Guest Experience has always been a fundamental aspect of the restaurant industry. However, surprisingly enough, up until recently, there was no software solution for restaurants that allowed them to collect information on guests to provide an improved service and strengthen customer loyalty.  Superb is here to solve this.

Superb is the first Guest Experience Management Platform for restaurants, a software system that allows them to generate consistent growth through data. Superb created a user-friendly all-in-one operating system for restaurant owners. Guest profiles are created by collecting and matching all data points at any touchpoint to a customer, allowing restaurants to understand the history and behavior of their clients.

We spoke with Zaedo Musa, CEO and Founder of Superb. He delves into his journey as an entrepreneur and shares his passion and purpose behind founding his company.

Before Superb, Zaedo was building Joe & The Juice, a Danish food & beverage company based in central Copenhagen, where he was part of the management team. They grew to more than 150 people and over 100 stores in Northern Europe before he left. Then, he built a few startups, such as TrustingAli.

Zaedo and his team have demonstrated to have a clear vision and tremendous ambition to digitize the workflows of restaurants and help them boost their revenues. At Knight, we're proud supporters of Superb and we're happy to back the team in their journey.

What's the story behind Superb? How did you come up with the idea?

I've always been driven by customer experience; it's close to my heart. I noticed that there was no way to collect data about guests in the restaurant industry to meet them and greet them personally. The initial idea was to build a dashboard that could collect this data, but when I saw that the fundamental part of the software in the market was broken, we had to do it ourselves.

At Joe & The Juice, you opened many stores in different locations. Maybe you already experienced the value of guest experience yourself?

Yes. Back at Joe & The Juice, we saw that, as we expanded, we had a harder time remembering guests. One key element to the guest experience is that by remembering clients' names and orders, they would spend more, come back and become loyal.

However, the system we were using did not collect information about clients. We had a lot of data points, but it was simply not possible to centralize all this information under a particular guest profile to engage with customers. I thought there already was a solution for this purpose in the restaurant industry. However, there wasn't.

How do you enable restaurants to create loyal customers?

We give them the fundamental tools to run the restaurant: the booking system, point of sale and payments solution. All of this works in an omnichannel fashion, meaning we cover both the digital experience online and the in-store experience. We sit on a 180-degree data set about you as a customer.

Besides making it easier and more convenient to run a restaurant and making the teams more productive, we can leverage data sets and guest profiles to know customers and their preferences. It is about being smarter and more data-driven on guest experience than just relying on your gut.

At the moment, you are in your Series A stage. What are some of the challenges you face as an entrepreneur, and how do you overcome them?

One of the critical aspects of European companies that operate with a hybrid between an inbound and a field sales-based outbound model is building salespeople on-ground, and in the market, you want to enter quickly. This endeavor requires a lot of capital and time, so you need to be very productive and have your eyes on the prize. The biggest challenge for us right now is the velocity of growth. We know how to grow, but it's a matter of doing it fast, especially in the COVID environment.

Interestingly, you've started capitalizing on the pandemic to help restaurants weather the COVID storm.

From the first lockdown to the end of the year, we grew more than 100%. We could do that even though restaurants were closed. That's because our platform helps restaurants drive more revenue and build relationships with their guests, whether they are opened or closed. They can do that in many different ways because we cover various revenue sources. We've launched a range of products that allows restaurants to have better momentum during a new lockdown period.

What's next for Superb? What are the next 12 months going to look like?

We're entering the UK market full force. We've hired an entire team on-ground, we're entering additional markets across Europe and we're consolidating our position in the ones we are already present.

What's exciting about Superb is that we're a little ahead of our time. We've built the most advanced restaurant platform on the market, so we are ready to scale, but we need to do it right. We're focused on scaling with good quality. That is tough in the current environment, but our ambition is to impact and become the biggest restaurant software company in Europe.

What type of culture do you aspire to develop at Superb?

People build companies. Nothing over, nothing under. That is the fundamental cultural value at Superb, as well as the other companies I've worked for. We believe we need to hire the best talent to become one of the best companies. There are two main pillars: Number one is making sure we hire the best quality talent and pay a fair price; number two is freedom of work. When you have the best people in your team, you'll have the best performance, no matter where they're sitting.

What advice do you have for entrepreneurs in a Seed Stage company?

I think the best advice is to hustle and grind. Don't focus too much on hiring and automating processes because that's not expected from you. The only thing that is expected from you is to show great performance and control over that performance. Another thing I would recommend is to start planning your Series A in terms of the people you want to hire to build a world-class, high-performing team. The day you finish raising your Seed Round, you should start identifying suitable profiles so that when you are about to sign your Series A, you already have those profiles lined up and ready for hire.

Do you have a favorite entrepreneur or someone you admire or look up to?

I admire a lot of them. I admire many of these superstar entrepreneurs that have their eyes on the prize and believe they can become one of the biggest in the world. Those are the ones I look up to because I see Superb as having the opportunity to become a massive influence in the global market. My drive is to see some of these big profiles and their mindset about building global companies. That is truly inspirational.

What's your favorite dish?

My favorite dish must be a very nice lasagna, but Italian pizza is my safe choice! Everyone loves pizza, right?

What are some of the restaurants in Denmark that one should certainly go to?

If you come to Denmark, you should go to Noma, even though it's expensive. If you're looking for something in the medium range, there's a nice Italian place called Vinoria Lilo. There's such a high-quality range of restaurants in the Nordics. My advice is to try them all!

If you want to learn more about Superb, visit their website here.

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