HT Talks Tech: Kinesh Patel, CTO & Co-Founder, SevenRooms
When Kinesh Patel, CTO and co-founder of SevenRooms, was six years old, his parents bought their first personal computer. As they say, it was love at first sight.
“The minute that computer came into our home, I was fascinated with it. I had some relatives who were computer scientists at the time, and they taught me all the different ways it could be used. Then the internet became accessible to the public, and I knew from a very young age that I wanted my career to revolve around computers.”
True to his ambitions, Patel went to school and received a Bachelor of Science in electrical/computer engineering and interned at HP on their software engineering team. But before founding SevenRooms and establishing himself as an industry expert in restaurant technology, Patel worked for ExxonMobil.
“The energy sector spent a lot of money on building supercomputers, solving physics equations, using 3D models, etc. I loved that I was working to solve a big data problem and that I was given an incredible amount of raw data and asked to analyze it for interesting insights to inform important decision-making processes,” he explains.
However, as a technologist who loves to eat, Patel and his friends often faced a significant dilemma.
“My co-founders and I all had busy careers that didn’t allow us much free time to enjoy eating and drinking at the best restaurants and bars in New York City,” he says. “When we did have free time, we had money to spend, but no relationships to leverage to get reservations at the hottest spots. We were surprised to learn that the systems used by these restaurants didn’t aggregate, store or analyze guest data – the main ingredient in building customer relationships and driving incredible hospitality. Instead, that ‘guest data’ was stored in the heads of maître ds and waiters who you hoped were working on the night you were trying to come in. We wanted to make it easier for consumers and operators to build deeper, longer-lasting relationships with one another, and so the first iteration of SevenRooms was born.”
An Industry with a Bright Future
As Patel and his co-founders dove into the restaurant technology industry in 2011, he noticed a few things. First, the industry as a whole was pretty far behind the curve in technology adoption, even when compared to adjacent industries such as hotels, rental cars, airlines, etc.
“Other industries already had a decade or more of marketplace development, systems development and integrations in place. So, we saw this as an opportunity to pioneer the use of data to drive decision-making and insights at restaurants to improve their margins and revenue and really turn data into money,” he explains.
While the restaurant technology industry has grown significantly in the last 13 years, Patel feels it’s still playing catch up and has a long way to go. However, as he looks to the future, Patel continues to be fascinated with how vast amounts of data will not only inform future decision-making processes for restaurants but also streamline operations, reduce costs and drive revenue – specifically when it comes to GenAI.
For example, personalization is quickly becoming the cornerstone of hospitality. But the bedrock of personalization is data, Patel explains. Thus, restaurateurs will need to become adept at collecting guest data at every possible touchpoint, storing it, and analyzing it for insights. AI can help in all of these areas. For instance, a chatbot can extract information from a guest via a quick conversation versus hoping that same guest will fill out a lengthy form. Once that information is in place, AI will be able to analyze the information and then recommend personalized offers to drive loyalty with that guest.
“I believe AI has the potential to create a golden age for hospitality,” Patel shares. “And by that, I mean that the integration of AI into so many aspects of our lives will then create a premium on human experiences: the ambiance of a restaurant, the taste and the smell of the food, etc.”
While the future is very promising, there are pressing matters that the restaurant technology industry faces right now, one of which is revenue management – or the lack thereof. Adjacent industries have a sophisticated strategy in place to increase profits by optimizing yield of inventory, pricing, packaging, etc.
“That’s not something restaurants are doing today because it’s very difficult,” Patel explains. “So, we’re working on creating a technology system that helps restaurants understand their guests, their own dining room, their inventory, their pricing and packaging, and then using that system to optimize all of those things so as to create a winning situation that benefits the guest and the brand.”
Professional and Personal Wins
As Patel looks back on his professional career, one high point that stands out is his company’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It was such a hard time for our industry, and it was amazing to see how the industry came together to face it. I’m also super proud of the fact that SevenRooms was able to maintain our team during that time frame and help our restaurant clients with several programs and technology updates to help them stay in business. Knowing that a restaurant I loved to go to pre-COVID is still operating today because we helped them, is very gratifying,” he says.
However, Patel’s greatest accomplishment (especially according to his mother) is his recent marriage! According to Patel, he took his time to find the perfect partner, but now that he has – he’s happier than he’s ever been.
Congratulations and best wishes to the bride and groom!