Startup Corner: Jason Klein, Logic Forte

Minimally viable product …
Logic Forte collects data and generates reports for owners and operators of multiple restaurants.

Problem solving …
Many restaurant owners and operators have access to the data they can use to identify inefficiencies and losses within their business, but they may not have the necessary time or ability to interpret their data. We provide complete, accurate and meaningful data that can be used to increase profits.

Seed money …
Private capital investments.

Hurdles overcome …
Developing the technology to automatically retrieve a wide variety of data from many different point-of-sale systems, franchisor websites, food vendors and online banking systems.

Next phase …
Growth. Hire employees dedicated to sales and support.

Pivot …
We initially focused on automating existing data processes for our customers. Now, we help customers identify data that can have a much more substantial impact on their profits such as excessive staffing, overtime, cash payouts and inventory.

Best advice received …
Focus on what you do best and outsource the rest.

Biggest mistake …
I should have begun working on the marketing aspect of our business much earlier. We still need to finish planning and writing quite a bit of the content for our website and printed materials.

Greatest need …
We are looking for a local bank that can help us streamline our payroll direct deposit process for restaurant employees. Whenever an employee updates their direct deposit information, we send a special (automated clearing house notice) to our bank so they can verify the account information. If the verification fails, our bank emails us an ACH notice with details so we can correct the issue. We have to manually review and enter each notice into our system. Ideally, we would receive electronic ACH notices that we can import directly.

Food for thought …
Keep your initial startup costs and timeframe under control by focusing on a bare minimum service and feature offering. Wait to add more services and features after you have begun generating revenue.