‍We’re excited to share our seed round. Here’s what we’re building next.

Why we’re building Hostie

In a world where guest expectations are higher than ever — and staffing is tighter than ever — restaurants need better ways to manage communication without sacrificing exceptional service.

While running Back to Back, an Italian-Californian restaurant in San Francisco, Randall found himself buried in calls and emails day in and day out—pulled away from the work that actually grows a business. He called Brendan, a longtime friend and AI engineer building at Lindy.ai. Together, they decided to solve the problem for good—and started Hostie.

Hostie is an AI-powered communication platform that helps restaurants handle calls, texts, and emails automatically and around the clock. By applying advanced AI across all guest interactions, Hostie captures more reservations, takeout orders, and event inquiries — all without pulling staff off the floor.

Our goal is simple: help restaurants never miss an order, never miss a reservation, and never leave money on the table.

Today, Hostie is trusted by many of the best restaurants in the country who are recognized by Michelin Guide, James Beard, and The World’s 50 Best.

The new partners joining us

We’re proud to share that Gradient Ventures (Google’s AI-focused fund) is leading our $4M seed round. Their deep expertise in scaling AI-first companies will be an invaluable asset as we grow.

We’re also excited to welcome Burst Capital (founded by former Yelp executives), Thomas Layton (former CEO of OpenTable), Mike Dodson (former SVP of Sales at OpenTable), Michael Stoppelman (former SVP of Engineering at Yelp), Behind Genius Ventures, and Daring Ventures.

We’re lucky to be backed by investors who don’t just understand AI and SaaS, but also hospitality, operations, and what it means to build a product that restaurant operators truly love.

What we’re doing with the funding

While we can’t give everything away just yet, here’s what the new investment will fuel:

I. Growing the team: We’re expanding our engineering, customer success, and go-to-market teams to help more restaurants discover and succeed with Hostie.

II. Building deeper integrations: We’re connecting Hostie even more tightly with reservation systems, POS platforms, and event management tools, making it even easier for restaurants to automate their operations.

III. Expanding our product: We’re rolling out new workflows for multi-location groups, supporting more complex booking flows (like large party and private event requests), and introducing AI into more of the restaurant guest experience.

IV. Serving more restaurants: Demand for Hostie has exceeded even our own expectations. With this funding, we’ll accelerate onboarding and bring Hostie’s capabilities to hundreds of new restaurants across the U.S.

We’ve spent the last two years obsessing over how to help restaurants capture more business, deliver better guest experiences, and operate more efficiently. With this fundraise, we can’t wait to manifest our vision of helping restaurants leverage best-in-class technology and AI to foster lasting relationships.

If you want to see what Hostie can do for your restaurant, schedule a demo with us!

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