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Comment by slyn | Hacker News Reader

I manage at a famous Chicago pizzeria. When I was young I had aspirations of becoming a programmer or otherwise working in tech and kinda grew up reading different aggregators and eventually HN. Now that I know myself better I don’t think I would do well or be happy really sitting at a desk most days. I like working with my hands, entertaining guests, and working with and developing a team of staff from a variety of backgrounds and skill levels. These days I mostly just read for entertainment but when I’m occasionally burnt out I daydream about doing IT or UX.

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What's the state of the restaurant management software scene? Any scope for an open source restaurant management system? Could be a good side-hustle.

Edit: Just googled and found TastyIgniter. https://github.com/tastyigniter/TastyIgniter Don't underestimate the value of someone who knows code AND has worked in the industry in helping clients implement tech like this. You could make a good consultant!

There’s a zillion services for pretty much anything you could possibly want to do in a restaurant, some decent and most not. I think it’s a difficult space to compete in because there are so many different options in both big obvious services (Point of Sale, online ordering providers, staff scheduling services, etc) and relatively niche services (Review aggregators, QR menu management, waitlist tech, etc.) that it’s not just that your service needs to work, it needs to be easy to use, highly reliable, reasonably priced, and with high levels of tech support.

We’re multi location so as a store-level manager I’m not totally familiar with how we as a company procure new services or glue together what we use into something resembling a seamless experience for the guest.

I think about trying consulting but if I did so my strengths right now are setting efficient process and development+training, not so much tech. There are times where I think to myself I should bounce around working a handful of restaurants for a few years to get a better idea of the tech available and expand my food+menu development skills.

Well I don't mean to be condescending but please let me say: Don't be afraid to put a value on your knowledge and ability to bring together experience across different domains. People who can create efficient process, and develop and train staff, are good to have around.

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