Profiles

A Moment With BevSpot’s CEO, Rory Crawford

May 11, 2016

Posted in Restaurant Management, Industry & Culture

A trillion-dollar global industry with no great software? It’s time to get on board.

It only took a few hours of working at BevSpot for me to realize it: This company is something truly unique—not only in what we’re providing to the bar and restaurant industry, but the passion behind why we’re doing what we’re doing.

Our CEO and Co-founder, Rory Crawford, sits down with every class of new hires to explain his global vision for BevSpot, where it came from, and what it can provide for the people working their tails off in the food and beverage industry.

It’s too good not to share.

The Lightbulb

The idea for BevSpot first came to Rory when he was working in California on a consumer-focused wine ordering app. He quickly realized there was a larger problem to solve—the entire beverage industry was still being managed completely offline. Inventory was being taken on pen and paper, orders were being placed individually through phone calls or email, and there was absolutely no access to information or data.

Why We’re Here

Rory knew he needed to create a product that could be used by every tier in the beverage supply chain. He sought out to create web-based tools that would allow data to be passed from suppliers to distributors to retailers and, eventually, to consumers. The collection of this data would give more insight into an extremely competitive industry that, at the time, had no way to predict trends like craft beer growing to 15% of the total beer market in a matter of decades.

With this goal in mind, and the objective to create a world-class tech business, Rory connected with MIT students, Chidubem Ezeaka and Alex Lesman (fondly referred to as Cheezy and Lesman), and asked them to join him as co-founders of BevSpot. Together, they set out to improve the daily lives of everyone working in the bar and restaurant industry through data and software.  

The Vision

Rory and the BevSpot team don’t just want to make it easier to take inventory and place orders, we want to change the way suppliers, distributors, retailers and consumers communicate and work with one another.

We want the people working in the food and beverage industry to use the data stored within BevSpot to make smarter decisions on a daily basis—including what spirits sell best during specific seasons, days of the week, and even on rainy days.

Industry trends are constantly changing and are almost impossible to stay ahead of. Our goal is to give professionals who work in the business the opportunity to stock their bar with trending, top-selling craft beers that their customers want before their competitors can. And then, to have that sales data be passed back to suppliers to remove the gamble of over or under-producing. Without data, and the chance to execute change based on this data, every business is at risk. “As in any other business, the first to adapt will be the most successful,” Rory says. This is no different for the food and beverage industry, and we’re here to change that.

Want to know how? We’ll show you.

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