1
Discovery· 2 weeks
Restaurant operations audit
Shadowed kitchen operations across 4 restaurant types (QSR, casual dining, cloud kitchen, multi-location chain) to map the full order lifecycle.
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SaaS
Grubly
Online food ordering for restaurants - zero commissions
Restaurants lose 15-30% of every order to third-party delivery platforms. Grubly gives them a white-label ordering system with POS integration, multi-location management, and zero commission fees - so every dollar stays where it belongs.
Live
0%
Commission fees
3x
Avg. order value vs aggregators
40+
Restaurant locations
The problem
Third-party delivery platforms charge 15-30% commission on every order. For a restaurant operating on 5-8% margins, that's the difference between growing and closing. Worse, the platform owns the customer data and the relationship - the restaurant becomes a fulfillment center for someone else's brand.
Cost of inaction
A restaurant doing $50K/month in delivery orders loses $7,500-$15,000 monthly to platform commissions. Over a year, that's $90K-$180K - enough to open a second location or completely renovate the kitchen.
Our approach
We started by shadowing restaurant operations for two weeks - watching how orders flow from phone to kitchen to table. The bottleneck wasn't the ordering interface. It was the disconnect between online orders and the POS system that manages everything else.
We built Grubly as a POS-first platform. Every order - whether from QR code, website, or in-app - lands in the same system the kitchen already uses. No separate tablet, no re-entry, no missed orders.
Multi-location management was critical for our early customers. A chain running 12 locations needs centralized menu control with per-location customization (different prices, availability, hours). We built a hierarchy system that handles this without complexity.
Key insight
Restaurants don't need a delivery marketplace. They need their own branded ordering channel that integrates with systems they already use - POS, kitchen display, accounting. The marketplace model benefits platforms, not restaurants.
What Grubly does
QR code & online ordering
POS & kitchen display sync
Multi-location management
In-app upsells & combos
Customer data ownership
Branded web ordering page
Real-time order tracking
Menu scheduling by daypart
Results
100%
Revenue retained
99.2%
Order accuracy
22%
Avg. ticket increase
Restaurants keep every dollar of order revenue - no commissions, no hidden fees, no revenue share.
Direct POS integration eliminates manual re-entry errors that plague tablet-based ordering.
Smart upsells and combo suggestions at checkout increase average order value compared to phone orders.
“We were paying $12K a month in delivery commissions. Grubly paid for itself in the first week.”
Architecture
Tech stack
React NativeNode.jsPostgreSQLRedisAWSStripePOS API integrations
Key decisions
POS-first order pipeline
Orders must land in the existing POS - not a separate tablet - to avoid operational friction and order-entry errors.
Multi-tenant with location hierarchy
Chains need centralized control with per-location overrides. A flat multi-tenant model would force either full uniformity or full independence.
Offline-capable order queue
Restaurant internet is unreliable. Orders queue locally and sync when connection returns, so the kitchen never misses an order.
White-label by default
Every customer gets their own branded experience. No Grubly branding visible to diners - the restaurant is the brand.
How we built it
2
Foundation· 4 weeks
POS integration layer
Built adapters for 3 major POS systems (Square, Toast, Clover) with a unified order format that translates across systems.
3
Product· 5 weeks
Ordering platform MVP
QR code ordering, web menu builder, kitchen display, and basic multi-location support. Tested with 3 pilot restaurants.
4
Scale· 4 weeks
Multi-location & growth features
Central menu management, daypart scheduling, upsell engine, analytics dashboard, and automated marketing tools.
What we learned
POS integration is the product
The ordering UI is table stakes. What makes restaurants switch is direct POS sync - no extra tablets, no manual steps, no disruption to existing workflow.
Menus are harder than they look
Modifiers, combos, dayparts, location-specific pricing, dietary tags, out-of-stock management - menu data modeling is surprisingly complex when you serve real restaurant operations.
Offline matters more than speed
A slow order that always arrives beats a fast system that drops orders when WiFi hiccups. We built offline-first and never regretted it.
Growth strategy
Restaurant-to-restaurant referrals in local clusters. When one restaurant in a food court or strip mall switches, neighbors see the results and follow. We focused on geographic density over broad marketing.
Frequently asked questions
Grubly is not a marketplace. It's the restaurant's own ordering system - white-labeled, commission-free, and integrated with their POS. The restaurant owns the customer relationship and keeps 100% of revenue.
Next Step
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