Ben Simmons is the CEO and Cofounder of Table Needs, a restaurant technology startup. The business is focused on increasing diversity in their community by helping restaurants reach profitability. Being the owner of 3 restaurants, he saw that the future of restaurant tech involved a single platform. This is proven since many of his customers started off using Clover or Square but found it didn’t meet their specific needs. Table Needs started alpha testing with a brewery just down the street. He remembers fixing bugs with their system right in front of customers. Their first customer was the result of a second-degree connection. Ben tells us that the best way to get a customer is to take them on The Hero’s Journey. In this podcast we hear about the interesting journey of scaling from the first customer to $1M ARR. Table Needs started off as a custom QR menu solution, but pivoted into point of sales when they realized this was a tough spot. Ben had to invent a new method of acquiring customers, which is calls “The Sale of 15 Minutes”, due to nuances with having and SMB focused startup. Additionally, Ben talks about being in a Flyover state and the challenges that come with fundraising outside of SF. Finally, we hear about Ben’s experience working for a startup that made it to the famous reality TV show Shark Tank. He remembers how nervous they were, literally biting their nails hoping the website wouldn’t go down when the episode aired. He reassures us it was a positive experience though, even leading to spikes in website visits when the episode re-airs. Bens final advice is as follows: Be coachable, ask for what you need and be willing to receive feedback, be willing to do the hard things you need to do for your startup to survive. Thanks for listening.