Today we’d like to introduce you to Nick Bonanno.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Nick. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
My wife Amy and I are passionate about hospitality and food. Originally from Milan, I watched the Coronavirus devastate Italy, as well as my own family with the loss of a loved one. In the U.S., we did not want to sit on the sidelines and immediately went to work to support our friends in the industry and with a sustainable business process to help restaurants and other establishments thrive during the COVID-19 crisis and beyond.
We created Curbside Ninja exactly two months ago when one of our friends asked how we could help them avoid using third-party processing and delivery services so they could keep more of their profit with each online order. At the time, he was losing all his profit to third-party online processing as he was desperate to continue doing business. These third-party solutions that charge 30-40% commissions – a necessity – had now become an unaffordable luxury for many simply struggling to stay open.
We created the Curbside Ninja platform as an immediate solution in response to COVID-19 for restaurants and foodservice suppliers to safely and seamlessly connect with and provide patrons with curbside pickup, eliminating the hefty third-party commissions.
During the COVID19 crisis, we are proud to provide restaurants with this service at no charge, thanks to a grant from Dallas-based RevTech Ventures, a start-up accelerator, for local entrepreneurs with great ideas that can bring relief and support to Dallas during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Part of restarting the economy is contingent on the ability to service customers curbside, and the Bonanno’s want to help the industry do this simply, seamlessly, and affordably. Wine importer Serendipity Wines, DFW-area Loveria Café, Lockwood Distilling Co., and Whisk, implemented Curbside Ninja and have all reported immediate lifts in business over the past month.
MORE INFORMATION: We (overnight) enable restaurants to take online orders and manage several aspects of their curbside pickup/in-house delivery which has become an entirely new business model for most. Restaurants can customize their menu items, have customers process their order payment online (and very soon post those orders to their POS systems). Curbside Ninja is complementary for the restaurant during the crisis, and post COVID-19 we will implement a fair pricing strategy that doesn’t cost thousands in commission (unlike most third-party apps).
Here is our website: www.curbside.ninja, and here is an example of our online menu: http://orders.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
The most challenging part of the business has been the integration with POS systems, for those restaurants who decide to manage their orders in-house, and in addition, working on features that satisfy the needs of our customers on a collective needs basis. Starting a company in such challenging times has been a struggle in and of itself, but we feel compelled to help the restaurant industry which is in dire need of a solution to stay afloat.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Curbside Ninja story. Tell us more about the business.
As owners of web development and digital consultancy, Simple Media, we were able to put our digital chops to work with an immediate and innovative solution to ensure small business owners have a way to sustain their hospitality business through the current crisis and beyond.
My wife Amy and I launched Simple Media in 2007. Our clients range from awesome small, local business owners to large corporations. We currently work with Yum! Brands, KFC, TetraPak, Crescent Real Estate, LLC and TAC – The Arnold Companies. We are very proud to have developed KFC’s corporate brand website, global.kfc.com, as well thecrescent.com, website for Dallas’ iconic Crescent. We are currently recreating sites for the Crescent’s property portfolio including the recently launched Crescent West End’s website, crescentwestend.com.
What sets us apart is our approach to web development. We look at websites as custom workflows that work hard for our clients, in lieu of just a pretty mobile-friendly online brochure, while our methodologies follow the best practices implemented by large corporations who prioritize cybersecurity, page load speed, third party integrations, and brand consistency above everything else. We applied the same philosophies to Curbside Ninja and built a web app that is extremely secure, integratable, and lightning-fast.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
Someone once said that the harder you work the luckier you get. We attribute our success in business to working hard everyday, and ALWAYS doing the right thing for our customers and continuing to provide value above and beyond our fees. We apply the same rules to our life, our family and our business. We are instilling the same values in our children, and hope that one day they will be involved in the family business.
Pricing:
- Complimentary during COVID-19
- Small order fee ($1)
Contact Info:
- Address: 14555 Dallas Pkwy ste 100 Dallas tTX 75254
- Website: www.curbside.ninja
- Phone: 2148642116
- Email: hello@curbside.ninja
Image Credit:
Kathy Tran Instagram: @kathytranx
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