The Innovation Project: Mitch Young, Lauren Urbschat & Evan Addams

Mitch Young is National Sales Manager, Lauren Urbschat is Marketing Manager and Evan Addams is Head of Strategic Accounts for Nowait.

Mitch Young, National Sales Manager
Lauren Urbschat, ​Marketing Manager
Evan Addams, Head of Strategic Accounts
Nowait Restaurant Technology Solutions
 

Years ago, Robb Myer found himself in a painful situation most all of us can relate to: driving from restaurant to restaurant in search of a brunch spot that didn’t have a 45-minute wait.

Frustrated that so many restaurants were not willing to take reservations, Myer set out to establish a better system for casual dining: Nowait.

The app allows diners to check wait times of nearby restaurants and add their name to wait lists—without ever leaving their home.

Nowait started out in Innovation Works’ AlphaLab accelerator as a one-man shop. Today, the company works with more than 4,000 restaurants in all 50 states and seats more than 25 million restaurant-goers every month – notably more per month than OpenTable.

But the Nowait team hasn’t forgotten their status as a startup.

“It’s exhilarating, terrifying and satisfying,” says National Sales Manager Mitch Young. “The only thing keeping us from being a billion-dollar business, or keeping us from plummeting into failure, is us.”

“A startup is scary if you're only ‘in’ halfway,” says Evan Addams, head of strategic accounts. “Diving in completely is what makes this journey a blast.”

Marketing Manager Lauren Urbschat describes the experience as a “rollercoaster.”

“There are no blueprints, and you have to try new things as you pave the way,” she says. “If we want to solve a problem, we look at it from every angle. We always ask ourselves, ‘how could we solve this through product design, engineering, marketing, sales, customer success?’”

With this multifaceted approach and support from Innovation Works and local funder Birchmere Ventures, Nowait continues to innovate and improve the dining experience for users all over the country.

“Transformational conversations happen daily around a dinner table,” says Young. “It’s amazing how enjoying good food with good people can foster great ideas.”