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Tech entrepreneur Omer Choudhary faced an uphill battle when he launched his restaurant software company, Truffle, amid the pandemic.
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Although hundreds of Edmonton businesses were looking for solutions for contactless payments and digital ordering, his team managed to enroll just 10 restaurants in the first three months.
“The biggest challenge I had was that people didn’t believe that tech talent existed in Edmonton,” Choudhary said. “The first 10, 50, 100 clients were difficult. Getting customers to believe in us was difficult. It was scary at first. “
After 12 months and a lot of hard work, Choudhary’s efforts have attracted 450 new subscribers across Canada, and last week his company Truffle took home the third MSP of the year award and the digital innovator of the year award in the MSP 501. Channel Futures Summit in Las Vegas.
“It was a proud moment,” Choudhary said of the award he received on November 3. “What we are doing is being recognized. I was very proud that we were able to show the world that there is so much tech talent in Edmonton. “
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The tide began to turn for Truffle once Choudhary was able to show potential customers that its subscription services, which range in price between $ 69 and $ 279, would save them money compared to food delivery giants like DoorDash and SkipTheDishes. .
“We needed the data to show that we are more affordable than third-party controllers,” he said.
“And it’s about more than just lower fees. When we create the site for the restaurant, they are the owners. They are in control of their own brands. “
Before COVID-19, Choudhary had been working at Truffle for six months and thought the digital shift in the hospitality industry would take another five to ten years.
“In the long term, I thought that restaurants would have to become more digital. Before the pandemic, nobody talked about it, ”Choudhary said.
Now, Choudhary plans to increase its staff to nearly 60 by 2022 from 20 people, a move that it said will allow Truffle to reach 3,000 customers in the next two years.
For other aspiring tech entrepreneurs in the city, Choudhary urges them to believe that they don’t have to be in Toronto or Vancouver to be successful.
“I kept noticing that there are opportunities and a market here that no one was chasing,” he said. “Other entrepreneurs may not see it today, but they should move on. That’s what we did. We didn’t stop. “
Reference-edmontonjournal.com