This Startup Built an 'Easy Button' for Restaurant Chaos
Restaurant Employees Are Texting AI Agents Instead of Logging In
Restaurants today juggle dozens of tech systems and the average employee barely sticks around for two months. Can AI-driven text support simplify the chaos and scale into a billion-dollar opportunity?
In episode #160, we meet Luisa Castellanos of Science On Call, who's already serving 900+ restaurants, approaching $2M ARR, and turning tech troubles into quick texts. But will she get VCs to bite?
🎥 Watch Luisa’s pitch on YouTube or listen in your favorite podcast app 🎧
Imagine you're managing a bustling restaurant during peak lunch hour. Your point-of-sale system crashes while DoorDash orders keep flooding in and you've just run out of your signature dish. Updating this across multiple platforms means logging in, authenticating, and hunting through endless menus.
All while hangry customers stare you down.
This isn't just stressful—it's everyday reality for America's 850,000 restaurants. The average restaurant employee stays only 59 days, barely enough time to learn complex tech stacks, let alone troubleshoot them. Luisa put it this way:
"You might think restaurant operators want more dashboards and analytics. But every time we've offered it, they just say: 'tell us what we need to do.'"
The Magic of Texting 🪄
Science On Call understood the pain clearly: Restaurant workers were drowning in tech—from POS systems to delivery apps—none of it playing nicely together.
"Toast is not gonna solve this for you," Luisa explained. "They'll tell you how to solve it yourself. And then you spend an hour doing it."
So Science On Call simplified the entire process. No more dashboards and passwords. Just send a text, and it's handled. By AI agents.
Human First, AI When Ready
Science On Call didn’t start with AI—they started with real people who truly understood restaurant operations. They meticulously documented each problem and built detailed workflows. Only then did they layer in AI-driven automation.
Their thoughtful approach paid off:
Efficiently scaled to over 900 locations
With 70% margins, trending towards 85%
Yet they kept the human touch. "Restaurants don't want to go somewhere else for support," Luisa emphasized.
Humans build trust, while AI scales quietly behind the scenes.
And restaurant operators are clearly ready for that kind of solution. According to the National Restaurant Association’s 2024 industry report, 76% of restaurant operators plan increased tech spending next year—not for more dashboards, but for tools that deliver tangible results immediately.
Because when your employees typically stick around for only 59 days, your solutions need to work from day one—not day sixty.
🎥 Watch Luisa’s pitch on YouTube or listen in your favorite podcast app 🎧
Brought to you by Mercury
If you're building something awesome, you need a banking partner that actually gets it. Mercury.com is banking built specifically for startups and the people crazy enough to build them.
No minimum balances, no ridiculous fees, and an interface that doesn't look like it was designed in 1997. Plus, their API lets you automate all that financial stuff you'd rather not think about.
You've heard me sing their praises on the show, and that's because I genuinely believe in what they're doing. They're not just another sponsor – they're the banking we use at The Pitch.
Whether you're raising your seed round or bootstrapping your way to profitability, check out Mercury.com. Your future self (and your accountant) will thank you.
Get $250 cash bonus when you deposit $10K in Mercury
*Mercury is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services provided through Choice Financial Group, Column N.A., and Evolve Bank & Trust; Members FDIC.
What The Pitch investors said
Impressed by:
Strong product-market fit and real-world traction
Clear founder vision backed by deep industry expertise
Remarkable customer stickiness (3% yearly churn)
Concerned with:
Scalability challenges inherent in service-driven models
Competition from restaurant tech giants like Toast and Square
The Essentials
Company: Science On Call
Founded: 2020
Industry: Restaurant Tech/AI
HQ: Chicago, IL
Cofounder/COO Luisa Castellanos, other cofounder/CEO Andy Freivogel
Currently Raising: $2M Seed Round
Business Model: Monthly subscription per location
Revenue: $2M ARR, aiming for $4.7M ARR by year's end
Founders
Planning to raise money for your startup? You can apply to be on The Pitch, even if your round isn’t yet open. No intro needed, just go to 👉 pitch.show/apply
Investors
Join our private Substack for investors! Apply at thepitch.fund