00:00:00:03 - 00:00:03:12
Rob Napoli
Very fun guest we had a great pre-show conversation joking around.
00:00:03:12 - 00:00:09:06
Maximilian Huber
Great introduction. I'd love to hear that. And you really did your research.
00:00:09:08 - 00:00:19:18
Rob Napoli
Most of I think I'm a little bit like an American gunslinger, and I kind of shoot from the hip, but I do a little prep. You kind of got wrangled into working at a hotel. Tell us a little bit why?
00:00:19:20 - 00:00:35:18
Maximilian Huber
I literally grew up in the hotel. So maybe lying next to the front desk, growing up in the hotel, and I never wanted to work in the hotel, moved more and more into the background, working just, with gastronovi
00:00:35:20 - 00:00:50:20
Rob Napoli
It's funny, because you literally started at the front desk as a baby and worked and then just kept scaling back the fading into the background. There's a lot of amazing technology, and there's a lot of technology you could build for this space. But does it help frontline workers be better?
00:00:50:22 - 00:01:06:17
Maximilian Huber
Let's say hospitality is getting more and more complex. Throughout the years, we want you to keep the chefs cooking and, the waiters serving and the hosts being the hosts of the, restaurant. And that's what keeps us moving.
00:01:06:19 - 00:01:21:07
Rob Napoli
Keeping the human element of what we do. Letting them do their job well, be in the present, because that makes a big difference. When you go to your website, it talks about digitization for all gastronomy concepts. And it's really hard to build an all in one platform.
00:01:21:09 - 00:01:28:12
Maximilian Huber
Yeah, it's complex. You can burn your fingers quite fast. We implement damn good processes in this is the world.
00:01:28:17 - 00:01:43:05
Rob Napoli
Of what do you mean by digitization of all concepts, right? Whether it's a food track, a bar or restaurant. Anyone could build software. But building software that matters is different.
00:01:43:07 - 00:02:11:09
Rob Napoli
Hey, how are we doing? We are back for another episode of hospitable. I'm your host, Rob Napoli. Today I am joined by, very fun guest. We had a great pre-show conversation joking around. And my guest today is Max Huber, who is an integration specialist at gastronovi. So Max grew up in the hotel industry, was trained in a very upscale hotel in the south of Bavaria, which is beautiful country.
00:02:11:09 - 00:02:32:14
Rob Napoli
I got to spend a little bit of time traveling Bavaria, living in Italy, so ate a lot of good food and, obviously strong beers. And his, path has taken him from working in the front line of hotels into being on the tech side and integration specialist at one of Germany's biggest point of sale companies, gastronovi
00:02:32:16 - 00:02:36:13
Rob Napoli
Max welcome to the show, my friend. Excited to have you here today.
00:02:36:15 - 00:02:45:01
Maximilian Huber
Hi, Rob. Thanks for having me. But of course, that was a great introduction. I'd love to hear that. And you really did your research.
00:02:45:03 - 00:03:00:20
Rob Napoli
I try most of think I'm a little bit like an American gunslinger. And I kind of shoot from the hip, but I do a little prep in, like, like to make sure I'm really getting rolling. But, Max, I'm really excited to have you on the show, and we had a little fun pre-show conversation.
00:03:00:20 - 00:03:22:13
Rob Napoli
As you and I have not got to directly work together much as you work mostly with my team, with some of my team in the Omniboost team MJ and Casper from the technical side. And so you know really excited to chat a little bit as we've been doing some cool stuff together. But this podcast is all about you know making hospitality more human through technology is something that I know.
00:03:22:15 - 00:03:39:22
Rob Napoli
You believe in as, you know, former hotel worker, which we'll talk about here in a second to, the mission of gastronovi. So we're really excited to have you here. But before we dive into the topic, you know, you I said in the intro we were talking for pre show that, you kind of got wrangled into working at a hotel.
00:03:39:22 - 00:03:44:05
Rob Napoli
Tell us a little bit why and how you grew up in the hotel industry.
00:03:44:07 - 00:04:11:19
Maximilian Huber
Yes. That was, quite a fun story, to be honest. Because I literally grew up in the hotel, so, like, baby lying next to the front desk, growing up in the hotel, and I never wanted to work in the hotel. My, my parents owned a hotel, in very close to Munich, and I never wanted to work in here always work with other gastronomical concepts.
00:04:11:19 - 00:04:41:01
Maximilian Huber
So I worked in a restaurant eight kilometers away. So right around the corner. But, they wanted to work in their hotel, and, Yeah. How the tables turn. You end up in the hotel. So, I was working, I did my apprenticeship. That's what it's called in Germany, in a very high luxury five star hotel, in the south of Munich, between the Alps.
00:04:41:03 - 00:05:18:10
Maximilian Huber
Very magnificent. But, yeah old school, to be honest. And then I moved further, to Munich and started to work, with their hotel, but then very quickly realized they wanted to, move more around, see a little bit of the world, but with, motel one, for example, one of the, the biggest, hotel groups we have in Germany and, to also have one of the hotels in New York, if you ever have to you as we.
00:05:18:12 - 00:05:47:04
Maximilian Huber
Yeah. Fled and then, yeah, moved more and more into the background that, controlling and, we have a very, unique hotel group from Germany, and now I'm even more in the background working with gastronovi as a tech developer, software developer, for the hospitality
00:05:47:06 - 00:05:56:08
Rob Napoli
That's funny, because you literally started at the front desk as a baby and worked and then just kept scaling back, fading into the background.
00:05:56:10 - 00:06:01:01
Maximilian Huber
Yeah, I didn't work my way up, but worked, behind the scenes.
00:06:01:03 - 00:06:25:05
Rob Napoli
Well, I think that's cool that because. Right, is, you know, in your role as an integration specialist, you know, developing, working with partners, working with customers, there's a sense of understanding the product, right and understanding what it means for the front line. Having worked in the front line, developing products for things that maybe you hated doing when you are, working in a hotel or a restaurant.
00:06:25:05 - 00:06:47:18
Rob Napoli
Right. And so I think this is where it becomes very unique, having grown up in the hotel industry. And so that's really cool and I think it's, you know, when we talk about this the technology industry, especially hotel tech or hospitality tech or food tech, depending on where you want to place, you know where gastronovi sits, which is a little bit of all
00:06:47:20 - 00:07:10:11
Rob Napoli
I think gastronovi at its core, food tech. But when you look at it, you fitted in hospitality, tech space. As good as it's the evolution of the company has grown is there's a lot of amazing technology and there's a lot of technology you could build for this space. But does it help frontline workers be better?
00:07:10:13 - 00:07:28:13
Rob Napoli
Does it help, you know, store managers or restaurant managers make better decisions on how to manage their teams? Does it make the servers better on being able to give better table service? You know, when you go into a restaurant, when you walk in, whether it's quick service or sit down and you go in for a very specific experience, yes, you're going in for the food.
00:07:28:15 - 00:07:49:01
Rob Napoli
Yes, you're going in to fill a need, satisfy your hunger, but you're walking in there for an experience you know, you walk into. I always like to use an example here. And in the States, Chipotle, you walk in Chipotle because you can see them cooking in the back. You can smell it, you can hear it. It's quick to get to the line and you're going to get a same taste, look and feel at any Chipotle.
00:07:49:03 - 00:08:00:13
Rob Napoli
And you're always going to have that that experience. All of the you hear the chicken sizzling on the grill behind you. You see all the food. They're like, you just know what you're walking into. And that is what it's all about, right?
00:08:00:15 - 00:08:54:03
Maximilian Huber
Yeah. And yes, let's say hospitality is getting more and more complex, throughout the years. So when I did my apprenticeship, I worked in, five star michelin restaurants, a very high level service. And we did everything by hand. We wrote every note by hand, every bill by hand. We had, a POS system, but, that was not really point of sales because that system was standing way back, somewhere between the, the coffee, machine and fridge because we did everything by hand, literally and yet then, a lot of regulations came in and, the whole system got more complex.
00:08:54:03 - 00:09:19:17
Maximilian Huber
And now when you step in, in a restaurant as, something, you have to fill out this, form, you have, we see, waiters, some sometimes look like cowboys with, holsters for everything and you can apply for that one and back for, for the payment terminal. And then you cut your pouch, and it looks horrible.
00:09:19:19 - 00:09:39:07
Maximilian Huber
Yeah. And it takes time. And, that's the thing we want to improve, with gastronovi we want to you to keep the, the chef's cooking and, the waiters serving and the hosts being the hosts of the, restaurant and that's what keeps us moving
00:09:39:09 - 00:09:59:03
Rob Napoli
Yeah letting the keeping the human element of what we do, letting them do their job well, be in the present, because that makes a big difference, at that level. And it's kind of funny you talk about, you know, waiters with other holsters. They've got handhelds and different things like I think about in know in the States we used to have.
00:09:59:05 - 00:10:23:06
Rob Napoli
I'm old enough to still remember this. The Sonic drive ins by the old, drive in. So they had the little change on the belt that it's like, you know, you give them a 20 and it's like 12.50. It's like, you know, kind of it kind of reminds of those days, but I, you know, when I moved to Europe back in 2015, that was the first time when I paid for something with a credit card.
00:10:23:06 - 00:10:37:20
Rob Napoli
They came in. I paid for it at the table because, you know, kind of say it's they take it out, you put it in the slip and they take it away. And now it's really common to just walk up. You tap and you go and it makes it really easy. And so I think there's a time and a place for all those things.
00:10:37:20 - 00:10:59:00
Rob Napoli
But how do you engage with those devices? How do you leverage them to make the payment to create a seamless process? You know, especially if you think of more fine dining. I don't necessarily like you standing there with a handheld sitting, waiting for me to give you a tip. I want to write it down, walk away so you can come over and see it, and you're not feeling expectant and there's no expectation.
00:10:59:00 - 00:11:20:14
Rob Napoli
It's more natural. Yeah. So those are things. And I think you highlighted that with the core kind of mission of, of gastronomy and gastronovi and when you go to your website it talks about digitization for all gastronomy concepts. So what does that mean what does digitization of gastronomy concepts mean for gastronovi?
00:11:20:16 - 00:11:48:23
Maximilian Huber
To be honest, and, and really melt down into just the work. So if you change, up when you change the price for, for. Yeah. One article on your menu and usually you use you highlight this menu on your website, on social media, on your probably you aren’t quite modern and you have, some self ordering, QR stickers on your tables.
00:11:49:00 - 00:12:17:12
Maximilian Huber
You have to change it everywhere by hand. That makes, digitization quite complex and quite, yeah, hard to do on a day to day basis because you have so many little steps you have to do with gastronovi we have a lot of modules. You can book whatever makes you want to have. And then it just works hand in hand because it's all from out of one hand, to be honest.
00:12:17:14 - 00:12:54:04
Maximilian Huber
And with stuff. We are not experts and we have our interface partners like, you are one or because we want to improve the them out of one hand to 360 degree feeling. With all of our, processes that we want to cover. So we are quite eager to have a solution for every of your, processes, either by ourselves or with a partner.
00:12:54:06 - 00:12:59:18
Maximilian Huber
Does that answer your question?
00:12:59:20 - 00:13:17:20
Rob Napoli
Absolutely and I think it's really interesting because when you talk about that, you know, this is where I think it's really, cool concept is that when I ask about digitization of the of what do you mean by digitization of all concepts, right. Whether it's a food track or bar or restaurant, bistro, coffee shop.
00:13:17:22 - 00:13:51:19
Rob Napoli
You know, there's tools for all of it. And, you know, when we build software, anyone can build software, but building software that matters is different. And it's really hard to build an all in one platform. We've seen that tried and failed. And, you know, it's too hard because it gets clunky. You know, if you look at some of the biggest CRMs, you know, started off and it's amazing, use cases and value prop and they kept adding and adding and then it becomes a clunky thing where you need to hire, an administrator just to run your CRM system, which is is absolutely wild.
00:13:51:19 - 00:14:01:14
Rob Napoli
And when is, especially a restaurant if what if it's, you know, a single manpower restaurant versus a chain, you know, that's impossible
00:14:01:16 - 00:14:23:02
Maximilian Huber
Yeah. You don't have the manpower for that. Germany is quite an industrial country. So we have, there is a huge, CRM, and European company starting with an S and ending with a P, and, we've got a lot of, consultants in Germany just for that, single program so that you are able to use it.
00:14:23:04 - 00:14:50:18
Maximilian Huber
And that's the thing we, yeah, we didn't want to do. So as complex as it has to be, but as simple as it might be, it's possible to work is we for example, we started with a lot of, modules that and let's say that, support, the hospitality.
00:14:50:18 - 00:15:20:22
Maximilian Huber
And we never wanted to, build a POS system because, all that the invoice handling, that's quite tough. We had, you know, and you have a lot, local of, one. Yeah. Local authorities that look deeply into your system and, one, are highly interested in that. It works 100% correct. So that's a tough business.
00:15:20:24 - 00:15:50:07
Maximilian Huber
And, at first, we never wanted to get in touch with, that stuff because it's complex. You. Yeah, you can burn your fingers quite fast. And, but then we figured out the cash register. Is the main point of the system. So their hospitality is built around that, especially for restaurant, for bistro and stuff like that.
00:15:50:09 - 00:15:59:10
Maximilian Huber
For hotels. It's a little bit, different because there you have them then hotel management system
00:15:59:12 - 00:15:59:21
Rob Napoli
PMS.
00:15:59:22 - 00:16:18:13
Maximilian Huber
Property management system. And every process is built around front office and with restaurants everything is built around the kitchen. And, the cash register. When those processes don't work, you're completely screwed.
00:16:18:15 - 00:16:22:06
Rob Napoli
Yeah. Trying to reconcile that on the back end is a nightmare, right.
00:16:22:08 - 00:17:10:20
Maximilian Huber
But yeah. Yeah. And yeah, one of them, one of the most interesting, things, in my opinion, that we offer, for example, is it's a kitchen monitor that's quite new to Germany because everyone loves the pen and paper and we have a very, handwriting society. And nowadays it's getting a little bit more, digital and, we're starting to recognize more and more screens and kitchens where you don't have to pen your you know order notes that are around, but you have, at display, and you can play with you always, do that one later.
00:17:10:22 - 00:17:34:03
Maximilian Huber
We have to highlight, this table first. And at the way we want to work with our customers is that we implement their good processes in this world. Yeah. Because when you process, it doesn't work. It doesn't work analog or digital.
00:17:34:05 - 00:17:52:12
Rob Napoli
100%. And that's the idea behind these modules. Right. Is that we should be able to digitize it in a way that makes it work for humans to do their job better. The cooks to, manage the orders, the, you know, the servers to manage the flow. And it's for the cashier to manage everything coming in.
00:17:52:12 - 00:18:20:03
Rob Napoli
Right. So that's why I think is really interesting about what I, I've thought about building in the modular sense. Right. Creating different modules and literally everything from customer loyalty to, you know, marketing and, you know, calculations to purchasing systems and merchandizing management, etc.. I think that really opens up, you know, the ability to create solutions that can help everyone, but also not allowing them to kind of pick what makes the most sense for them.
00:18:20:03 - 00:18:39:17
Rob Napoli
Because a restaurant can have anywhere from, I don't know, five, ten, 12 different systems. The more systems you get, the more confusing it is. Where do you look? How do you leverage that? So having the ability to kind of pick and choose and so when you're kind of doing that, the back end and you're building that, how do you think about building the technology?
00:18:39:19 - 00:18:50:05
Rob Napoli
Like do you think about the human in mind, or how do you go about building the concept technologies that it works for your customers?
00:18:50:07 - 00:19:15:06
Maximilian Huber
To be honest, we are always highly interested in how our customers really work. What are their processes in their business, and why do they talk to one each other? Because, why is host, the host is talking to the waiter. Is there any information that needs to be transferred from the reservation to, to table service?
00:19:15:08 - 00:19:38:02
Maximilian Huber
And why do they need to talk? Why is it not in a system so that we build, the guest journey or we align with the with the whole guest journey? Why do the waiter have to stop by, in the, in the kitchen and leave a note, on the printout. So what is necessary?
00:19:38:02 - 00:20:13:12
Maximilian Huber
So to cut every manual, interaction, with yeah within those processes, they can stop by if they of time and want to chat or something we leave them, this freedom. But when the restaurant is 100% full, they don't have to do a walk around or, Yeah, chat to one each other, to transfer information.
00:20:13:12 - 00:20:28:15
Maximilian Huber
So that has to be within our system. And. Yeah to be honest, it's, it's mostly the, don't work or the way we implement things.
00:20:28:17 - 00:20:48:12
Rob Napoli
So we're always thinking about the customer in mind and thinking about that guest journey. And how do we create technology for the guest experience, but also from the guest experience, the lens of how the restaurant runs and operates. And we talk about, you know, there's some really interesting trends in the hospitality space and especially restaurants in general with, you know, thinking about AI.
00:20:48:12 - 00:20:57:22
Rob Napoli
And we'll get into that. But, you know, there's a concept here in the States called ghost kitchens. Is that something that y'all have over in Europe as well?
00:20:57:24 - 00:21:29:03
Maximilian Huber
To be honest yes somehow, we have some customers already starting with, ghost kitchens. Because a major trend, over here is, yeah, it's personnel. Everyone's lacking personnel. Everyone is willing to hire, and the costs and everyone's wanting to cut down costs. So you have those major trends and ghost kitchen as one of the possible solutions.
00:21:29:03 - 00:21:51:00
Maximilian Huber
We will never know, to be honest, or not, by now. So, yeah, some of our customers are starting with ghost kitchens and with or with production, kitchens as well. So yeah, you have one outlet producing, the base items for the, yeah serving outlets.
00:21:51:02 - 00:22:06:16
Rob Napoli
Yeah, I bring that because in New York City it's becoming more and more common with these concepts of ghost kitchens, especially in very highly densely areas where you're just like grabbing salads or whatever. And the idea behind it is that you can order ahead, walk in, pick up, and you can kind of skip the need to stand in line.
00:22:06:18 - 00:22:26:21
Rob Napoli
It's go, or you can go and you walk in, there's a kiosk and there's like a, you know, a time to very short, time to return because you just have people in the back that are cooking in and it comes out. And we're also seeing some different concept kitchens where you can order as a ghost kitchen, but there's 5 or 6 different restaurants or 5 or 6 different options, as well.
00:22:26:21 - 00:22:49:01
Rob Napoli
So if you want a sub or a salad or a, breaded chicken sandwich and it's really, you know, I think it's great because ghost kitchens do tend to work really well for high times, like lunch and maybe breakfast. But I, you know, you never see them working fast like 4 or 5:00 unless it's like in an area where you have the delivery drivers picking up.
00:22:49:03 - 00:23:11:03
Rob Napoli
And it's kind of unique because it's changing a little bit about when we think about different trends, about losing that human touch. And there's a need for those things, when you want a quick bite and you're just wanting to get the food and move on to the next thing, which is the very American concept. We don't sit down for lunch, especially in New York versus the European concept for you actually sit down and take your lunch.
00:23:11:05 - 00:23:11:21
Maximilian Huber
But to be honest
00:23:11:22 - 00:23:27:04
Rob Napoli
Do you think that's something that's going to continue to evolve. I mean, I think there's always going to be a place for people to sit down and have that meal. But how do you see that or are you taking into account these different types of trends as you're building new technology or thinking about how does your technology scale with potential things like this?
00:23:27:06 - 00:23:56:14
Maximilian Huber
Yeah, the German, ghost kitchens are a little bit more different, to be honest. They are. Yeah. As the word tells us, they are in the back, not visible and might be not in the place in the outlet we're seeing. Yeah. But, We have some, customers that, Yeah. Go with a high.
00:23:56:16 - 00:24:33:21
Maximilian Huber
Yeah, a high value of, or, a high productivity tech. They use it like a production kitchen, and then they have the serving outlets with servers, with personnel, and those. Yeah. Personal touches where, like when you go to a restaurant and, you chat with the servant, not those, stopping by, you know, connections. But we, you know, really go to you can go to those restaurants, but the food is not, produced on, on time in the background.
00:24:33:23 - 00:25:07:00
Maximilian Huber
But it's pre-cooked. And, just had to be, yeah, brought up to temperature. And, that's also a way how you can find more personnel and, Yeah, I don't your chefs don't have to work, those late hours, they can work like, normal business hours. And then you have to use, like, only 1 or 2 chefs for bringing the food all together and and not cooking in the background.
00:25:07:02 - 00:25:32:21
Maximilian Huber
So, we have an a lot of interest with kitchens like this and a lot of movement in there. The other way around, would be the, some self waiter terminals where a lot of our customers are interested at the moment because they're, they decided to cut costs at, the serving side.
00:25:32:23 - 00:25:45:15
Maximilian Huber
The cashier, side of the production. So they still have, have those, two chefs in the background. But just a pick up desk.
00:25:45:17 - 00:25:46:16
Rob Napoli
00:25:46:18 - 00:26:29:05
Maximilian Huber
Those are kind of the major trends we identify, in those regions as well as, and the usage of, self ordering. So, yeah, you don't have to you, to be limited by table numbers, let's say usually a waiter, it could serve up to, 20 tables, with self order, systems, you can serve up to, let's say 30 or 35, tables, because you always have some guests like both of us.
00:26:29:07 - 00:27:00:00
Maximilian Huber
We can both scan a QR code and order our drinks, or let's say we order with the server, but or with the waiter. But, the second round of, of beers. We can order that online. That's no issue. We had, the human interaction. We are, in a deep discussion and want, don't want to be interrupted so we can order online for the for the second round.
00:27:00:00 - 00:27:05:01
Maximilian Huber
So the, the combination of both would also be quite interesting.
00:27:05:03 - 00:27:26:03
Rob Napoli
Yeah. It's interesting to see how it plays out. And it's good to know that y'all are already have capabilities fact I think that the way that these concepts are going to continue to develop can also change the way that we look at our systems, and the way that we manage those systems because somebody somewhere is gonna be looking at that data and and taking that data into account.
00:27:26:03 - 00:27:43:14
Rob Napoli
Right. So making sure that the data makes sense for them in a different way, shape or form versus somebody that has, you know, staff on the floor, which I think is really interesting, is we look at, you know, the trends like that and we look at 2025, what are, you know, on the product side, what are you most excited for?
00:27:43:16 - 00:28:02:20
Rob Napoli
From your perspective, from gastronovi that you guys are looking at, thinking about and really putting effort into for 2025 is the future of hospitality and food tech continues to grow and change? Are there any things that y'all are working on that are like super exciting for next year? Like talk to me a little about what are the things that you're excited about for next year with, with the product?
00:28:02:22 - 00:28:32:16
Maximilian Huber
To be honest, we, we are quite excited for next year, but, we are currently, you know, working on a lot of, let's say back office work. We just launched a huge, you know, we launched a huge, a payment, option for our customers. We are now able to use, tap to pay on iPhone and Android.
00:28:32:16 - 00:29:02:16
Maximilian Huber
And that was, really, really new to, to the German market. And, that was, yeah, a huge thing for us. And, you remember the cowboys, I spoke of earlier there. Now they don't have to wear their belt. They just have to use their iPhone or Android phone and yeah that was the main thing of, 2024.
00:29:02:18 - 00:29:36:23
Maximilian Huber
And we are still in, you know, working on rolling it out to all of our interested customers and. Yeah, for, for the next year, it's mostly to be defined. And, the next few months, we are. Yeah, we have a lot of focus on controlling aspects, because with rising costs, everyone wants to know about their revenues, what makes revenue, what doesn't, and, to optimize their businesses.
00:29:37:00 - 00:29:45:12
Maximilian Huber
So that's one of our main topic, to be honest.
00:29:45:14 - 00:30:23:12
Rob Napoli
I love it. I think that's going to be it's really fun to kind of see how that plays out. And, and, you know, cool that you get to continue to innovate in 2025 is going to be very unique, right? AI, data all these things that are buzzwords still. I mean, they've been around, they've been cool for, you know, a few years now, but I think we're going to start seeing in 25 real activation of these things, real activation of how we leverage data, making sure we make data smart and usable and cleanable and, you know, maneuverable, which is obviously where, you know Omniboost kind of weaks out, but I think every company is
00:30:23:12 - 00:30:47:05
Rob Napoli
going to be working at how do we do this better, how do we create integrations? How do I, you know, whether it's ourselves or with partners to to really make things smoother? Automate it so that so that we can focus more on making the right decisions and putting practice into action versus sitting on the back end and looking at all this data and trying to clean it up to make heads or tails of what we have in front of us.
00:30:47:05 - 00:31:11:21
Rob Napoli
And I think that's going to be really cool to see where those concepts of data cleansing and AI and all that really turn into next year. And I'm sure y'all are doing some things with that on the back end and playing around. I know that, you know, I would always ask the question people that when I talk about what they're doing yet because they're kind of working on something, but just by your face, I can already tell that y'all are working on something with it, and it's gonna be exciting to see and play around with it.
00:31:11:23 - 00:31:40:17
Maximilian Huber
Yes. And as a group, company, we are, testing a lot of, interesting ideas. What I can tell is, that we, we already integrated AI, with, some smaller parts of, gastronovi office, for example, when you want to do the QR code, self ordering, kind of thing you're always interested in, what does the plate look like?
00:31:40:19 - 00:32:18:02
Maximilian Huber
What can I expect? And, because pictures sell eat way more easy or easier than, just the text. And therefore we implemented yeah a picture creation, of your food, you can identify your style and then, you get the visual idea of, of the plate you can expect or we, we wanted to add value to the, to the switching part.
00:32:18:02 - 00:32:45:12
Maximilian Huber
When you're new with gastronovi you are just starting. You probably have an old printed out, menu. Let's say you have been to, to Germany. Some of our restaurants have those, those, leather covered, order menus where every the font times. New Roman and stuff, you can imagine. But we wanted to help those customers, starting with gastronovi
00:32:45:17 - 00:33:21:18
Maximilian Huber
Because when you when you change your, cash, register your POS system, it's a lot of manual work. You have to rotate every article. And what's the price? And what am I? Yeah. You know, what are my categories within, my menu. And you have to add this manually. Therefore we also integrated and an AI assistant where you just scan your, your menu and then it has to work for you at least the first few steps.
00:33:21:18 - 00:33:53:19
Maximilian Huber
And then you just have to work through it. But a lot of we use AI mostly for supporting, at the moment because those wild guesses, of AI can do that and AI can do this. It's a it's a lot of hype in the market, to be honest. And, yeah, but we will find out, what's really necessary and, of use and what's not.
00:33:53:21 - 00:34:11:17
Rob Napoli
Love it. It's going to be a fun year for y'all, and it sounds like some really cool stuff and really innovative and, looking forward to seeing how that plays out. And obviously looking forward to, you know, continuing to partner with y'all. And what we're doing, with the integration side of things is going to be it's going to be an interesting year.
00:34:11:19 - 00:34:27:22
Rob Napoli
Max, I appreciate the time. And it was a lot of fun getting to chat. And, and I know we can keep going on by the, you know, when we look at, this episode, how do listeners get in touch with you how do they learn more about gastronovi, where can they, learn more?
00:34:27:24 - 00:34:59:10
Maximilian Huber
To be honest, the most regular answer would be on the internet. You can, stop by our website, where you can tell a little bit of our customer story and digitization concepts. And with in, the next live events, we are, as a, you know, company that's, working on and the tough market as we and we tell it, in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, we've just been to a fair in Switzerland.
00:34:59:12 - 00:35:19:19
Maximilian Huber
And the next fair already, in the books, and coming up in three weeks in Salzburg, Austria, and otherwise in, in Hamburg, North of Germany in, I think March, 2025 and yeah.
00:35:19:21 - 00:35:34:20
Rob Napoli
Lots of good stuff coming up. And then you guys go to a lot of the fairs and a lot of events, which I think is super great because you get to meet the customers where they are and really get involved and share your story, which is amazing. So I'll make sure to drop a link to the website in the show notes.
00:35:34:20 - 00:35:50:12
Rob Napoli
All you gotta do is click them open and you'll be able to find more information. Max, appreciate your time again today. A lot of fun having you on the show for all those listeners, of course, and for all those listeners out there. As always, be a tier one subscribe rate review do all those things please let us know how we're doing.
00:35:50:14 - 00:35:52:23
Rob Napoli
And until next episode, be well.