setting the scene
your friends are in town, and you want to impress them with the perfect dinner reservation 🧐
you consult several sources, including:
Yelp reviews from self-important strangers
bloggers who review the top tourist spots
cluttered lists from friends
“the best restaurants near me” Google search
this week’s company helps diners efficiently find the next place to eat by enabling users to discover, save, and review restaurants with friends 🍽
in a sentence
Beli is a social platform that enables diners to organize, discover, and share restaurants
organize: build lists and maps of places you’ve been and rank restaurants
discover: bookmark restaurants for later, search by location or cuisines, and receive recommendations based on taste preferences
share: review your favorite places, see where friends are eating in a feed, and follow other users with similar taste preferences
bulleted version: Beli combines TikTok’s personalized algorithm, Yelp reviews, and Google Maps lists to enable users to find, review, and save restaurants 🤤
the basics
industry: consumer internet, foodtech, reviews and recs
headquarters: New York, NY 🗽
year founded: 2020
company size: 4 FTEs 💼
investors: friends and family
amount raised: not disclosed
business model: pre-revenue
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due diligence
what we like
💨 consumer tailwinds: as 94% of US diners consult reviews before dining and 77% prefer peer reviews, Beli provides a reliable and seamless way to explore restaurants with people they trust
🔁 retention strategies: Beli engages and retains users through reservation notifications, a personalized profile with automated restaurant ratings and taste preferences, and competition through user rankings
📈 expansion opportunity: as Beli continues to build a loyal customer base in the restaurant industry, the company has the potential to expand to become the trusted social platform for all experiences
potential risks
💥 crowded market: several startups have tried to rethink how people discover restaurants, but most lose to well-funded recommendations sites, review platforms, social media giants, and influencers
💰 proving the business model: Beli must offer differentiated and valuable premium products to turn users into paying customers
👩🍳 b2c vs. b2restaurant: by offering a product for the restaurant goer, does the company miss an opportunity for a two-sided platform that rethinks how restaurants engage with reviewers?
founder profiles
Judith Thelen (CEO; prev. @ McKinsey)
Eliot Frost (CTO; prev. @ McKinsey)
comps
why Beli: with over 5m unique restaurant ratings and 500k+ followers across social channels, we are fully convinced that Beli will disrupt restaurant reviews and recommendations
bulletin board
🗓 tomorrow: we’re co-hosting the Tech Breakfast Club for 200+ founders, operators, and investors in NYC
it’s not too late to sign up!
📰 headlines we’re following:
Cava, the Mediterranean restaurant chain, confidentially filed for an IPO
go rank your local Cava on Beli
the remainder of Barstool Sports was acquired by Penn Entertainment for $333m
check out how Instagram is following Twitter’s pay-to-play verification feature
what do you think of Beli?we want to hear from you! |
