From her early days as a designer to co-founding BentoBox, a company that revolutionized how restaurants build and manage their websites, Krystle Mobayeni’s journey has been defined by her deep understanding of exceptional user experience.
A visionary leader who seamlessly merges creativity with business strategy, Krystle’s insights provide invaluable guidance for entrepreneurs eager to make a lasting impact.
In this blog, we explore 9 key takeaways from our conversation with Krystle on The meez Podcast, where she shares the lessons that have shaped the growth of BentoBox.
The Creation of BentoBox
Krystle Mobayeni's entrepreneurial journey began with a passion for design and a deep understanding of the unique needs of the restaurant industry. Originally working as a designer for nearly 10 years, Krystle transitioned into entrepreneurship by starting her design agency, Neon and Sons.
Through her agency, she worked with high-profile clients such as Momofuku, The Meatball Shop, and The Breslin. She gained firsthand experience with the challenges that restaurants face in building and maintaining functional websites.
The turning point came when Krystle realized the difficulty restaurants had in getting websites designed and maintained. Back then, creating a website often involved hiring both a web designer and a developer, and platforms like WordPress, while common, were cumbersome for restaurant owners. Inspired by solutions like Shopify on the e-commerce side, Krystle saw an opportunity to simplify the restaurant process by creating a platform that would allow them to easily build, maintain, and manage their websites.
In 2013, Krystle co-founded BentoBox, a platform designed specifically to meet the needs of the restaurant industry. The company provides a range of services—from website design to online ordering and gift card management—all in one place. What set BentoBox apart was its emphasis on both functionality and beautiful design, with Krystle’s design background ensuring that the websites were not only easy to use but also aesthetically appealing.
Since its launch, BentoBox has grown significantly, now serving over 14,000 restaurants and continuing to expand its offerings. The company’s acquisition by Fiserv further strengthened its ability to innovate and drive the future of digital restaurant operations.
9 Lessons for Food Tech Entrepreneurs
As Krystle’s journey continues to unfold, her experiences offer invaluable insights for entrepreneurs looking to make their mark. Her path is paved with lessons learned through both triumphs and challenges, and the wisdom she’s gained along the way has shaped not only her company but her approach to leadership and innovation.
Below, Krystle offers guidance for those ready to take on the entrepreneurial world with the same resilience and vision that have defined her career.
1. Focus on Design Driven Motivation
Krystle credits BentoBox's success to its focus on customer-driven product development, drawing inspiration from customer-centric companies like Shopify and MindBody. For her, the challenge isn't just in iterating on ideas but in truly understanding and responding to customer feedback.
- Customer-Centered Focus: Like Shopify, BentoBox prioritizes customer needs above all else, using feedback as a driving force behind product evolution.
- Product and Design DNA: The influence of product, engineering, and design-driven companies shapes BentoBox’s approach, ensuring a seamless experience across all touchpoints.
- Continuous Improvement Cycle: Embracing methodologies like design thinking and Kaizen, BentoBox constantly tests, iterates, and improves products with valuable feedback at the core.
This commitment to customer satisfaction and design-driven innovation ensures BentoBox remains ahead of industry trends and continues delivering solutions that address real needs in the restaurant industry.
2. Bridge Online and Offline Customer Insights
During the conversation, Krystle emphasized the importance of leveraging data from both digital and physical touchpoints to better understand customer behavior. By combining insights from customer interactions online with payment systems and in-store visits, her company is working toward a seamless integration of these data sources.
- Customer Interaction Data: Collecting data through tools like Looker and Metabase helps track diner interactions, providing valuable insights into their preferences.
- Payment Systems Integration: Integrating payment systems with customer data enables a more complete view of online and offline behaviors.
- Data Utilization for Innovation: Analyzing this data helps drive innovation, allowing the company to refine its product offerings and improve customer experience.
This data-driven approach is key to shaping future innovations and optimizing customer experiences.
3. Use Feedback to Drive Change
Krystle is deeply committed to understanding and addressing customer needs. Feedback at BentoBox isn’t just taken at face value. The real value lies in uncovering the deeper, root problems behind what customers say they want. By digging deeper, you can solve multiple issues and create solutions that serve a broader audience.
- Ask the Right Questions: When customers express a desire for a feature or improvement, ask "why" repeatedly until you identify the core problem they’re experiencing. This helps move beyond specific requests to the underlying challenge.
- Prioritize Mission-Driven Solutions: Evaluate ideas based on how well they align with your company’s vision. Focus on solutions that enhance the relationship between the business and its customers, ensuring a clear connection to improving the overall experience.
- Focus on Impactful Solutions: Ensure that every change or product addition can be directly traced back to improving the diner’s experience. Avoid solutions that are too far removed from this goal, and consider both online and in-person touchpoints to enhance the overall guest experience.
By digging deeper, you can solve multiple issues and create solutions that serve a broader audience. By addressing systemic issues rather than surface-level concerns, BentoBox has become an indispensable tool for its users.
4. Risk-taking for Growth Requires Product Alignment
As BentoBox continues to grow, Krystle emphasizes the importance of creating products that complement and enhance each other. This approach helps maintain focus while also expanding the product offering to meet customer needs.
- Complementary Products: Every product in the BentoBox suite is designed to work synergistically, making the whole system more powerful when used together.
- Fail Fast Philosophy: Krystle stresses the importance of taking risks and launching MVPs, acknowledging that not every product will succeed, but the valuable ones will rise to the top.
In the end, Krystle’s mindset of balancing innovation with strategic focus enables BentoBox to scale effectively while staying true to its core mission of helping restaurants thrive.
5. Hire the Right People
Hiring can be one of the most challenging aspects of scaling a business, especially when you're looking for skill sets you don't yet have. Krystle’s design background meant she had to hire experts in areas like finance and operations as BentoBox scaled.
For leaders hiring in unfamiliar domains, her advice includes:
- Finding the Right Fit: When you don't know what good looks like, it can be difficult to vet candidates. She tends to lean on referrals and input from trusted investors, peers, and experts to evaluate candidates.
- Mentorship for Struggling Hires: When a hire wasn’t a perfect fit but showed potential, she sought external mentors to guide them, maximizing their chances of success.
- Industry Experience: Hiring people with industry experience, particularly in customer-facing roles, can add significant value. Krystle has seen success with restaurant professionals transitioning into tech-related positions at BentoBox.
This thoughtful approach highlights the value of leveraging external networks and being proactive about growth and development.
6. Maintain Effective All-Hands Meetings
As companies grow, it's essential to adapt meeting structures to keep communication clear and maintain intimacy within the team. By making them dynamic and engaging, you can create a more collaborative and inclusive culture.
- Keeping It Intimate: Despite having close to 200 employees, Krystle has maintained an intimate environment in all-hands meetings by incorporating gratitude sessions where everyone acknowledges someone else's contributions, making it a more personal and connected experience.
- Adjusting the Format as the Team Grows: Initially, everyone attended weekly meetings, but as the company expanded, they split into smaller functional groups. This helps manage the scale and keeps participation more meaningful.
- Dynamic Hosting: Rotate hosts for all-hands meetings, encouraging each individual to share background music or personal anecdotes to foster connection.
Maintaining effective all-hands meetings as a company grows is about creating a balance between scaling communication and preserving a sense of intimacy.
7. Share Metrics for Financial Transparency
While Krystle initially avoided diving too deeply into metrics, she realized the team wanted more visibility into business performance. As a result, they added a monthly business review to complement the regular updates.
- Top Metrics: Focus on high-level indicators like revenue, new customers, cancellations, ARPU, and operating income to monitor your business's health.
- Financial Transparency: During challenging periods, share financial realities such as burn rate and spending with your team to foster understanding and alignment.
Regularly review and communicate key metrics with your team to keep everyone aligned and prepared to adapt as conditions change.
8. Promote Your Company Principles
To foster a strong company culture, Krystle also emphasizes integrating company principles into daily interactions. She encourages employees to embrace these principles through both formal and informal recognition practices, ensuring they resonate within the team.
- Principal Awards: Every year, team members nominate colleagues who best embody each principle. Winners receive a sash and are introduced by the previous year’s awardees, creating a “pass the baton” moment.
- Organic Feedback: Krystle incorporates the principles into regular feedback, helping reinforce their importance in real-time conversations.
By incorporating these principles into everyday practices, Krystle helps ensure they are not only acknowledged but actively practiced by the entire team.
9. Don’t Overcomplicate Your UX
It's easy to get swept up in flashy trends like AI and automation. However, Krystle emphasizes the importance of technology working seamlessly in the background, especially for the restaurant industry, where actionable data can drive meaningful results without overwhelming the staff.
- Personalization Without Crossing Boundaries: Personalized messages or experiences, such as recognizing a customer's special occasion, can significantly enhance engagement without sacrificing privacy.
- Simplify Data Presentation: Provide actionable insights, not complex dashboards, to make data more operationally useful for restaurant teams.
- Real-Time Guidance: Transition to in-app, real-time data that helps restaurants adjust pricing, modify menus, or make other operational decisions on the spot.
Ultimately, the key is for technology to enrich, not complicate, the dining experience—striking a balance between innovation and user-friendliness.
Conclusion
Through BentoBox, Krystle Mobayeni has built a platform that not only addresses the functional needs of restaurants but also elevates their digital presence with beautiful, intuitive design.
The lessons Krystle shares are a roadmap for entrepreneurs looking to make their own mark. Her story shows that with the right mindset and approach, anyone can turn a vision into a thriving business that changes an entire industry.
Listen to the full conversation with Krystle on The meez Podcast
