Pitch Please

00:18.90
mike_flywheel
Welcome back, everybody to pitch pleases podcast today. We're gonna have a lot of fun. We've got some co-hosts in the room. We got 3 people from dynne I'm excited to get into it. Maybe what we'll do is we'll get Paula our co-host to introduce herself and then we'll rip through the nineteen. Awesome hi I'm Paula campel I I actually work the bike. But closely at Microsoft Supplying startups across Canada shadow bounders up din team. Oh I guess you remind yeah I want to learn what your names are what you do at die. How's it going everybody. My name is Nani Pahande I am the toronto lead for the dime. Company. Um I graduated Ubc. That's where Dne was founded I'm sure ar of and parsley can tell you all about that and I'm very excited. Thank you Mike for having us and yeah, thanks by hello everyone. My name is aov and I'm the founder of Ceo of dying. So. But excited to be here. It's a pleasure to be hosted both by Paulla and Mike and I'm joined by my cco and co-founder parsa over to your par.

01:25.25
Parsa
Yep, my name's parsa I'm the co-founder and cto here at dime I handle all the tech questions and I'll let part of handle all the business questions because those are my in my space. But I think Mike and I have had a bit of a. History going back and forth on azure and botime. So I can we get into that to.

01:40.36
mike_flywheel
Bow ties in Azure Bow tis and azure the weirdest come. So so maybe to learn like I'd love to maybe learn a little bit about how each of you got to die and so maybe the most logical places we'll start with you are not little bit about your background.

01:44.52
Parsa
Are.

01:58.69
mike_flywheel
And don't give away everything about dying when you feel to that part of the destination dialogue. Yeah, but talk a little bit about your own background and sort of where and what inspired you were starting into dying and then I guess logically you guys could decide the order of whatever over you join din on the we'll go there. Yeah, that'd be great. Awesome! Thank you? so. And essentially the story begins when I was about 16 years of age so kind of I pretty 3 by the way so I had my first startup when I was 16 and it was a ed tech company it focused on delivering educational modules towards underprivileged communities in India and it was. Quite fascinating to see how the community can come together and support each other in terms of providing education support and building a friendship a bond which people can pass on from one community to another it also led me to host a lot of different leadership positions in terms of my high school experience where I was. Part of hosting India's largest tech hackathon with over one ah 20000 people coming in executing with a team of 200 people within just three months and currently that event makes north of like $7000000 each year and we were able to do that when I was just 16 and 17 so after my first exit. I came down to Ubc where I met bought parser money and found it dime and I started during the pandemic where I saw that there was a huge market gap in the restaurant space and we thought of you know launching this fun little idea that connects people.

03:28.47
mike_flywheel
Makes my life a lot more easier like my best part of the job is you know I go into a lot of different restaurants make good people eat good food I'm not complaining on big foody and at the same time how these small businesses scale. So that's how time came to be that I was a senior entrepreneur once I always enjoyed building teams. Building communities together and when we saw a problem that was not getting addressed. We thought of getting some of the best foodies some of the best tech people we knew into 1 group telling them that how can we bring value to the small businesses. How can we bring these communities together these people together to build something that goes on for like. Couple of generations in terms of saying that the story started with the community and it made a community that you're proud of so okay, that's the beginning of time that's super cool. Yeah, what was the name of your first start. The first startup was called Awa Atwa yeah like the restaurant you went to last day.

04:23.34
mike_flywheel
Ah, that is ah that's art for this was a t w a and it essentially stood for one of the oldest indian languages which translated it into education for all so art essentially says all and what was essentially education so it was. Something which showed transparency with a lot of indigenousgen and tribal communities in India and then our focus was to make sure that it is very different from most government schemes which is a lot free education and access to education to all, we wanted to make sure that there was open dialogue and the modules were designed to actually create more conversations. And to just you know have a 1 ne-way learning mechanism where the teacher is sharing knowledge so we have the same learn manners first and then learn knowledge next so we started teaching people about how they can go into their lifestyles and livelihoods and build friendships that come together. And after that we started actually sharing the knowledge grace of like you know what is like mats what the science was economics and from there we started building on their careers. So that that's amazing and so um, was naturally I don't know who joined first but box. It was like your first. Dialogue over food I hope oh fara. Why dont you tell the story of how we first met.

05:39.34
Parsa
No, you know it was very way different than that so Anna and I weren't always the best of friends. So my background is in machine learning I'm a published research researcher by trait but I met ar of in my freshman year of university through hacking.

05:45.00
mike_flywheel
Um, and the truth.

05:52.77
mike_flywheel
Ho Ho hold I got I got into I have to publish researcher my trade and started a company when I was I started a company. Oh we're gonna get back to personal person hold on. We're go it back there.

06:04.12
Parsa
Um, I No I'm the research to I just of my yes.

06:07.67
mike_flywheel
Started to 6 with 16 as first started we we should probably set context to how gold you guys are now are now what hell do you know? 23 twenty three parsa you're a published researcher by trip. 20 men. Okay and par still back to you trying prodigies over here.

06:19.38
Parsa
Um, how could I do.

06:24.80
Parsa
No I don I don't know about that I think we just work more than we should. But I met on first year I we were head to head in a lot of these business case compmp and technical hackathon and I'd always you know he'd win one I'd win one and then go back and forth and after some time we figured out that we should just stop trying to compete with each other.

06:27.41
mike_flywheel
Love.

06:43.87
Parsa
And worked together to solve this big problem. So during the pandemic. We saw that you know there's this great resignation. There was a whole ah you know terrible attack happening in the restaurant space in the social networking space and you know the industry experts were turned on their heads. No one had really any idea what to do and so we thought. You know with the increasing labor costs with the increasing sort of set of problems in the world. Can we apply some sort of data analytics to this and so from then on we've been really focused on this ah Ai aspect in driving the restaurant sector and connect people together and bridging the gap in ways that are sort of novel and innovative. Ah, through data through Ai and you know now we're flourishing.

07:24.23
mike_flywheel
So that's the investor pitch but the real pitch is that as inter rails first it sounds like you started as Arch Entit Coal I love to watch this movie actually really is the best end thing ever so gathered to die.

07:29.54
Parsa
Um, more real. Why? yeah.

07:40.82
Parsa
Are.

07:43.27
mike_flywheel
Honestly, like the entire thing like pass is not wrong like it' just a trip that we started as Arch enemies and we were buting heads but then like most college stories. It had a little bit of involvement of ladies in our lives so we decided that if we are you buting heads against each other. We are fighting for not just surprises but also for some similar loved interests and we decided that if dime could be this Concept. You know where you meet people and you dine with them over a glass of wine. It be a fun Idea. So for both our mutual benefits I Guess Parsa and I decided like maybe you know we can.

08:19.32
Parsa
Um, you sleep.

08:20.57
mike_flywheel
But that this platform that allows us to meet good people and by people it was getting faster I did and using the skill set.

08:25.85
Parsa
The arm knows every good decision is how can he get closer to a wife number 3

08:30.78
mike_flywheel
Oh my goodness doesn't like says. So yeah, like the most authentic dating app. You're just like I want eat food anyway and I guess she has those same interests. Well the best part is build a company which uses 30000000 data points and you know what's across my city's mouth and it's fun. But.

08:41.53
Parsa
Um, taken.

08:50.14
mike_flywheel
Real answer was like yes we were arch enemies we came together because we saw that our skillets could actually benefit a community but of course while we did that it was a lot of not just all working hard. Not top boasting about published machine learning researchers or like co onefulness we were also like best of friends and like university. So. That process of like knowing someone becoming friends with them becoming brothers and now co-founders. It has been a journey and through that of course like it was filled with a lot of food. It was filled with a lot of wine and eventually came and dying and I guess that's her money yuke started helping us as well somani joined about a couple of months in to die.

09:23.66
Parsa
Are.

09:27.91
mike_flywheel
Has been a good experience. So what's the book before we go to Mandity Yeah, who won more business competitions. It's sounds. They went back and forth. But my rides are yeah like a sphere winner buy these one goal.

09:35.68
Parsa
Um.

09:38.99
Parsa
I would say that Arna was a better pitcher but he's also a bit but bit better of a biter so he got a little bit ahead something. Yeah.

09:48.61
mike_flywheel
Um, okay so you're gonna admit that he did maybe you win a few more but Arna clearly needed a bunch of skills that you brought to the table to get di rolling. So.

09:55.77
Parsa
Aren those really good at presenting things that look cool and then don't work and I have to come in and fix it up. Make sure.

10:01.82
mike_flywheel
Um, I'm hearing architect plus engineer type dynamics beautiful building and that someone needs to figure on how to build it. Yeah, that's exactly the dynamic of we have So for me, it's like I'm the greeny boy I Ah ideal idealist and he's the hardeyed realist.

10:05.73
Parsa
The fifth.

10:19.61
mike_flywheel
So the fact is that whenever I have a vision I'll say that don't know we can present this in this way I'll go about talking our passion and bringing the ideas together and doing something cool and anovative. But pars is actually the realist he tries to bring me down to reality tells that these expectations can be. These expectations can't be mine that keeps us both like in a balance like the work hard play hard nature. We both have has been able to go across our team building the culture as well. In terms of making shava. We are both. In a way just scaling up rapidly but at the same time we are keeping a head down. We're focused on the details focused on the equality the delivery and making sure that you know you're building something which people would love using and so where did you join in and yeah, so for me, dime was always kind of like in my peripheral because I knew parsa and I knew Arna and I knew Eric. From you know a while ago back in university and it was always I was just was very very curious. They were making a ton of noise around campus and it honestly was just like my curiosity just led me to be like hey what are you guys doing you know and and the more and more I learned about it. The more and more I was intrigued and I realized what an incredible incredible product that they have built and after that the more and more I learned about you know Parsa Arna Eric and the people involved the more and more I started believing in the business.

11:43.82
mike_flywheel
And after that there was no I wouldn't take no for an answer really I knew I had to get involved and you know since then it's it's been amazing. You know after about you know, two months I was leading the sales team and you know the the opportunity for growth was you know there for for me to see. And you know the the team you know luckily they trusted me, um, fast forward six months later and you know I'm halfway across the world halfway across the country and you know leading a team of my own here in Toronto. It's been a very very beautiful time I can't complain at all. That's amazing. So a dying. And my company was in your peripheral vision with an amazing team dying a it that you just having I think yeah oh can't compute with the oven I guess based on with the image that you had in your periphery now being part of it is it what you expected? Oh it's more than I expected honestly.

12:27.95
Parsa
Um.

12:40.23
mike_flywheel
Like I honestly, just saw it as like well look at this student club who's raised a bunch of money. How do they do that like it's pretty cool and now I'm in it and it's a multi you know multi-city multi country business. That's just you know Dis Sky is the limit. It's it's incredible and I see how much work these guys put in. You know like they might come up here and be like oh I'm an ml researcher. Whatever it sounds. But what I've seen the sleepless nights I've seen the stresses I've seen you know how much blood sweat tears these guys put it put in and you know really motivated all of us to to bring it. It's where it is. It goes really saying like it's the team like I mean money has also like you know taken a big challenge off his own. So like I I remember the day he was considering you know coming up to me and talking about toronto and he sits down with me gets me a gin and tonic he knows my drinks. He says that you know. Um, know if you need to give me this opportunity and I want to leave this seat like we have no one there we don't know the city like there's no connection built and in six months he has established a full team of 6 people and he has made connections with over 70 odd clients we have over thousands of users in Toronto.

13:53.97
Parsa
I mean full transparency full. The only reason that arnav said yes to the toronto expansion is because mani says he's gonna get him a date in Toronto so we're still waiting.

13:55.36
mike_flywheel
And at the same time he's.

14:04.55
mike_flywheel
Um, see I'm still sponning that day a few months exactly like he he always says that you know like even coming to this time this week like i.

14:06.62
Parsa
Philip with that.

14:13.14
mike_flywheel
Was expecting something but now my in entire calendars filled with meat but different collaborationions those human sites and those are the dates. It's good I've enjoy I will never know what opportunities lots. There's a lots of 3 things but so fun could they could be looking forward to that they want me. Yeah so I'll do my best for you. Yeah, awesome. Um I left given that din is all about food and drink. What is your favorite place that you've been able to have on the din app that you've gone to I know that you you regularly are in all over Vancouver all over toronto all the cities that you're in regularly. But um. Favorite restaurant that you've put on the diner and it can be at the same place or somewhere completely different. What's your favorite dish hi already you know Parsons I love know what else is you still same I think it's the same as what I think it is but I'm just gonna plug my favorite burger spot in S Toronto it's called burgers fries and forever.

15:01.29
Parsa
Um, the ship.

15:09.72
mike_flywheel
Have you been there. It's next it's on King Street we haven't but the next meetup let's do. We're getting burgers. So yeah, I'm big big burger friend like I've tried all of the burgers I think it wrong, not all of them. But I'm a big burger guy number 1 burger. So it's called burgers fries and fruit and forever. Yeah, so we're gonna try burgers friesing forever and if someone out there knows somewhere that's better like the best burger fries and forever in their mind. We want to hear it and I want those recommendations partially because I want to go try it out and then I think Ben's gonna want to talk to them because. It sounds like his bar is set pretty high what about the and what about there specifically is it that restaurant viber is the food. It's the food a and b like it's just the classic burger place. You know I don't like like those burger places you're going. It's like a mountain and I don't know they're doing some crazy stuff with it just like a. Classic american burger and it's just beautiful and like that's where you're getting. You know you know like I'm also your favorite dish by default. We're not really probably yeah I can't cat I can't you know, look past the burger I don't know why I smash burger yeah slashsh burger smash yeah yeah I what do you like calling burger. What are I like my I need bacon cheese a little bit of lettuce I'm like any like house sauce that like goes well with the burger on on their count. It. So yeah, know not, they're special. Yes house. Yes, nothing else, no ketchup us ever really? no, just whatever their house exactly? Yeah let me see where you going. Let.

16:39.24
mike_flywheel
So burger's fries and firm must have a good house sauce as well. Oh it's lovely. Yeah, it's amazing. Yeah I'll take you. We'll go all right? Who's next Faa will you want to go forward.

16:49.35
Parsa
I mean my swat is the most exclusive restaurant on the din app only because it's not on the production dine absolutely on the test version of Dana we call it. Din's test kitchen and the address is my home address which I won't be sharing on on this podcast.

16:53.50
mike_flywheel
And.

17:03.37
mike_flywheel
Um.

17:05.53
Parsa
But it's thank you whenever Arna and arrog and the team are all hungry. They say parsea cook us some food and the book and made of my house will come over and you know, um I'm I'm a big italian cooker. So I do a lot of that sort of stuff up I recently bought one of these hot ones hot sauce kits. So like there's 11 different levels of spice and I'm gonna be making.

17:24.26
mike_flywheel
So so fun fight about dying. We have this thing called chef challenge so what? essentially we meant was it was a fun thing which started between mepaen Eric so one day while I'm filling out a proper application form on a government portal I misspell.

17:24.62
Parsa
Um, do wings challenges. You'll see those on our Instagram coming up soon.

17:42.64
mike_flywheel
Chief Executive officer as Chef Executiveive Officer. So That's time it seems a way to reference. So So the moment I did that and they got back to us on email and this was like tagged with their entire company and since then this became a joke that you know the chefs the 3 C positions. Would have a challenge to settle some big questions or big arguments. So in dying Essentially whenever there's a big argument or big decision getting made. It's over cooking and over the lot of food so we cook together and we decide a dish on a cuisine which we don't specialize So Let's say Arsa is good at italian. But he's not good that great in Indian food but we give him a chef challenge to Cook Indian and I'll need to tell you That's True. That's True. It's right? So We do a Chef challenge and we ask the team or someone else a completely neutral person to come and actually try the food and while they're trying the food.

18:23.50
Parsa
On the flip side O of his Indian but he can't handle Indian spice like I can So this.

18:39.79
mike_flywheel
We actually also bring the points about discussion in terms of whose ideas are there. What are we trying to compromise what are we trying to work out and within that 1 hour of like just eating we settle that debate and of course we do a poll on whose food was better. The loser essentially has to you know he gets a free bart app that now week. So we like get free food and free barab and the winner has to do all the dishes I mean he got the credit of you know, being the winner and pastsa has been the winner all secretly I met him with sometimes because I don't like drink dishes and I get a barka. But yeah, like the chef challenge has been a fun thing and it is always in the din test kitchen which is like boss has kitchen and fosses. Okay, but you also to name a restaurant like I a next time Paul and I are in Vancouver I want to try out the dying test kitchen. Okay, fun percent. But.

19:29.25
Parsa
Um, this is named.

19:30.64
mike_flywheel
But B what it was like what is your favorite restaurant. Hopefully it's already on the ded app and and still your favorite your favorite meal or your favorite dish.

19:39.83
Parsa
I mean I think it's super cool that we can like discover places that we didn't know about if we didn't have the app in the first place and when restaurants reach out to us saying hey I think we'd be perfect for you. That's the sort of best fit. There's 1 place something I'll go with manis steam of burages joints. It's called juicy Joe burger.

19:54.82
mike_flywheel
Oh I've been there actually.

19:57.40
Parsa
This is a place Arna and I know a knows not he knows it really well because this is our go to late night burger place because we all was working until midnight and then when we want to go out everywhere's close is their juicy Joe which is up mental until two a m so big shout to them and their mushroom blue cheese burger it. It's saved my life many times.

20:14.44
mike_flywheel
I've been there actually par some fantastic burgers after late night in Vancouver is it equally good likely five o'clock in the afternoon or is it like you must go here after i't think I've ever had a burger from I before ten o'clock is yeah.

20:16.10
Parsa
Yeah.

20:27.51
Parsa
This suspected.

20:28.80
mike_flywheel
So honestly I've always had to work after like twelve o'clock midnight so actually taste better like I don't know somehow like there's this charm about having a midnight burger and Juicy Joes and like pares and like these people it's not just the burger. The ambiance of that restaurant is just really great and sometimes you know if you are really in a mood to. Try out something new. Their chefs actually can make some fusion burgers as well because at midnight there not too many people coming in. So if you do happen to go to juicy joes for all the people listening out here in Vancouver. Really definitely ask the chef to you know spice it up or like have some fusion mix this because after. But the chicken burger once there it was one not great, but I would appreciate the so don't get the butter chicken for yeah, but the mushroom blue cheeseburger is really good and sometimes I also ask him to add bacon bites in it so he can do that so mushroom blue cheese with bacon bites is one of the best items I've had. Juicy Joes but yes sparsa like I think that's your favorite spot like I've seen you like every time after Eleven P M if I have to text sparsa you were like oh let's go to juicy jewels and I'm like cool. Let's do it. So it's fine so is burgers your dishes their different dish.

21:24.88
Parsa
Know you.

21:37.63
Parsa
Well I'm not good at making barriers at home. It's I seek it when I go out I make a lot of things I think I've told you spaghetti Carbonarra Ah, some Ah, that's probably my favorite dish for sure.

21:39.40
mike_flywheel
Um, but like your favorite dish kit eat Generally yeah, the last time what was the Pi where we went for for bit be but deep Pe Bey wo that be but there yeah and they there's ah. Um, not normally a spaghetti fan. But what I like there is it was like a different noodle I don't even know describe it. That's called lean on the Italian Liite expert. But I love like the the noodle and the pasta that they had that was a very good cardinara and I think you reinspired me.

22:09.33
Parsa
Um, is this.

22:16.53
mike_flywheel
Because I sort of always look over it on the menu and I kind of like oh it feels heavy and I don't get it and then I had it again when we all ate together and I think you reinspired me to start ordering Caroras and maybe customizing just swapping on the spaghetti bit which is maybe where I had like. Ahergic reaction that an actual allergic reaction just like spagheti just wasn't my thing but Pars says the Italian expert I'd say you've likely mastered pasta. What about we get you a home ba pizza maker like a woodfi The yeah so the home kitchen.

22:35.47
Parsa
The city.

22:44.98
Parsa
I mean I've definitely tried I've had 1 situation where I put the pizza on the grill and then it sort of just bled through stuff the six that stuck to the past is.

22:56.10
mike_flywheel
He's artist such Aro mistake fair enough I did not know he made that mistake that's hilarious. Is we ever get to that the point Maybe we'll get you like custom pizza boxes.

23:05.52
Parsa
You flip it.

23:10.20
mike_flywheel
Actual name of your home restaurant on there. Yeah, but down the line are not what's what's yours so I actually yeah but I was taking the time to paint because there's so many spots I'm a big foolie and um so there are 2 spots in Vancouver which I'm very very like obsessed with.

23:10.91
Parsa
Not be fine.

23:27.91
mike_flywheel
1 of them is my favorite spot to go and 1 of them has my favorite food. So favorite spot to go is something. It's a speak easyy it is known as the blind tiger dumplings and if for the people listening here. You just have to go there and looking to the dumplings menu and order the number 7 after that. It's a magical experience which essentially happens to be 1 of the best cocktail bars I've seen and over 20 odd countries are visited. They get wixel lodges from New York la toronto flying in on every weekends they have live music. And the best part is that while it's a really nice beheasy with different cocktails. The food over there is a lot of authentic street food so you get dumplings you get some bow buns you get like fried chicken and it gives you a vibe that you are in Shanghai because of the. Like the the and theesthetics of it. But at the same time. The food is like shanai street food. So it brings you back there and recently the same group just opened another indian inspired speak easy called Pangira and we have been working with them as well. So if you go there, you will be. Inspired by this fusion experience of both indian and um canadian cuisines in which there's a blend of how different cocktails are made but the food again is a lot of street food. So it is kind of interesting for me to see like coming from India where I have grown up like you're trying the different.

24:58.51
mike_flywheel
Blends of spices, food cultures and diversity from north to south they bring it all together in a sphesy environment while making sure that the authentic taste is not lost so it's one of my favorite spots to go but my favorite dish that actually brings me to where I actually started dying is a place called bosa factory. Some Kings way Vancouver and for people who are listening those sizes essentially a huge indian crep in which it's stuffed with a lot of different potatoes that could be different kinds of meats.

25:29.64
Parsa
Um, a huge Indian crap.

25:33.48
mike_flywheel
I All free cra Sorry you saw you my accident. Okay, so clear as guys say I don't know real word that dont know So um, yeah, so do sucks. Let's just stick with the word do us.

25:37.43
Parsa
Ah, yeah, related.

25:48.87
mike_flywheel
So those are my favorite dish and this place dosa factory has 160 different types of do ahs. It's open from 70 until 3 am m so for all of our early birds and the late night owls. It's the perfect spot. They have. Not change that location in the last twenty years of operation so when you go to that restaurant. It's the same way. It's a self-served restaurant so you have to pick your own gut luminary or water bottles. Whatever you want, but at the same time. The food comes within 5 minutes of you ordering it and amazing. It's under 10 dollars and the amount of food you get for $10 is amazing. So as a student when I was discussing dying my initial discussions with a couple of founding members were overosa and it has been a dying culture. But any new member who is coming towards the leadership position will have a discussion with me at bosa factory so if any if I and I take everyone to do a factory starting from my best friends to my leadership team to my investors because that shows how comfortable you are in a spot which is not too fancy. It is. Just like it's just proper food and service. So they just you know give you good food. They are very polite and the tastes are very different because there's hundred six feet different ways you can make it so every time I go there I try to you know, experiment myself a little bit of food barsa is right though I am not very good with indian spice tolerances.

27:13.10
mike_flywheel
5 my sals is crap. Yes, my son its its yeah. But yeah, those are the 2 spots. So one of them is a speakeasy. My favorite spot to go but my favorite food to have is doas. So yeah I more recommendations and I love it. Paula was yours. So and is it in Toronto or Vancouver I'm curious now this is like gonna be like big the signer of like where fuji should go. You guys started in Dc but Paul is also from Vancouver and now in Toronto so she's like actually experiencing the best of both worlds I am yeah honestly, it's a tough 1 but generally. My favorite restaurants are usually based on the experience of um so one of my favorite places to go is drawing to Burna on queen street all trial. They do fantastic eastern european food but there's always really amazing like local live music. Um.

28:10.86
mike_flywheel
I've been there many times in the summer my favorite memory actually was the first summer that I lived in Toronto I was coming from a blue jays game with about 15 people which is a way too big a party size to be trying to get a table without without a reservation anywhere. Um, show up on a Saturday night at drum toberna with 15 people. And say is there any space that we can come and sit and they say they look at us and say give me give me a minute we'll we'll think of something they disappear and they come back and they're like okay, follow us and they take us through this back hallway up the staircase and it turns out that um, all of the staff. Their break area was this actually gorgeous like rooftop deck. They cleared out and made a table for us so it wasn't actually open to the public but just talk about like the most like welcoming space of like here you can have our space. We'll send it us really really cool live music I love live jazz in particular and just the memory of that August night with like it's warm. Bomy. Gorgeous cocktails. Really good kind of snack food and live music man. He's putting them lot of to contact. Yeah I saw I saw eyes in the corner I was already take though and I've been there many times since they're phenomenal in the summer because their potio is fantastic. And you'll just hear the music going all down queens street as you kind of walk by. Yeah, um, so I'd say restaurant wise for the experience with be them favorite nealla I biasas coming the west coast so anything seafood I'm being thrilled but I got to take 1.

29:40.49
mike_flywheel
Ah, seafood pieea are really good. Yeah yeah okay good choice. Yeah interesting. What about you? My I had to think about this up. Um, so I think close to here in Burlington. There's a place really close to here called borough. Is a taco restaurant I got introduced to it through one of my friends who's cliac and so everything there is just by definition already gluten free. So they use like corn trotillas their tacos are next level and they're really close so I can get them very often. There's literally like a 5 minute drive from here. So it's called Burro. My favorite taco there by the way if you go to boro is the the crispy brussels sprout tockles smooths. So good something really doing um but in toronto area a place actually I hadn't been. Everyone was sort of talking about it. It's called Bibos Bebo fantastic the vibe there when we're talking about like ambiance and stuff. Yeah, the the vibe there is like super cool and I was just looking up like my favorite inner menu item. There is the wag you lemnet ping and it is super good. It's sort of like a flatre with like my new people on insight. So delicious, but none of those are my favorite dish. The thing that I love my favorite dish and I will try it everywhere across the world actually ever no it is a pasta there's a pasta and I do have like a rating system I've tried it all around the world in like Poland and Prague Portugal Croatia toron.

31:01.82
Parsa
Any governor.

31:16.40
mike_flywheel
Where is like a truffle pasta and I love truffle and so especially if it's like a truff truffle you like Yoki is like but I don't discriminateate him so far. Probably my favorite truffle pasta has been at a place called piano piano. Yeah they're like up there. There's a place that my first like my number 1 number 1 is a place and I I couldn't even tell you the name honestly I don't remember the name of it. It was a place that we went to in in Poland along vacation this summer and that's like my number 1 truckle pasta dish that was my favorite but. In the top 3 almost every time has been the truckle pasta at piano piano so also great with fire pizza. There. They they do up great with fire pizza. But and I thought at first it was like I went to piano piano for the first time for a wedding and the wedding wanted like you could order anything else like there. Fixed menu and I ordered the truffle pasta. So at first I thought it was like okay, it's like there's weddings was part of the vo I got a couple of drinks I thought I was that so and I tried it again and it's it's hit every time so it slaps as they say that's translate as they say cool. Well I think now we know what everyone likes to eat i'm. So I need we have coffee and water. Um, let's look a little bit more about Dyingme like we'd be around the bush people at this point definitepo. You know it's about food and and getting art updates. But let's let's.

32:37.77
Parsa
Um.

32:51.96
mike_flywheel
Cross the chasm into learning about the the startup and the way we do that are not your best pitch. Please awesome Well so that is a machine learning based saas company and which is focused in the restaurant industry we provide insights to restaurants to improve the. Predictions in terms of Mv forecasting pricing analysis and inventory management. Um customer sentiment analysis and much more we currently operate with almost 700 clients across 5 cities of Toronto Vancouver at Martin Calgary Seattle and it's for everyone starting for mom and pop shops your local ca cafes in your neighborhood to even big chains like old Starbucks who are using our software to making a lot of different recommendation patterns. The entire problem started during the pandemic like I mentioned par and I were marketing heads about different competitions and not getting end updates. But he saw that during the pandemic the entire restaurant industry was quite badly impacted. There was lots of stuff. Lots of jobs revenue and people went towards bankruptcy and and every other tech company wanted to focus in terms of deliveries and focusing on pos systems for payment gateways. We saw what if we actually helped the restaurants scale their operations getting people back in providing that hospitable experience of enjoying a meal in the last you know, 5 minutes we have been hearing people talk about the best spots and doubt the entire purpose is the experience you get in a restaurant the vibes you get from it and that.

34:18.88
mike_flywheel
You know appeals to you calling the restaurant maybe a home and we wanted to make sure that restaurant owners and managers get the same feeling when they're servicing their best loyal clients. But also when a new client walks into the same door. Using our analytics feature. We have allowed restaurants to not only manage their staffing and inventory management but also focus on the pricing recommendations focusing on their different strategies and entering the market and while we did that we thought of you making this a little bit fun. So people mar us stuff are but some our people food communities. So in order to do that. We thought a business is like a magic trick when everybody considers that the magic is happening upfront. It's actually the magicians assistants in the backend who are actually getting jobed up so dying into the entire world is known as a foodies app we host a v two c mobile app with over 20000 users across these 5 cities who go around town exploring the best spots having the best experiences through our quest and engaging chat features. But while they're trying to find these. They're also building a dataset and data pipeline. This allows us to become a data company that provides the insights towards these restaurants helping them scale their operations. So. It's everyone. It's just a foodies app but the real business is on scaling the restaurants and supporting them by providing internet-driven decisions that can allow them to scale their community. They're part of and local businesses. Really appreciate it because every restaurant is a testament to a local economics success if people are spending in a restaurant it showcases that.

35:45.10
mike_flywheel
Community is thrive people are liking going out the livelihood is that the lifestyle is there and that goes on to say that we need to enjoy good food for people and the concept for simple, everyone loves food food connects people and we just made it effortless bringing the 2 world together sharing our culture sharing our love for food and making sure that people can enjoy this experience. While you were getting to one on this that time. That's awesome. You walked through, but's just because you were up so early just everyone know partis that on the west coast is up for six o'clock this morning. So thank you para for joining us. So.

36:09.65
Parsa
Um I cry. Yeah.

36:24.26
mike_flywheel
Um I Love to actually kind of jump a little bit more into you spoke with the B Two B and the bc side of things. Yeah for some of the listeners that are maybe interested in in dying and actually using it. Can you walk through what that's like on on the consumer size. Absolutely so.

36:24.55
Parsa
Um I Love to know.

36:42.56
mike_flywheel
First of all shameless plug download a dyn app to get the best experience. It's available on both app la server as well as the Google play store there we go so I already see my on the app. So the app allows people to. Establish their core interests as well as based on their regions. Their preferences. We start recommending them different spots. These restaurants can vary from mom pop shops to some scalups like local dinas which have couple of locations to enterprise clients like Starbucks ears joy cactus which is across the country. People can meet new people. They can meet their new friends and while they're using the app they have a reward system. It's like air miles or hotel points where you keep earning points and the best part about dying is that you can redeem it across anywhere you want so it might happen that you might enjoy your morninging Starbucks coffee five days in a row. And automatically by Saturday of enough points you go to Joey's or cactus to get a free pasta already truffle pasta like my says so we created this entire platform based on 1 thing that the community comes together in this engagement. So the best feature of dyinging on the mobile app is the quest feature. This is a machine learning feature which creates. Different challenges for you to find different hidden gems of the city. It allows people to hop different places. Try different food different cuisines while of course it takes into their tastes and references. We know that you know Michael here likes some italian food and some pastass it might the app might send him on a food crawlwl to try and free italian spots.

38:11.16
mike_flywheel
And also maybe a dessert place or to towards the end of the night while making sure that he is staying within his community and locality. So he doesn't have to travel too much I mean nobody wants to travel from Burlington to downtown toronto on a Thursday and the traffic is speak but at the same time the app makes sure that you are around your posts ones. So. Whenever you try some new spots and you're trying some you know, really good experiences your friends get updated about it as well that you know let's say Paul tried this amazing Burga joint and she says that it's the best in Toronto. So automatically your friends get to hear about it. Maybe mine gets jealous and finally decides to drive down from verlingin. Words's down on true under to try as far and when he does that he earns points 0 point everyone is happy and this happens across different cities as well. So starting from students working professionals families. We have different sets of users who use Dyme not only to bring people together but also have this experience of trying new things. Getting out there being a little you know, adventurous and seeing what the food burn can offer and of course that creates this one whole community i're really proud of and that goes to thank all our users by the way. So if you're the twenty thousand number one user that will be my pleasure to host your one of wife's favorite spots as well. So so talk me through invite. I'm got the app opened right now and the general person would start by going to quest when meetups. Yeah, and ah, what I want to understand a little bit is as ah as a consumer user of the app.

39:41.20
mike_flywheel
What you're saying going to these places like do I have to open the app and do something at those places should I create a meetup should I'll start by picking the restaurant like how would someone start to use it when I when I kind of first open it up. What's the best first experience to try out to get the most value of the dinout. Thank boy, you're up.

39:59.80
Parsa
I Will really depend it really depends on sort of what kind of cadence using the app and you know meetups are great for people who already have those friend circles established and the best and favorite spots already known you just makes it easier to go go to those places and get rewards for them. So those people who are sort of.

40:00.65
mike_flywheel
Give me the walkthrough.

40:18.94
Parsa
You know veterans in their city and know all the hidden gyms they go start to the meet ups but people who are maybe new to the city. Maybe they're a little bit younger. Maybe they don't have that strong network maybe looking to make some friends looking to find new places they go to our quest feature as the first stop and say what's the sort of you know Best place that fits me in my interest. And they find those likeline individuals along those quests and scaard hunts and adventures they go on that allow them to sort of make those connections and find those places that become their you know their Tuesday hangout spots or their Sunday branch places and so it depends on what market we're we're trying to service and we we're we been able to you know, have that you know.

40:45.77
mike_flywheel
Are.

40:54.10
Parsa
Ah, daily active cadence that monthly I cadence depending on the different types of users we have and you know we're looking to always help you know more types of users find their their foodie. Love.

41:02.78
mike_flywheel
So and at this point I guess I can give a sneak peek to something which is coming upward buying this month so even if you're not a a tech savvy person who doesn't like to you know, have hundreds of apps on their phone d can still be 1 of the things which helps you ah d is building this new. And that feature where no matter which restaurant or where you go in which city the moment your name or your phone number is associated with your profile you automaticallying just walk into a restaurant and you know just give down your phone number in your name and it will automatically pull up what kind of foodie you are. What cuisines do you like? what is your preference in terms of drinks and if you are long customer of a certain place. Let's say all over here is a til four customer and she loves to go to the same spot again and again like a couple of times a month. She will automatically be allowed to skip the lines. She'll be given her favorite table by the window. They've asked a wine. Automatically within a couple of minutes and we are doing this without the app. Even so we always say regardless of what their feeds ever everywhere and food connects people. So we're trying to build this and that feature regardless of the app people can use da as a method to walk into any store. Any place get the same experience because for dying. It's all about making sure that they get the best experience inside the restaurant and restaurant owners have access to our platform which provides them the insights on which customers are working in. So whether you're a foodie who is tech savvy to use the app. Buy some new spots or if it's just your you know, local neighborhood italian diva which you keep on going in.

42:33.15
mike_flywheel
Is the every step of the way so come down with us very cool I'd love to know because I'm I'm but actually creating my account right? Yeah as you're speaking I just downloaded the app. Yeah, um, why I'd love to learn more about kind of the the questions that's learning a little bit more about Mevo Movies Tv Music pets I love that it's asking.

42:52.30
mike_flywheel
All these questions. How how does that kind of inform my my dying experience. So it's so like I mentioned earlier.

43:01.70
Parsa
About you. Can't ask these kinds of questions. It's it's too too technical for these kinds of these ah podcasts.

43:05.10
mike_flywheel
Well, the tank guy go for it is the simple dig keep it simple. Let's see.

43:12.20
Parsa
Essentially we look at all your different interests and sort of usage patterns outside of the app integrating your social media and those preferences there but also seeing what people in your commuting your network are also you know meeting up at where they're going to. But their interests are in finding those small communities that are most similar to you and recommending you people from them in the networks of restaurants that they go to as those sort of first points and then you know same same way how you have Linkedin which as people you may know we have restaurants you may know we have we have quests you may know we have many different events that you may know about. And that sort of helps to build that organic network from this booty lens.

43:48.89
mike_flywheel
And course awesome. So when you guys think about customers actually maybe like when you think about what problem you're solving if you dial back to what you were saying but the original problem statement. Revolves around helping restaurants thrive yes, and so are they I guess in any double sided marketplace you still have to pick 1 place to start? Do you start with the end user of the app. Or the restaurant to to get the ball rolling and I think I kind of know the answer based on what Manny's here in Toronto doing but to make the app successful and to to make a market successful. Do you start with the restaurants or do you start with the users of the app. So. It's like catch cranyduce situation. It's a chicken and the egg problem which many many companies have seen for us. It was first delivering our value propositions towards our customers and clients that was restaurants. We first tried to make sure that they are ready and capable of servicing their customers. And if we are servicing our customers and empowering them to service their customers. We are indirectly getting towards the b to c vertical. So it's a b to b to c strategy which we loved and our team is more focused in terms of building good relations with these spots because when we are giving them recommendations on the machine learning algorithm is giving a recommendation there.

45:20.11
mike_flywheel
Making some kind of a decision that decision not only impacts their business but also impacts the hundreds of customers which will be walking through that door so we want to make sure that our relationships with those clients are secured once we are able to secure that relationship. We have the trust we are able to make the experience in that restaurant better. And once the experience gets better when the people are coming in. They enjoy a good time when they enjoy a good time. The trust and relationship of that customer with that restaurant becomes better and indirectly the customer's dining experience becomes better with dying and that's when we focus in terms of focusing on our activations on the b toc communities. Starting from 2525 brusy visas to dying festivals to networking events yacht parties and lot more events which can bring people together have good food and vibes. So we are calling it wine and dime which actually is a method of us making sure that our users feel that they are. Getting engaged and of course while all of this is happening. Our users can still get access to thousands of different Coupons every day can get more than you know hundreds of different recommendations on places they should try out and get the best 9 experience but in terms of establishing the business model and how we scaled across these 5 cities. It was first building the relationships and the trust with our clients. Ensuring that they are ready to serve their customers because if we empower them to serve their customers. Our users feel that they're getting the best 9 experience when they walk in so whether they have the app or not this time for everyone in this place that makes sense and so many you've been here in Toronto for how long kind of setting the foundation because everything started in in Vancouver.

46:56.10
mike_flywheel
And so and then you expanded to Edmonton you said was market was was that the secondary market. Yes, so we started from bank with London to Calgary. Yeah with Seattle and now in toronto. Yeah, so you're in Toronto. Ah, how long have you been kind of setting the foundation for the market in Toronto and yeah how's that going? Yeah so i. Moved out here in in September and you know immediately I looked you know our bread and butter in terms of ah from the b to c angle is always students and the reason is because students are broken hungry and stuff it kind of makes sense to go after people, you know to feed them and help them save money right. So immediately I started you know, creating contacts and all the universities that we have here in Toronto York University Duke of te tmu we're looking at Waterloo next um, and from there you know I've we've we've really started to build a community like. Like there is in Vancouver around the idea of you know, sharing time over food. Um, and and you know really enjoying that experience of of restaurant going as as we always have um and obviously you know from there we can then shift that focus onto the restaurant side where you know. As much as you know and it is about like the customer experience and enjoying that like we we are helping people improve their livelihoods and I think that's like a ah big thing that you know Drew drew me in in the first place as well is that you know during the pandemic. We saw people lose their lives over over something like this right? You know they lost everything.

48:29.78
mike_flywheel
Ah, restaurant goess downhill. They lose everything and we we I saw the potential of stopping them from ever happening again while helping these people you know, really thrive in their businesses and you know all the while you know, keeping everybody else happy in terms of you know their restaurant going experience. So since then you know it's been about you know, reaching out to those clients that may need the help as well as you know obviously dealing with the bigger, the bigger brands as well. Of course you know it's it's only natural but but for me, that's that's been ah, it's been a key factor as well helping those smaller businesses scale to to their potential. And you definitely have just from seeing science growth. It's been exponential. You were just talking about this yesterday in the last couple of months in Toronto and across Canada I'd love to know like growing a business I can imagine is a huge amount of work like was what were some of the biggest challenges you found over I guess the last year or so what are you most proud of. The business has been successful in achieving. Biggest challenge is getting poor. But yeah going back to the biggest challenge I guess where nine started my team presently is either is all of us are under 25 years of age and most of us are still in university. Graduating soon. So the biggest challenge was convincing both our professors investors shareholders that we can build a business while in school and it is not the first time someone is doing it. We have seen unicorns. We have seeing billionaires who started their lives when they're 18 or 19.

50:01.15
mike_flywheel
I'm pretty sure they are more successful people even gather than me these days. The fact about managing time managing responsibilities while making sure that you're giving the commitment the passion and a dedication. It needs was something all of us struggle and it's not just me as a founder or even like money as one of the readership members. All of us had to go through this process of coming together and understanding what each 1 of us does but the best success also came with that thetact growth of nine like I was talking about it yesterday in a couple of events that and January Twenty Twenty two we had 3000 users and printee locations. January Twenty Twenty three we have 20000 users in 700 locations the growth of twelve months is exponential. We have made at least 20 times revenue growth as well. It has been possible because of the team. This team is the driving force behind dying. It's not the vision. It's not the techy boy with machine learning research papers. It's the theme which drives each day to do something. They're passionate for and the best part about my team is that they are hungry. They love to dine out which means that they love working in a different dynamic which allows them to work across cultures diversity time zones. That's all fixed working hourss for 9 like we sometimes have our meetings in boardrooms and we also enjoy doing meetings in sports bars and thbs while sitting around the table and discussing your ideas. The team's success in terms of managing their commitments their passion, their interests and also focusing on the professional growth opportunities taking you know risks.

51:30.27
mike_flywheel
And challenges in terms of you know, excited money I'm super impressed because he took a challenge that he would do something nobody in the team did go move out to a completely new city of a 0 resources zero help. Yes, he had my support and parses support but fact is that. Coming to and no one knows him establishing a brand setting up shop and now building relations which is helping us scale quickly that was the risk he took and this risk in terms of managing all thiss responsibility while was a challenge for some of us about six or seven months ago as students is now our biggest strength that we are able to manage this. And that goes on to showcase towards our clientele as well that we are able to service different types of people starting from the moment pop shops who like sitting down with me personally discussing an r's and rs on what strategies they should do to the big scale ups and the enterprise lines who will not even spare 15 minutes on a phone call but make millions of dollars of decisions we have been dying to be serviceable for all and that is what gave us this success and came out to be our biggest strengths so we had the saying in our team. Every crisis is opportunity in the sense which means that no matter how many challenges we have hit as students. We have always come across and I guess that's the best part of you know, being young agile. And also adaptable that we are vulnerable towards these things but the vulnerability makes us strong as the team. It makes us far more powerful unites us and of course there's food on the table. So why won't we come around and you have some invites and get some drink The good news is we've got Mannie's back now.

53:00.66
mike_flywheel
He's got you know some people now in the of gta obviously's got a dowtown foodie if you ever everyones to come expand out to the suburbs that've got you I love you all the full spots in burlington red water ontario I'm ready for barely oh like the team just sounds dynamic. Yeah, very yeah, it rubs up on. Thank you Mike. What are there competitors in this in this space like is is like touch bistro or ritual like are they competitors complimentary. How does how does that work for you. So that's actually the smartckpot about diet. So while many people have tried building an app for foodies. Nobody focused on the restaurant site and the folks are on the restaurant side are too busy focusing on deliveries and payment gates. So we decided on bridging that gap so currently Dane has built partnerships with over 7 different us companies including Taoistsro Lunch Box so square lot more other different tech companies in which we are telling them that hey we will use your software as a ps terminal and we'll build your business if you use Dyn as well. So everybody gets to din with us and at the same time on the btoc side we are providing users a value in terms of not just giving them free coupons and experience. But we're building that loyalty factor that when they go into the restaurant. They get a better experience and that is what mo incentivizes users but monetizes restaurants and this strategy has been unique in our good market thing and that is what led to the growth as well. Possibly not anything.

54:30.63
Parsa
Yeah I mean you got all the points. Essentially we centralize all these different integrations for these restaurants so we act this really big customer data platform and analytics engine and of course the users get the benefit of having all the different restaurants which each had their own loyalty systems all in 1 app. All you know transferring across each other so they can redeem. Reading points in 1 place and earn points at next points.

54:53.16
mike_flywheel
I love the the strategy on partner versus compete. Um, and so in that regard I noticed when signing up for the app a long time ago and and using it and Paul prices to us now. It's free for users if anything as ah as a consumer user of the app. You're only benefiting from also like you're paying nothing and you're getting coupons deals points that you can use towards things so who where do you guys make moneys this just like gary I know I know you're super into like philanthropy. But where where.

55:21.55
Parsa
Every date I get online. He gives me a $10000 check that's that's my salary.

55:26.29
mike_flywheel
Like it. So yeah, where where in this cycle. Do you make make your money So Dyn's entire business model is focused on the restaurants we focus on providing restaurants The entire data set to make decisions and this makes D in a data company and as most data companies we have a saas model.

55:40.37
Parsa
Um, right.

55:45.23
mike_flywheel
Which means that restaurants pay us a monthly fee in terms of scaling up their operations and they also get a choice of choosing what they want to do so. It's like buying a car when you're buying a car you pay a base fee but at the same time you can have all the add-ons the extra rims the colors the spoilers and that allows you to get a better experience. So we're buying the basic deal just starts seventy bucks a month something which is pretty much negligible for a restaurant. It's like 1 checkup 1 small table check and while they get on the platform for seventy bucks a month they can get access to machine learning features that have forecasting the expansion strategies for another couple of hundred dogs and that gives them the best experience. Based on what their business needs and this is allowed 9 to build a trust as well as a huge retention on our business model. So in our entire operations we have had a retention of over 76% and at the same time in terms of building new cliental. Our sales funnel is. Overflowing so we have a four hundred and fifty percent sales funnel right now with a conversion of 92% from that sales fund impressive which allows us to get customers at a low price point but give them more better experiences as they add on different services. So the saas revenue model is what focuses on dying providing the value experience to the restaurants. And in our entire you know growth strategy. We don't want to charge users because as a student I've been broke and I've not been getting dates thanks to parsa so I've decided the app will be free and the app will provide the best experience because we want to make sure that when someone is passionate about food. They should not be paying for an app they should be paying for that experience.

57:19.38
mike_flywheel
And that means that they should be going to grid restaurants trying the best food getting the best experience and if the restaurant makes good money. We also make money so we want to make sure that you guys have the best experience in getting out there and enjoying while you're dining out with us another thing so looking forward. Yeah, the next 6 to 12 elve months as the business begins to scale and grow what matters what's important what tools have you been using to to grow and kind of wears your head out ah on what's next in the in the scale strategy. Awesome.

57:49.35
Parsa
I mean my biggest on the next six months is to go on a meet up with Taylor Swift but you know that's sort of a I i.

57:55.81
mike_flywheel
Um, that now real goals Please that's Parse's goal. What's dine's goal I think.

58:06.65
Parsa
That's goal I mean you know I can speak through it from the tech side for for sure you know there's always an aspect of trying to get bigger and and better insights and having you know using the the data and in in wiser ways and so you know we'd lucky enough to work with with Mike and azure in in growing our our ml infrastructure. Into these new sort of cutting edge algorithms to help with stuff like you know where are you going to put your next location at a restaurant. How can I better understand each of my customers within different demographics segments and you know can we even expand this to different verticals from rest from the hospitality industry from tourism from events and sort of looking into. Not just you know multi-city expansion but cross-vertical expansion as well.

58:46.65
mike_flywheel
And from a business standpoint business is about people. It's about bringing people and cultures together. So our big vision for the next 12 but twelve months is to have 9 in every pocket across North America it's an ambitious strategy but at the same time we want to make sure that everyone using this app gets the same value. Whether you are in a small city or within in a large you know corporate town. You have the same experience of enjoying the best wheelals and coming together with the people you love while we're doing so we want to drive decisions based with data. So a data-d driven decision comes from pars's point about building better algorithms with precise information and telling them. Theyre transferring truth. Your business is not doing well, you should be aware of it. You should not be walking towards bankruptcy when the pandemic hit and saying that oh my goodness I'm gonna shut down my businesses and come down on jobs you should be prepared to take that hit if your business is doing better. You should know where exactly you can expand should you be expanding into Miami should you be going global and going towards you a european market. We want to make sure that these decisions are precise and are allowing people to make some kind of new you know ventures for themselves in the business world and while we're doing so of course the people who are coming together due to this initiative creates more jobs more employment creates more good experiences and happiness around that in my community. So everything about our vision is to make people fall in love with food once again, you want to bring people over food and people like food in general. So if someone is not a foodie I don't know what they do so I like I like to say the concept is sinful. Always people like food food connects people. Let's bring them together and make it effortless.

01:00:22.53
mike_flywheel
People are listening right now and they want to help what's sort of like your your next set of help needed where people can help I guess one of the things will be download the din app and try so we'll make sure to link that but are there any other ways that people can help. Or you know, send us your favorite restaurants. Okay, yeah, and is there is there one on the yeah is there a formal way to to do that. Absolutely you can you can you know, follow us on all our social channels starting from Instagram Twitter Linkedin Facebook. We are always available to take recommendations and on the din app. There's gonna be a new feature which allows you to drop a location a ind about your favorite restaurants and it's our challenge you get that restaurant signed up within thirty days so that you can have the best dining experience across your own neighborhood so we will be building that feature in the next ninety days we be allowing and guys I like I need you know one that feature so a box and our I said it. It's a promise so you know you'rey with b one on backcu.

01:01:29.11
Parsa
Um, it's just like the hackathons you say something they got a building.

01:01:32.00
mike_flywheel
But that's the best vision. So if people want to help us. We need recommendation for restaurants down the d app and while you're at it explore some new spots and tell us about your favorite spot. Whether it's on our socials or through the dy app we'll make sure that we get that spot around you so you can get the best time experience. And for people youngster is listening to it if you're interested in joining the team join this movement do reach out to me personallyly I think I'll let Mike share my yeah welcome information. Whatever it is gonna be most convenient. Yeah I think in in the show notes we'll definitely include something around how to how to download. Sounds like there'll be recommendations. We'll probably try to help man out here in his expansion and conquering of the toronto region to make sure anybody that has either recommended restaurants or even connections into great restaurants and I can already think of amazing people that might be interested in driving some introductions in the in the toronto market and then. Hiring across all markets. Are you distributed team is there a specific area where where you're hiring today? Yes, okay.

01:02:30.68
Parsa
I mean right now can anywhere across Canada or in the west coast of the US as well as we should doing the East Coast expansion the next seven to nine months so sort of those areas are biggest points of interest.

01:02:39.79
mike_flywheel
What what type of roles. Are you guys? Really what type of people are you do you need? The first criteria is they need to be foodies. Okay, you lunch with foundation step one I was like step 1 of like getting a job with die and step on a scale.

01:02:54.79
Parsa
With fill your receipts at 5 different restaurants and then you can apply to the job.

01:03:01.93
mike_flywheel
Um, yeah, because when I step out of scale. You'll know on the food. But so we're hiring across Canada and at the same time on the East Coast we're looking for both technical and non-icable positions. The tech team is rapidly hiring in terms of finding engineers who are passionate about building a app while making sure that they are providing insights and data-dri decisions. So we're looking for backend engineers we're looking for frontend engineers full stack developers qat qc folks and at the same time. The business units are always looking for marketing reps. So we are making sure that a marketing team is scaling up. It requires both kinds b two d marketing for building a better brand management strategy at pr campaigns b two c team which is no focus on activation events and actually engaging with people. We hire everyone from you know, recent grads to even high school students providing them opportunities to grow. Because we don't feel like you know food discriminates anyone. So if you're a foodie that's the biggest idea you can apply with us. You need to be passionate. You need to be excited about exploring spots and meeting new people so be vulnerable to change. Get ready to try some good food and you get to din with us I love it actually just. We're starting to come to a couple things of rap but part of what I maybe there's a value in adding even like how we all know each other so and today's podcast that you can probably tell the dynamic has been amazing. We've been engaging with dive for for quite some time. Um I don't know if you guys want to talk about how we all met and paula how we all go.

01:04:25.62
mike_flywheel
Why Paul is the co-host how this all kind of came together and so how how we're working on this on this vision of expansion together I think it all started with the borka. So time I think I mean the beginning of the podcast but we did mention it was a about bote is in ajare. So ah.

01:04:38.57
Parsa
Um, you think.

01:04:45.30
mike_flywheel
As a young startup. We have been always looking for mentorship and looking for partners which can collaborat with us and this year we had an opportunity of meeting Microsoft c during the fall and that's how we came across this program called the founders of program in which our experience has been amazing. It has been. Dynamically fabulous and we have been working with their teams in terms of setting up our entire technical backing structure with azure 2 founders of we got mentorship access across business and tech units. We were able to reframe our good market strategy have our expansion growth and while all of that was going on. Parsa's team focused on actually delivering on the technical milestones. We started working with the Microsoft teams and moving towards the Microsoft Partner Network in which now d is essentially on azurere I can successfully say the mibration was completed and it has been tested across our different clientles.

01:05:37.11
Parsa
Yeah, yeah.

01:05:42.37
mike_flywheel
Whichtro building a scalable platform which is secure which is robust and is that is providing the same experience across our clients across the world now and while we build this relationship with Microsoft. We also came to dine with them so there has been multiple meetings in which we have had a chance of meeting Paula Mike across a couple of food meals in the table and 1 of such meals which actually got us together was the botai incident Martin Paul I were visiting Baco for one of the events and the dinme team had the pleasure of hosting them so we went to this italian spot where it again comes back towards the spaghettis the truffle. Pastass and we had a chance of getting to know each other in that incident I guess to the listenersless out here. Mike who doesn't like wearing Boais is now a vivid fan of bota is voai fan. Yeah yeah, so had farsa offered his voai for the formal event that was happening formal dece that was happening that evening. That started this unique journey in which we both develop a friendship a mentorship and people we can you know reference across the country. So whatever I'm in Toronto it becomes a ritual now I guess to visit these 2 guys and over there in Vanco we love to dine with them. So yeah, it has been something fun and I guess this goes back to what I mentioned. It's quite simple food brings people together and we started with this vision that through dying we're able to bring people together whether it's professionals across the country with different backgrounds different experiences or it's even you a couple of university kids trying to find dates like here and varsa. There's something for everyone in dying.

01:07:14.58
mike_flywheel
Love it. Well Paula thank you for sending off the first meal they got me to meet this team where parsa hooked me over the bow tie which made me look super smiffy. You shouldn maybe be crosses.

01:07:21.91
Parsa
I just wonder like you know if I give like Joe Rogan a bow time I go to be on that podcast too. Like if you're that's my only way.

01:07:29.62
mike_flywheel
She might be onto something but now I'm a bow ti fan and then obviously shout out to to anyone that is you know a startup whether you're just writing your idea on an napkin or you're massively scaling up I think we'll connect. A link for you to connect with Paula who leads everything around founders have and startups at Microsoft a little show. Note um, what? what? I love to do in the end of this podcast and so many are not parsley. You guys are gonna have to select who you think is going to be the best at this? um. But saying pitch please podcast. Really bad back to back is actually quite tough and so what we do at the end of every episode is we get someone? Usually it's the founder. But in this case, you guys can pick who and we see how many times they can say pitch please podcast fast. Without tripping up. What's the record. Ah so the other funding I do is I never tell anyone what number is and so they have to listen to all the other podcasts or an competitive person to see what the tally is that's evil is good right? It's like thearian integrated so whoever wants to go. You just let me know who it's gonna be. You could have some water make sure you're not too parched and then and then we'll do a countdown and you can start whenever you want I excited friends I'm down to bully par so a little bit.

01:09:00.25
mike_flywheel
Farley price all eyes on the all eyes on the tv farsa please pitch.

01:09:01.91
Parsa
Okay, so I'm just saying pitch please podcast pitch please podcast pitch please podcast pitch please podcast pitch please podcast pitch please Podcast Piy podcast pitch these five but little bit of the the flip.

01:09:16.92
mike_flywheel
What are you reading like 9 I'll do 9 those 9 or die we young nine I can't tell you where 9 sits in the rank. Ah I can tell you you may not be the best but you're also not the worst where you rank you will have to have to see um team. Thank you so much for coming by today I love the dynamic of having some of these also be here in person. So thank you so much for making the time and Paula thanks for being an amazing co-host I want to do so many more of these with co-host. It's like such a better dynamic anything that anyone wants to add before we before we close out.

01:09:49.74
Parsa
Um, Shallo died.

01:09:52.35
mike_flywheel
Download a di that but there. So yeah, no, this is fantastic. Honestly, it's been a privilege watching dime grow over the last year really so thank you for letting us be part of the journey and actually as part of the podcast I'd love to ask. What other startups. Do you think we should talk to you next dressing. So and you can connect us after but now they're gonna get some free airtime on. Yeah, who do you want to spotlight. So. There's this startup based out in New York okay they are scalup as well. It's called humbly and their founders have been actually mentoring me as well. So they're are in fintech and that's all I'm go to sing because I guess it's their show to talk. Okay, okay so I employ another one. Yeah plug another one Juna Health also also based on in Europe and mentoring us as well. They're about sti testing I know they're doing a great job and any canadian startups. Oh.

01:10:50.34
Parsa
Until you.

01:10:51.79
mike_flywheel
I want I like we're all Canadian I Really want bring the vibe back to the Canadian serup scene as well I and you they I see parts that like he's on edge. He knows like all these people I ah.

01:10:59.42
Parsa
Um I have this I mean my mind my go to is always this ah 9 second news by app. It's called vol and they're not canadian yeah not I'm aware but canadian startups.

01:11:05.79
mike_flywheel
Um, well that they know they're they're indian they they not even so yeah, but I have a good indian startup. Yeah and I'm just gonna say the name. Yeah, it's gonna be up to you guys to figure out. It's called seco.aithey are building something fun. So you guys might check them out. Okay, se ai all right? We're gonna check out out all these I love it. Yeah we're also probably goingnna try to link up a couple other Vancouver ones that Paula Paula knows soon. Everyone. Thank you so much for coming by. Thank you for braving the drive this morning. The traffic wasn't too bad. Hopefully the coffee and water were good. We're gonna do some the most as butdy forgot to pick up maybe on the next one they'll give you a reason to come back. Parses are gonna have to join on the next one and we'll go get some truffle pasta probably know I later drink them on your creat do like no sweet.

01:11:52.31
Parsa
Michelle.

01:11:54.57
mike_flywheel
All right? Thank you everybody for teaching in again to the pitch please podcast catch you all on the next episode. Thank you.

01:11:59.27
Parsa
Thanks everybody.