In this episode of Startup Savants, we speak with Christine de Wendel, co-founder and US CEO of Sunday, the fast-checkout restaurant app. Christine is a seasoned entrepreneur with a track record of leading two European startups to success. Her expertise cuts across industries. One of those startups is a fashion retailer; the other is an online marketplace for home and gardening products. Now Christine and her co-founders are eyeing the North American market, to which end Christine has set up a base in her birthplace, Atlanta, Georgia.
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From Scale-Ups to Startup Founder
The idea for Sunday came from co-founder Victor Lugger, a successful European restaurateur who owns restaurants in Paris, Madrid, and London. The onset of the pandemic spurred a wave of innovation, particularly in those sectors like the hospitality industry that were hardest hit. To minimize the points of human contact, restaurateurs introduced contactless menus by putting QR codes on dining tables. Scanning the code with a smartphone would take the diner to an online menu and allow them to place an order.
Lugger realized that a similar contactless way of paying for the meal would reduce unnecessary hassle for the restaurant and customer and save them both time. He quickly put together a workable solution. “And so he literally rolled out in two weeks a really quick and dirty solution, and the results were phenomenal. So he put QRs on every table, linked them to the POS system, and waiters were loving it because tables were turning faster, they were getting more tips, and they had more time to spend with diners to tell them about specials, to check on their drinks, so they were getting higher basket size.”
The investors were just as excited as the restaurateurs were. Within one year, they had poured $124 million into the company, a $24 million seed round, and a $100 million round A infusion. They were, obviously, expecting big things.
Sunday was thinking on a grand scale, too. Christine says if the company’s purpose can be reduced to one important thing, it would be to “give people their time back. We want to give waiters their time back, but we want to give diners their time back, also. We will take something that traditionally takes 15 minutes and turn it into something that takes 10 seconds.”
Changing the Way You Pay
Fast though it is, the Sunday solution is more than speed. The app is built around a very simple concept: how to make the payment experience in hospitality much simpler.
By virtue of its simplicity, Sunday’s payment solution might be considered a feature rather than a product. Christine acknowledges this. She says the company may add other features in the future, but at present Sunday’s focus is on its core product — pay-at-table — in three core markets: France, the UK, and the US. Despite its mega ambitions, Sunday hasn’t forgotten the little guy. The company is offering its quick-pay product to both enterprise accounts and smaller and medium-sized business businesses. The important role that waiters play is also recognized. Sunday has taken account of their interests and tailored certain options in the app to their location.
One aim has been to maximize tips, which vary considerably. “On average in Europe, you’re talking about 2% tips. On average in North America or in the US, you’re talking about 20% tips.” Sunday’s app has, on average, increased the tips waiters receive.
Startup Savants Podcast
The Startup Savants podcast, brought to you by The Really Useful Information Company (TRUiC), offers a window to the startup universe, where startups, rather than stars, are born. Hosted by the dynamic duo of Ethan and Annaka, the podcasts feature interviews with entrepreneurs from varied backgrounds and are designed to provide an insider’s view of the startup process — from launch to scale.
Final Thoughts
The Sunday pay-at-table restaurant app is disrupting the hospitality industry in the nicest possible way. It promises to cut the time diners spend waiting for their check, circumventing the ponderous procedure most restaurants employ. The idea for the app took form in France. The catalyst was the restrictions imposed on personal contact by the pandemic. Apart from executing payment much quicker, using QR codes is also a great deal safer. The Sunday app offers a contactless way for diners to pay the restaurant and tip the server. It may be coming soon to a restaurant near you.
