This Startup is Quietly Bringing AI to Local Restaurants
AI is not the first thing most people associate with small restaurants. But a company called Owner is working to change that. It now powers over 10,000 restaurants across the country, helping them handle mobile orders, improve websites, automate marketing, and compete with larger chains.
Owner recently raised 120 million dollars in a funding round that brought its valuation to one billion. Investors include Meritech Capital, Headline Growth, Redpoint, and Day One Ventures. Several prominent angels also joined the round, such as the CEOs of Instacart, Sweetgreen, and CAVA.
The company was founded by Adam Guild, who built his first website to help his mother’s dog grooming business. He later launched Placepull, which became Owner. Guild is a Thiel Fellow and a Forbes 30 Under 30 alum. He started the company in 2018 and has grown it steadily, bringing in investors like Sean Rad and Kimbal Musk during the early stages.
Turning AI into a Real Tool for Restaurants
Owner offers a set of digital tools that let restaurants build a website, launch a mobile app, run email campaigns, and manage loyalty programs without needing to code. The system uses AI to pull data about a restaurant from the internet and create a full website in under a week. That site includes built-in ordering and delivery features. Unlike other platforms, Owner takes a smaller cut of delivery sales.
The service also includes photo enhancement for menu images, AI writing tools for website copy, and regular suggestions to boost performance. A monthly subscription costs 499 dollars. Getting started is free and only requires entering a restaurant’s name.
One of Owner’s newer features is a set of AI assistants that act like virtual executives. They can answer questions, make suggestions, and even take action when something changes in the restaurant’s data. For example, if an ingredient runs out, the assistant can remove the affected menu item from the site. These tools are powered by a mix of AI models from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Stability and trained on Owner’s own restaurant data.
Guild says the goal is to give independent restaurants the same tools that big chains use. Owner does not just help with logistics. It is designed to help restaurants grow. Florida-based Talkin' Tacos is one example. Since using Owner, it has expanded to more locations and grown sales to over 60 million dollars per year.
A Business Built on Product and Content
Guild says he spends most of his time working directly on product and talking to customers. He has not taken a day off since the company started. On weekends, he films content for Owner’s YouTube channel, which now draws millions of views. Topics range from calculating food costs to interviews with successful customers.
That YouTube presence helped convince some investors to get involved. Meritech partner Alex Kurland, who also backed DoorDash, said it gave him confidence in the company’s reach and mission. He sees Owner as a potential category leader in AI for restaurants, just as Toast led in point-of-sale and DoorDash led in delivery.
Owner now has 200 employees. Its revenue is in the tens of millions, though the company has not disclosed exact numbers or profitability. Still, the speed of its recent growth has caught attention. Guild said the company was not planning to raise funds so soon but received six offers within a week of sharing performance data with investors.
With new capital, Owner plans to expand its tools, scale the AI assistant feature, and reach more independent restaurants. The company is betting that the next wave of tech in the food industry will not just serve the big players it will give smaller ones a real edge.