OpenTable came on the scene promising to revolutionize the tedious and often frustrating chore of securing a restaurant reservation.
No more waiting on the phone and pleading with snooty receptionists. With just a few clicks of a mouse, a diner could secure a table at prime times in the hottest dining spots.
Restaurants would benefit, too, handing off the job of juggling tables and recording reservations in a bulky book to a computer.
The company is called OpenTable, and since its genesis in 1998, it has come to dominate the online restaurant reservation business category it created.
Chuck Templeton had a personal problem, and since he couldn’t find a business out there, he founded OpenTable to solve his problem. Of course, he struggled and went through many difficulties.
But he made it successful and finally sold it for $2+ billion.
What you could learn from this episode:
- How his personal problem turned into a business idea.
- What he did to earn money for college.
- His setback when meeting restaurant owners.
- How he changed the business model to make it easy for the restaurant owners.
- How he convinced the restaurants to use his system.
- How they made money initially.
- What changes they made when they were heading towards failure.
- What they did when money was running out.
- On what did they focus, to get more users use OpenTable.
