I never imagined that Olo would go public.
Let’s rewind.
On June 1, 2005, I hit pause on business school to pursue the idea of Olo. I thought, best case, we get acquired, and worst case, I resume my education.
Through the years, I found that our customers’ digital channels were growing rapidly and reaching a mission-critical moment in which many could anticipate 50% or more of their business migrating to digital.
And we lived through 2020, when digital adoption became table stakes as restaurants sought to remain close to their customers despite social distancing.
In that crucible moment, I realized Olo was no longer simply an entrepreneurial venture:
it was my life’s calling.
Taking inspiration from my namesake, I came to imagine Olo as the ark to help restaurants navigate the digital transformation, weathering whatever floods they faced and ultimately reaching dry land.
Taking Olo public in 2021 came to feel like the most genuine expression of that desire to be an independent, open, and reliable platform for our customers and prospects and to cement that role for the long term.
A series of revelations has evolved into our brand promise – to “accelerate the future.” For Olo, that means reimagining the restaurant business through digitally-enabled operational efficiencies and greater profitability, while increasing hospitality, not eroding it.
Hospitality, the way a restaurant makes a guest feel, is an idea deeply rooted in how I grew up and why I loved my first restaurant job as a delivery driver at Pizzaman in 1998 in my hometown of Newton, MA.
Fast forward to today, Olo leverages troves of guest data to help 81,000 restaurants across 700 enterprise restaurant brands make every guest feel like a regular by personalizing guest experiences in an industry that has grown to $1.2 trillion in sales.
19 years into our journey, this is the mission that drives me as I run Olo as a public company with a great climb ahead; the digital age is still just dawning within the restaurant industry.
So much of our story remains unwritten and I’m excited for Olo to play a leading role in the future of hospitality.
As we begin Olo Year 20, we have miles to go before we sleep!
#HospitalityAtScale
#Happy19Olo
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