5 Learnings about Resilience, Family, and Food: My Walk & Talk with Noah H Glass, Founder and CEO of Olo

Here’s a short summary of my chat with Noah from the prehype podcast. Check out the episode here!

Turns out, revolutionizing the restaurant industry takes time.

Not to be confused with the other Noah Glass (the founder of Twitter), Noah H Glass is the founder and CEO of Olo, a B2B company that is the premiere interface between restaurants and on-demand food e-commerce. And unlike a lot of the startup world, Noah embraced the long haul.

In our Walk & Talk, we unpack how Noah’s dedication to family, resilience and “embracing the suck” has lead Olo to help millions of people skip the line, and get their food faster than ever.

There’s so much to learn from Noah’s interview, but here are 5 things I can’t stop thinking about.

Again — you can check out the episode here!

Embracing the suck — was the best decision Olo ever made.
Originally, Olo started as a B2C brand — but prior to and during the 2008 recession, Olo was spending $150,000 a month on customer acquisition. “After the recession, we said, ‘Let’s not do that. We can save $150,000 a month by selling directly to restaurants, and have them, onboard customers.’ And that was a really good decision. It was a hard decision because I always envisioned us as a B2C company,” he said.

Noah explained that going from B2B meant a longer, slower road. “We embraced this phrase

‘Embrace the suck.’

And that was borrowed from the Marines. It’s about grit…If you can withstand more than the opposition, at the end of the day, you’re going to win.”

“We just want our staff to be able to bond with their children!”
Olo’s point of pride? A headstrong commitment to family and personal connections. Since their start in 2005, Olo has grown from 12 people to 180 — and Noah makes a point to do a welcome one-on-one with every new employee. What’s more, over 50% of the company is remote. “Family-first means I get to pursue my career and be close to my family and not have to waste an hour or two hours commuting. It’s been this amazing unlock of talent for us around the country,” he said.

Noah also talked about how a more family-focused flexible work schedule is attracting people who want to be part of the Olo family, too.

“We have a 12 week parental leave — we just want people to bond with their children. I can’t imagine working any other way and not having massive burnout,” he said. “We’re on this long journey together, and I want to foster that broader “Olo is my family” kind of belief system.”

The future of restaurants? A kitchen with a pick-up window.
One thing I found interesting was Noah’s keen grasp on the future of the restaurant business and how Olo and other brands are just scratching the surface of the potential of this 800 billion dollar industry.

One insight he talked about was how the bulk of industry has always been about convenience. “The industry is built on the convenience that you don’t have to cook. Someone is doing it for you, and giving you the enjoyable experience of picking what you want, and eating it. I think that’s going to be the future of the industry.”

Specifically, he’s talking about “dark kitchens,” or restaurants that basically a kitchen with a pickup window. He explained that when you look at the transaction counts in the industry, 63% are from orders coming from outside the restaurants.

PR is about more than the cover of the Wall Street Journal.
When it comes to PR, Noah explained that Olo isn’t necessarily focused gracing the cover of the biggest trade journal — they’re putting their money on being tactical with their PR. “We’re trying to get attention, but we’re trying to get the attention of the cohort of decision makers that matter to our business success.”

Noah explained that since the brand has shifted from B2C to B2B, they’re more focused on chatting with stakeholders inside the industry. “I spend a lot of my time not with restaurant executives, but with restaurant shareholders and analysts who can chirp in the ear of the decision maker.”

What’s next for Olo? Going beyond the restaurant.
A product that Noah’s team started developing in 2016, Dispatch, lets consumers order from a restaurant brand, see delivery times and price quotes from local providers (like PostMates or DoorDash), and track the progress from prep to delivery — all within the restaurant’s ordering platform.

Today, Noah sees Dispatch as the start of an expansion that goes beyond restaurants. “I think about it as a platform for retailers, and not just restaurants. There’s no reason it can’t be used by any local retailer as a way to compete against the ecommerce competition,” he said.

There’s so much more to Noah’s story — listen to the full prehype episode right here. You might want to order some food while you listen.