Defending small business owners.

Check out our story video to learn how we got here and why our customers love Owner. This is personal for us.

Why we do what we do

Local business owners are heroes to us.

They risk everything – years of their lives, their families, their savings – to pursue their dreams. They create jobs, give unique flavors to their neighborhoods, and inspire people in their community by showing them that owning their own business is possible.

They’re the heart of our economy, creating the majority of new jobs. They also represent hope in our communities. They remind us that it’s possible to rise from being an entry-level worker to becoming a business owner one day, as 70% of restaurant owners do.

But local business owners are on a path to extinction.

Just 20 years ago, 60% of the restaurant world was owned by independent mom and pops. Today, that number is 40%, and dropping by the year. National and global chains keep taking over, while mom-and-pops keep shutting down.

What’s going on?

A technological revolution is going on.
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Independent restaurants are being destroyed by large corporations. Tech companies like GrubHub charge predatory fees and take away all of their customer relationships – not even sharing customers’ names, let alone contact details.

Plus, massive corporations like Domino’s Pizza are spending billions in marketing and technology to gobble up market share. Mom-and-pops can’t keep up.

Independent business owners need a level playing field.

Owner gives the superpowers of large corporations to independent restaurants.

How it started

Adam Guild was inspired to start Owner after an experience he had in saving his mom’s business. She was struggling because she didn’t have the right tools to grow her dog grooming business. She asked him for help, and he built the first version of Owner for her business.

He saw how having the right technology made a huge difference in her life—how she transformed from a stressed single mom to a proud, self-made success.

He partnered with Dean Bloembergen, the best technology leader he knew – who had experience building technology for large restaurant corporations like Blaze Pizza and Sharky’s. Dean’s parents are also small business owners, so he deeply loves helping people like them.

How it’s going

Here’s the impact we’ve made since our launch in May of 2020:

Restaurants helped

2,000+

Users served

3,000,000+

Sales driven

$400,000,000+

Fees saved for restaurants

$150,000,000+

Helping local business owners survive and thrive

John & Sam (Owners of Metro Pizza)
“Owner.com is a must-have for succeeding online as an independent restaurant today. In our first 30 days, we saw a 10% increase on over $100,000 in sales.”
Sales
+$112K
Savings
+$29K
Growth
+54%
Timirie (Owner of Doo-Dah Diner)
“We’ve more than doubled our direct online sales since starting. I didn’t think having our own app would work, but our regulars love it and use it constantly.”
Sales
+$72K
Savings
+$19K
Growth
+54%
Philip (Owner of Sushi Me Rollin')
“Now that we’ve used Owner for 1 year, I can say confidently that it is the best technology in our restaurant. We’ve increased direct online sales by over $77K in the past 10 months alone.”
Sales
+$91K
Savings
+$26K
Growth
+47%

Our vision

It turns out it’s more than just independent restaurants.

Every local service-based business around the world is facing the same pressures, where they’re being destroyed by large corporations because they're losing on the digital battlefield.

Once we've helped millions of independent restaurants, Owner will help all of the other local service based companies. We’re intentionally building our solution to scale across verticals.

In 20 years, Owner will be like HubSpot (CRM, marketing automations), meets Shopify (D2C ordering), specifically for local service-based businesses.