Toast’s Most Successful App Launch Happened Because They Listened To Customers
believes in the importance of understanding and engaging with customers to ensure that marketing efforts are not only impactful, but also authentic.
Watch now to learn about her marketing journey, the importance of mentors, and the launch of the popular Toast Now app.
Watch now to learn about her marketing journey, the importance of mentors, and the launch of the popular Toast Now app.
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NewsTranscript
00:00My name is Sean Walchef. I am a paid consultant and creator for Toast.
00:04I traveled to Boston to their new headquarters to interview their new
00:08chief marketing officer, Kelly Esten, for this special episode.
00:12We hope you enjoy.
00:19Welcome to Restaurant Influencers presented by Entrepreneur.
00:22I am your host, Sean Walchef.
00:24This is a Cali BBQ Media production.
00:27We are coming to you from the new Toast headquarters in Seaport, Boston.
00:33We are in the basketball arena and I am here with the new chief marketing officer,
00:42Kelly Esten. Kelly, welcome to the show.
00:44Thank you so much for having me, Sean.
00:45Thank you for having us.
00:47We're so glad you're here in the new office.
00:49It looks amazing and it's so fun to be filming in the basketball court.
00:53This is very exciting for us,
00:55for those that have been listening to this show.
00:57We've been doing this show now for three years and Toast is a title sponsor of the show.
01:01So we're grateful that you continue to believe in not only technology,
01:05not only hospitality, but also storytelling.
01:08You are the first chief marketing officer that we've had on the show.
01:11Cool. And we're really excited to learn more about your journey.
01:15Well, I'm so excited to be here.
01:16Thank you so much for having us and thank you so much for being such a great promoter of Toast
01:20and supporter of Toast and telling your story.
01:22Thank you. So in life, in the restaurant business,
01:28and in the new creator economy, we learn through lessons and stories.
01:31Can you tell me where in the world is your favorite stadium, stage, or venue?
01:37You know, we had a whole discussion about this over breakfast this morning in my house.
01:41My husband tells me it's Lambeau Field in Wisconsin.
01:44I've never been there, but he says that should be my favorite stadium.
01:47He's from Wisconsin. Big Packers fan. So all the boys in my house are Packers fans.
01:51But I'd have to say for me personally, it's probably Madison Square Garden.
01:56First ever concert was there. I'm more of a music person than a sports person.
02:01You know, grew up outside New York City and so a lot of good memories from going up there.
02:05So the magic of storytelling, we are going to go to Madison Square Garden.
02:09I'm going to talk to the chief marketing officer at Toast
02:12and we are going to talk to all of Toast's partners
02:14and we are going to figure out how do we rent out the arena?
02:17How do we put on a Spark event?
02:19But more importantly, how do we bring you on stage to share the marketing journey?
02:24I need to go. I need you to bring us back to day one at Toast. Your day one.
02:28My day one at Toast. So my day one at Toast was not in this office.
02:33Our old offices were in an incubator near Fenway where there had been dozens of startups,
02:39but Toast had been growing so fast that we took over kind of each space next to each of the startups.
02:46And so one of the things that I remember really well is the carpet changed every 50 feet or so in the office
02:51and they had taken all the doors and windows out of the old offices from,
02:54you know, I think what was probably like an insurance company or something
02:57and they were just desks everywhere. You know, marketing was about 12 people at the time.
03:03We now are bringing actually 200 marketing and BD people together across the company
03:08here to the headquarters later this week for our first marketing off-site,
03:12which we're really excited about. So things have changed a lot since those early days,
03:16but it's been an amazing journey and a lot of what we're doing today dates back to those early days of Toast marketing as well.
03:23A lot of the same people are here and a lot of the same things we talk about as far as,
03:27you know, really focusing on the independent restaurant are the same.
03:30Can you bring us back? We were fortunate to come here for sales kickoff and on this show,
03:36we interviewed Iman, co-founder and new CEO of Toast.
03:40Yes. Can you bring us to your first meeting of Iman?
03:44Yes. Tell us the story. Yeah, I am, you know,
03:47I had been at another kind of high-growth startup here in Boston
03:50and was looking for my next opportunity and got connected directly to Iman
03:54and I met him at the old office and we walked to a coffee shop that was a Toast restaurant to go see kind of Toast in action
04:03and have a conversation. It wasn't really a formal interview.
04:06And I remember there was a certain topic that was on his mind at the time
04:09and we spent the entire walk to the coffee shop,
04:12got our coffee and walked back to the office kind of debating this one topic
04:16and I was taking the other side
04:19and I remember coming back to the office and thinking, well, he either really likes me
04:22or he really doesn't because I just kind of argued with him for the last 45 minutes
04:27and that was my first interview at Toast, but it was, you know, a fun debate.
04:31I learned a ton about him, about Toast, about how he thinks about the world
04:35and I came back, you know, probably less than a week later and met the whole kind of team at Toast
04:40and seven years later, here I am.
04:42Can you bring us to the beginning of your career at Toast
04:46and what were your expectations and what were your lessons learned?
04:50Yeah, you know, coming in, I always remember those first couple of weeks,
04:55Toast was growing really fast, was getting a lot of traction with restaurants at that time
04:59and, you know, we definitely had product market fit,
05:01restaurants were using our point of sale across the country and things were going really well.
05:06So job number one was do no harm, like learn what's working,
05:09make sure that we're building on that early success that we had,
05:13really building alongside restaurants is what made us so successful.
05:17You know, you hear these stories about Iman and Steve in restaurants coding,
05:20you know, while Friday night dinner service was happening
05:23and those early experiences really shaped the Toast culture and Toast marketing
05:29and so, you know, my expectation was to come in and contribute to the team
05:33and it was very much a all-hands-on-deck scenario,
05:37you know, jobs were not as well defined, there was a lot to do
05:41and so I had the opportunity to work with a lot of our partners early on,
05:45to work with our product team, to bring new products to market.
05:48We launched, my very first product launch was the Toast Go handheld,
05:52the original Toast Go handheld and one of the things that I remember about that
05:58is that we sent people to a restaurant in Austin
06:00and we gave Fitbits to all the servers
06:05and half the servers had pen and paper and half of them had Toast Go's
06:09and we recorded their night, like how many steps did you take,
06:12how many table touches did you do, how many, you know, people did you serve,
06:15what were your tips and so that was the case study that we launched the Toast Go with
06:19and of course the people with the Toast Go had less steps, higher tips,
06:22you know, better table turn times
06:24and it was a great kind of example of what you can do with marketing
06:29and really, you know, what at the time was a very unique and exciting product
06:35that really had a big impact on Toast.
06:36One of the things, I'm obviously a little bit biased,
06:39but one of the things that I've loved working with Toast
06:41and seeing how you operate is the sales and the marketing ecosystem
06:46and I think, you know, in our experience a lot of that is segmented.
06:51When I came here today for the first time,
06:54you guys share a floor together.
06:56Yes.
06:56Can you talk about the pillar of the foundation of how Toast is built?
07:00Yeah, we have an absolutely great partnership between sales and marketing
07:04and that's something you hear, right?
07:05This classic story of, oh, sales and marketing alignment is key to everyone's success
07:09and it's really true and we're lucky to have that at Toast
07:12and, you know, I think it's because we have a culture of collaboration
07:17and this idea of one team is one of our most important values at Toast
07:21and the sales team and the marketing team really do feel like one team.
07:25They have shared goals, you know, it's not like, oh, marketing gives leads
07:29and, you know, sales does the deals.
07:32We really feel responsibility for each other's success
07:36and work in really close partnership every day.
07:38So our marketing team talks to sales every day.
07:41We take our events out on the road as an opportunity to spend time
07:44not only with our customers and our prospects
07:46but also our own sales teams and our partners who are out in the market
07:51and that really creates this kind of shared sense of purpose
07:53and, you know, it's all about the restaurants at the end of the day.
07:56Can you talk about B2B marketing
07:58and why Toast has such a competitive advantage in the space?
08:01Oh, big topic.
08:03You know, what's fun about restaurants is that they are, it is B2B marketing
08:09but there's a little bit of a B2B slash C feeling to it.
08:14So, first of all, you know, when we're talking about independent restaurants
08:18because there are so many independent restaurants,
08:20one of the great things about this market is there's restaurants all over the United States.
08:25You know, we have the opportunity to work with many of them
08:28and to have a conversation that's more authentic and unique
08:32than what you might think of in traditional B2B marketing
08:35where you're talking to a big company on the other side.
08:37And so something we always try and remember is the person on the other side
08:41of the marketing email or the ad or, you know, how we're trying to reach them.
08:47And so something we spend a lot of time doing is talking to our customers.
08:50You participated in this today in our customer advisory board
08:53about how we're talking about Toast, what value they're seeing
08:57and then really letting restaurants tell their own stories
09:01because it's much more impactful and authentic and true
09:05when a restaurant can say, hey, here's how I'm using Toast
09:08and here's my story than what we can say.
09:10And so we spend a lot of time thinking about how do we bring restaurants into the conversation?
09:15How do we have them tell their stories to each other?
09:17And then how do we make it feel like that B2C feeling in a B2B environment?
09:24And, you know, if you think about restaurants, we're talking to you,
09:27but ultimately it's all about your guest.
09:29And so there is a consumer at the end of the line here,
09:32whether we're designing a product that they're going to interact with
09:35or we're talking to, you know, how Toast shows up in your restaurant.
09:39That is going to impact your guests and your consumers.
09:42So we have to think all the way through to the end
09:44when we're designing our marketing and our products.
09:47And now a quick break from Restaurant Influencers
09:49to welcome our newest sponsor to the show.
09:52It's Zach Oates, the founder of Ovation.
09:55Ovation is helping restaurants to improve operations with the human touch.
09:59We are a guest experience platform for multi-unit restaurants
10:03like Friendly's, Muya, PBQ, Taziki's and even Cali BBQ
10:07with thousands of others that starts with a two-question survey
10:10and drives revenue, location level improvement and guest recovery.
10:14So here's how it works.
10:15The guest answers two questions.
10:17The first one is, how was your experience?
10:19And then from there, happy guests are invited to do things
10:22that are going to drive revenue
10:23and unhappy guests share privately what went wrong
10:26so you and your team can resolve that concern in real time.
10:30Our AI will even help you do that.
10:31Then the magic happens.
10:32We take all the public reviews.
10:35We take all the Ovation feedback.
10:36We categorize it using our AI
10:39and give you detailed feedback in 34 restaurant-specific categories
10:43to improve your operations.
10:45So we make sure that guests feel good, that you look good.
10:47And if you're interested in learning more,
10:49visit OvationUp.com forward slash Sean
10:52because any listener of Sean's is a friend of Ovation's.
11:02Can you talk about the localized approach?
11:05Why it's so vital to Toast's success
11:08as you continue to expand internationally as well?
11:11Yeah.
11:12You know, restaurateurs talk to each other a lot.
11:15Yes, we do.
11:16And something I've learned in the industry,
11:18whether you're talking about, you know,
11:20a main strip in a small town.
11:22You know, I live in a suburb about 10 miles outside of Boston
11:25and there's kind of a center street that has,
11:27I don't know, half a dozen or a dozen restaurants on it.
11:30They feel like a community.
11:31They all know each other.
11:33They all share notes.
11:35They don't think about each other as the competition.
11:38They really think about each other
11:39as the restaurant community in our hometown.
11:41All the way up through enterprise,
11:43we see the same thing.
11:44You know, my enterprise customers
11:46who have 200, 300, 500 stores,
11:48they all know each other.
11:49They all share notes.
11:50They're friends.
11:51They see each other at conferences on a regular basis.
11:54And so no matter what size and scale you're talking about,
11:57what we see is that restaurants are more of a community
12:00than they are competitors.
12:02And so as a result, what we see in our business
12:05is that, you know, a lot of our growth comes from referrals,
12:08comes from restaurants talking to each other,
12:10comes to restaurants talking to partners in our ecosystem,
12:13local partners in their ecosystems,
12:15the accountants who are helping them run their books
12:18or the marketing agencies
12:19who are helping them with their marketing.
12:20That's where our best referrals come from.
12:23It's other restaurants.
12:25And so the local approach means
12:27we're putting toasters into those communities.
12:30They're walking the main street.
12:31We call them the mayors of their towns, the best ones.
12:34And so they're investing in knowing
12:36who those great restaurants are in town,
12:38helping them be successful,
12:40getting to know the ecosystem
12:41and really investing in the community.
12:43And then from a marketing perspective,
12:44we come over top and support that,
12:46whether it's with a Spark Local
12:48or highlighting restaurants with a case study
12:51or finding a way to highlight like local stories.
12:55When that starts going, we call it a flywheel.
12:57And you'll actually see us talk on earnings calls
13:00about our flywheel markets.
13:01And as Toast grows in a market,
13:03we get more successful, not less,
13:06as we penetrate that area.
13:08And we find that restaurants are really sharing notes
13:10and talking about Toast
13:11and helping each other become successful.
13:13Can you talk about the partnership ecosystem?
13:16Sure. So we have over 200 integration partners on Toast.
13:20We plug in new technologies every month.
13:23We actually brought the partner ecosystem
13:25under our marketing organization recently.
13:28So I get the opportunity to see all the new technologies
13:30coming onto Toast each month, which is really fun.
13:33And we think about it as,
13:36how do we help restaurants solve whatever challenge it is
13:40that they have in front of them?
13:42So from a ecosystem perspective,
13:45what we try and do is put the customer at the center
13:46and say, Toast is, of course,
13:49wants to solve a lot of problems for restaurants
13:51and help them be successful with technology.
13:53But there's lots of other things out there
13:55that we're not doing or some even that we are,
13:57but someone's got a different angle on it
13:58or a different take or a different way
14:00of looking at the world.
14:01And so our job is to bring those all onto the Toast platform
14:04and make them available to our customers.
14:07And when we do that, what we find
14:08is that our customers are happier.
14:10You know, the majority of our customers
14:12use at least one more technology other than Toast.
14:16And they actually end up doing more business
14:18with Toast over time
14:19because they see the value in the ecosystem
14:22and the ability to grow and add things
14:24as their business needs change.
14:26We are fortunate that we sit in a seat
14:27where we talk to a lot of technology partners
14:30that are best in class that integrate with Toast.
14:32And can you share a little bit about
14:34what do the best partners do that sets them apart?
14:37And if anybody that is listening to this
14:39and they want to be a partner,
14:41obviously there's ways for them to go about that,
14:43but what are the best practices?
14:44Yeah, absolutely.
14:45So, you know, we have a Toast ecosystem.
14:47You can apply to be a Toast partner right on our website.
14:50And the way, you know, we think about it is,
14:53what are the gaps we need to fill for our customers
14:55or new technologies we want to make available?
14:58And then what are our customers asking for?
15:00You know, it goes back to what our customers want.
15:02And we find the partners that are most successful
15:05in the Toast ecosystem
15:07are the ones that treat us
15:09like an extension of their team and vice versa.
15:12You know, they really treat it like a true partnership.
15:14We solve together for the customer.
15:16We communicate.
15:17Many of them hop in on our Slack channels
15:19and are talking to Toast team members all the time.
15:22So we have the opportunity to really treat them
15:23like an extension of our team
15:25and find ways to make customers successful together.
15:28So those ones tend to take off on our ecosystem.
15:32Can you talk about mentorship?
15:34Yes, yes.
15:36You know, I've been very lucky
15:37to have a lot of great mentors in my career,
15:40not just at Toast, but before Toast.
15:44But when I think about mentorship at Toast,
15:47you know, I think about our prior CMO, Kevin Hamilton,
15:49was a huge mentor of mine,
15:51someone who taught me a lot about marketing,
15:54but also leadership,
15:56and, you know, gave me opportunities to learn and grow.
16:01But also, you know,
16:02I think about mentorship and sponsorship
16:05as two different things.
16:06And Kevin was not only a mentor, but a sponsor,
16:08someone who, you know, helped me set up for my next thing.
16:12And Aman was someone like that for me as well.
16:15And when, you know, I think about my role
16:17as a leader now in Toast,
16:21you know, that's a lot of the job,
16:22is how do you get the right people
16:24and set them up for success
16:26and help them grow their careers?
16:27Because that's what inspires people to do great work.
16:30And people work for people.
16:32Just like we, you know, talk about restaurants as,
16:35in the end, it's people sharing ideas
16:37and wanting to make people successful in the ecosystem.
16:39We see the same thing within our Toast ecosystem here.
16:42What did you learn about sales from your father?
16:44Oh, yes.
16:45You read my notes.
16:47It's my job.
16:48It's your job to read the notes.
16:50So, you know, I shared with Sean in the free work
16:53that I've been in sales three times.
16:56And it's something that, you know,
16:59I like to think makes me a better marketer.
17:01Because at the end of the day, you know,
17:03our job in marketing is to make sales successful
17:05and make our customers successful.
17:07And so understanding what it's like to be in sales
17:11is really helpful when you're trying to figure out,
17:15as a marketer, how can I get all of these amazing products
17:18and value and things I want to communicate about Toast
17:21to make it easy for someone to sit down across the table
17:23from a restaurant owner and say,
17:25okay, here's why you should buy Toast
17:26and here's why it's going to make your business
17:27more successful.
17:28It's really hard to distill that down
17:30to a single conversation.
17:32And so having sat in that seat helps a lot.
17:34And my dad spent his entire career in sales.
17:38Very first job out of college, cold calling.
17:41You know, he used to tell me he'd just cold call
17:42out of the phone book to sell muni buns
17:45was his very first job.
17:48And by the way, that was my first job too,
17:50like just sitting on a sales desk,
17:52cold calling as well as an intern in college.
17:56For anybody that's listening,
17:58that might happen to be listening to this
18:00about cold calling, what have you learned,
18:01a lesson learned?
18:03You know, just keep going.
18:04You get a lot of no's and it can be hard
18:08to pick up the phone.
18:10Cold calling is about practice,
18:13putting in the reps, waking up every day
18:15with the discipline to do it.
18:17And you know, remembering, I think it goes back
18:21to remembering that there's another person
18:22on the other side who probably doesn't want to talk to you.
18:25And so how do you make sure that you are
18:27being respectful of that,
18:30getting your message across cleanly,
18:32and then just continuing to follow up.
18:35And that's the advice my dad always gave me
18:37each time I've taken a job in sales.
18:39My first job out of college, leading enterprise sales
18:41at my last company, and then when I took on
18:43an enterprise role here at Toast,
18:45was a lot of it's about the relationship
18:48and following up and doing what you say
18:50you're going to do.
18:51And so as you get into these relationships,
18:54sales is a relationship like any other,
18:57making sure that you set the right expectations,
18:59you do what you're going to say you're going to do,
19:00you follow up, you follow through,
19:02and we feel that way here too.
19:05Can you talk about your approach personally
19:09to social media and to LinkedIn specifically?
19:12Because it's something that we talk about on the show,
19:14we talk about it to whoever will listen
19:16if you're in sales or in marketing,
19:18but we don't have to go and create these platforms,
19:20they're already there.
19:21And there's incredible people
19:23that are waiting for thought leadership,
19:24if you have the courage to post.
19:26Can you talk about when you started posting
19:28and what you've learned by posting?
19:30Yeah, you know, I think it kind of happened slowly
19:34and then got some momentum.
19:36And I think that's one of the lessons learned
19:38is when you start posting, it can feel silly,
19:42or like you're speaking into a void
19:44and no one cares about what you have to say,
19:47or even that it's hard to come up with things to say.
19:50But what I found when I got more structured about it
19:54and when I put a little bit more time into it,
19:56over the past couple of years, I'd say,
19:59is that it starts to build momentum
20:02and it becomes about the community.
20:04And that I found that the time I was investing offline
20:07and going to things like conferences
20:08and meeting new people, even in sales environments,
20:12translated back to my LinkedIn presence
20:15because it was a way to continue the conversation
20:18in between the conferences.
20:19And I found that my LinkedIn presence got traction
20:22when I was able to connect those experiences together
20:25and make those connections between those offline
20:27and those online relationships.
20:28For me, that's been a more authentic way to engage,
20:32is, you know, I can reshare every Toast newsroom post.
20:35And I do that, because that's part of, you know,
20:37what I want people to see.
20:39But the pieces that get the most traction
20:41and the places where I get the most value
20:43out of the LinkedIn community are when it's more personal.
20:46It's sharing about, you know, something I've done
20:48or a place I've gone or a picture of, you know,
20:50me with some customers or even with my kids.
20:53And that creates that feeling of community
20:55that keeps you coming back and makes it easy
20:57to come up with what the next post is gonna be.
20:59Can you talk about having the courage
21:01as a woman in a leadership position in tech
21:04for sharing that voice?
21:06Yeah, you know, I've always enjoyed being a woman in tech.
21:10Elena has this great quote about, you know,
21:12being different in the room can be a real strength.
21:15And finding a way to use that for positive
21:19and to make that a strength.
21:21And I have found over the past couple of years,
21:24I've gained the confidence to share
21:26like more of my authentic self.
21:28Including, and I see you do this as well,
21:30including my family, including that I have kids,
21:33including, you know, where I'm traveling,
21:35what I'm doing for work.
21:37And when you bring kind of your whole self
21:39both to work and to those online platforms,
21:41I think it makes it easier to show up
21:43as a woman in tech or whatever it is
21:45because it's just who you are.
21:47And people see that whole self.
21:49And, you know, one of the things I talk to a lot
21:51about employees here at Toast is balancing work and family
21:55and how to do that in a career like the one that I have
21:59that does include all of those things, including travel.
22:02And when you kind of bring that whole picture to you,
22:05people are more willing to engage
22:07on that broader range of topics
22:08and ask you questions and get more involved.
22:11Social media from a brand standpoint,
22:14take us outside of the trees and into the forest.
22:18How do you look at it from a brand perspective for Toast?
22:21Yeah, you know, social media is a place
22:23where it's an opportunity to have a little more fun.
22:27You know, something I talk to the team a lot about
22:29is like how lucky we are to work in hospitality.
22:32You know, people are in hospitality
22:34because they love food, they love people,
22:37they love their local communities.
22:40And usually there's some fun there too.
22:42And so social media is the place where we can have
22:45the brand come to life and lean into hospitality
22:48and that mindset that comes with it.
22:50And so something that we think about
22:51from a brand perspective is how do we want to show up
22:55on our social channels that we own?
22:58But just as importantly, or maybe even more importantly,
23:01how are we empowering the rest of the social media community?
23:05Our customers, influencers, our partners,
23:09even just people who might go out
23:11and eat in a Toast restaurant and share their experience.
23:13How do we enable them, give them the tools to be successful
23:17and bring them back into the conversation
23:19and make it a real conversation
23:20versus us just putting out our own posts?
23:23And we find that the times we're most successful on social
23:28is when it gives people a reason to share,
23:31a way to interact, a way to join the conversation,
23:34and a platform for restaurants to share their own stories.
23:37And so that's a place that we're investing more and more on,
23:41adding more channels, adding more content types,
23:44leaning in more to video as we continue to grow social.
23:47It's such an important part of what we do.
23:49Can you share more about video?
23:50Obviously, we're a little biased.
23:52We're big into video.
23:55We're digging the video, yes.
23:56If you're listening to this on Spotify or Apple Podcasts,
23:58please go watch it on YouTube
24:00because you get to enjoy the beautiful mural.
24:02Can you share about the mural?
24:05Yes.
24:05So one of our toasters, Chloe Rubenstein, painted this mural.
24:09She is incredibly talented and has actually painted murals
24:13at many Toast customers and restaurants around Boston as well.
24:17This was totally her own inspiration.
24:19We kind of gave her the space and told her to go at it.
24:22And so there's spaghetti and meatballs
24:26and the meatballs are Toast basketballs.
24:28If you can't quite make out what's behind us.
24:30And it's been such a visual focal point of the office.
24:34It's kind of become one of our defining features of the office.
24:37A place where we should record a restaurant influence.
24:40Exactly.
24:40Every time we share photos of the office,
24:42this is the thing that everyone gravitates to.
24:44It's beautiful.
24:45So can you share, how do you take the idea of video?
24:49Because I think it's a huge thing that isn't talked about enough
24:53because when you get to the simplification
24:54of what do social platforms want?
24:57TikTok wants it.
24:58Instagram wants it.
24:59Facebook wants it.
25:00YouTube wants it.
25:01Video is where we need to go.
25:03But video is expensive.
25:04It can be.
25:05But when we think about video and content in general for social,
25:10we're thinking about how do we bring content that's designed
25:13for social first versus repurposing content is important.
25:17We do that too.
25:17But we really want to bring things that are social first forward
25:20because again, that's what's going to be most successful.
25:23And to your point, Reels and TikTok is what people are engaging with.
25:27I mean, I see it myself when I'm scrolling mindlessly at the end of the day.
25:31We're on video looking at what's happening.
25:34And so again, we think about how can we enable our customers,
25:39partners, team members to share more video?
25:42And then how can we go invest in video and then use it as many places as we can?
25:48And I think there's new tools coming out all the time
25:50that are making video less expensive.
25:53So one of the things we're starting to explore
25:55and I'm starting to talk to other CMOs about is how are we using AI for video?
25:59How are we using, you know, how can you create some more content
26:03without going and setting up, you know, a very expensive video shoot?
26:06There are more and more ways to make that possible.
26:09Can you talk about community within Toast?
26:12Within Toast?
26:13Yes.
26:13With the Toasters?
26:14Restaurant community.
26:15Restaurant community within Toast.
26:17Say more.
26:19So you're building community.
26:20You have events like we are here right now for the Customer Advisory Board.
26:24You have a cab enterprise level Customer Advisory Board.
26:28Why is it so important to get restauranteurs?
26:32I flew all the way from San Diego to Boston.
26:33We have people from literally all over the country,
26:36all different sizes coming to meet here.
26:39Why is that so important?
26:40Yeah, for us, it's twofold.
26:43One is the community is what it's all about at the end of the day.
26:47And so it's an opportunity when we bring you all to our space,
26:51it's an opportunity for you to see what Toast is about,
26:54for our restaurant community to learn what Toast is about,
26:57and for you to engage more deeply with Toasters.
27:01You know, there's a lot you can learn over Zoom
27:04and a lot you can do over email and Slack,
27:07but there is those side conversations that happen,
27:10I think is where the magic is.
27:11And so there's nothing that beats in person,
27:13especially in the hospitality industry
27:15where we're actually delivering food in person at the end of the day.
27:18And so that's a big part of it.
27:20And when we think about community,
27:23we really think about the community of restaurants sharing ideas with each other,
27:27and often it's about us having the opportunity to watch that happen.
27:30And when we can bring the restaurant community together,
27:34they often are finding that they're working with on the same challenges,
27:39they're sharing ideas, they're coming up with similar solutions,
27:42and then we can watch that happen and say,
27:44okay, we can connect those dots
27:46and help drive better solutions for you from our technology.
27:49And even today, when we had our SMB,
27:51or our independent restaurant customer advisory board together,
27:55I was hearing some of the same themes
27:57as we heard at our last enterprise customer advisory board.
28:00And when we can start to pull together those common threads,
28:03we can really make sure we're building the right things for the restaurant community.
28:08And it helps create more momentum for our customers and for Toast.
28:12It's all about helping people share best practices
28:14and get the best success at the end of the day.
28:17For me, I hear a lot of companies talk about community,
28:20but they don't back it up the way that you guys do.
28:22And what I've seen in CAB participating for the last two years,
28:26watching products like the Toast Now app
28:30literally get built right in front of us with our feedback.
28:34I mean, having Aman sitting in the room, Steve sitting in the rooms,
28:38Chris, you, so many of the executive leaders,
28:40but then listening to the words that come out of our mouths
28:44actually get put and developed into the technology
28:47that's coming into our fingertips.
28:49Can you talk about the Toast Now launch?
28:51Yeah, the Toast Now launch was really special.
28:53And one of the things that was really rewarding for me to see
28:57is that we actually launched a video alongside about how it was built,
29:01because it was built with our customers.
29:04And, you know, there was all this great footage about, you know,
29:07what do you want to add next?
29:09And what's the next question you would ask
29:10if you're looking at this data on your phone?
29:12And as a result of us working so deeply to build it with our customers,
29:17it was one of our most successful launches yet.
29:20As far as how many restaurants downloaded it and used it every day,
29:25it was absolutely by far and away one of the biggest launches we've had.
29:27So Toast Now has been super successful as well as, you know,
29:32something that's really helped us give back to restaurants
29:35by adding a new feature to the point of sale
29:37that they've been asking for for a long time.
29:39What new products do you have coming out in 2024 that you can share?
29:44So, yeah, lots of things we can't share yet.
29:45No, just kidding.
29:47Those are on the roadmap.
29:48Those are on the roadmap.
29:49That's the next question, right, is the roadmap.
29:53So, you know, we actually just had our semi-annual Spark launch.
29:57So Spark is a moment we celebrate kind of all the innovation going on
30:00within the Toast platform twice a year.
30:03And we launched three new suites, what we call suites to Toast.
30:08So one is our restaurant management suite.
30:10And the thing about the restaurant management suite
30:12that I think many of us are most excited about is the benchmarking.
30:16Benchmarking is about taking the power of having over 100,000 restaurants on Toast
30:22and giving it to you as the restaurant operator
30:24so that you can understand how you're doing versus your peers,
30:29understand how your menu benchmarks, maybe your prices,
30:33maybe your sales performance,
30:35so that you can make better decisions about how to run your business.
30:38It's about bringing that cab experience that, you know,
30:40not every customer of Toast has that opportunity to many more
30:44by sharing best practices across the whole community of 100,000 restaurants.
30:48So that's one that we're all super excited about.
30:50And, of course, there's a little bit of AI in the background powering those insights.
30:54And then the next one is digital storefront,
30:56which is all about supercharging your digital footprint,
31:01your website, your online ordering,
31:03bringing in SEO, connecting it to Google,
31:06really bringing all that power to the average restaurant
31:08who can, you know, stand up a website really quickly
31:11and start doing digital commerce on Toast.
31:14And then the third one is a refreshed marketing suite.
31:17And the piece of that that we're most excited about
31:19is there's an AI writing assistant
31:21who helps write your emails and your campaigns and your copy
31:25and make sure that you've got the right marketing campaigns at the click of a button.
31:30I actually would like this for Toast marketing, too.
31:33Yeah, no kidding, right?
31:34Things we're looking at for ourselves.
31:37You said that you have a network of other CMOs and other chief marketing officers.
31:41What do you do to continue to learn and continue to grow?
31:45Yeah, so, you know, talking to people both in similar roles to me,
31:50but also across the restaurant ecosystem is kind of job number one, right?
31:54So something that I've been doing is meeting with other heads of marketing
31:58across all different tech companies to say, you know,
32:01what are you working on?
32:02One of the topics is how are you using AI?
32:05How are you thinking about brands?
32:07How are you thinking about social?
32:09So those are some of the things that I try and talk to my peers about on a regular basis.
32:15For example, I talked to a peer at another company last week,
32:18and we're both kind of testing out some new tools.
32:21And we said, okay, like, we're going to check back in two months
32:22and say, like, what were your results?
32:23What were my results?
32:25Share those learnings.
32:25And you get fresh ideas, fresh perspectives,
32:28sometimes a gut check as to, you know, whether you're headed in the right direction.
32:32And then, you know, I also think talking to restauranteurs is a really important part
32:37of continuing to learn and grow.
32:39You know, I didn't grow up in the industry.
32:41I worked college jobs in restaurants just like everyone else,
32:45but I don't have the same experience working in restaurants as all of our customers do.
32:49And so learning from them what, you know, what it's like day in, day out,
32:55what challenges they're facing, because those change.
32:57You know, the challenges we were all facing three, four years ago as far as going digital,
33:02surviving in a COVID world, you know, we're back in a different environment.
33:05And so staying up to date as to what's happening in the industry,
33:09what are our customers dealing with, what new technologies are they trying,
33:13how are they thinking about their business is a big part of kind of continuing
33:16to keep it fresh for myself and my team.
33:20And, you know, I'd say the last thing is we all need coaches, right?
33:24Like none of us are finished products.
33:26And so making sure you've got the right coaching, someone to help keep you accountable,
33:30someone to talk to when you're working through a leadership challenge, a mentor, whatever it is.
33:37How do you ask for help? Often.
33:42How did you learn that skill?
33:45You know, for me, when I get into trouble is when I don't ask for help.
33:51And so I often find myself, you know,
33:54heading down a path or struggling with something on my own and thinking,
33:57Kelly, like you have to go get help, talk to someone who's done this before,
34:01find a way to, you know, get more people involved,
34:05because that's usually when you're most successful.
34:07And I found that over the years, it's become more and more of my default motion to say,
34:13you know, not what do I need to do, but who do I need to make this project successful,
34:18to make this initiative successful, to learn this new thing, to figure something out.
34:22It's usually about bringing the right people together and having the right conversation
34:26so that you're not kind of struggling on your own.
34:28There's very few problems in marketing or business that someone else hasn't faced before.
34:34And so I find that reaching out to others first often helps you kind of short circuit,
34:40figuring out the solution to your own problem.
34:43Now that you're chief marketing officer,
34:45when you look back on this interview, and you think big picture of what you want to build,
34:50what you want to accomplish, the vision for marketing for Toast, what's the big vision?
34:56The big vision for marketing for Toast.
34:58You know, marketing is, it's about the brand.
35:03So one of the things I think about is the responsibility
35:07that comes with taking ownership of a brand like Toast, you know, it's a big deal.
35:12It's a big deal now.
35:13It's a big deal.
35:14The funny story is, Will Eppard, who is our sales rep, who we love and is partly-
35:20Always have to have a Will shout out.
35:21He will always be responsible for why we get to do all this incredible stuff with Toast.
35:25But his story of walking into restaurants in San Diego with a Toast logo,
35:29and the restaurant owner told him, it's okay, we already have Cisco.
35:33We have bread.
35:33We already have Cisco.
35:35We don't need Toast.
35:36And Cisco's a food distributor, and Toast doesn't do food distributors.
35:39We don't do food distributors.
35:40Not yet.
35:41Not yet.
35:41I don't think, you know, we're very happy partners of US Foods.
35:44But now the brand is very well-known in the restaurant community.
35:48It is.
35:48And outside, in the greater community.
35:51You know, the big responsibility.
35:52Boston is very proud of Toast, as they should be.
35:54It is.
35:55And, you know, sometimes I think I must be biased in my community because my friends all tell me,
36:00oh, I order on the Toast app, and I use Toast.
36:02And, of course, they're my friends, so they have to say that.
36:04But it is.
36:05It's not just a restaurant brand, but consumers interact with it.
36:08The Boston Tech community is an important part of our story as well.
36:12And so thinking about how do you be the steward of the brand, and where does the brand go from here?
36:17And so we have the opportunity to keep a lot of the amazing things that are part of our brand history,
36:22which are an important part of our story.
36:24The way we were founded, you know, being really rooted in independent restaurants,
36:28and then evolving that to include, you know, more of the types of restaurants we're serving today.
36:33Larger brands, hotel restaurants, and bringing them into the brand story as well.
36:39So that's one thing we're thinking a lot about is how do we involve the brand to include all types of restaurants,
36:44you know, that are everyone who's selling food on Toast.
36:48And then, you know, from a team perspective, it's about how do we create a destination for marketing talent,
36:55you know, both within our industry and across the industry so that, you know, people can build incredible careers,
37:00do their best work of their careers here, really grow their marketing chops,
37:05come have fun, work with the best customers out there.
37:08You know, it should be that, you know, marketing to hospitality is a blast.
37:13And so why wouldn't you as a B2B marketer want the opportunity to tell the Toast story?
37:18So that's a big part of how I'm thinking about the Toast marketing team as well.
37:22And then finally, you know, come up with that next campaign that helps, you know,
37:27make Toast and our customers more successful and really grounding the marketing in the restaurant community
37:33and in the hospitality story.
37:35That's what's going to make our restaurant partners successful and make Toast marketing successful as well.
37:40We are obviously very biased about Toast.
37:43We are so grateful for the opportunity to share incredible storytellers all across the hospitality space,
37:49restaurant space, this content that we get to do for entrepreneur, for restaurant influencers,
37:53but also Family Style, which we'll put a link to our Family Style series, which is on YouTube,
37:59which allows us to actually travel to some incredible brands.
38:03We're filming season two, which we are grateful for.
38:06If you guys want to keep in touch with me, it's at Sean P. Walcheff, S-H-A-W-N-P-W-A-L-C-H-E-F.
38:14Kelly, what's the best way for people to keep in touch with you?
38:17You can find me on LinkedIn, Kelly Sennett Esten, or on Instagram at Kelly Sennett, actually.
38:23I've been around for a long time on Instagram.
38:26Well, thank you so much. We're going to put links into the show notes.
38:29If people want to learn more about Toast, what's the best way?
38:31You have so many landing pages.
38:32ToastTab.com, you got it.
38:34There it is, ToastTab.com.
38:36This is, and if you're in Boston, I don't know, how do you guys, you guys don't do tours of Toast.
38:41If you're a Toast customer.
38:43If you're a Toast customer, you can definitely have a tour of Toast, or a Toast prospect.
38:47There you go, or a Toast prospect.
38:48You want to think about coming to Toast, well, we'd love to have you at the office.
38:51There it is. There's the invitation.
38:53We appreciate it. Thank you so much.
38:55As always, stay curious, get involved.
38:58Don't be afraid to ask for help. We'll catch you guys next week.
39:02Thank you for listening to Restaurant Influencers.
39:04If you want to get in touch with me, I am weirdly available at Sean P.
39:08Walshef, S-H-A-W-N-P-W-A-L-C-H-E-F.
39:13Cali Barbecue Media has other shows.
39:16You can check out Digital Hospitality.
39:18We've been doing that show since 2017.
39:21We also just launched a show, Season 2, Family Style, on YouTube with Toast.
39:26And if you are a restaurant brand, or a hospitality brand,
39:30and you're looking to launch your own show, Cali Barbecue Media can help you.
39:34Recently, we just launched Room for Seconds with Greg Majewski.
39:39It is an incredible insight into leadership, into hospitality,
39:44into enterprise restaurants, and franchise, franchisee relationships.
39:49Take a look at Room for Seconds.
39:51And if you're ready to start a show, reach out to us,
39:53BeTheShow.Media.
39:55We can't wait to work with you.
40:00BeTheShow.Media