When NJIT student Samir Peshori, co-founder and COO at GlydeApp, launched his startup he was not thinking about Bill Gates, Reid Hoffman or the many other phenomenally successful entrepreneurs behind Village Global. Now Peshori and his fellow co-founders are thinking about them almost daily, having just received a $150,000 seed investment, exchanged for a small piece of equity, and acceptance into the Village Global accelerator.
Even before the pandemic the GlydeApp team saw that restaurants had an unmet need that existing apps were not filling. Most were narrowly focused on order and delivery features that became particularly helpful during the pandemic. But Peshori and his co-founder and CEO Maanav Patel felt they were not addressing customer experience.
“COVID-19 created a huge demand for innovations that lead to touchless experiences to ensure safety and security now” said Peshori. “With GlydeApp we not only deliver a safer dining experience, we also streamline ordering and payment processes and help improve customer service.”
Glyde offers restaurants data driven engagement with their customers, giving them a more precise marketing tool enabling them to steer their customers to what works best for their business. The important outcome is increased check sizes. In use diners receive personalized menu suggestions based on their prior orders as well as receiving customized recommendations or offers to prompt a customer’s repeat visit.
“We’re impressed with how Glyde enables restaurants to better serve their customers and helps restaurant servers with their day-to-day work – resulting in better diner experiences and more restaurant success”, said Anne Dwane, Co-founder & Partner at Village Global.
Peshori passed through a number of milestones that eventually led to founding his startup and then his founding team’s decision to apply to Village Global. Possibly most fortuitous was his receiving a Board of Trustees Scholarship from NJIT. This was followed by GlydeApp joining NJII’s VentureLInk@NJIT, the largest co-working and incubator space in New Jersey that is located on the NJIT campus that is free to NJIT students.
“As an NJIT student, Samir received ongoing mentoring from our team, a space to work, and an opportunity to network with other residents of VentureLInk and members of the community,” said William Lutz, general manager of the Entrepreneurship division of NJII.
Once the team developed the app, they needed to trial it and gain feedback from real world users. They received glowing reviews.
“Not only has this app helped stop the spread of COVID-19, but also with the hit that we took from a financial aspect, Glyde has helped reduce overhead cost. With a friendly design and easy to use interface, it gives all my customers a positive experience, I couldn’t have designed it better myself,” said John Pescatore, owner of Carlo’s Gourmet Pizza in Marlboro, New Jersey.
With their startup now having capital and access to the resources of a global accelerator, Peshori and Patel are looking forward in a totally new way. They are a lot more confident about what they believe they can achieve.
