Charlie Pogacar

They argue that no amount of added technology fixes a broken foundation, and draw a practical line between what should be automated and what should stay human. They see automating guest interactions as riskier for full-service dining but potentially the right call in quick service; the question is fit, not adoption.

Chili's CIO Chris Caldwell cut robot servers and spent the money instead on rebuilding network infrastructure across 1,200-plus locations, deploying 9,000 upgraded kitchen display units and buying new laptops for every store's general manager  a purchase Caldwell sold to leadership by showing a video of managers staring at a computer stuck on the wheel of death.

• Caldwell's own summary, quoted in the post: if a robot is getting in the way and not helping deliver a great guest experience, get rid of it.
• Deric Rosenbaum of Groucho's Deli applied the same test from the other direction, adopting online ordering and back-of-house AI to draft standard operating procedures while refusing kiosks and voice AI, on the principle that "my job is to remove the friction so we can put the human back in hospitality."

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When a chain struggles, they look first at fulfillment performance, then at positioning or promotion. They also question whether a delivery platform's expansion helps restaurants by widening demand or hurts them by diluting visibility and stretching the driver network.

On the $1.5 billion sale of Pizza Hut to LongRange Capital, Pogacar's diagnosis is operational: the brand should get better at executing delivery-and-carryout transactions, not retreat to casual dining roots it has already spent years moving away from.

• They cite an Intouch Insight and PMQ mystery-shopping study in which Pizza Hut finished last on overall carryout satisfaction and adherence to estimated carryout times, after re-rolling out a visible promise-time tracker nine years after first debuting something similar.
• On DoorDash's integration as a native sales channel in Shopify, they note that restaurants now compete for screen space with a widening set of merchants, and that third-party delivery already takes longer than first-party on average in mystery-shopping studies they have seen and taken part in.

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Their point: AI success depends on the foundation underneath, so readers should focus on data unification and process work before the model or vendor.

At Wingstop, Pogacar notes a new AI-driven personalization engine aimed at price-sensitive loyalty members and the company's first Chief AI Officer.

• They ask whether the technology is a bright spot or whether operations are suffering amid so much change.
• A MURTEC Executive Summit panel they preview on the "unified data layer" as a brand's central nervous system is anchored in research finding that 38 percent of operators still struggle with fragmented data; their gloss is "garbage in, garbage out."
• They also flag Little Caesars' integration of ChatGPT with app ordering as the next marketing-technology frontier.
• The Chief AI Officer framing belongs to Wingstop CEO Michael Skipworth, whom the post quotes directly.

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They show how operators justify spending on grounds other than hard return, such as changing how a brand is perceived or giving franchisees something they will actually approve. They also track whether systems can withstand growth.

Long John Silver's CTO Tim Newton is described as deeply practical, working with a limited budget in a franchise system and reusing a playbook from more than eight years at Papa Johns.

• Newton says there is no hard return on replacing weathered cardboard menu boards with digital displays; the franchisee conversation was instead about changing the perception of the brand.
• In a separate post, Vicious Biscuit's Amanda Kahalehoe joined when the brunch franchise had two locations; it now has 12 and is targeting 18 by the end of 2026, with a focus on processes that replicate without breaking as the brand grows.

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That restraint matters: they resist crediting technology for results that are still going the other way.

Pogacar's Wingstop post opens with a Smart Kitchen system that halved order fulfillment times and a first loyalty platform that drew 22 percent more sign-ups than expected, then sets those gains against a 7.5 percent same-store sales decline in Q2, a fifth straight quarter of declines and the first prolonged slump in 22 years.

• They say they do not know whether the technology is a bright spot or whether operations are strained, and that they are not sure anybody does.
• The same habit shows in their delivery coverage: they say they have argued for two years that drone delivery is imminent, report that Little Caesars became the first brand to deliver two large pizzas, sides and a drink by drone with Flytrex, state that the biggest hurdle—federal regulation—has been cleared, and then tease why customers still have not seen it in practice.

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A profile of an executive who entered restaurants from outside the industry.

• Kahalehoe came from a security firm, with 16 years in business operations and IT after a Marine Corps data-communications role.
• They joined Vicious Biscuit when the brunch franchise had two locations; it now has 12 and is targeting 18 by the end of 2026.
• The clearest operational detail: the loyalty program accounted for 16% of sales on a store's first day open.
• Kahalehoe says a military background teaches systems, interdependence, and responsibility, and the post links that perspective to a focus on processes that scale without breaking.

For brands planning a campaign

Useful for a loyalty or operations vendor seeking a sponsor-adjacent example of systems thinking from an operator-side executive, anchored by a concrete loyalty number.

An interview-based post about a technology leader working under real constraints.

• Newton arrived at the QSR with a playbook built over 8+ years at Papa Johns and faced the same list again: a mobile app, kiosks, back-office work.
• The chain had moved its point-of-sale to the cloud in 2019, but static cardboard menu boards, patched with promotional stickers, were still on the wall.
• Newton says there is no hard ROI on replacing them with digital displays; franchisee conversations focused on changing how the brand is perceived.

For brands planning a campaign

A strong starting point for a vendor pitching franchise systems: the post focuses on franchisee economics and perception, not product features.

A show-floor recap built from named conversations.

• Coca-Cola calculated that digital orders without a beverage attached cost restaurants roughly $1.4 billion, based on data from more than 11 million digital transactions, and is using that figure to show partners when to offer an upsell.
• Amazon Web Services' Deborah Matteliano Simeoni called to "make restaurants fun again"; the post connects that idea to automation reducing staff stress rather than replacing people.
• It also notes the Restaurant Technology Network happy hour and credits a colleague for producing the newsletter.

For brands planning a campaign

For a beverage, upsell, or attach-rate vendor, the $1.4 billion figure is the hook. The post also shows how trade-show access can become sponsored analysis or a newsletter dispatch.

A response to a Wall Street Journal piece on Chili's CIO Chris Caldwell and his deliberately unglamorous technology plan.

• The plan included rebuilding network infrastructure across 1,200+ locations, deploying 9,000 upgraded kitchen display units, and buying new laptops for every store's general manager—a purchase sold to leadership with a video of managers staring at a spinning wheel of death.
• Caldwell's approach comes down to one principle: get rid of a robot if it is not helping deliver a good guest experience.
• The post distinguishes full-service from quick-service dining: automating guest interactions is riskier for the former and sometimes optimal for the latter.
• New technology cannot fix a broken foundation.

For brands planning a campaign

An operator-facing counterweight for a vendor whose pitch assumes AI adoption everywhere, supporting collaboration on technology foundations, infrastructure, and where automation fits.

An announcement of a twelve-operator advisory council formed for PMQ Pizza, naming independent and multi-unit pizza operators from Master Pizza, Mattenga's Pizzeria, 550 Pizzeria, Posto, DHS Hospitality, Via 313 Pizza, Robert's Pizza and Dough Company, Francesca's Pizza & Pasta, and NEPA Pizza Review/Virtual Pizza Academy.

• The council will hold regular calls to discuss pain points and success stories.
• The post says the naming choice signals peer respect rather than a title.

For brands planning a campaign

A ready-made sponsorship or newsletter-collaboration angle for vendors selling to independent pizzerias: the writer convenes an existing, named operator group.

A recommendation of a Hospitality Technology cover story by fellow writer Michal Christine Escobar about Page Petry, a former Marriott CIO for the Americas who rose from front desk clerk.

• The post highlights what it calls the story's heart: Petry read the sports page daily to talk with team members who cared about sports, and learned about working parents' daycare problems before having children.
• Petry concludes that immersing yourself in others' worlds makes you grow.
• The post presents that as a lasting standard in a technology-heavy industry.

For brands planning a campaign

Useful for a vendor wanting to show that technology work serves the guest experience. The post also shows the writer spotlighting and crediting colleagues' reporting, a consideration for editorial partnerships.

A preview of a town hall featuring Troy Hooper (Pepper Lunch/Hot Palette), Adam Morton (Hardee's/Carl's Jr.), and Laurens Pitts (Salsarita's), focused on why frictionless off-premises ordering remains difficult.

• The post traces the writer's own experience: online ordering was maturing when coverage began in fall 2019, the pandemic stress-tested it months later, and brands spent the following years making short-term fixes that left technology stacks held together with "duct tape and string."
• Drones, autonomous delivery, and LLM ordering are arriving just as brands were catching up.
• The customer, meanwhile, still just wants warm food in a bag.

For brands planning a campaign

A natural hook for a delivery, order-management, or off-premises vendor seeking to associate with the town hall audience; the duct-tape framing gives a sponsor a concrete problem to address.

A preview of a MURTEC Executive Summit panel in Coronado Bay, anchored by a statistic from a recent AI Impact Study: 38% of operators still struggle with fragmented data, making AI success difficult or impossible. The post names four panelists and their perspectives: Josh Halpern of Craveworthy Brands on multi-brand franchising, Deric Rosenbaum of Groucho's Deli on a roughly 30-unit, 85-year-old franchise, Adam Morton of CKE Restaurants on detailed IT work, and Ha L. of Pokeworks on marketing technology and unified data.

For brands planning a campaign

A direct fit for data, integration, or analytics vendors: the 38% figure and "garbage in, garbage out" framing give a sponsorship or co-authored piece a clear problem statement.

A post on LongRange Capital buying Pizza Hut for $1.5 billion and CEO Aaron Powell's departure, followed by the writer's diagnosis.

• Rather than blaming marketing, it points to delivery and carryout execution.
• Pizza Hut rolled out a visible promise-time tracker in early 2025, nine years after first debuting something similar.
• In a mystery-shopping study of top pizza brands, it finished last in overall carryout satisfaction and adherence to estimated carryout times, and second to last out of 10 in delivery satisfaction.
• The post rejects a retreat to casual dining, citing the investment already made in delivery-and-carryout prototypes, and concludes that Pizza Hut must execute those transactions better.
• It also notes that turnarounds at Chili's and Burger King show improvement is possible.

For brands planning a campaign

A strong fit for vendors selling order fulfillment, timing, or operations tools: the argument is that no marketing fix can substitute for operational execution.

A post that sets advances against a slump without resolving the tension.

• A Smart Kitchen system cut order fulfillment times in half, and the first loyalty platform drew 22% more sign-ups than expected.
• But same-store sales fell 7.5% in Q2, marking a fifth straight quarter of declines and the first prolonged slump in 22 years.
• The post covers loyalty tactics including member-only promotions and a horseback-delivery stunt, then focuses on AI-driven personalized discounting for price-sensitive groups.
• It asks whether the technology is a bright spot or whether operations are suffering amid so much change.
• CEO Michael Skipworth is quoted on adding the company's first Chief AI Officer and staying focused on what can be controlled.

For brands planning a campaign

Useful for loyalty, personalization, or kitchen-systems vendors: it pairs measurable gains with a business result moving in the opposite direction. A sponsor could commission follow-up analysis of that gap.

A post on DoorDash integrating as a native sales channel into Shopify, allowing local retailers to sell through the app.

• The writer lays out both sides: if DoorDash becomes an everything app, more app opens could mean more restaurant visibility; but restaurants now compete for screen space with a growing lineup of merchants, whereas a food-only app meant every open had one intent.
• The post also raises an operational concern: in mystery-shopping studies the writer has seen and run, third-party delivery takes longer on average than first-party delivery.
• Will delivery times stretch as more retail orders flow through the driver network?
• The upcoming earnings call is the next thing to watch.

For brands planning a campaign

Relevant to delivery, dispatch, or marketplace vendors; the mystery-shopping reference also shows the writer can speak credibly about measured delivery performance.

A short post built around a quote from an interview with Deric Rosenbaum, president and CTO of Groucho's Deli: "My job is to remove the friction so we can put the human back in hospitality," followed by the point that experimentation helps find the line.

• The post shows where the brand drew it: online ordering and back-of-house AI to draft standard operating procedures for different departments were in; kiosks and voice AI, which reduce human-to-human contact, were out.
• It also notes Rosenbaum's speaking appearances at MURTEC and a Restaurant Technology Network town hall on turning trade-show lessons into implementation.

For brands planning a campaign

A good fit for vendors positioning products as tools that support staff rather than replace them; the friction-versus-humanity framing works well in sponsored content.

A post on drone delivery based on an interview with Trish Heusel of Little Caesars, described as the first brand to deliver two large pizzas, multiple sides, and a drink by drone through its relationship with Flytrex.

• The post says the biggest hurdle, federal regulation, has already been cleared, and teases why drones are not yet visible without spelling out the reasons.
• It also covers the brand's other moves: a partnership with OpenAI/ChatGPT to sync the language model with app ordering, sidewalk robots, and self-service pickup locations.
• The post closes by arguing that these initiatives continue founder Mike Ilitch's legacy rather than depart from it.

For brands planning a campaign

A strong fit for delivery, automation, or ordering-technology vendors; the prediction-tracking habit could also support a longer-running sponsored series rather than a one-off post.

Charlie Pogacar writes about Chili's CIO Chris Caldwell removing robot servers and rebuilding network, KDS and store-laptop basics; Groucho's Deli's Deric Rosenbaum adopting online ordering and back-of-house AI while rejecting kiosks and voice AI that would remove human contact; and Page Petry's Marriott leadership lesson that hospitality depends on understanding the team and the guest. The through-line is fit, not novelty.

Close readings of operator interviews and leadership profiles, featuring operators' own language about tradeoffs.

Pogacar acknowledges that automation can work well in quick-service formats, making fit—not blanket opposition to automation—the through-line.

For brands planning a campaign

A restaurant-tech vendor can sponsor a practical analysis of where technology belongs in the operating model, grounded in close readings of operators rather than product claims. The strongest angle is a decision framework: which tasks to automate and which to keep human.

Examples: Source 1 · Source 2 · Source 3

Pogacar diagnoses Pizza Hut's post-sale challenges as a DELCO execution problem, not a marketing or casual-dining reset problem, citing last-place finishes in a carryout mystery-shopping study. They examine DoorDash's retail expansion as a visibility and delivery-time question for restaurants, promote a Restaurant Technology Network town hall about frictionless off-premises dining, and trace how online ordering moved from maturing channel to duct-taped tech stack to a new era of drones, autonomous delivery and LLM ordering.

For brands planning a campaign

Vendors in delivery, order management, dispatch or kitchen operations can sponsor a reported explainer on off-premises execution: order accuracy, promise times, third-party versus first-party performance, and what operators can control.

Examples: Source 1 · Source 2 · Source 3

Pogacar reports that Vicious Biscuit's loyalty program accounted for 16% of sales on a new store's first day; Wingstop's first loyalty platform beat sign-up expectations by 22% while the chain faced a sales slump; and Wingstop is using AI-driven personalization to reach price-sensitive cohorts. At MURTEC, they highlight a panel on the unified data layer as a brand's central nervous system, citing research that 38% of operators still struggle with fragmented data.

Uses reported sales and sign-up figures and conference research, not just vendor claims.

For brands planning a campaign

A loyalty, CRM or data-platform vendor can sponsor a piece on data readiness and personalization, contrasting flashy loyalty results with the fragmented data foundations that limit them.

Examples: Source 1 · Source 2 · Source 3

Pogacar covers agentic AI and edge computing at the National Restaurant Association Show; Wingstop's first Chief AI Officer and its AI personalization engine; Chili's deliberate decision not to go all in on AI; Little Caesars' ChatGPT/OpenAI ordering integration; and a MURTEC panel on unified data as a prerequisite for AI. The consistent frame: AI success depends on the data and processes underneath it.

Pogacar does not dismiss AI; they see promise when the foundation and format fit, keeping the coverage useful for operators rather than reflexively skeptical.

For brands planning a campaign

An AI or analytics vendor can sponsor a grounded brief on AI in restaurants that distinguishes back-of-house automation, guest-facing ordering and data infrastructure. Charlie Pogacar brings a practical filter to each.

Examples: Source 1 · Source 2 · Source 3 · Source 4 · Source 5

Long John Silver's CTO Tim Newton is described as deeply practical, using a Papa Johns playbook and justifying digital menu boards through brand perception rather than hard ROI.

• Groucho's Deli, a roughly 30-unit franchise with 85+ years of history, experiments carefully.
• Vicious Biscuit is a small fast-casual brunch franchise scaling from two to twelve locations, with an eye on systems that replicate.
• PMQ Pizza's Cover Stars Council brings independent pizza operators into a regular feedback loop.

For brands planning a campaign

A vendor selling into franchised or mid-market restaurant groups can sponsor content that accounts for limited budgets, franchisee approval dynamics and the difference between hard ROI and brand-perception returns.

Examples: Source 1 · Source 2 · Source 3 · Source 4

Pogacar spotlights speakers and operators, summarizes themes, and drives registration or subscriptions. The format combines first-person observation, short interviews and links to longer stories.

For brands planning a campaign

A brand can pursue an event-linked collaboration: a sponsored panel, town hall or newsletter package with written follow-up. The format suits a vendor that wants to join the operator conversation, not just place a logo.

Examples: Source 1 · Source 2 · Source 3 · Source 4 · Source 5

The Pizza Hut sale to LongRange Capital and CEO departure prompt an operational diagnosis.

• Wingstop's sales slump is weighed against its Smart Kitchen and loyalty gains.
• Chili's 20 straight quarters of same-store sales growth validate its technology discipline.
• DoorDash's retail push is assessed for restaurant visibility and delivery-network strain.
• In each case, they connect technology choices to business outcomes and leadership decisions.

For brands planning a campaign

A vendor can sponsor a market-commentary series or executive-interview format that ties technology deployment to sales, turnaround and competitive position rather than running a standalone product story.

Examples: Source 1 · Source 2 · Source 3 · Source 4

They name operators, CTOs, CEOs and CIOs, quote them directly, and draw on mystery-shopping studies, earnings-call figures and conference research. The tone is interested and practical, with occasional humor; they often link to the full article for readers who want more detail.

Most posts condense a reported story into a LinkedIn update, with a link to the full piece.

For brands planning a campaign

A sponsored collaboration can take the form of reported analysis with named sources and concrete numbers, amplified on LinkedIn. It should fit Pogacar's habitual format: a specific operator problem, a close look at what was tried, and a link to fuller reporting.

Examples: Source 1 · Source 2 · Source 3 · Source 4 · Source 5 · Source 6 · Source 7 · Source 8 · Source 9 · Source 10 · Source 11 · Source 12 · Source 13

12 operators/pizza people.

• We'll meet regularly via Zoom."
• The same post describes the council as the outlet's way of staying close to independent pizza operators, and they also reported on pizza delivery at Little Caesars.
• The posts use PMQ's editorial voice without naming a job title.

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They speak as part of its team about an industry-show newsletter: “shoutout to Anna Wolfe for taking the lead on putting together today's newsletter.”

• They also spotlight an HT cover story about former Marriott CIO Page Petry.
• The posts place them on the publication's staff but do not state a title.

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They describe RTN as “one of the coolest communities I've ever had the pleasure of attempting to infiltrate.”

• The posts read as editorial plugs from someone inside the trade press.
• Ask whether any promotion involved sponsorship, an affiliate arrangement or payment.

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Winters's post on Yum!'s BYTE platform and his post on private equity buying restaurant assets cover questions Pogacar also raises: what scale does for data, how operators consolidate fragmented vendor stacks, and what franchise systems can realistically adopt.

Winters argues a thesis as an investor-minded analyst, framing restaurant technology as an institutional asset class and platform story. Pogacar reports from operator interviews, quotes CTOs and CIOs directly, and tends to leave the verdict open rather than end with a strategic position.

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Vahlsing's posts on the AI hype cycle and enterprise adoption cycles make the same argument Pogacar makes through reporting: technology is an amplifier; most failures stem from process and training, and franchise systems slow adoption for legitimate reasons. Readers interested in the gap between a vendor pitch and a Friday night dinner rush will want both.

Vahlsing writes as a long-tenured operator and executive, recalling deployments firsthand in longer first-person essays. Pogacar reports on others' deployments in short posts built around named sources.

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Guild's funding posts about building software for mom-and-pop restaurants address the same audience Pogacar writes for and cite the same pressure from large chains investing in digital advantage.

Guild is a founder and CEO, so his posts announce funding rounds and make the case for his own product. Pogacar covers many companies and promotes none, offering readers a broader, more neutral view of the same market.

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A vendor selling enterprise infrastructure, a unified data layer or multi-unit operations software fits Charlie Pogacar's recent subjects.

• One post examines Yum!
• Brands' centralised AI platform across 60,000-plus restaurants and argues that scale now means data scale, listing personalisation, demand forecasting, labour productivity and higher customer lifetime value as gains, with fragmented vendor stacks as the competitive risk.
• Another tracks sovereign wealth and private equity money moving into restaurant platforms through Roark, Blackstone, KKR and Mubadala, and lays out asset-light franchise economics and expansion whitespace in the Middle East, Southern Europe, Southeast Asia and Latin America.
• For a sponsor whose buyers are franchise development teams, private-equity-backed platform operators or a multi-brand enterprise IT group, that is a nearer starting point than an operator dispatch.
• It supports a capital-markets or platform-scale angle that a reported-operator series would not reach.

The tradeoff is the sourcing.

• Both posts argue from industry structure, platform capability, deal names and sector economics, but name no operators they spoke to, cite no earnings-call figures and reference no independent study.
• Charlie Pogacar's posts on a campaign aimed at CFOs supply named operators, direct quotes, conference research and mystery-shopping results—the sourcing that makes a sponsored reported analysis defensible.
• The posts show no trade-event, panel or operator-community channel for Winters, so ask how the newsletter and event side would be built and what sources would support the written work.

Examples: Source 1 · Source 2

Both posts address that problem directly.

• One traces forty years of restaurant technology waves, from POS and labour scheduling through kiosks, mobile ordering and delivery marketplaces to AI, and argues that most failures stem from execution, process, training and accountability rather than technology.
• It concludes that technology is not the strategy but the amplifier.
• The other explains why enterprise restaurant technology takes twelve to eighteen months to sell and can take two to three years to produce revenue once procurement, legal review, pilots, integrations, deployment and franchisee adoption are counted.
• It notes that the real work often starts after the deal is signed.
• For sponsored work aimed at operators and franchisees who have to make a system stick—including implementation guidance, objection handling and change management—that is a better vantage than an outside reporter's.
• Charlie Pogacar's posts offer that perspective.

The tradeoff is verifiability and distribution.

• These first-person essays draw on lived experience but contain no named operators, quotes, studies or checkable figures, so a sponsor gets a considered viewpoint rather than the sourced analysis Charlie Pogacar provides.
• Commissioned work would read as opinion unless further sourcing were gathered.
• The posts show no newsletter, trade publication or event channel, and no commercial or disclosure practice; ask what distribution and disclosure plan the collaboration would use.

Examples: Source 1 · Source 2

The posts tell Owner.com's fundraising story through its founder.

• One announces a $33M round framed around helping owner-operators compete with large chains on website conversion, SEO, reviews and online ordering, and names investors including Scott Belsky, Horsley Bridge, Activant, Arash Ferdowsi and Guillermo Rauch.
• The other announces a $120M round at a $1B valuation, describes the product as Shopify for restaurant owners and eventually all local business owners, and credits Meritech, Headline and operator-investors from Instacart, Sweetgreen and GrubHub, while warning against treating the valuation as having made it.
• A vendor selling into independent restaurants that wants access to that owner-operator world, or a founder-to-founder conversation, starts closer here than with a trade journalist who would report on the company rather than for it.

The tradeoff is that this is the company's own story.

• The posts contain no independent reporting, operator interviews or verified performance data, and the audience is Owner.com's own market rather than an independent trade readership.
• That also makes the channel unusable for a competing restaurant-technology sponsor.
• A sponsor that needs third-party credibility, sourced figures and disclosure norms should choose a reporter or analyst rather than a founder's own channel.
• Ask for the sponsorship offer, rate card, audience demographics and newsletter details; the posts provide none.

Examples: Source 1 · Source 2