Revolutionizing Restaurant Management: An Interview with Sina Behzadifard of Fabizi

In this episode, Sadaf Abbas interviews Sina Behzadifard, project manager at Fabizi, a startup transforming restaurant management with a cloud-based software solution. Sina discusses Fabizi’s journey, achievements, and future goals, emphasizing their unique all-in-one system that integrates order processing, kitchen and inventory management, staff and customer management, and more. The conversation highlights Fabizi’s modular approach, which allows restaurants to tailor their management practices, ensuring cost-effectiveness and efficiency. Sina also shares insights on market size, current traction, and the challenges and opportunities in expanding Fabizi’s innovative platform globally.

About Our Guest

Sina Behzadifard

Supply Chain Expert | Digital Transformation Advocate | Project Manager at Fabizi

Sina Behzadifard, a seasoned researcher and Ph.D. student at the Stockholm School of Economics, specializes in supply chain and operations management. As Project Manager at Fabizi, Sina leverages his expertise to revolutionize restaurant management with innovative digital solutions. His extensive experience in managing AI-driven tech startups and academic prowess in evolutionary and ecological theories enable him to develop sustainable and resilient systems. Sina’s commitment to digitalization and smart supply chain strategies aims to create efficient, environmentally harmonious operations, benefiting businesses and society alike.

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What You’ll Learn:

• The comprehensive functionality of Fabizi’s all-in-one restaurant management system, integrating various operational aspects like order processing, kitchen and inventory management, and staff and customer management.
• Fabizi’s modular approach that allows restaurants to customize their management practices, ensuring cost-effectiveness and operational efficiency.
• The journey of Fabizi, its market traction, and future aspirations for expanding its innovative platform in Europe and the Middle East.
• The importance of seamless data integration across departments, enhancing reporting, and reducing manual efforts in restaurant operations.
• The strategic development of Fabizi Marketplace, aiming to assist managers in procurement and supply management, expanding beyond internal operations to include external supply chains.
• The significance of user-friendly interfaces and modern tech solutions in enhancing the restaurant management experience and reducing operational complexities.
• Insights into the competitive landscape of the restaurant management software market and Fabizi’s positioning within it.
• The role of Oak Business Consultants in supporting Fabizi with financial modeling and strategic planning, ensuring robust growth and financial management.
• Sina Behzadifard’s perspective on the importance of cybersecurity and regulatory compliance in the development and expansion of Fabizi’s platform.

Transcribe

Sadaf Abbas: Welcome to The Business Catalyst podcast where we explore the latest innovations and disruptors in the tech industry. Today, we are diving into the world of restaurant management with Sina, a key member of the management team at Fabizi, a startup revolutionizing the way restaurants operate. Sina, thank you for joining us today. Could you start by telling me what is your role in Fabizi and what Fabizi is doing? What is the product and solution, what is the problem they are solving?

Sina Behzadifard: Yeah, so hi, this is Sina, Fabizi’s project manager, and thank you for having me. Being here and representing my team is a pleasure. Now let’s talk about Fabizi. So Fabizi is a restaurant management system, or arms for short. Fabizi is a cloud based software solution designed to digitize and automate restaurant operations and administrative tasks from start to finish, like order processing, kitchen and inventory management, staff and customer management, and many other tasks and processes inside a food service business. But Fabizi is not just any ordinary software in the market. Currently, most restaurants management and staff spend a lot of resources juggling between multiple software solutions. For example, they might use one software for accounting and another for HR and a different POS system and device, which sometimes leads to confusion, missing what they really need to do to offer the best service to their customers. There are many software solutions for every corner of the food and beverage business and many of them claim to offer an all in one solution. However, they fail in their offerings in the end, and pen and paper Excel files often win out, which is a huge problem for an industry with billions of dollars of turnover on a yearly basis. This way of working is not really efficient and adds cost to the business’s operations. And at the end, restaurant owners are paying these costs and the customers. The scale of this problem can be seen when around more than 70% of food and beverage businesses are struggling with this problem, according to a variety of reports, industry reports. I mean, Fabizi is the solution to this problem. Fabizi offers a truly all in one solution for every corner of the food and beverage industry under one umbrella, with a super user friendly interface that reduces the hassle of managing different systems and software and brings efficiency to the business’s operations. I guess that’s a good summary of what is Fabizi.

Sadaf Abbas: This is a very good summary. If I summarize it in one way, as a financial consultant, I saw that if there’s a fashion or retail industry, they need to have a different inventory manual. Yeah, they need to have different sales for any other customer relationship CRM. But sometimes it happens that there is a clash between applications. The data is not pulling properly from one application to another application, and each application basically represents one department. So I saw this gap very, very well due to my experiences and we implementing the applications with the organizations. And it sometimes happens. I also feel that in the restaurant there only should be one solution. There should be HR, there should be project management, there should be the inventory procurement and the accounting as well. You know, sometimes you have everything, but you just miss accounting. So accounting is a totally different area. Marketing is a totally different area. So there’s one solution: there should be everything, every department in one place. And that data can be linked with each other properly for the reporting purpose. Basically the main thing is the reporting. So I believe that Fabizi is doing this thing and I believe that the Fabizi is giving the umbrella of one organization and each department in one application. So data can easily be translated or linked with each other for the reporting purpose, for the management reporting, and for the auditing and accounting purposes, this is the main endpoint. What is your auditing report? But this auditing report is just for accounting purposes. But if you are going for the management purpose, you need to say what are your sales? What is your cost? What is your marketing cost? What are your operational costs? I think so. I believe that Fabizi is filling that gap. My next question, that Fabizi offers a modular approach to restaurant management. How does this benefit your client compared to a traditional one in one RMS system?

Sina Behzadifard: Your summary was quite well aligned with what Fabizi is and when it comes to the concept of all in one of Fabizi claims to be, which is a known one solution for restaurants. Yeah, let’s say RMS. We are talking about a concept that it’s like a one size fits all shoe, which might fit to some perfectly, but most will need to adjust it to suit what based on their needs. That’s why we found that restaurants benefit more from a federated and modular solution where they can easily pick and choose what works best for them and scale up and down as easily as possible. Traditional all in one RMS systems in the market often come with unnecessary features that restaurants don’t need or use, and at the same time, they use a very old fashioned user interface which leads to higher costs, add complexity and unpleasant user experience. Fabizi’s modular approach lets restaurants tailor what, what is their management practices to what they need to be digitized, ensuring that they only pay for what they need and use and avoid unnecessary collateral waste. In addition, the modular architecture enables Fabizi to be agile and evolve as the customer’s needs change and evolve over time. So we aim to shift Fabizi’s product roadmap to one that focuses on modularized architecture.For the next year, the development of the all in one version of Fabizi is finished and it’s fully operational. The current version, which is the all in one version, centers around the concept of all in one and addresses the customers, the customers whose scale of operations is larger than the medium population of restaurants. Therefore, we are developing the modularized version for the next product milestone and we will launch it soon. This process will be smooth and our current all in one customers won’t experience any interruptions. And here also we need to briefly mention another feature of Fabizi that will differentiate us from our competitors and additionally add to the concept of owning one. And it’s Fabizi marketplace. Fabizi Marketplace is like an add on to the core Fabizi’s restaurant management solutions. So with Fabizi all in one, we are talking not only about internal operations and processes of a restaurant, but also we are addressing its supply chain. So Fabizi Marketplace aims to assist managers in their daily procurement and supply management processes, from sourcing to payment. And with this solution, we plan to move beyond restaurants’ internal operations towards their external supply chains side, which we believe can offer value to the industry and its value chain. And we will develop this product after we launch the modularized version. And then we can have a real, basically, let’s say a true all in one solution for restaurant management. And I believe that the procurement and the HR and the customer relationship, CRM, all these modules are linked with the accounting module as well, right? Yeah, we have a, we have a really, let’s say an umbrella of reports and let’s say financial processes included into our solution. And Fabizi can manage from ordering, the cash registers, let’s say POS system, different POS systems and outlets. And also it can create and develop financial reports based on the customers needs. And also we can, for instance, we could capture a lot of variations of tax regimes in different countries. So, we have this flexibility to have accounting processes from start to the end.

Sadaf Abbas: Yeah. Why I’m asking that is because we are, as a financial consultant, helping out the startups. So I believe that your applications will be very good for the restaurant industry. And with your application we also provide our services, because sometimes it happens that we have different types of applications in one organization. For CRM is different, for inventory modules are different. And when we as an accountant and as a CFO, when we need to pull the data for the bills, for the receipts and the whole system is clashing out and there’s a huge gap. We are doing manual things several times with the help of the CSV, with excel, we need to upload the template as per the accounting software. So I believe that in terms of the finance department, in terms of the other departments, this will be very cost effective and time effective as well. And of course, as a consultant, I see that we can help out the other restaurant industry and the startups and founders with the help of this application. Now, my third question is that for you, Sina, what is the current market size for restaurant management software and how does Fabizi fit in this landscape?

Sina Behzadifard: Yeah, so focusing on the market size of restaurant management software, the global restaurant management software market was valued at 4.2 billion of US dollars in 2021, and it’s projected to reach around $17 billion US dollar by 2031. This is a substantial market, which is the growth expected in the coming years. However lucky any market is evolving, especially with the integration of AI, which is set to increase the market size and bring about new solutions and value to the whole industry and the market. Currently, our headquarters are in Lisbon, Portugal and Dubai, UAE, and we are focusing on the European and middle eastern markets through these locations where the food. We found that the food service sector is experiencing significant growth and technology adoption in their operations and it’s not as competitive as let’s say, East Asia and even Southeast Asia, which the market is quite competitive. Thus, these two regions are a blue ocean to go to the market. And currently we have built a network of more than 400 restaurants in Lisbon, and we have a smaller network of restaurants in Dubai. But the numbers are quite significant compared to the size of population in these two regions. The 400 restaurants population is currently.. let’s say early adopters will shape the go to market phase of Fabizi in Portugal, and they are basically our current customer base for this stage. This market is basically the primary market for the Fabizi all in one as a restaurant management software. However, Fabizi marketplace will also enable us to enter a broader market, including the entire food and beverage industry value chain, which I estimate towards billions of US dollars at the end. So that was my fourth question. What are the tractions? You already replied that there’s a 400 you have the restaurants in Lisbon and more small startups in Dubai. What is the current financial requirement for Fabizi to reach its next development milestone. Yeah, so currently we privately launched our product to several customers in Dubai and Lisbon at the same time. While I cannot disclose the exact numbers, the feedback has been positive and aligned with our expectations. For the last year, we have been focusing on the market fit process to make fabulous products, the best version for the go to market experience and address the customer’s needs. This process is happening with our strategic restaurant partners also. Basically, we name them as partners because they are working closely with them and they are also helping us to fine tune our product. Currently, there are ten strategic partners that we are working closely with and they are ranging from high end restaurants to retailers. Currently, we are optimizing the user experience so that customers, let’s say the staff, can focus on their daily task and use Fabizi with the least effort and headache. To give you an idea about the current traction of Fabizi, the clients include a well known international restaurant and bar in Dubai, a fast food chain in Dubai, a butchery, and several coffee shops. In Lisbon we have also attracted the attention of several high end restaurants. We seek to establish long term partnership with all these clients as they are early adopters of Fabizi and they support us in the product development process of Fabizi as well. So our diverse client base shows that Fabizi is resonating well across different food and beverage industry segments and concepts, and our solution with a high end tech stack can offer short or long term value for the customers.

Sadaf Abbas: Yeah, I guess that’s a good summary of what you are doing. So of course the Fabizi is live, you are having attractions and it’s a very huge traction within. I think so. One year? I think Fabizi is launched, right? Sina how many?

Sina Behzadifard: Yeah.

Sadaf Abbas: And it is not in a development stage. It is in a live stage, even not in a beta stage, I believe. So how does your team expertise in both the technology and food services industry enhance the Fabizi market positions? Can you elaborate your team structure and experiences?

Sina Behzadifard: Yeah, so my team is ambidextrous. Yeah, that’s the term. Basically, the founders team has the two required expertise combined together. First, the knowledge and hands on experience of managing restaurants at different scales for over 15 years. And second, the knowledge of technology and software development with similar years of experience has come together to build Fabizi. The idea behind Fabizi emerged as one of the founders, Milad has been experiencing the pain of managing several software solutions in his own restaurant. At the same time, each of these solutions could not satisfy his needs from start to end and at the end of each day and month he had to export reports for his software and import them into an excel file with a pen and paper, calculate how his performance was and what he needs to do next. So basically what he did was to discuss his pain points with Reza, our tech entrepreneur for over 30 years and they decided to develop a real all in one product. Milad brings his talent and hands-on experience with the food and beverage business. So the team and Reza start shaping a tech team and, yeah Fabizi is born.

Sadaf Abbas: And you are working as a project manager, right? For the whole project?

Sina Behzadifard: I joined this team three years ago and since then I’ve been working on different aspects of its business and currently I’m working as a project manager. Also I need to mention that in the future I will be responsible for developing Fabizi marketplace which is basically aligned with what I’m doing right now as a PhD student of supply chain management. So soon we will have that as well in marketplace, yeah

Sadaf Abbas: Yeah. So how do you see Fabizi evolving in the next five years and how are you addressing them? What are the challenges you think you will face as a Fabizi?

Sina Behzadifard: Yeah, I can answer your question from an observer’s perspective. So first, from the market perspective, Fabizi will become a leading provider of all in one restaurant management solutions worldwide. Over the next five years we’ll expand beyond Lisbon and Dubai and we try to be like an international software company. And from a technology perspective, we will focus more and more on continuous innovation and integrating AI, machine learning and data analytics to enhance our platform and also provide insights for our customers. I need to emphasize the integration of AI into our business model because it can allow us to create an ecosystem where everyone involved with the value chain of Fabizi can benefit from its value. Additionally, I need to also mention that GDPR, let’s say cyber security stuff and then the regulations around private data is also increasing and we are also addressing cybersecurity issues aligned with our development, product development and also market expansion. There are going to be more complex regulations soon all over the world and we need to address that in the next phase of our product. Currently we have the highest degree of security, data security for our clients, but we are planning to improve it as we go further into development.

Sadaf Abbas: Anything else Sina?

Sina Behzadifard: No.

Sadaf Abbas: So we look at the next question. So I would like to know how your experience was to work with us as a financial consultant and how the whole experience of what kind of services we have provided to you Sina?

Sina Behzadifard: So with the Oak team we worked together to build several financial models based on different scenarios. And also your team helped us to develop some market study and also industry studies. And in general, I can I’m satisfied with what I received from Oak. You have a very professional team which is dedicated to the project that they are assigned to. Yeah. It was a good experience working with you.

Sadaf Abbas: Thank you so much for your words. So thank you Sina for sharing valuable insights regarding Fabizi and innovative work you are doing in market. It’s clear that our team, your team, is on the current cutting edge of restaurant management technology, and we look forward to seeing what the future holds for Fabizi. To our listeners, thankyou for tuning to the business Catalyst podcast. Stay tuned for more episodes exploring the intersection of technology entrepreneurship. Until next time, I’m Sadaf Abbas signing off. Thank you so much.