Current Round: $1M Expansion

Validated in Czechia: Coca-Cola paying, +30% sales lift, ~80+ restaurants, profitable. Tested US demand on NYC ($70 CAC, 60% repost, 10% conversion). Direct contacts at Coca-Cola US, Pepsi, and 2 other US brands. This $1M funds the US launch: brand pilots in multiple states at $50K/mo per state, 4 brands over 12 months.

18-month milestones

• 3,000 restaurants in the network (free tool). 1,000 active in brand campaigns at any time. Not every venue runs a campaign every month — brands rotate by geography and season.
• 4 brand partners total (Coca-Cola + 3 new anchors)
• US market launched with NYC team and first US brand campaigns
• $3M ARR at month 15 (1,000 active venues × ~$250/venue/month avg blended CPM)
• Series A-ready: metrics, team, narrative for $5-10M raise

Two paths to 1,000 active venues

Two acquisition loops running simultaneously:

• Path A — AI Curator Network (organic, $70 CAC). City/neighborhood Instagram accounts (e.g. @thefoodie.nyc) feature local restaurants → 60% repost rate, 10% conversion.
• Path B — Brand-led (~zero CAC). Partner brand sells HC into their existing restaurant base.

Independent network builds defensible supply; brand-led delivers near-term volume. Target: 3,000 in network, 1,000 running brand campaigns at any moment. Full mechanics: GTM.

Use of funds

• 50% — US restaurant growth. Free-tier rollout. Onboarding ops.
• 25% — Brand sales. 2-3 more beverage brands alongside Coca-Cola.
• 15% — Product and AI. Campaign automation, scale infra.
• 10% — Operations and runway flexibility.

What this round does NOT do

• No broad geographic expansion — focused on select US states (brand pilot markets)
• No category expansion beyond beverages (need brand category proof first)

Series A trigger: $3M+ ARR, 4+ brand logos, US traction proven. Target: $5-10M raise, Q4 2027.

Long-term Strategy

We are building a network that controls which brand appears in the offer at each individual restaurant. At scale — the ability to place, replace, and rotate brands across thousands of venues in real time. Content quality is the retention mechanism that keeps restaurants in the network for free, giving us the inventory to sell.

• Phase 1 (Years 1-2): Top 5 US metros + Coca-Cola category lock. 3,000 venues in network. Prove unit economics. 4+ brand anchors.
• Phase 2 (Years 2-3): National US. Self-serve brand portal — brands buy campaigns like Meta Ads. Auction dynamics: multiple brands competing for same venue slots.
• Phase 3 (Years 3-5): International expansion + strategic exit.

Competitive moat (by network size)

This section: what an attacker faces at each stage of HC growth. For restaurant retention angle, see Switching costs below.

Stage 1 (0-100 venues): Playbook moat. How to onboard, get permission, create offers via WhatsApp. 18 months of trial and error a competitor cannot shortcut.

Stage 2 (100-1,000): Content intelligence. What content works for which venue type, timing, style. 30K data points per month at scale.

Stage 3 (1,000-5,000): Offer optimization. Which offer converts, which brand sells where, optimal pricing per venue type. Data only we have.

Stage 4 (5,000+): Network + auction. Brand bidding dynamics, venue exclusivity management, negotiation playbooks. 3-4 years to replicate from scratch.

Currently: Stage 1 to 2 transition. Content quality already best-in-class via fine-tuned prompts and multi-model pipeline.

Switching costs (why restaurants don't leave)

This section: customer retention angle — why an existing restaurant stays. For competitive defensibility angle, see Competitive moat above.

No contractual lock-in. Layered economic and operational dependency built up over time — each layer adds value the restaurant doesn't want to lose. Listed in the order they accumulate as the relationship deepens.

🟢 Live today (Layers 1–5) · 🚧 Building on this $1M raise (Layers 6–8)

1. 🟢 World-class restaurant content (foundation)

Our north star: #1 in the world at restaurant content. Restaurants stay because nothing else they can buy looks this good for their venue. The moment they try another tool, the quality gap is immediate — engagement reflects it within a week.

2. 🟢 It's free

Standalone SMM agencies charge $300–1,500/mo for what we deliver as part of running brand campaigns. No other tool offers this quality at zero subscription. Leaving = starting to pay for something they currently get free.

3. 🟢 We give them advertising budget

Restaurants in active brand campaigns receive $112–340/mo of dedicated ad spend on their own Meta accounts — boosted posts, targeted ads in 1km radius, story promotions — funded by brand budget. Switching = losing brand-funded customer acquisition AND walking back into paid Meta themselves.

4. 🟢 WhatsApp workflow + trust

The entire relationship runs through WhatsApp — owner approves with one tap, staff trained on this flow, daily conversations build operating trust. We become the voice they reply to without thinking. A new tool means relearning a workflow that takes weeks to bed in. This is where switching cost truly compounds — trust earned through daily comms.

5. 🟢 Per-venue data graph

Months of accumulated context: brand voice, image rules, real-photo gallery with AI metadata, what content works for this specific venue, customer demographic learnings. A new tool starts at zero — restaurant feels the quality drop in week one.

6. 🚧 Customer comms — DMs + review responses (building)

We will handle inbound Instagram DMs and Google review responses on the venue's behalf. Once live, restaurants build a daily flow of "HC answers our customers." Leaving = broken customer comm continuity, lost accumulated response history and tone.

7. 🚧 Google Business Profile management (building)

We will post to Google Maps from the same content engine, manage GMB updates, photos, weekly highlights. The #1 discovery surface after Instagram runs on our infrastructure. Leaving = managing GMB by hand again, or paying another tool.

8. 🚧 Offline print + in-venue activations (building)

Menu inserts, table tents, glassware QR codes, staff scripts — physical assets we produce, refresh, and fund through brand budgets. Leaving = paying for design and print themselves, losing brand-paid in-venue activations.

9. 🚧 POS integration (Series A timeframe)

Integration with restaurant POS systems (Toast, Square in US; DeliverEgg in EU) to read venue-level sales data and attribute brand-campaign lift to actual revenue. Once live, brands see direct measurement of "Coca-Cola SKU sales pre/post campaign" without the venue sharing data manually. Restaurants get attribution dashboards. Leaving = losing the only attribution layer that lets a brand justify continued trade-marketing spend, plus accumulated sales-data history that compounds over time.

The compound effect: each layer alone is meaningful. Stacked, they create a relationship where the restaurant CAN leave at any time — but materially, none do. Layers 1–5 land in month 1 today. Layers 6–8 build through this $1M raise and compound through year 1 and beyond. Layer 9 (POS attribution) is Series A timeframe — the moment we move from view-based pricing to attribution-based pricing. This is not contractual lock-in — it's economic dependency on a stack no standalone tool can replicate.

Why DoorDash / Uber Eats won't build this

They prefer to buy, not build. We are in close personal contact with DoorDash and Delivery Hero. Their pattern: when a category proves out at ~10K venues under management, they acquire. Reference: DoorDash acquired SevenRooms for $1.2B (2025) for restaurant relationship management at scale.

Trust barrier they cannot cross easily. Restaurants don't like delivery platforms — 25-30% commission creates resentment. Handing over your Instagram and offer control to DoorDash requires overcoming a fundamentally different trust barrier. We built trust through free, high-quality content. They would start from zero, against existing hostility.

Our advantage: best gastro content in the industry. Our focus on content quality keeps restaurants in the network. This focus also makes us harder to replicate — thousands of iterations on what works for each venue type.

Market dynamics: we monitor all players. When someone successfully launches a new inventory type, other platforms look to acquire, not build. If we prove off-platform restaurant media at 10K venues — we become a target for DoorDash, Uber, Toast simultaneously.

Exit landscape

Three types of strategic acquirers:

A. Food-tech platforms (DoorDash, Uber Eats, Toast)

Already monetize brands in-app, need off-platform inventory. Buying us = restaurant social channels + offer control they cannot build organically. Precedent: DoorDash acquired SevenRooms for $1.2B (2025). Acquisition threshold: ~10K venues under management.

B. Media / advertising holdcos (Publicis, WPP, Omnicom)

Actively acquiring new inventory types. Retail media is the fastest growing ad category. Precedent: Publicis acquired Epsilon for $4.4B (data + inventory). We represent a new inventory type they cannot access today.

C. Beverage majors (Coca-Cola Ventures, AB InBev ZX Ventures, Constellation)

Direct strategic value: own the channel instead of renting it. Precedent: Coca-Cola bought Costa Coffee for $5.1B (2018) for distribution access. A beverage major acquiring the offer-control layer across thousands of restaurants is a natural strategic fit.

Strategic Risks

What can go wrong and what we are doing about it.

1. Supply race

Whoever aggregates restaurant inventory first wins. Once a venue runs brand campaigns through someone else, switching cost compounds. Mitigation: CAC near zero (free AI marketing), Coca-Cola anchor solves chicken-and-egg, 18 months of validated supply mechanics.

2. AI content commoditization

12-18 month window before content generation becomes commodity. Mitigation: moat is not the AI model. It is venue relationships + brand contracts + per-venue training data. Lock relationships before content layer becomes commodity.

3. Single brand concentration

Currently Coca-Cola only. Mitigation: Birell (Asahi) 20-venue pilot launching ahead of the original September plan. Heineken, Pepsi in conversation. Start with challenger brands (Liquid Death, Olipop, Athletic Brewing) who move faster.

4. Brand commitment timelines

Enterprise brands move slowly. Mitigation: Coca-Cola ex-CMO on cap table accelerates trust. Use challenger brand wins as proof points for majors.

5. CEE-to-US execution

Czech company entering the US. Mitigation: Delaware C-Corp ready. David and Elisey relocate to US on close. Engineering stays in Europe: same talent, lower burn.