RTN Member Spotlight: Chris Heard

Describe your work philosophy in one sentence.

Team happiness first, customer happiness next, everything else later.

What unique problem does your company solve for restaurants?

Olive helps restaurants innovate faster by streamlining technology evaluations. Using Olive's platform, decision makers and IT leaders reduce decision risk, increase project success, and save months of wasted evaluation time.

Why did your company join RTN? 

We saw a great opportunity to learn directly from our potential customers. Customer discovery is an ongoing challenge for all vendors and we believed that joining a group like RTN will give us a clear window into their thought processes.

What's your favorite personal past-time?

Snowboarding, hands down. I'll take skiing too.

What three words would you use to describe what's happening in the restaurant industry right now?

Exciting, challenging disruption.

What's your favorite restaurant?

How can I possibly answer that? Too many options. I can tell you my favourite pub is the Sloop Inn at St. Ives in Cornwall. White sand, cobble streets and room temperature beer. What's not to love?

What's your most-used restaurant app?

Our team loves Ritual. Yeah, they're still eating at their desks, but at least we get out and get some vibe when we go to pick up the food. Great points system too.

Restaurateur you most admire & why.

Alan Stillman. I'm a little biased as a TGI Fridays vet but the way he started with no knowledge, basically no money and built such an amazing brand has always been an inspiration.