters on YC:HN have pointed out, Dave’s presented point of view is extremely narrow to the point that it’s almost laughable.
I do think that there are some core points brought up in his conclusion that might be overlooked by the meandering mess that is the rest of the article. So much of the startup scene in the San Francisco bay area is focused on completely digital things, or the hardware running those completely digital things. It might not be as flashy or easy as some of the more popular options, but applying modern technology and programming to the more traditional entrepreneurial ventures has the potential to not only build new empires, but to revolutionize an industry.
I think Dave’s done a great job putting his money where his mouth is by investing in companies that provide technology or tech related services to existing restaurants, but I would suggest going even further and finding a team of capable individuals to be start up the new era of restaurants. It’s not enough just to complain that all the old dinosaurs don’t understand. Be the one willing to take the risk and try to beat them at their own game with the new technology. At the very worst, you get a book deal to tell the tale of how you tried to take on the top dogs and failed despite the new tech, inspiring others to fight the fight against stagnant incumbents.