From the Restaurant Kitchen to Building the Future of Ordering

Restaurants Are in My Blood

I grew up in the restaurant business. It's where I learned to work, where I learned to hustle, and where I met my wife. Restaurants aren't just a career for me — they're family.

But life took a turn. I got out of the restaurant world and spent the next 20 years building software — payment processing, integrations, APIs, the kind of infrastructure that moves money at scale. I built a career. A good one.

The Call Back to the Kitchen

Nearing retirement, I did something that surprised everyone, including myself. I bought a sandwich shop. Named it Town Hero. Location one in Lantana, Florida.

Here's the thing — I had already named it Town Hero. The grand opening was already planned. Then, two days before we opened, I saw a neighbor's home covered in smoke in a Lake Worth neighborhood. I didn't hesitate — ran in and helped. The local news showed up that night, cameras outside the shop, telling the story: a guy opening a store called Town Hero just became an actual town hero. Fate loves irony. Most people assumed we named it because of the fire. We didn't — but it sure made for one hell of an opening.

Going Viral

Town Hero went viral for our massive sandwiches. Social media blew up. Orders flooded in from everywhere. Sounds like a dream, right?

It was a nightmare.

We couldn't keep up. I had to shut down Uber Eats. Shut down DoorDash. Shut down online ordering. And shut down the phone. The phone stayed off for months. Every ring was either an order we couldn't fill or a spam call wasting our time. We were drowning in success.

Figuring It Out — Then Doing It Again

Slowly, we improved our systems. Dialed in the kitchen. Got the workflow tight. Found our groove. And once we found success at location one, we opened a second store — Town Hero Lake Worth — in less than 12 months.

Same story. Immediately slammed. Phone ringing off the hook. Spam calls killing us. We had to turn off the phone again. Two locations, same problem. Every missed call was a lost customer, a lost sale, a hit to the brand we'd built.

The Builder in Me Woke Up

Here's the thing most restaurant owners can't do: I build software. I've been building payment systems and tech infrastructure for 20 years. So instead of accepting “turn off the phone” as the answer, I built the answer.

An AI phone agent that picks up every call. Takes every order. Processes every payment. Sends it straight to the POS and kitchen printer. Recognizes regulars by phone number and says, “Hey Mike, want the usual?” Lets customers text “reorder” and pay in 15 seconds flat.

I called it Hero.

Hero Changed the Game

Hero didn't just solve the phone problem. It changed how my customers interact with my restaurants. Regulars text instead of call. New customers get a perfect experience every time. Orders flow in 24/7 — even at 2 AM, even on holidays, even during the lunch rush when every human in the building is making food.

And here's the irony: Hero actually gave me the time to build Hero. Once the phone was handled, I could focus on perfecting the product instead of answering calls. The solution solved the problem that was preventing me from building the solution. Beautiful, right?

No One Knows This Problem Better Than Me

I'm not a tech bro who read about restaurants in a pitch deck. I'm a restaurant owner who grew up in kitchens, ran into a burning building two days before opening, went viral, got crushed by volume, turned off the phone for months, opened a second location, got crushed again, and then built the solution myself.

No one knows this problem better than me. So I built the solution myself.

OrderHeroAI isn't some VC-funded experiment. It's battle-tested in my own restaurants. Every feature exists because I needed it. Every fix happened because I hit the problem first.

Every Restaurant Deserves a Hero

On a $25 order, the customer pays about $27. You keep every dollar of that $25. You pay zero — customers pay about $2 on a $25 order. Hero speaks English and Spanish. Delivery through DoorDash and Uber is live. Works with your POS. Prints to your kitchen.

I built it because I was desperate. I'm selling it because every restaurant owner deserves what I finally have: zero missed calls, 15-second reorders, and the freedom to focus on making great food.