u/_sreekar_

Hey everyone,

Been trying to connect with restaurant owners in NYC and noticed it’s surprisingly hard to actually reach the decision maker.

Most of the time it’s staff in-store, and emails or ads don’t seem very effective either.

Curious how others in the industry handle this, especially when it comes to vendors or new platforms trying to connect.

Is this just normal in the restaurant space

Hey everyone,

Me and a friend have been trying to connect with restaurant owners in NYC, but when we visit in person it’s almost always staff, not the decision maker.

Cold outreach and ads haven’t worked well for us either.

Curious from people here who’ve been in the industry, how do vendors or new platforms usually reach you successfully?

Just trying to understand how to approach this better.

Hey everyone,

Me and a friend recently started building a startup focused on NYC.

The idea is an all-in-one city platform, helping people discover restaurants, pubs, events, stays, etc, while also giving local businesses visibility without heavy commissions.

We built everything ourselves from scratch, website, iOS and Android.

Right now we’re stuck at the hardest part, getting initial traction.

We’ve tried Meta ads and some offline outreach, but onboarding businesses has been way harder than expected, especially reaching actual decision makers.

It feels like a classic marketplace cold start problem, no businesses means no users, and no users means businesses don’t see value.

Curious how others here handled this stage:

What actually worked for your first 10 to 50 customers or partners?

Any unconventional tactics that helped you break the initial deadlock?

Me and a friend recently started working on a small startup for New york. We built everything ourselves, the website, iOS app and Android app.

The idea is similar to food ordering platforms, but focused on helping pubs, bars and restaurants get customers without charging them platform fees.

So far, we’ve spent around $1000 on Meta ads trying to get restaurants to sign up, but the results have been pretty disappointing. Very few quality leads and almost no conversions.

We also tried going offline and visiting restaurants directly, but most of the time we only end up talking to staff. Owners or decision makers are usually not available, so it’s been hard to actually pitch or close anything.

At this point we’re trying to figure out what we’re missing on the go to market side.

For those who’ve built anything in the local marketplace space:

How did you get your first set of businesses onboard?

Did paid ads work for you early on, or is this the wrong approach?

Any tips on reaching actual decision makers for small restaurants or bars?

Would really appreciate any advice or lessons from your experience.

Thanks!