Growing up in Brewster, New York, David Alade always knew he wanted to one day own his own business.
That’s why Alade, now a third-year computer science student, decided to study business and finance at Northeastern University. But he says his interests changed after hearing his older friends talk about Cooley’s computer science classes at his college.
Nevertheless, Alade’s entrepreneurial spirit found an outlet when she enrolled in the Fall 2023 Husky Startup Challenge, Northeastern’s official venture incubator and startup pitch competition.
Alade won the Social Media Award and 500 for pitching his venture, Bibite (pronounced “bee-bite”), a platform for restaurants and their patrons that integrates payment processes and a seamless social review sharing system. won a dollar.
Each semester, the Husky Startup Challenge takes student entrepreneurs through a series of bootcamps where they learn about different aspects of starting a business, from ideation to prototyping. At the end of the program, the student founder will compete in a Demo Day where he will present his business idea in a two-minute pitch in front of a larger audience.
“Bibite is essentially a platform that helps restaurants connect with their guests,” says Alade. “It also helps diners have a smoother post-meal experience.”
The idea for Bibite first started as a solution to splitting bills at full-service sit-down restaurants, he says. But after looking at countless restaurant bills, Alade began to realize just how much information they contained. So he started thinking about other valuable features the app could offer.
Beyond food quality and service, Alade says he has identified at least three issues that can be optimized for modern dining.
Alade said restaurants, like other retailers, want to use loyalty programs to keep customers coming back.
“But the problem with certain restaurants is that any kind of upsell you do after someone has eaten is somewhat intrusive to the dining experience,” Alade says. “You can never cause trouble to someone because you don’t want them to feel like they don’t want to come back.”
Splitting bills among large groups can sometimes be an ugly process, Alade says. He says one person might put down a card and everyone has to pay their share, and tipping is complicated this way.
Finally, online reviews are very important in modern times.
More than 67% of diners say they read reviews before choosing a restaurant, but less than 50% of diners say they leave a review after a satisfying dining experience. Adding negative reviews puts your restaurant’s reputation, foot traffic, and revenue at risk.
With Bibite, restaurant patrons can use their mobile phone to scan their receipt, save money by applying active discounts and promotions offered by the restaurant, and share payment details with other diners at their table. and share your thoughts about meals and restaurants on the spot.
“And it’s all very easy. It takes less than a minute,” says Alade.
The app recognizes which partner restaurants you’re dining at and applies ongoing promotions and discounts in real-time, reducing your total bill. Alade says his friends who also use Bibite will be able to read each other’s reviews.
To develop this business, Alade turned to Northeastern and its friends for help. He started attending IDEA, the student-led venture accelerator his friends had talked about, and was introduced to the various programs that make up Mosaic, a Northeast network of student-led organizations that empower the university’s entrepreneurial community. I did.
Arad said he has also spent a lot of time working with the Michael J. Ann Sherman Center for Engineering Entrepreneurship Education and the Resources for Engineering Ventures (REV) mentor network within the School of Engineering. Alade says studying side by side with other students and meeting new people was the most productive space for him.
“I’m a computer science major and I know how to code,” he says. “But of all kinds, this is his first time coding an iOS app. So he met some people who had experience with iOS apps, which helped him a lot.”
Currently, a team of about five engineers is working on finalizing the app and setting up a customer relationship management system. Alade says he will be ready for launch within a month or two.
Mosaic’s other organization, Scout, a student-led design studio in the Northeast hosted by the College of Arts, Media and Design, helped with Alade’s user interface.
“They designed our entire user interface,” says Alade. “The results were even better than we could have imagined. Without them, we wouldn’t have gotten anywhere near the same place.”
Sprout also helped decide on the app’s name.
“There was a discussion among everyone working on the project about what to name it,” Alade said. “So we said, ‘Look, guys, can you come up with a name?'” So this shows how much they’ve done for us. think. ”
Although Bibite was his idea, Alade credits his team and other members of the Entrepreneurs Club for providing tremendous support.
“We owe them a lot of what we’ve done so far, because it’s not always easy to spend time doing something that doesn’t generate money in real time, especially when you’re doing other things for your career. Especially when you might be doing it,” he says. .
Once the application is ready, Alade hopes to first test Bibite at one of the restaurants near campus in northeast Boston. Once the team completes detailed draft contracts with other restaurants, he says they’ll be ready to approach other eateries.
Alëna Kuzub is a reporter for Northeastern Global News. Please email a.kuzub@northeastern.edu. Follow her on Twitter @AlenaKuzub.