TechCrunch
Sergey Brin's Younger Brother Co-Founds A Startup Of His Own
Sam Brin, 26-year old younger brother of Google co-founder Sergey Brin, has spent the last few months in a bit of borrowed office space with his college pal, Jon Li, quietly building a startup of their own.
Lest you get too excited about the possibility of a bit of brotherly rivalry: Sam and Jon aren’t setting out to build a search engine. They aren’t building an ad platform. They aren’t building their own pair of crazy controversial robo-glasses.
Nay, they’re working on something Google hasn’t gone anywhere near: restaurant menus.
Sam And Jon’s company, Butter Systems (part of Y-Combinator’s Winter 2013 class), wants to put a tablet at your table. The tablet would supplant (or augment) a restaurant’s paper menu, allowing customers to order food and drinks, or request their check without having to flag down a server. They’re quick to clarify that they’re not trying to replace the server — they’re just trying to make the server’s life easier, while bumping up the amount that restaurants pull in per table. As Sam put it, “We want to increase sales by making it easier to order more, all while keeping that human touch”.
When a customer is seated, an Android tablet will be waiting at the table. They’re free to order from their server as they normally would — but if their server is busy helping others or is otherwise unavailable, the tablet serves as the next best option. On the tablet is Butter’s own fully-customizable digital menu system, running in a locked-down, Menu-only mode that makes it challenging for the curious tinkerer to use the device for any unintended purposes. Butter provides the tablets, prepped and ready to take orders out of the box.
Once you’re done eating, a “Check Please!” button lets the server know that you’re ready for the bill. There is no method for paying for the app directly through the app at the moment, a decision they made to further maintain that aforementioned human aspect of going to a restaurant.
On the restaurant’s side, orders come in by way of counterpart app running on a tablet next to the POS. When an order arrives, it flashes red until someone on the waitstaff looks it over and confirms it before sending it off to the kitchen — that way, a customer can’t accidentally order 55 steak dinners. Restaurant owners can adjust their menu on-the-fly through a web interface, tweaking prices and adding/removing items or promotions as the day goes on.
Now, before you run for the nearest roof top to shout that tale of nepotism brewing in your lungs, I must say: in a startup scene so driven by its often off-putting bloodthirst for growing ones “network”, it’s actually kind of shocking how little Sam seems to be tapping those familial ties. Sure, that last name can presumably open a few doors — or at the very least, open already ajar doors wider — but he doesn’t seem to be trying to exploit it. Their original email pitch to us only mentioned the relationship in passing in one of its very last lines, long after explaining what the company did. I sat and talked with Sam and Jon for a few hours, and the pair only brought up Sam’s brother once, and that was to tell the story of how the idea for an upcoming feature came about. Sergey is Sam’s brother and an advisor (not an investor) to the company, but this is Sam and Jon’s ship to steer.
Bloodlines aside, I foresee at least two challenges: theft of the tablets, and the difficulty of scaling sales.
In Butter’s test location, the tablet comes as you see it in the video above, resting on each table in a snazzy, light-weight leather folio. That might work well at a single, quaint location with relatively low customer turn over; but if they want to find themselves in hundreds of restaurants of all shapes and sizes, they’re going to have to deal with the fact that people, as a collective, can be terrible. People will steal these tablets. They’ll have to figure out how to keep them safe, be it latching them to the table (which is kind of ugly), or perhaps some sort of proximity based-alarm that starts squealing when you take the device out of a certain radius.
Second, they’re going to have to figure out how to get restaurants on board at a rather low acquisition cost. As many a startup before them have found, convincing a restaurant to change their structure and workflow in any way can be quite hard. Convincing enough of them to make the venture profitable? Monumental. Others in the space, like E La Carte, have been attacking this problem for a while with some success. Butter says that word-of-mouth alone has gotten them a steady flow of referrals so far, and they’re planning to give restaurant owners 30-day free trials to help seal the deal.
How they’ll charge after that trial, though, is still up in the air. They’ll either charge a one-time setup fee (that would include the cost of the devices, shipped with the menu ready to go), a monthly subscription fee, or some mix of the two.
One particularly interesting concept that came up during our conversation, and one that Sam and Jon say they plan on tackling, is that of analytics. What if the menu could essentially A/B test itself, finding the right item descriptions that lead to the most sales? Do you sell more drinks when they’re at the top of the menu, or at the bottom? Do pictures help, or hurt? Access to that data (and being able to test changes on the fly) is perhaps the biggest advantage that a tablet-based menu has over its paper twin. Make it happen, guys!
Butter’s menu is currently in testing at Los Altos’ Bumble, with plans to expand to more locations in the coming weeks. Interested restaurateurs can hit up Butter for more details here.
The Windows 8.1 Enterprise Preview Is Out, Here's Where To Get It And What It Contains
Today Microsoft released the Windows 8.1 Enterprise Preview, an early build of the upcoming Windows 8 refresh aimed at large companies that need extensive control features to keep their machines, software and data secure.
If you are the sort of person who would have use for such a thing, you can find the code here.
Windows 8.1 will not extend the general life of the Windows 8 operating system. Instead, Microsoft stated today in a blog post, Widows 8.1 will see its support end on January 10, 2023. That said, Windows 8 users will only have two years to switch to Windows 8.1 once it is released. Those who fail to do so won’t be “supported under Windows 8 lifecycle.”
With the release of the Enterprise Preview, Microsoft also detailed a number of new features that it contains, including side-loading, which will allow companies to side-load apps onto machines that are “domain-joined,” as well as DirectAccess, which will allow users to “access resources inside a corporate network remotely” sans the use of another virtual private network.
Also in the updated operating system are restricted store access if a corporation deems that safer and a tool that allows Windows 8.1 devices to safely access a company’s secure data.
Windows 8 was not an enterprise-focused operating system at launch. Instead it had, in my view, a strong consumer and tablet focus. However, Windows 7 update cycles eventually end, and Microsoft needs to create a new core, stable, enterprise capable operating system. The slew of features that are coming in 8.1 to the Enterprise build of Windows 8 will do much to assist its maturation into something that it was not at launch.
We’ll see Windows 8.1 this year. What its impact will be on sagging PC sales remains uncertain.
Top Image Credit: Dell Inc.
AppDirect Launches API Platform To Connect Developers And App Resellers
There is growing proof that the API is a core value piece for selling software and services. The latest example of this emerging form of commerce comes from AppDirect, a cloud marketplace provider that is launching an API platform for connecting developers and resellers. Just out of private beta, AppDirect has signed about 1,000 developers.
The iOS and Android app stores are core channels for developers. But more recently, third-party marketplaces have emerged that provide a different avenue for developers to sell apps.
AppDirect provides developers with a way to connect with channel reseller partners that are using the platform. In this way, a developer making legal software can point an API to the partner selling the technology. Identity, provisioning and billing are the key endpoints that serve as the foundation for the service.
AppDirect standardized on OpenID but can also integrate with identity solutions such as SAML. The provisioning API allows a channel reseller to offer a service without having to do a custom set-up. The billing API allows for fixed and variable pricing, as well as metered services. Fixed pricing would be a subscription service that charges on a monthly basis. A metered service charges on a usage basis, such as per gigabyte per hour.
AppDirect’s distribution API sends the developer’s information to different marketplaces. The developer then gets charged according to the rates set by the channel partner. Marketplace fees are similar to the app stores with a 70/30 split, which improves for the channel reseller if more services are offered. It might be a 65/35 split or 60/40.
APIs are nascent in the mainstream market, and it will take some time for traditional channel resellers and old-school software providers to adapt. The challenge is in building the developer market and training channel resellers and their customers on this new way of distribution.
API platforms to manage purchases and payments are starting to become more common. 3Scale has this kind of service that it offers out-of-the-box, and Apigee has just launched its own service allowing customers to manage API-driven business efforts that extends from purchase-to-payment of digital assets.
But AppDirect is connecting developers and resellers to different marketplaces, and that seems to me like a different kind of service than what the competition offers.
Google's Got Its Own Lean In, Teams With Politico And Tory Burch For “Women Rule”
Women Rule is a new programming and event series to recognize female leaders and bring them together to give advice to women in politics and business. The joint partnership between politics blog Politico, Google, and women’s support network The Tory Burch Foundation will produce an online media hub and four-part event series in Washington, D.C., that explore the challenges female leaders face.
The initiative shares some ideals with Lean In, the book and campaign by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg that hopes to teach and inspire women to achieve their goals. These issues have entered the spotlight lately, as it becomes clear that there is a lopsided presence of men in leadership positions, especially in technology.
Google’s Susan Molinari, vice president of Government Relations and Public Policy, says, “It is time to have an open discussion about the unique issues women face with our next generation of female leaders.” The Women Rule events in D.C. will include members of Congress, business leaders, entrepreneurs and administration officials and “will examine the steps women leaders are taking to effect change – everything from spurring a movement to passing legislation.”
Politico will launch the Women Rule media hub next month, which will also sell Women Rule apparel, with the proceeds going to charities, including the Tory Burch Foundation.
Google’s clout, as well as its financial and technical support, could give Women Rule a better chance of bringing in high-profile female mentors and making an impact. In the past Google has hosted The Bush Institute’s Women’s Initiative Fellowship Program, and actively promotes that it has women in leadership positions.
Still, Google was dinged in a New York Times article last year for a dwindling of women among its executive ranks. Marissa Mayer had left to become CEO of Yahoo, and other women were pushed out of the inner circle when Larry Page reorganized the executive team. Google has made strides toward keeping a strong female influence, though. It’s reportedly developed algorithms to detect where women were dropping out of job interviews, extended maternity leave, and that ensured female candidates interact with other women during the hiring process.
Getting the Google name more involved with the discourse on success equality through Women Rule could help it recruit and retain top female tech and business virtuosos in a fierce talent market.
[Image Credits: A Celebration Of Women, Eric Draper]
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