Then, put the free version limit at 25 page views per month, or something small. Once it's all set up and running, and customers are visiting the mobile site, they'll "see the value" and be much more inclined to pay up :)

But offering a way to clearly prove the value of the service before they buy would definitely be useful.

I think skeptical restaurant owners would choose that no-risk option, and you'd probably make more money. Restaurant owners who think it'll be successful in making sales would probably be willing to pay a decent sum per month.

I agree with the other commenter that you are probably not charging enough. I think this kind of service has high value if it can demonstrably increase sales.

Or lead generation for restaurant customers?

OpenTable/Groupon has an advantage there since they have a very direct method of measurement.

That's not to say that it's a bad idea, just that it wouldn't change my recommendations, personally.

Restaurant online ordering providers usually fall into two camps:

1) Simple ordering that goes to email, fax, or phone. There is no integration with the kitchen and restaurants have to reconcile their reporting at the end of the day.

2) Online ordering website integration directly with the restaurant's point of sale system. This works better for the restaurant cause the orders can go straight to the kitchen printers, the sales reports are all in the same place, and the orders pop up in the point of sale system that the restaurant is already using. This is a lot more work (and a lot more expensive), and first you have to convince the POS manufacturers to give you access to their APIs.

Additionally, not all restaurants are interested in doing online ordering (it affects the workflow of the kitchen to have orders coming in 'out of band').

I wouldn't want to limit our service to only folks interested doing online ordering, but it might be an interesting add-on for us down the road.

Or roll your own POS and blow the competition completely out of the water. :-) There is a huge opportunity here for the sorts of people that hang out on HN.

On top of this, the hardware used by these POS systems is absolutely terrible. The "new" hardware used by wait staff is basically a Blackberry with a tiny screen and a stylus which is easy to lose, sold by Symbol. The menu functions on them are complicated, and last I checked, the replacement costs rival a new iPhone.

...and there's a device out from Apple which attaches to the back of an iPhone and allows users to swipe credit cards through the iPhone. (Sorry Square, I really wish you had responded to even one of my emails, but it looks like that bus has left the station now.)

With competitors like these, you should be able to pretty successfully market a replacement using commodity hardware, open systems, and a yearly "support contract" that would entitle the customers to upgrades, etc.

One of the vendors, "Digital Dining", has only just recently started offering integration of menus into their customer's websites, and it's clunky as hell.

Your bigger challenge would be getting existing restaurants to convert. Once they pay out for one of these piles of crap -- and get it working after weeks of aggravation -- they're reluctant to do anything that might upset it.

But businesses like mine would be very happy to guide them through the transition. :-)

edit: You already know all this. But maybe someone else doesn't.

We think it's worth the time and the money, and we agree that the current clunky, antiquated hardware and counterintuitive software is a disgrace. It's one of those ideas (upgrading restaurants) whose time is fast approaching.

I think maybe you are overthinking that aspect of it. I totally understand and likewise agree with doing POS integration with the kitchen(you can't automate it), but there are methods already present in every restaurant to getting an order to the kitchen, some are paper, some are DASH(Darden's system, microsoft stack) aloha system etc seems to be a pretty big one.

I could see that being the case. I don't think they understand how infuriating it is on the consumer side.

Maybe publish some success stories citing the amount of increased revenue.

Another idea would be to build your own index/app of restaurants with mobile friendly sites so there's double incentive for them to sign up.

> Unlimited promotions, events and discounts with scheduling

Maybe you have this already, but a local restaurant here has a promotion where you sign up via email/SMS and they raffle a free pizza every weekend. Since they're also a bar, this helps get people in the door and spend more money.

Even the most conservative restaurant owner is going to be swayed by a clear financial benefit.

Also, convincing potential customers to take the plunge is the kind of task that (good) salespeople excel at.

-- restaurants that do a lot of take-out or delivery business (pizza places, Chinese/ethnic restaurants, lunch places in financial districts of major cities). When people want delivery food, they need a menu on-hand.

-- restaurants near colleges/universities. High usage of smartphones, lots of eating out.

-- restaurants in areas with particularly high smartphone market penetration (Bay Area, New York City, Boston, Seattle)

A good menu/take-out order system for restaurants is something I've been thinking about on and off since I was in grad school (and that's been cough over a decade now).

This is the most important piece of information that is missing from your site. As a restraint owner looking at your site I'm thinking "What is this, an app, or a service or what?" and "how will my customers find my restaurant on their phone with this service?". Given that most restaurants that you are targeting are probably not even aware that people might access access the restaurant's site on their phone, you definitely need to answer these questions.

(edit: for example, your uWink demo video in the first frame already starts with the app (or site or whatever it is) on the screen. You should demonstrate how a customer would find uWink on their phone in the first place)

It is not clear that we're allowing restaurants to create a mobile version of their website?

In terms of how customers are going to discover the restaurant, it really depends on the customer. A lot of folks search via the Google Maps app and then click through to the website.

I could start the demo video on a Google Maps search and take the user to the restaurant website from there...

Anyways, the point is that you're not marketing to the smartphone users. You're marketing to people that probably don't have a smartphone, and may not know how people would use one to discover their site. Showing the different paths in a video or chart would be a good idea. Better might be to set something up with an existing customer with a horrible, flash-filled, pdf-menu'd main site. Get them to agree to let you post a video of what it was like before they got you, and how unusable the site is, even if you somehow get a direct link to the pdf menu.

Disclaimer: I'm not a businessperson or a restaurant owner.

This is key. stevenwei, you need to get your butt into some restaurants and test this idea out. I work with restaurant owners and workers all the time. They're loud, brash, and won't hesitate to tell you exactly what they think of you (and your product) to your face.

Spend a day in as many of the restaurants in your area as possible and request a meeting with the owner. Most of the time you'll get turned down, but take what you can get.

Ask them about their current website and if they have any issues. Talk to them about smartphones and try to understand how they perceive their problems. Take lots of notes. Then, use the words the restaurant people did on your site. It may seem unclear to us on HN, but if it speaks to restaurant people that's all that matters.

Great advice, and that has been our experience as well.

I'll add another citation. Although I would love to find more recent numbers, as I bet the percentage has jumped since then.

Great idea for the before and after videos...although on a Flash site the 'before' video won't be particularly exciting. :)

As far as getting restaurants set up, that can be a service we provide...

It isn't. The biggest text you have up there is 'Mobile websites for Restaurants'. That might mean you do contract work for restaurants looking to create mobile websites. Which you aren't. May be interpreted both ways - I think your explanation in the post above was clearer.

Also, using the location-network effect you could also help promote their establishments. Build another app that allows you to search and view your client's mobile-friendly sites and open their location in Google Maps

So its like Urbanspoon, except you can actually see what the hell is on the menu. This helps your product sell more because not only are you making it easier for the restaurant to gain visibility through your promotion and marketing through the app (which is what you could technically charge them for - giving away the site for free), but you are also giving them an established mobile presence as well.

One two punch.

Additionally, all of those directories already link to the restaurant's website. Our goal is simply to make sure that when the user clicks through to the website, they can actually find what they're looking for.

Edit: That said, explaining that all these existing directories point to your website, and when your customers click through, they want to be able to find your menu (or whatever else wasn't listed in the directory) is certainly valuable.

Suggestion: expand your service to provide good desktop sites in addition to your mobile sites.

With mobile websites you generally want something that loads quickly, displays all the restaurant information in an easy to access manner, and is somewhat customizable (colors, logo, etc) but doesn't go too far cause then you would lose usability.

I just want to thank everyone for their feedback.

I've read many 'Ask HN: Rate My Startup' posts and knew you guys gave great advice, but I didn't really expect to get this much feedback and encouragement.

Thanks a lot guys!