There are many reasons we created Sirved. Personal reasons. Business reasons. And reasons directly linked to the fact that some of our closest friends – who happen to be restaurant owners – were struggling.

It is no secret that the restaurant industry is tough. Margins are thin. Markets are competitive. And sadly for many restaurant owners in both Canada and the U.S., the recent increase in minimum wage has created a recipe for disaster.

Combine this with the age of instant gratification — a time when many restaurant goers not only demand, but expect a home delivery option from their favourite cafe — and those margins get even slimmer. Delivery services like GrubHub and UberEats have popped up to accommodate this expectation. Don’t get me wrong. This is a fantastic concept. It offloads the burden of managing the delivery function from the restaurant, while providing consumers with more home delivery options.

But here’s the rub. While the concept is great – and backed by a lot of venture capital money – the reality is this business model is not sustainable for the delivery companies or the restaurants.

Now keep in mind, food delivery service is not new. And restaurant margins have always been tight. We are just saying there is no room to add in the expense of the delivery companies. Restaurants can’t spare the additional hit to margins and consumers don’t want to bear the fees delivery companies are forced to charge to turn a profit. — At the moment delivery companies are able to cover negative margins with investor dollars but what happens when those funds run out?.

With this as a backdrop — enter Sirved. A radically different business model that serves both the needs of consumers and restaurants. In fact, Sirved not only impacts restaurant margins but positively impacts those margins.

Every Flippin’ Menu

So how can we help restaurants increase margins while providing customers with full knowledge of all the amazing menu options available?

By creating the world’s most powerful menu-based search engine. No filters. We make it easy for restaurants to be found. Searchable by specific cravings, dishes or dietary restrictions. No more guesswork, no more paid reviews, no more jumping between websites.

Consumers have more options while also saving time in finding just the right menu to satisfy everyone’s taste. They then have the option to go directly to the restaurant location to eat in-person, call to place an order for takeout, or order from the restaurant directly from the Sirved mobile platform. And Sirved has captured every menu, whether the restaurant pays for the Sirved platform or not, which is great news for consumers.

And for restaurants, Sirved offers a flat fee for unlimited online transactions, unlike other delivery services which charge restaurants anywhere from 15 to 35 percent per transaction. Fantastic news for restaurants but, Sirved is so much more than delivery. Sirved is partnering with restaurants across Canada (and soon the U.S.) to also provide real-time analytics to help restaurants better understand the demographics of the local market — and their customers in specific. Again, all with the goal to help restaurants boost the bottomline. No commissions or percentage of profits. One flat fee.

Why Should You Care as a Restaurant Owner or Consumer?

Because 2018 is a different era. The economy is radically different than even just 2-3 years ago. Social media has changed the way consumers get their information. And similarly, people have learned how to gamify the system as evidenced in this recent investigative report by Vice.

Sirved has taken all of these factors into account to level the playing field. Providing full, unbiased (unbiased is the key word) information to consumers while providing every restaurant with the opportunity to be discovered.

We are foodies ourselves. One of us with a nut allergy which makes finding a safe restaurant – the old-fashioned way – nearly impossible, and one of us with an extreme taste for adventure. This combined with our respect for friends in the restaurant industry has resulted in Sirved.

Today Sirved holds more than 100,000+ menus from across Canada and select cities in the U.S. By May, we intend to have every menu, from every restaurant in North America. It is free for consumers to download so we hope you will give it a try.

Sirved was founded in 2015 by Jonathan Leslie and Kyle Brown to unite consumers with every menu, from every restaurant, not just those that pay to be discovered.