2) I've been an investor in over 20 food-tech based Startups. I'm not clueless about the industry.
3) I come from middle-class (or lower-class!) america -- Appalachia, to be exact -- and my opinions are not based exclusively on either fast food restaurants nor high-class ones, but rather all of the above.
you're welcome to your own opinion, but I'm hardly I'll-informed about the industry, from either customer or operator perspective.
That logic is similar to the logic of people who say, "I love cooking, I'll open a restaurant." (which, by the way, is one of the major causes of the high rate of infant restaurant mortality).
get off your high horse, i've got a clue and my extended family has been involved in food service businesses since the great depression.
You're a smart cat. And you've been really successful in the tech / entrepreneurial venue.
But this piece perfectly illustrates a common problem among successful tech entrepreneurs. You've not only assumed that a problem you struggle with is universal, you've also assumed that your success and expertise within one industry means that you know how to operate within other industries (that you don't know about). Worse still... you assume that you don't need to know anything about the industry to "fix" it. This is VERY common among successful tech entrepreneurs. You've started with the assumption that you KNOW BETTER than the people who are currently operating within the business (despite the fact that you don't know the realities of running such a business). In your case, you also assume that most people running restaurants are morons (because if they were not, they'd obviously be running their businesses as if they were tech start-ups).
This combination of myopic narcissism, arrogance and ignorance has gotten a LOT of entrepreneurs and investors in a LOT of trouble in the past.
Might I suggest that you should: 1) learn about the food service business (perhaps you could assume that successful food service professionals are not idiots to start?), 2) test your assumption that there are a reasonable number of people who share your problem
Final Note: tech entrepreneurs and investors - I'd suggest looking at this as a good illustration of a condition that we should all avoid.