NYC Restaurant Owners Create Platform to Partner with Hospitality Tech

Branded Strategic Hospitality Created by NYC Restaurant Owners to Connect Technology and Innovation and Deploy Capital in the Time of Tech

New York City restaurant owners join forces to create a platform, Branded Strategic Hospitality "Branded" to capitalize on the opportunities to invest and partner with early and growth-stage hospitality technology companies. The COVID crisis has accelerated the "Time of Tech" for the hospitality Industry, and the Branded team believes that deploying additional capital as well as making new investments is the right course of action for this investment and advisory platform.

Branded, a hospitality technology investment & advisory platform, has positioned itself to continue to be at the intersection of technology and capital.  This is particularly important and timely as the hospitality industry has been forced to quickly adopt and embrace technology to survive. COVID-19 has only increased the significance and importance of hospitality-centric technology companies for the industry and has put a spotlight on Branded's investment thesis that the hospitality industry must embrace technology to thrive and survive.

As a result, Branded believes that continuing to identify, vet and make new investments as well as deploy additional capital to several of its current Partner Companies is the right course of action for this investment and advisory platform.

Over the past 24+ months, Branded's portfolio of companies have experienced a dramatic spike in sales and associated customer acquisitions and are positioned as a tactical and actionable solution for the hospitality industry in response to the current crisis. When the restaurant shutdown was embraced by most states, Branded's off-premise and mobile/touchless HI-Tech Partner Companies immediately demonstrated an ability and desire to be allies to the industry.

Founders Dean Palin, Michael Schatzberg, James Frischling and Jeff Mann have been running and operating restaurants for over 25 years in New York City with relationships across the entire spectrum of the hospitality, real estate and financial services industries. Simply put, as operators, the Branded team is in a unique position to "test before they invest" and deploy capital in companies after successful in-store trials. The team is able to offer real insights to on the most pressing and important problems, challenges and opportunities that restaurant owners face. Additional partners include Simon Oren (Tour De France/Chef Driven), Robert Guarino (5 Napkin Burger) & Stephen Van Note (RMB Restaurants). Board Members Include Jed Kleckner (Delivery.com), Mike a (Omnivore), Jeffrey Mann (Mann Publications), Mike Ryan (Bullet Point Network) and Dana Zukofsky (BDO).

"We've found that our boots on the ground experience and our ability to use our network of restaurants to test and vet emerging technology has proven to be beneficial in not only accelerating the growth of our partner companies, but also making smarter strategic capital introductions," said Managing Partner Michael Schatzberg. "In terms of the Coronavirus crisis, it has challenged the industry in ways that we have never seen before, and technology is more important than ever. The adoption of HI-Tech will be crucial for restaurants to continue to earn revenue in a socially distancing society."

Branded's ventures include: Pour My Beer, Chowly, BBot, Yumpingo, GoParrot, Vromo, TapRm, NBTV, Blanket, Targetable and ClockedIn.

Additional Branded Partner Companies include: Allset, Lava Gel, ItsOnMe, Jetson, and Soft Point.