Start-Up Spotlight: ClearCOGS Takes the Guesswork out of Restaurant Ops with Predictive Data
Matt Wampler knows firsthand how tough it is to run a restaurant. He bought a struggling Jimmy John’s franchise at 21 and worked tirelessly to turn it around.
“All the smart restaurant guys you meet will tell you, ‘Watch the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves.’ That was really the truth; there is no one single thing that you need to do to be successful. It is about getting lots of small decisions right,” he said.
One of those “small” daily decisions would occur two hours before close. “Do I have enough bread for the rest of the night? Can I shut the ovens off and start cleaning them? Or do I need to bake another cycle of bread? I had five locations, and that meant five assistant managers sticking their heads out the door, looking to see if there were lines at the bar, if it was raining, what the traffic looked like, and checking to see if there was leftover bread from last night—just guessing. It was inefficient, costly, and stressful,” Wampler recalled. “If you ran out, the customers would be angry with you. It is not a great way to work … There has to be a better way.”
There needed to be a game plan.
Matt Wampler knows firsthand how tough it is to run a restaurant. He bought a struggling Jimmy John’s franchise at 21 and worked tirelessly to turn it around.
“All the smart restaurant guys you meet will tell you, ‘Watch the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves.’ That was really the truth; there is no one single thing that you need to do to be successful. It is about getting lots of small decisions right,” he said.
One of those “small” daily decisions would occur two hours before close. “Do I have enough bread for the rest of the night? Can I shut the ovens off and start cleaning them? Or do I need to bake another cycle of bread? I had five locations, and that meant five assistant managers sticking their heads out the door, looking to see if there were lines at the bar, if it was raining, what the traffic looked like, and checking to see if there was leftover bread from last night—just guessing. It was inefficient, costly, and stressful,” Wampler recalled. “If you ran out, the customers would be angry with you. It is not a great way to work … There has to be a better way.”
There needed to be a game plan.
Removing the Guesswork
Wampler owned and operated multiple Jimmy John's franchise locations for seven years. After selling his restaurants, he met Osa Osarenkhoe while doing some advisory work for a startup. “When I started to look at doing something in the restaurant space, he was my first call.”
Osarenkhoe has a deep background in engineering: a BA in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois and a Master’s in Computer Engineering from Boston University. Osarenkhoe worked in Silicon Valley before launching his first startup. ClearCOGS is his third.
At first, Osarenkhoe was skeptical about restaurant inefficiencies.
“I said, ‘There’s a $100+ billion being wasted in restaurants … because they're relying on Excel spreadsheets and guessing.’” Osarenkhoe replied, ‘That just can’t be. We’re putting computer chips in people’s brains,’” Wampler recalled.
After speaking with over 30 restaurants, the problem became clear. When Wampler asked his cousin, a Jimmy John’s franchisee, about his analytics tools, he found he was still using the Excel spreadsheet Wampler had created a decade earlier. These insights led to the development of ClearCOGS, with the first pilot three years ago.
Moneyball for Restaurants
ClearCOGS offers a comprehensive platform that provides actionable insights and automation, giving restaurants clear data on expected customers, staffing needs, inventory, and food prep. Wampler likens ClearCOGS to the 2011 movie Moneyball, where analytics-informed decisions allowed a baseball team to thrive on a budget. ClearCOGS made its RTN Start-Up Alley debut at MURTEC 2023, securing a pilot with Goop Kitchen that saved one location $6,800 in its first month.
How it Works
ClearCOGS simplifies operations by delivering data directly to managers’ inboxes. “Most of the time, this is not something new. We're not changing operations,” Wampler explained. “We’re taking the same prep sheet you have as an Excel file or the punch list you print out, digitizing it, filling it with the right numbers, and giving it to your team.”
Sustainability Matters
With ClearCOGS, restaurants become more profitable and they're becoming more sustainable at the same time. ClearCOGS has worked on quantifying the impact of reducing food waste achieved. "Our average restaurant is reducing one ton of carbon per month along with 50,000 gallons of water," Wampler explained.
Future Plans
Looking ahead, ClearCOGS is focused on further expanding its capabilities to adapt to emerging restaurant trends. Beyond food prep, ClearCOGS has expanded to forecasting for labor and menu items and offers an integration with Toast.