Recently, the restaurant industry has been struggling to hire new workers and retain their current employees. Today's guest is using innovative AI technology to deliver speed and consistency in customer service, and in the kitchen.
On this week's episode we sit down with Krishna Gupta, Chairman and Interim CEO of Presto, one of the largest drive-through automation technology providers in the hospitality industry. Krishna is a founder and CEO of venture firm Remus Capital which he founded as a student at MIT in 2008. Remus partners with visionary founders and management teams to build technology businesses that rewire entire industries. This led him to Presto, which many years later trades on NASDAQ under the symbol PRST. Prior to Remus, Krishna spent time at McKinsey & Company, and JP Morgan, helping several Fortune 100 clients on billion dollar technology transactions.
Krishna is an incessant traveler, and has done business across five continents. Outside of investing, he has a broad set of intellectual interests. He's conducted chemistry research at the University of Chicago, and in Israel. He produced a film on English ancient history, which is used at Cambridge in Oxford, and competed as a finalist in the USA Mathematics Olympia.
Highlights:
- Krishna's start in venture capital and investing (2:57)
- Presto's products and their purpose (4:30)
- How Krishna stepped up as interim-CEO (7:14)
- What makes Presto services unique in the industry (8:05)
- The addressable market for automation (9:40)
- Automating labor and automation ROI (11:18)
- The journey to becoming a public company (13:33)
- Automation duality for customers and businesses (15:15)
- Collaboration with OpenAI and ChatGPT (17:10)
- How AI is implemented in the service industry (18:16)
- Current projects and goals for the future (20:21)
- Managing their P&L (21:21)
- Krishna's advice for beginner entrepreneurs (22:21)
- The state of human-machine convergence (24:03)
- What investors might miss about Presto (26:01)
Links:
Feedback:
If you have questions about the show, or have a topic in mind you'd like discussed in future episodes, email our producer,
marion@lowerstreet.co.
What is Welcome to the Arena from ICR – Conversations with Today's Innovators & Business Leaders?
In the increasingly crowded and competitive corporate and financial ecosystem, it’s harder than ever for companies to break through the clutter and be heard. The media, investors, agenda-driven influencers, even customers and competitors, are defining your business story on their terms. Therefore, it is imperative that companies take control and proactively drive the conversation with stakeholders in an effort to build & maintain equity value.
In Welcome to the Arena from ICR, Co-Founder & CEO of ICR, Tom Ryan, interviews key business and financial players who influence the fate of public or aspiring public companies in the capital markets. As a former Wall Street Journal ranked sell-side equity analyst and the founder of one of the largest strategic communications firms in the world, Tom understands what it takes to navigate this complex environment.
This is a forum for CEOs, CFOs, institutional investors, sell-side analysts, financial journalists, private equity professionals and other financial community participants to share their stories and give advice in an open and candid conversation.
For more information, visit http://www.icrinc.com